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[Xplatformer]

Eh, 17GB doesn't really seem like enough, even if it's just used for apps. I ordered the 64GB Surface 2 earlier tonight and will be buying a 64GB microSD anyway to store music and videos. The 12 seasons of TV shows I have are 34GB in total and the idea of keeping that all on a tablet is rather exciting, hee hee.

You'll get an extra 4 Gigs if you move the backup files to a flash drive. You can also pick up a 64gb SD card at Amazon for $50. I grabbed a 16GB card for $24 at Best Buy.

I'm storing a couple movies on my RT2 so I have them if I ever get bored. (Galaxy Quest, Matrix, Aliens)

Have I said that I love my RT2 yet?

Thinking about picking up a used touch cover (1st generation) off Ebay for $50. I only need it as a cover because I'll use the excellent on screen keyboard or a usb keyboard if I need to do any extensive typing.

 

[Liberty4all]

In terms of build quality and "pleasure of using" would you guys say the Surface ranks right up there with the iPad?

My first tablet was an original iPad and I still use it daily (although it crashes all the time doing anything other than light surfing). My second tablet was a Blackberry PlayBook which I pretty much hate using except for e-reading.

What I'm really looking for is a tablet that gives me a premium web surfing and video viewing experience. That's about it.

 

[Xplatformer]

In terms of build quality and "pleasure of using" would you guys say the Surface ranks right up there with the iPad?

My first tablet was an original iPad and I still use it daily (although it crashes all the time doing anything other than light surfing). My second tablet was a Blackberry PlayBook which I pretty much hate using except for e-reading.

What I'm really looking for is a tablet that gives me a premium web surfing and video viewing experience. That's about it.

I don't even think the iPad can give you a better web surfing experience. I've surfed on my girlfriend's iPad 2 occasionally over the past year. It's nothing compared to IE 11.

The video experience is "good", but it's a driver thing. Mp4s. play fine using the built in app. MKV files...while they play using Mobile.HD, they aren't always super smooth considering the muscle in the Surface RT2 hardware.

Video playback was something I thought the Kindle Fire 8.9 excelled at.

You'll be happy with the experience if most of you video viewing is mp4 files, Netflix and Hulu Plus.

I've gotta add that Hulu Plus is probably the best on the Surface because their website views the Surface RT2 as a real desktop, so you're not limited to viewing shows/clips of things only OKed for viewing on mobile devices. You can see ALL of Hulu Plus content on the Surface. I don't think any other mobile platform offers that.

 

[Betta Lines]

In terms of build quality and "pleasure of using" would you guys say the Surface ranks right up there with the iPad?

My first tablet was an original iPad and I still use it daily (although it crashes all the time doing anything other than light surfing). My second tablet was a Blackberry PlayBook which I pretty much hate using except for e-reading.

What I'm really looking for is a tablet that gives me a premium web surfing and video viewing experience. That's about it.

Well hopefully I'm getting a Pro 2 tomorrow and I will report back on build quality relative to the iPads I've owned. But in terms of getting a premium web surfing and video viewing experience I'd get the iPad Air. It will be far more comfortable to hold in either orientation for longer periods than something like the Surface 2.

 

[asdad123]

Has anyone here ordered from the microsoft store? I ordered the 256gb/8gb ram combo, but Im beginning to think the 128gb version will be enough for me and I should get it faster (128gb is able to ship now and 256gb is scheduled to ship before 12/15).

I went to try to cancel my order, but its "In Process" and it only says "Start a Return". Does that mean its being prepared to ship?

 

[Nero3000]

The video experience is "good", but it's a driver thing. Mp4s. play fine using the built in app. MKV files...while they play using Mobile.HD, they aren't always super smooth considering the muscle in the Surface RT2 hardware.

That's interesting...have you changed the preference toggle for "Preferred Renderer"?

 

[Watevaman]

I have a few more questions for you guys before I cement my decision to replace my old laptop with a SP2.

