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Microsoft Surface Review: a Tale of Two Tablets
zacharye points out an early review of the Microsoft Surface tablet. Here are some relevant snippets:
"When you get over the shocking realization that, yes, Windows is now different, you begin to realize that the new home screen makes a lot of sense. ... Despite the Surface’s quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset and 2GB of RAM, Windows RT is not always as smooth as I would like. Apps sometimes take a few extra beats to open, and in some cases opening an application on the Surface is much more like launching an app on an old Windows PC than on a modern tablet. ... The good news, though, is that Windows RT was built for multitasking. Commonly used apps can and should be left open, and switching between apps is as easy as swiping in from the left side with a finger or touching a mouse cursor to the top- or bottom-left corner of the display. Open apps come back to life instantly, and the animations that transition the user from one app to another are quick and smooth. ... While Windows 8 is the version of Microsoft’s new OS that has split personality disorder, the Windows RT-powered Surface truly is a tale of two tablets. On one hand, it is an engineering feat with a design that is novel and functional. It really is the perfect combination of a tablet and a notebook thanks to the Touch Cover and the Type Cover, and I felt right at home with the Surface the moment I turned it on. On the other hand, the software experience does not feel like home. It’s new, and for many it will be scary." Additional reviews are available elsewhere, take your pick: AnandTech, Wired, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, The Verge.
While I can't stand the look of Metro, the Hardware itself is simply beautiful.
Which really bogus me is why, for MS, a "functional" interface should be ugly? Purple background, no transparency/rounded_borders/shadows/effects. And other competitors, like iOS and Android 4, are very pretty, with a lot of eye candies, while not heavy.
From the review at The Verge:
"On the plus side, my general takeaway is that the Surface is a highly capable and highly enjoyable device to use most of the time, and is likely in need of some bug fixing and optimization. However, that seems like it should have been done prior to the release of the product to the public. "
This seems like an unrealistic expectation once you remember that it is, after all, Microsoft.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
They had me until they said it was incompatible with pretty much any legacy program that I already own. Stupid. Being able to use existing windows programs would have tipped the value scales. When most people already own a iPad and have invested money in their walled apps getting people to switch is a set back not just on hardware. I realize the problems involved with allowing legacy programs but still it could have been overcome if they wanted to.
Never mind discussing the underlying technology. Will someone please explain to me why the reviewer says that this interface will be "scary" for some?
Hey, the new phone system we have at work is a really new and confusing, but I've never heard anyone exclaim "Holy baby Jesus! This is scary!"
If you find someone with a Surface in their hand and they turn to you and say "Help me. I'm really scared." just place your hand gently on their shoulder and slowly take the Surface from their hands and then violently smash that shit on the sidewalk. Then look them straight in the eye and say "I love you. Now go read a goddam book."
They rant on two pages about the cover, and dedicate TWO paragraphs to the Surface software. Absolutely ridiculous.
Whenever you hear the new Microsoft Surface mentioned, say, "Oh, is that the one that's Linux-based?"
It's a better Google bomb than the Justin Bieberwoman thing.
But works with nothing else....
Ah, so MS is throwing in a crippled version just so they can say "Includes MS Office."
Microsoft don't bother too much in losing this round with windows 8 in the tablets market, they know that is an uphill battle. They are betting in the windows 9. They have 90% of desktop market? If they make a huge mistake with the windows 8 on desktop, they will get 80% of desktop market? So on the next software cycle, they have a lot a people already using windows 8 GUI, because they don't have really any other choices, and will be a more easy sell the next tablet with Windows 9, because they will share the same interface with the "previous windows 8" GUI. Right now they dont have the APPs, dont have the developers, but with the windows 8, this will change, people will develop software for windows 8 interface, and will be ready to develop or port the software to new Windows 9.
Get Ice Cream or JB running on this POS and we have a deal.
I imagine that if you were attempting to balance this thing on your knees, e.g. in bed, or in an airport lounge that this keyboard and stand would be a huge pain in the ass. I doubt it would work so great in lecture halls on those thin tables between seats or airline clip trays either for that matter.
What is such a pity about this is that it really doesn't matter how good this is, how bad the iPad is, how boring the Android is, or any combination of those 3 features and platforms. Apple will either continue to convince the world that the Emperor is fully dressed, Android will convince the world that cheap is good or MS will convince the world that, well, they shouldn't change horses mid-stream.
