My Surface RT review

sashlon

Banned
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So, I’ve had my Surface RT for a couple of weeks and I wanted to lay out mythoughts/impressions about the device. Hopefully it’ll be an interesting read.

HARDWARE
The Surfaceis a beautiful device. Everything aboutthe hardware design and feel speaks volumes about the care, precision and attention to detail that MS put into Surface. As much as it’s an overstated feature, the Touch Cover is amazing. It does take a bit of time to get used to(I’m probably 70-80% there), but it really works well. It’s mind-blowing that they could make it something. It feels so nice too.

I also loved the Windows button on the front of the device. The haptic feedback was a cool thing and a surprise to me, I hadn’t read anything about that. The Surface itself feels lovely in the hand. The VaporMG casing is so different to touch than any other tablet I’ve ever held.

The screen is great. I laugh when I read or hear people griping over the ‘lack of a Retina display’. The screen is excellent, and very bright.

Another overstated feature is the Kickstand. I really, really like it. I thought it would be only good for when I want to use the Surface in ‘laptop mode’, but actually I find myself using it a lot and it works well.

My one knock on the hardware is the small creak it makes if you squeeze it near the rear camera.


SOFTWARE
WindowsRT. I’m sure we’ve all read a pile of opinions and reviews about Windows RT. Alot of the opinion seems to be negative. I really don’t understand why. Sure, RT doesn’t have x86 compatibility. So what? The vast majority of us have access to a computer. Most x86 programs suck to run on small screens anyway, and a lot of them suck for touch. I’m amazed that people drool over the iPad and consider it to be ‘cutting edge’ despite the fact that it lacks many of the features and capabilities of Mac OS, however the Surface RT (whichis a FAR more capable device than the iPad) is somehow too limited because it can’t run x86 programs. I think that’s crazy.

I think Windows RT is excellent. The ‘Modern UI’(horrible name) is beautiful and very easy to navigate. The Microsoft Store is still pretty bare, butthere is a pretty good number of good apps to download. The Store interface is poor however. The ‘New Releases’ are updated very rarely,so its easy to miss the release of really good apps because they’re not hilighted at all. Microsoft needs to work on the store a bit.

There’s no lag on Surface RT. I tried out anexperiment a few days ago. I opened literally every app on my Start screen (about 40) and then tried playing RiptideGP, a pretty graphically intense game. There was no stuttering or lag. Ican’t say I noticed it missing frames like crazy either. It was very smooth. I think that’s amazing. I still close apps out of habit, but its hardly necessary.

To be honest my biggest nitpick about the OS is the desktop. I wish it wasn’t there at all. The Office applications work great, and they are a really powerful feature that other tablets can’t match IMO, but I wish they’d been rewritten as‘Modern’ apps. I wish the same about the File Manager and the Libraries. I thinkthey’re powerful features, but I wish I didn’t have to leave thee tile interface to use them.

So there youhave it.

Surface RT is an excellent tablet. And as the Store grows and matures it’s only going to get better. Surface feels right I the hand. It’s a beautiful device both hardware-wiseand software-wise. I’m really happy with it.

Thanks for reading. Cheers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    Screen Resolution
    1280x800
    Other Info
    Surface RT
I agree with many of your points. I've only used the Surface RT for a few hours so I don't have the experience you do. But for what it's intended (a tablet that has a great Office 2013 suite and has hardware support for printers, scanners, etc.), it's pretty cool. I'd still prefer the Surface Pro. I just love that package. Battery life is not key for me. I'm used to a 1.5 hour battery with my old monster 17" laptop that was a gaming beast. And I'm not a trackpad lover so that's not a dealbreak with me. I prefer a trackball, supplemented by touch and a stylus.

And the big thing I will agree with is how Microsoft needs to rework the store to discover software titles more easily. It's hard to sift through the iOS store and the Android stores because they have so many apps. But sifting through the Microsoft store is tedious because you have these tiny tiles with very little description. Tiles works fine when you have maybe at most a few hundred apps on an individual's PC (many of which you can hide away from your main view of the Start screen).

But when you're having to deal with thousands of apps, a sea of tiles is not the best thing. It would help if the search engine was better as well. And most of all, there needs to be sorting functions. These generic categories are way too encompassing. "Social" needs to be broken up into many more categories, for example. The only category that has good differentiation is gaming (action, adventure, shooter, casino, card, etc.) and that's probably because they have the Xbox division which probably already divided up all the game categories. I think if all the general categories like Entertainment were finely differentiated like Games, it'd be a better situation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
Windows RT. I’m sure we’ve all read a pile of opinions and reviews about Windows RT. Alot of the opinion seems to be negative. I really don’t understand why. Sure, RT doesn’t have x86 compatibility. So what? The vast majority of us have access to a computer. Most x86 programs suck to run on small screens anyway, and a lot of them suck for touch. I’m amazed that people drool over the iPad and consider it to be ‘cutting edge’ despite the fact that it lacks many of the features and capabilities of Mac OS, however the Surface RT (whichis a FAR more capable device than the iPad) is somehow too limited because it can’t run x86 programs. I think that’s crazy.

I think Windows RT is excellent. The ‘Modern UI’ (horrible name) is beautiful and very easy to navigate. The Microsoft Store is still pretty bare, but there is a pretty good number of good apps to download. The Store interface is poor however. The ‘New Releases’ are updated very rarely, so its easy to miss the release of really good apps because they’re not highlighted at all. Microsoft needs to work on the store a bit.

I completely agree with you that Windows RT is excellent. It is a joy to use and is far more useful than my Android based tabs for getting work done, staying in touch, and having access to work and client related documents. There are lots of good apps in the Store with many new ones added daily. Apps are being updated to improve them also. For example, Evernotes just did a nice upgrade today.

BTW, to see a complete list of new apps in the store, just do a search in the Store using only an asterisk "*". Then sort by newest. This will give you a list of all 21,000+ apps with the newest first.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro w/Media Center, Windows RT
It irks me when people say, "retina display." It's such an idiotic term and I bet most of them don't even understand what it is. My trial Nokia Lumia 920's screen is better than that, mainly because of the 60Hz refresh rate and supreme outdoor viewability.

I'd like to run Desktop software though, but I do agree that File Manager, Control Panel, Office, and the Task Manager should had been rewritten and designed for the immersive metro style. Although to use the Desktop easily with touch, one would need to adjust the DPI and such, and it becomes nicer to use without needing a stylus all the time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
I picked one up in November and it's been a great tablet. I modified my desktop DPI and made adjustments to Office and can easily navigate everything by touch with no issues. I've also made a registry change so I get 4 rows of tiles as opposed to 3 for my start screen which is great. Also, I don't get any creaking sound when I squeeze around the camera.

Lately I've been reliving my SNES days with the SNES Emulator which works great with my Xbox Controller.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7, Windows 8 RP
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