-Obviously the Surface is not a gaming machine by any stretch, but my current laptop runs most of the older games I enjoy fine at 1366x768 with an HD4650M. Would the HD4400 in the SP2 do ok on similar settings at least? I barely game on my laptop as is, but it'd be nice to play well optimized and older games like Dirt 2/3 and such with my 360 pad if possible.

-How is the Surface charged? Is there a dedicated power slot or is it like a USB charging thing? Just want to know what kind of cable/brick I'll have to carry around for those days where I need all day use.

-Last one is pretty simple: how long does MS take to ship?

I'm sure I'm forgetting some questions so I might be back with more, but thanks for now.

 

[Betta Lines]

-Obviously the Surface is not a gaming machine by any stretch, but my current laptop runs most of the older games I enjoy fine at 1366x768 with an HD4650M. Would the HD4400 in the SP2 do ok on similar settings at least? I barely game on my laptop as is, but it'd be nice to play well optimized and older games like Dirt 2/3 and such with my 360 pad if possible.

I'm sure it will be able to play Dirt 2/3 quite competently. Hopefully mine is arriving tomorrow, I can try it out and report back.

-How is the Surface charged? Is there a dedicated power slot or is it like a USB charging thing? Just want to know what kind of cable/brick I'll have to carry around for those days where I need all day use.

Check the photos, there is a dedicated magnetic connector on the side. You have to imagine the Pro 2 as a laptop-class device - it would never charge by USB. It comes with a power brick, although it doesn't look as big as many laptop power bricks. I understand the connector is slightly more annoying to use than the MagSafe connectors you get on MacBooks.

-Last one is pretty simple: how long does MS take to ship?

Can't help with that, I'm ordering from PC World (UK).

 

[Special C]

I have a few more questions for you guys before I cement my decision to replace my old laptop with a SP2.

-Obviously the Surface is not a gaming machine by any stretch, but my current laptop runs most of the older games I enjoy fine at 1366x768 with an HD4650M. Would the HD4400 in the SP2 do ok on similar settings at least? I barely game on my laptop as is, but it'd be nice to play well optimized and older games like Dirt 2/3 and such with my 360 pad if possible.

The only Windows games I've run are FTL (obviously not a system pusher), TF2, Planetside 2 and Civ 5. It runs TF2 like a champ but thats obviously an older game. Planetside 2 was unplayable for me. Civ 5 worked really well.

You'll have trouble playing anything that uses a mouse by trying to use the touchscreen as it's pretty much impossible, but the games work fine with a USB mouse.

 

[Sai]

How does the Pro 2 handle a windowed Skyrim at mid-high settings? Just curious.

I've heard that it does a pretty decent job running the game on low settings at full resolution.

 

[Xplatformer]

Well hopefully I'm getting a Pro 2 tomorrow and I will report back on build quality relative to the iPads I've owned. But in terms of getting a premium web surfing and video viewing experience I'd get the iPad Air. It will be far more comfortable to hold in either orientation for longer periods than something like the Surface 2.

I don't get this supposed iPad advantage. I don't get it as a quantifiable advantage at all, There is a built in stand on the Surface so a person doesn't have to hold it for longer periods of time. And even if they did, is Safari a better browser than IE 11? How so?

 

[Betta Lines]

I don't get this supposed iPad advantage. I don't get it as a quantifiable advantage at all, There is a built in stand on the Surface so a person doesn't have to hold it for longer periods of time. And even if they did, is Safari a better browser than IE 11? How so?

The quantifiable advantage of the iPad Air is the 207g less compared to a Surface 2. That is an enormous difference for devices of this size. Your suggestion that a stand makes the difference is about as unquantifiable as it gets... I mean... if you don't want to hold something you put it down, whether there is a stand or not. Chances are you'll sooner want to put the Surface 2 down compared to the iPad Air because it's heavier, so as I said...the iPad Air is more comfortable to hold. (I'm not suggesting the stand is pointless - it's a great feature and allows a laptop-style use that is fairly unique among tablets)

As for Safari vs IE11, I have no idea - I'm sure they're both fine/quick/intuitive and generally stay out of the way of what you're looking at.