The three platforms all work just fine. I happen to think and hope that the Surface Pro will show the world that both bulky laptops and tablets in general are technology of the past, but for the majority of consumers the difference is moot. The real challenge here is ridding the world of java applets and flash videos and getting moved on to decent, compliant, reliable web standards... Then who cares what the medium is...?
I like to whisper sweet nothings
So does Zach Epstein, judging by this breathless puff-piece.
No information about using the device, lots of gushing praise for Microsoft’s "perfect" VaporMg, etc etc. I feel like I've been conned into reading a product endorsement, not a review.
Give me my 10 minutes back!
What is such a pity about this is that it really doesn't matter how good this is, how bad the iPad is, how boring the Android is
There is nothing there that is true!
I can imaging the marketing meeting that led to this mess.
Tom: "Windows 8 will support touch, but only a few apps, and the battery life sucks, what do we do??"
Bob: "Well, we could make 2 tablets. We'll call them the same thing, Windows 8!"
Tom: "I don't get you Tom, how does that help???"
Bob: "Well, one we'll make thin and light and with good battery life, the other we'll make compatible with Windows, that one will need a cursor pad, and probably slots in the case to keep it cool, and it'll need to be thick."
Tom: "Oh, NOW I'm with ya! When they ask how thin it is, we'll tell them it's thin (but we won't tell them we're talking about the RT version). When they ask how long the battery lasts, well say l-o-n-g, (but we won't tell them we're talking about RT)"
Tom: "And when they ask how many apps it can run, well say 'both of them'!
Bob: "No Bob, when they ask how many apps it will run, we'll say millions (but we won't tell them we're talking about Windows and Dos apps on the Windows 8 non RT version)!"
Tom: "Brilliant!"
Bob: "We'll tell them it has a great touch interface (but won't tell them most software won't use it)"
Tom: "And we won't mention that the non touch software sucks without the track pad!"
Bob: "We are so smart! Lets price it at a premium too, and keep quiet about the screen res!"
Yeh, the marketing meeting went something like that, a pair of idiots thinking the rest of the world are the idiots.
The Ars Technica review mention this several times, if you plan to use Office in a commercial setting, you need an extra license key.
So it comes with Office, as long as you don't use it for real.
Cripple ware.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Why are they hyping the the newest Windows with the same thing they used to do in Windows 3.1 days?
Microsoft must be delighted, the good old days where you could get sued for trying to bundle a browser with your OS (at least in Europe) are long gone. Now, you not only include a free browser, you can include a paid office suite with the price part of the price of the device with no option to opt out. You can rig the OS to make sure that your own applications have access to exclusive APIs and functionality that third party developers will not be able to access ensuring that your apps will always be the best. All apps have to be installed and downloaded from your own app store, and you take a huge cut every single time, even for in app purchases in the future. You can ban third party developers from offering apps offering the same functionality as your own apps. Your own app store is the only one people can get apps from, they can't install or use other app stores. And you can get away with all this because Apple does it already and gets away with it just fine, and they have a monopoly and not you.
The wonderful new era of computing.
It has a magnetic charger connection. It has a powerful magnet... BUT when it pulls the connector out of your fingers, it doesn't align properly and doesn't work. it has to be fiddled with. Like a worn out old fashioned round charger. It is ALMOST but NOT quite the apple charger experience. Almost but not quite.
It comes with MS Office... except if you like to actually use it, then you need to buy a seperate license. The ONE thing MS can use as a sales argument is that their stuff comes with full MS support and then they don't deliver unless you pay through the nose on an already expensive device. MS has in the past given Office for free to entire governments to keep customers, yet on their own device, they charge you for a non-cripple ware version.
The touchpad on the the covers is there, possibly because you sometimes don't want to touch the screen but it is hopelessly primitive version, barely more then a trackpad.
Resolution is what top end devices came with, last yet. Full HD is what new devices come with now. And people know it.
Windows RT is compatible with nothing, not even most MS software. Don't think of running Windows Games on your Windows tablet. Another potential massive selling point, not realized.
You have to remember that the previous MS phones, Zunes and Kins weren't that bad either, they just were one step behind the competition and failed to make use of being part of MS to sell people who already use Windows. The simple fact is that Apple sold countless devices despite not being Windows. And MS didn't sell any because they ultimately also weren't Windows.
Only MS would launch a tablet with such a heavy focus on text input with a cripple ware office suite while trying to court the serious tablet user. Just give it away for free already. Geez. Live a little.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The surface Pro will show what?
