First Impressions

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justmpm

justmpm

Retired Senior Moderator
Dec 22, 2010
4,221
4,869
Jumpston Junction
Hello Everybody,

There have been a lot of posts from happy Surface owners, expounding on the great piece of kit that they just started playing with. These posts are wonderful and informative, but they also clutter up the Surface forum. So please use this thread to post in your first impressions about the Microsoft surface. It is also a great place to ask Surface owners about how well certain features are working.


By helping to keep the forum neat and tidy, you are helping the Development of the Surface!

Thanks Mates :victory:
The Moderation Team

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sbsshadow

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2006
185
2
Hertfordshire
Very excited, as collecting my Pro today , had the RT for a week and took it back , so very much looking forward to the PRO POWER !

Thanks

Stephen
 
D

ducylowycz

Member
May 20, 2007
34
0
My new Surface

I finally decided on getting the Microsoft Surface 32GB, my son monopolizes the mini and the better half likes the MacBook Air.

I gotta say that I really am digging the feel of this. I picked it up today at Staples for $299!!!!!

I'll have to review it more when I get home.
 
D

ducylowycz

Member
May 20, 2007
34
0
Staples has them in-store right now for $399...I found a $100 coupon online which they honored. It was a mistake actually, he said if I actually followed the "print" link, it would've said that the Surface was excluded from the offer. Since I ended up just taking a screenshot of the coupon and picking taking that in.
 
S

sbsshadow

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2006
185
2
Hertfordshire
Hi , sorry for the late reply , I got it from John Lewis , it was on their www for approx. 30 mins on day of release , I phoned reserved it and picked it up from Oxford Street , I paid £75 for the 3 year warranty including accidental damage too.

Its fantastic , been playing Black Ops on it all weekend obviously with a load of other stuff too , but the 360 controller just plugs in and away you go.

Amazing bit of kit ........
 
mace2442

mace2442

Member
Jun 27, 2013
24
4
I got both a PRO and an RT.

The pro is a laptop with it's pros and cons. It got lots of power and speed but it gets a little heavy due to that.

The RT is the true tablet. Cool, light and runs for ever. Only downside is the limited amount of apps.
IT has replaced an older W7 atom tablet (I did run W8 on it).

Primary use for the RT is surfing the web, reading docs (PDF and epub mostly) plus keeping me connected to my social networks
 
Spectredroid

Spectredroid

Senior Member
May 6, 2010
753
88
Indianapolis, In
paypalisajoke.blogspot.com
I love my pro. It is a bit heavy, but I don't mind due to it functionality. For me it is just perfect. I have a note 2, and I think that is about the best combo. Nice android phone, win 8 pro tablet. I have tried a few other tabs: ativ 500, and series 7 slate upgraded to win 8. The surface kills them. Best ever IMHO. :thumbup:

From an unlocked Note 2. Hmm...... Can you hear me Verizon, out on Uranus?
 
Trig0r

Trig0r

Senior Member
Jun 19, 2007
741
94
Like my RT, even more so with 8.1 preview on it..
Ordered a Pro on the 24th May but MS are having issues with the online ordering system so I'm told by their reps.
Had to cancel my original order and place another one as the first was stuck, they did give me £100 discount though, however it now appears like my second order placed on the 17th) is also stuck, I've been told I'm going to be compensated again for this problem...

By the time it gets to christmas I might have a free one at this rate...
 
sbdags

sbdags

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Jun 24, 2007
12,753
15,558
Kenilworth, Coventry
OnePlus 9 Pro
I have gone from the RT to the PRO and am very happy with the PRO. The RT felt a bit crippled and it annoyed me that the desktop mode on the RT was basically useless.

The PRO feels much better to use and the higher resolution is much better. I like the pen functionality and love I can run all my old software from Win XP to Win 7 :)

The only downsides - the much worse battery life and price. Both I can live with :) If you're undecided and have the funds - go for the PRO imo.
 