 

[NeOak]

I have a few more questions for you guys before I cement my decision to replace my old laptop with a SP2.

-Obviously the Surface is not a gaming machine by any stretch, but my current laptop runs most of the older games I enjoy fine at 1366x768 with an HD4650M. Would the HD4400 in the SP2 do ok on similar settings at least? I barely game on my laptop as is, but it'd be nice to play well optimized and older games like Dirt 2/3 and such with my 360 pad if possible.

-How is the Surface charged? Is there a dedicated power slot or is it like a USB charging thing? Just want to know what kind of cable/brick I'll have to carry around for those days where I need all day use.

-Last one is pretty simple: how long does MS take to ship?

I'm sure I'm forgetting some questions so I might be back with more, but thanks for now.

I play FFXIV on it and it runs fine. 30fps average at 720p

How does the Pro 2 handle a windowed Skyrim at mid-high settings? Just curious.

I've heard that it does a pretty decent job running the game on low settings at full resolution.

You'll have to do full screen anyway. Windowed mode kills performance by around a half on Intel graphics.

720p FS looks great anyway.

 

[Sai]

You'll have to do full screen anyway. Windowed mode kills performance by around a half on Intel graphics.

Oh well, I still think it's impressive that both the Pro 2 and it's earlier iteration can run Skyrim at all.

 

[NeOak]

Oh well, I still think it's impressive that both the Pro 2 and it's earlier iteration can run Skyrim at all.

Just do 720p full screen and it should be fine for what you want.

 

[Durask]

Played with Surface Pro 2 extensively.

Liked: full blown Windows 8 - which, of course, blows away iPad in terms of functionality.
Also, super smooth with very responsive screen.

Did not like: I prefer more square aspect ratio of the iPad - better for reading books. Also, relatively heavy but in itself not a deal breaker.

Why I won't get it: battery life. However, if MS improves battery life by 50% when they bring out Surface Pro 3, I can see myself ditching the iPad.

 

[maeh2k]

Played with Surface Pro 2 extensively.

Liked: full blown Windows 8 - which, of course, blows away iPad in terms of functionality.
Also, super smooth with very responsive screen.

Did not like: I prefer more square aspect ratio of the iPad - better for reading books. Also, relatively heavy but in itself not a deal breaker.

Why I won't get it: battery life. However, if MS improves battery life by 50% when they bring out Surface Pro 3, I can see myself ditching the iPad.

Unless you'd consider something like the power cover, which will increase battery life substantially, it's not going to happen without sacrificing performance. Broadwell alone won't bring 50%. And besides more battery life, people have also been clamoring for a thinner, lighter form factor. They can't do it all. There are always trade-offs. And I don't think Microsoft will reduce the performance.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I don't get this supposed iPad advantage. I don't get it as a quantifiable advantage at all, There is a built in stand on the Surface so a person doesn't have to hold it for longer periods of time. And even if they did, is Safari a better browser than IE 11? How so?

can't comment on safari but I've got an ipad 2 and a surface pro

surface pro is NEVER the to goto device in front of the telly or something, ipad is just so much easier/faster. I guess some of that comes with the pincode unlock and my surface is a domain joined password protected thing, but for ease of navigation....

surface pro actually suffers some because most of the time I like my desktop mode apps. In the extremely rare situation that I use it like a tablet on the couch and it kicks a web link into chrome in desktop mode... it's a bitch to navigate with your fingers.

I've actually set IE as default on win 8.1 as that's the only way you get IE metro browser, if you set chrome default, bye bye metro browser forever.

EDIT: also ipad form factor is better for standard tablet. I know they're a bit stuck here, but the screen shape isn't that great for casual stuff on surface pro.

I Love the surface, but win8 NEEDS some kind of RTMODE switch, so you can flick it into 'do everything in tablet form now until I tell you not to' mode.