Read the review on the Verge, which is one of the few that isn't completely fawning as these release day reviews tend to be. One point it brings up, which I mentioned before on slashdot is how ridiculous the 16:9 ratio is and how tall it makes the surface, which is quite impractical as a tablet in both landscape and portraits mode.
There is no jack of all trades device, not until someone magically builds weightless materials that bend and fold and transmutate. It's quite ridiculous to pretend there is. No tablet that's the right size and weight to hold can offer an experience anywhere close to even cheap laptops, even with an expensive dock. That's fine when you're buying a product knowing it's a compromise, like a Galaxy Note II, or an Asus Transformer. People who buy a Surface Pro and the more expensive proper keyboard dock for over a grand thinking it will replace a competent laptop for the same price are going to be severely disappointed. As a tablet it will be big heavy and have a ridiculous size and aspect ratio and mediocre battery life. As a laptop it will have a small overly wide screen, inferior performance, and less practicality.
When the price of one of these things becomes so high that you can get two devices for the same price, you really have to wonder what the point of spending over $1000 on a crippled device is. The price of a Surface pro+proper keyboard dock buys you a cheap and reliable Windows 7 laptop AND a $249 Chromebook AND an iPad Mini, and all three devices are good at what they do.
The price of a Surface RT with a crappy cloth keyboard gets you an iPad Mini and a Chromebook with change leftover.
On the new iPhone:
"Isn't that the one they make with prison labor?"
And it isn't even Office, they say it will come with a preview. That when you get your Surface it will install a working version, and there will be an upgrade next January that will give you a full office experience, minus macros, VBA and other stuff they haven't specified yet.
It's very much a 'buy it and trust us'.
I dread to think what they'll actually end up shipping, they talk a lot about 'Bandwidth data warning' as if it's the Office 365 the online version of Office talking to the server all the time. Heaven forbid, but until they release it properly and its get reviewed who knows!
One point it brings up, which I mentioned before on slashdot is how ridiculous the 16:9 ratio is and how tall it makes the surface, which is quite impractical as a tablet in both landscape and portraits mode.
What is widely interesting about this comment, is my Phone;Tablet;TV; Monitor are all 16:9 and regardless of whether I use them in portrait or landscape [or both]. Its a better ratio than my legacy 4:3 technology they replaced...my last Phone; Tablet; TV; Monitor. In fact modern media is designed for that aspect ratio. ...oh you have an iPad...sorry.
People fail to understand the point of the Surface products, wondering why Microsoft is doing things the way they are. There are two Surface computers with a similar form factor and name, however they are aimed at different markets and are meant to do very different things for Microsoft.
The RT model is the cheaper consumer based model and it is meant to establish Microsoft as a tablet player in consumers minds.
Microsoft is hedging their bets with ARM. A lot of people don't realize that Microsoft has historically almost always supported at least two different processor architectures. Right now they are wholly dependent on Intel, and Intel is no longer reliable as they once were to do things the Microsoft way. By establishing the RT model first and selling millions of them they hope to create a market for windows apps for the ARM architecture (which does much better for power consumption).
The cheaper (but not as cheap as expected) RT model is meant as a baseline that other vendors can beat to sell their own windows based tablets at a cheaper price. Microsoft viewed that other vendors weren't stepping up to the plate and exploiting the potential of Windows based tablets. Tablet based hardware with a Microsoft OS has been around for about a decade longer than the Ipad and most people are oblivious.
Microsoft wants a Windows tablet 'ecosystem' since mobile is seen as the way of the future. This is why the tablet interface is the default interface and you can't bypass it. Microsoft wants to force everyone to start thinking of Windows as being viable for mobile computing. They are sacrificing an entire enterprise upgrade just to make this point.
The more expensive x86 model is aimed at production work for the Enterprise. This model can run legacy software and join domains, both of which are required for selling tablets to the enterprise. For all intents and purposes this is the 'Professional' model.
MS tried for a decade to get people to buy their "Tablets" - and failed.
What they can't understand, which Apple and Google have, is that tablets are for (interactive) content consumption not content creation. There is a big difference. People don't want to sit and write word documents on these things. Now, you may use your tablet to tweak a word doc, but then, still, it is used to consume data.
This is true even in enterprise and why tablets are picking up there. Not everyone is creating content. Those on the go are consuming, not creating. If they are creating, it isn't building big powerpoints, it is inputting specific data related to their task.