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SixSixSevenSeven

Senior Member
Dec 26, 2012
1,617
318
Trig0r said:
Like my RT, even more so with 8.1 preview on it..
Ordered a Pro on the 24th May but MS are having issues with the online ordering system so I'm told by their reps.
Had to cancel my original order and place another one as the first was stuck, they did give me £100 discount though, however it now appears like my second order placed on the 17th) is also stuck, I've been told I'm going to be compensated again for this problem...

By the time it gets to christmas I might have a free one at this rate...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience if your having problems with a company you just drop a threat about trading standards into your argument somewhere and they give in, unless its murco in St Neots who did actually recieve a visit and fine from trading standards in the end.
 
Trig0r

Trig0r

Senior Member
Jun 19, 2007
741
94
Pretty poor tbh, nobody as MS can tell me why neither of my orders have gone through and all the Live Chat techs can tell me is that its been escalated and that someone will contact me..
 
mace2442

mace2442

Member
Jun 27, 2013
24
4
I got one of each and I do like them booth.
The RT is my E-book reader, surfpad and facebook box.

The pro is going to be upgraded to enterprise (yes I do got the licence and BACKUP :) on that).
I just got to play with direct access from the pro to my home net
 
K

Kraize

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2007
2,692
49
California
I love my SP. I would've bought the RT in a heartbeat (esp since now my university will offer it for $250 with a touch cover) IF it could run android. Just too much I'd miss by switching over. I wish my SP would run android properly so I could sell my nexus 7 and just use the pro. ):
 
A

araujo_maia

Member
Jun 4, 2007
10
0
my surface rt

please tell me, i have bought the surface rt with university promoting. is a good tablet? is a good buy? im new in windows 8 and i am not a windows fan, linux better :p
 
Trig0r

Trig0r

Senior Member
Jun 19, 2007
741
94
araujo_maia said:
please tell me, i have bought the surface rt with university promoting. is a good tablet? is a good buy? im new in windows 8 and i am not a windows fan, linux better :p
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Depends what you want to use it for tbh, but, Linux better, so why buy an RT if thats the opinion straight out of the box?
 
Alias84270

Alias84270

Member
Feb 16, 2013
23
0
Aix en Provence
well, i just bought my surface RT after my nexus 7 and im so happy.

I'm a student in IT engineer school, so i got my own server and it's so pretty to have on my tablet, a real RDP and get all access on my differents server. I will try for the vm ware web client, but for the moment is not install on my v center.

I jailbreak my tablet to get access, to notepad ++, filezilla, 7 zip, and he this surface became a powerful tool.
 
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    jimlivingston
    Hated but now Loved

    Full disclosure, I was a Tech with Microsoft before, during, and after the Windows 8 and Surface releases. As such, my Surface RT was free to me. Even so, I hated it. I hated Windows 8. Still do, the latter. But, I found a new love for my RT. Not too long ago I left Microsoft for a better position. This new job requires a fair amount of world travel. Recently I was sent overseas for over a week. I decided to update and bring the RT with me. I ended up using it each and every day; primarily to Skype back home and see my wife and children. I took it with me everywhere. Folding it out and being able to chat by typing while sitting at a bistro table was really nice. Even in the hotel lounge, most business travelers were using iPads, and many of them kept looking over at meas I typed away. A few of them even approached me and had a look of envy on them. Along with Skype I was able to work of project reports and send critical emails. Perhaps my hatred for it stemmed from the fact I had no real use for it. But now I do. Oh yea, one of the better features was on the airplane. Instead of throwing my laptop bag under the seat in front of me (for easy access to my company laptop), which cut out needed leg room, I tossed it in an overhead bin and just kept my RT with me, like a book. I watched 3 feature length films back-to-back-to-back while in the air and still had almost 50% of my battery life left. That gave me plenty of juice to catch up some Walking Dead Comics.

    So yea, the RT has found a loving home in the same home it was originally despised. Looking forward to the Surface 2!
    View
    4
    T
    TrueMetalGeek
    When I first saw the commercials for the Surface RT I was curious.
    But then I watched some youtube reviews that were picking it apart and my friend dogged it as well, saying they had all sorts of problems, etc.