 

[hwalker84]

can't comment on safari but I've got an ipad 2 and a surface pro

surface pro is NEVER the to goto device in front of the telly or something, ipad is just so much easier/faster. I guess some of that comes with the pincode unlock and my surface is a domain joined password protected thing, but for ease of navigation....

surface pro actually suffers some because most of the time I like my desktop mode apps. In the extremely rare situation that I use it like a tablet on the couch and it kicks a web link into chrome in desktop mode... it's a bitch to navigate with your fingers.

I've actually set IE as default on win 8.1 as that's the only way you get IE metro browser, if you set chrome default, bye bye metro browser forever.

EDIT: also ipad form factor is better for standard tablet. I know they're a bit stuck here, but the screen shape isn't that great for casual stuff on surface pro.

I Love the surface, but win8 NEEDS some kind of RTMODE switch, so you can flick it into 'do everything in tablet form now until I tell you not to' mode.

Have you updated to 8.1? Metro IE comes back no matter what browser is default.

 

[Windu]

Played with Surface Pro 2 extensively.

Liked: full blown Windows 8 - which, of course, blows away iPad in terms of functionality.
Also, super smooth with very responsive screen.

Did not like: I prefer more square aspect ratio of the iPad - better for reading books. Also, relatively heavy but in itself not a deal breaker.

Why I won't get it: battery life. However, if MS improves battery life by 50% when they bring out Surface Pro 3, I can see myself ditching the iPad.

look into the new atom devices coming out. Better battery life and thinner devices.

 

[asdad123]

Ended up canceling my microsoft store order and picked up the 128gb version at best buy because they price matched the 10% off.

Really enjoying it right now. It's not as heavy as I thought it would be.

Any tips for a first time surface (and windows 8.1 user)?

 

[strata8]

Just tried the Type Cover 2 in the store, such an amazing keyboard for the size. Edges out the keyboard on my current 11.6" laptop, and blows away the (rather large) bluetooth Logitech keyboard we bought for the iPad. Key size and typing feel is perfect. And the backlight, and the thinness. I'm raving a little but I wasn't expecting to be so impressed.

The trackpad sucks, though. Should be fine for moving the cursor but even highlighting text was hard (the sensitivity was pretty high).

Had a closer look at the Surface 2 and was really impressed by the build as well. It felt more premium than our iPad, maybe because of the more matte, textured metal, or the more angular lines? Or possibly just placebo on my part. It was surprisingly light as well.

 

[Tathanen]

The thing that's frustrating me the most about the touchpad on the keyboard right now is that two-finger scrolling requires a small motion before being recognized. Like if you put down your two fingers and slide them, they have to slide for a good half inch before the scroll begins. Then it's fine, you can move the fingers up and down and the page will react, you can flick away to scroll a bunch, etc. But the initial half-inch motion means you can't just flick from a fresh standstill. You have to do do a small scroll movement first. It's a pain in my ass!!! Especially if I start to scroll near the top of the pad, where I scroll OFF the pad before even breaching that half-inch barrier.

[Edit] And man the fact that there's no middle-click gesture is driving me nuts. I use middle-click so much in firefox. I used to have it mapped to the top corner of my old trackpad. Lemme three-finger click or something, come on.

 

[Mael]

Just got my Pro 2.
I decided against a cover (touch or type) and got a 11 inches be.ez bag for travel while waiting for the power cover. I've got plenty of keyboards, mouses available anyway.


The good :
- Well it's certainly pretty
- Metro is decent and well done for a mobile/dedicated device
- Twitter and Facebook apps are better than I expected (actually I'm not feeling that twitter app and I can't exactly tell why)
- Stylus apps are really well done
- partitions making is no longer a shore! Only need to make the last partition for a linux box and I'm golden!
- Lightweight considering everyone and their mother online say that it's a chunky PoS or something, it's actually very light!
- Screensize is not bad at all, granted I'd want an even bigger one ^.^

The bad :
- OMG the finger prints on the screen!
- Why do I even need to connect on my MSFT profile to even log on my Surface? thanks bedlamite
- Kinda confusing on how to snap apps on the screen (more than 2 apps? how?)
- Still no HFS/HFS+ reading capabilities, WTF Apple/MSFT!
- App discovery and Microsoft Store is absolute shite, worse than anything I've seen so far (Google play, psn, vc, eshop you name it). Having to rely on the advert for the official Fb app to even get to the actual app is BS
- Why does the installation process take so much time?
- Chrome is weird looking and amateurish on surface it seems, must I use IE11?
- the camera makes me feel like I'm pulling out my 3DS to take photos :/. Like I love the device and found actually very good but the quality of the cameras is worse than my bloody phone let alone my age old mbp (or is that the autofocus shitting on the camera on the surface)!