Hah, and in the very next Slashdot article, MSFT getting fined up to $7B by Europe!
http://slashdot.org/story/12/10/24/135243/ec-sends-statement-of-objections-to-microsoft-for-violating-anti-trust-agreement
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
In one important way, it really is. Back in the 1990s when Microsoft was such a problem, it was very hard to get away from them. You could be a not-self-defeating moron, working to try to keep bad things from happening to you, and still end up "needing" Windows.
But you just listed a bunch of damn good reasons for why no user should ever buy one of these, and the best part about it all, is that no user ever needs to. Just walk away. And when you walk away, all the problems vanish, for real.
Try that in 1998.
This is fallout from the previous settlement, Windows RT is not going to come with a browser choice screen in Europe and all non IE browsers will be crippled.
The current anti trust bogeyman seems to be Google which is ridiculous. How hard is it to switch your search engine vs switching your OS and all your data services? How hard is it for a player who makes a new search engine to convince people to try it out, compared to getting someone to try a different OS or office suite?
Google advertise their own services on Google search. That may be an issue, but I fail to see how it is more of an issue than others forcing you to buy and pay for unrelated services and software as a bundle deal like Windows RT + Microsoft Office. Windows RT doesn't tell you 'Hey Microsoft also has an office suite that you could try out, here's where you can get it'. You are forced to buy it.
The thing doesn't work with Cisco VPN software.
As a tablet it will be big heavy and have a ridiculous size and aspect ratio and mediocre battery life. As a laptop it will have a small overly wide screen, inferior performance, and less practicality.
You're right on the money regarding that Microsoft Surface is a transitional or hybrid device, one that balances drawbacks with benefits by straddling both worlds.
As a long time satisfied and critical user attracted to Apple's high quality products, I am for the first time in two decades genuinely interested in a Microsoft product. (The last time I was interested was when Windows 3.1 debuted and I wanted to know about the alternate paradigm Microsoft was bringing to the world of GUI computing. What a two-decade long disappointment that was.)
I think the Surface has potential, especially if it is able to export documents to and incorporate features from its desktop software counterparts. Of course, as everyone knows, compatibility in formats and functionality is a bitch. By providing cross-compatibility, software and hardware vendors will enable their customers to have full computing experiences not tied down to a single device or a single platform.
If well-executed, such a solution would irresistibly attract many millions of individual and institutional users. It's sort of what made the cloud-based storage service Dropbox so popular despite its privacy risks and minimal functionality.
"Something as simple as loading a video requires a jumbled process of USB importing, dipping in and out of the stripped-down desktop mode, opening a Video app, importing, going back into the Video app, and then playing. What."
http://gizmodo.com/5953866/microsoft-surface-rt-review-this-is-technological-heartbreak
For comparison, on an Android tablet, I can put the video in the card (on my Transformer an SD card, Micro SD card, or flash key, any of them will do). I plug it in, File Manager opens, I tap on the video and it plays.... in Full HD, because my Transformer is the Infinity model with 1920x1200.
It's pathetic.
I'm not sure why this keeps coming up in reviews/previews that Metro is new, so its scary and once people get over that its not too bad. I've played around several RCs and the RTM version and Metro isn't scary because its new, its scary because its is a tablet UI copy/pasted onto a keyboard and mouse driven platform. Windows 8 is half baked and Metro is not properly integrated into a Windows environment. Its not scary, its a PITA to use.
This one really surprised me -- Office RT won't permit any macros or plugins. There are some other limitations (like not being able to email directly from the apps), but this seems like the show-stopper. No InfoPath forms, no plugins, no macros?
This is the kind of "feature" that will start emerging as real business users get their hands on it and start to try to use it.
Less generally punitive, but no doubt important to some, will be that Project and Visio aren't available.
Fire up those RDP servers, they're not goin' anywhere after all!
"Ahh! I see you're in that indeterminate Schrodinger state where - oh, uh
given that the license folks make National Socialist Troops look like MayBerry troops yes.
There are stories where Original Certificates Of Authenticity were not considered "valid" proof of being legit
they tend to want to see actual receipts with serial numbers for each and every program loaded on each and every computer you have.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
I have an Android phone and an Android tablet, both of which I like a lot, but with the tablet's 10" screen I do now find myself wanting a more power user desktop environment to use on it. I could make a list of features that I would like to see but I'd just end up describing a typical Linux distro with a decent desktop environment with some modifications tailored towards touch.