    So then I got me a 10" Lenovo with Android. Used it for a month or so but was still FRUSTRATED by the handicapped Android system that after 4 or so years still does not truly multi task or split screen, etc.
    Much of what I do is facebook and watch/listen to some shows on youtube.
    It sucked that you couldn't tab back to facebook or whatever and keep youtube alive. (My Samsung S4 has the Samsung work around, but still).

    Anyway I took another look at the surface. Watched some more videos and I noticed that when I read the comments for these reviews, including the one on Forbes that bashed the Surface RT, the people were calling out the people giving the reviews for being extremely biased and not even demonstrating what the Surface RT was even capable of.

    So I went and bought one and that was when Microsoft dropped the price to $349

    I gotta say, I use this thing all the time. Even at home I find myself sitting on the couch with it instead of going to my high end PC more most of my everyday needs.

    And on the RT, aside from not being able to run Intel processor based applications the layout is the same and I love that.
    Also if you dig into it you can find lots of the desktop settings and whatnot.
    I made shortcuts on my desktop screen that goes to the C drive, SDCARD, and other areas I frequent rather than using the shortcuts in the start screen.

    Remote desktop is sweet. I can log into my Win7 PC from work and run access files, programs, etc away from home.

    And even the RT supports the XBOX controller and plays some decent games too.

    There are less APPS but many of the apps NEEDED for an android or iPad are not needed in the Surface RT when it has a full browser.

    Android is like Windows 3.1 compared to the RT. It's just that much better. :)


    Oh yeah. When I tried to show my Android fan boy friend that I got one, that he was a liar about the device, he wont even look a the device! LOL! He's that disgruntled about me getting one and informing him how refreshing it is after being stuck with a handicapped Android. (I have many Android devices, but they are more limited).
    View
    1
    Cuppeerr
    Cuppeerr
    I got my surface a little less than a week ago and I LOVE it. it's taken me a couple days to get used to the touch keyboard and the no full desktop thing but man this is a nice device. Also the battery life is KILLER. and I love the multitasking on it. I wanna see what the surface 2 is like but I primarily got this one because I knew the battery life was amazing. Idk how good the battery life in the surface 2 will be considering it might have a 1080p screen. But plain and simple I love this device.
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    1
    O
    Osprey00
    Trig0r said:
    Not sure about the annoucement re the battery though, they say "Battery: 75 percent more than Surface Pro." not up to, so does that include the Touch Power cover, life or what, its rather vague...
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Just on its own (with no Power Cover), the Surface Pro 2's battery life is 75% longer than the Surface Pro's. Most of that seems to be from Haswell, but I'm also reading of a supposedly bigger battery. With the Power Cover, the battery life on the Pro 2 is 2.5x that of the Pro (on its own, though it seems that you can use the Power Cover with it, too). 2.5x is 150% longer battery life (I'm not sure why MS is mixing their language), so the Power Cover seems to provide about as much extra battery life as the improvements in the Pro 2 do. For example, if you got 4 hours on the Pro, you'd get 7 hours on the Pro 2 and 10 hours on the Pro 2 with the Power Cover.
    View
    1
    Trig0r
    Trig0r
    Osprey00 said:
    Haswell chips, alone, offer up to 50% longer battery life, so that's most of the difference right there. The other little improvements that Microsoft did, all combined, probably account for "only" a 25-35% improvement. I guess that that's still a lot, but my point is just that that's not where most of the 75% improvement comes from.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    As long as it runs cooler and quieter i'm not that bothered about battery tbh, I sit here in bed now, chargers next to me if I need it, when I use it at work its plugged in, its more the ram and storage that I'm after as the extra ram means I can run my vm's and the storage means being able to store those vm's and ISO's etc.

    I'm still not convinced by 75%, maybe with the type power cover then yeah I could believe that, but on its own, with the same battery, it just doesn't add up, they couldn't of cut that many corners...
    Checkout the CPU's directly from Intel site, i5-3317u vs i5-4200u...
    http://ark.intel.com/compare/75459,65707

    Figures dont add up...
    View

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