So what is the status of projects working towards this goal? I know KDE is working on Plasma Active and Canonical is obviously working towards making Unity as touch friendly as possible, so how far off are we from seeing tablet devices running a GNU/Linux distro with one of these desktop environments? Most GUI apps will require some work to be made touch friendly but that's never going to happen until a stable OS is readily available for them to run on.
Give me a proper taskbar, support for running KDE / QT / GTK / X applications, scripting and all the CLI stuff we take for granted on Linux along with a decent collection of apt-get style software repositories and I think I'd fall back in love with my tablet.
And before anyone replies with 'get a laptop!', I'm quite happy with my laptop thank you, but I also like the tablet form factor for many reasons and I'd just like to see some options for more 'traditional' computing brought to these devices.
Just sell the thing then. Seriously. There's some good beer money locked up in that tablet that's "not quite right" for you. All tablets are "not quite right" so just use the damn laptop :)
Who are these people demanding companies make tablets with keyboards for the price of a laptop? I'd rather have a cheap laptop with a 15" screen than a tablet with an overpriced 10" netbook screen. The only people who buy netbooks are people who can't afford a laptop.
From the Ars Technica review,
Is this true on all the surfaces that the "magsafe" port doesn't engage properly, or perhaps just Ars' one isn't that great? After all, it seems that a power port where it can appear fully attached but still not connected would be a somewhat annoying problem.
It can't be Apple patented a method to use magnets and end up with a reliable power connection every time without jiggling the cable. (You'd think there would be huge reports for people having to wiggle their MagSafe/Magsafe2 power cables to get their Macs to charge already).
Don't get me wrong, I like the Android tablet and use it for a couple of hours a day on average. But it just seems to me that Linux distros have been very slow to get on the tablet scene. Until I can get Ubuntu / Fedora / SuSE on my tablet, I'll certainly settle for Android.
And tell me again about how Linux doesnt get bundled with everything?
"Of note, Microsoft uses the word "perfect" quite often when discussing its new tablet and it's more than just marketing. During my trip to Redmond it was obvious from the start that Microsoft is incredibly proud of the Surface, and of the team that built it. "Great people make amazing products," Sinofsky told reporters during a presentation. 'Amazing products don't make great people.""
Wave your magic wand, tech boy - and make the statements of an MS VP "more than just marketing".
My diarrhea just kicked in.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Microsoft just can't understand what it's like to be on the opposite side of the marketshare. iOS already is the "Windows of Tablets". People put up with the limitations of iOS because the app selection is outstanding. Android is for the most part open, the hardware costs around half as much (as an iPad) and the selection of apps is decent (but not perfect). Yet, Android still isn't really a serious threat to Apple's tablet business.
The thing is, there's really not many things about the iPad that would send a potential buyer running towards a competitor. If you wanted something less locked down, you'd go Android. If you wanted to spend less, you'd get the iPad Mini, or go Android. If you absolutely hate Apple/iOS, but still have >$500 burning a hole in your pocket, well, maybe you could be a Microsoft surface customer.
Microsoft surface will fit in exactly the same place that Blackberry tablet did: the fire sale bin. Unless you're an absolute Microsoft fanboy or for some reason love their Metro interface, there's simply no reason to buy a tablet that costs as much as an iPad, is just as locked down and has a tiny fraction of the apps. Microsoft might've had a winner on their hands if they could jump in the DeLorean and beat the iPad to market with surface, but today they're like the kid who turns in a pretty decent paper but it's a week late.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
LOL, reliable web standards. Maybe in 2015 or something like that. Meanwhile I have the impression we're replacing java and flash applets with windows RT, google store and apple store applets.
Would that be Word Perfect?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
This is Microsoft, from the land of WAIT FOR SP1.
Read the reviews more carefully, it is all just one step below "this is great" so it ends up as one long list of "meh" and that is NOT something you can do when you are dead last and people remember all your previous failures in the mobile market.
MS could have amazed, they didn't. Apple can afford a S update that doesn't really add much, they are the top dog. When you are at the bottom, you got to try harder.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
if they got graphics acceleration working, then kde plasma would be perfect, hell i would run it on my phone (google knowing so much about me creeps me out)
In the old screen, you had pictures of things that represented links to programs or files or folders. We called these icons. Sometimes they covered the whole screen.
In the new screen, you have pictures of things that represent links to programs or files or folders. We call these tiles. They sweep along the screen in a ribbon.
The new screen design has *always* made sense, and tech enthusiasts' demonization of it has always been fucking bullshit.