I'm still learning how to use it so maybe I'm missing stuffs and all.
All things considered for the price I'm a little upset that it's not absolutely perfect in everything (seriously the cameras!) but it's more than decent and I feel like we'll use it a lot!

My so loves it and plan to use it for her work, she's still not sure whether she needs a cyntiq now, that's almighty high praise as far as I'm concerned.
I think she's planning on getting the next iteration for herself.
It should run photoshop cs 6 without any itch or should we migrate to photoshop cc or sketchpro something?
Thumbs up for me, happy customer for now.

 

[aaaaa0]

- Why do I even need to connect on my MSFT profile to even log on my Surface?

It does that so your SkyDrive is connected up by default, and your settings, start menu and apps are backed up to the cloud.

- App discovery and Microsoft Store is absolute shite, worse than anything I've seen so far (Google play, psn, vc, eshop you name it). Having to rely on the advert for the official Fb app to even get to the actual app is BS

Swipe down from the top to get to the categories.
Click the little magnifying glass for search.

It should run photoshop cs 6 without any itch or should we migrate to photoshop cc or sketchpro something?
Thumbs up for me, happy customer for now.

Yup it should run Photoshop without a hitch. Did you get 4gb or 8gb of ram?

 

[Mael]

It does that so your SkyDrive is connected up by default, and your settings, start menu and apps are backed up to the cloud.

No way to have it connected without me having to manually enter the password each and every time?
I mean I know it's less secure but I don't want to have an easy password so that me and my so can log in without a hitch :/

Swipe down from the top to get to the categories.
Click the little magnifying glass for search.

I did that and bing didn't find that fb app.
It's mystifying to me since I found all the other apps that way (twitter, sketchpro, heck even fucking minecraft that's not even in the shop!)

Yup it should run Photoshop without a hitch. Did you get 4gb or 8gb of ram?

8Gb, that's why I wanted the 256Gb version.
I feel like I'm swimming in free memory partitions this way
I mean the usual C: partition with 50Gb, another for data with 50Gb, and another swap partition that's accessible remotely (another 50Gb).
And I still have more than 80Gb not allocated yet!
I seriously love my setup.
As for photoshop, my so will be absolutely thrilled to use it, she meant to change her touch pad (you know the peripheral with a stylus and all) and this is really way too awesome to be true.

 

[mapla]

I have a question for the owners of the Surface Pro 2.

How do you see the size of the things on the monitor? I mean, having a resolution of 1080p in a 10" panel with Windows may have the things pretty tiny to see properly. I've read about the zoom but I don't know anymore about that fact.

I'm in love with this product (although I was thinking of waiting for Surface with Broadwell and maybe Iris Pro at least) but some people have told me that mabye to a Smart PC like this 11" would be better choice. Anyway, I guess is a matter of panel size/weight.

For example, MacBook Air with 11", Iris Pro and the battery life is gorgeous, but it isn't a tablet and I need windows for working.

 

[Tathanen]

Be aware that Photoshop CC will crash the graphics card every time you open it. The latest Adobe update at least makes sure Photoshop itself won't crash, but it won't do any hardware acceleration with the current intel drivers. ALSO, the photoshop gpu sniffer process will run forever once you launch the program, eating up a full thread of processing at 25%, indefinitely. Be sure to terminate the process once you open Photoshop.

Hopefully new intel drivers will fix this.

 

[Mael]

Be aware that Photoshop CC will crash the graphics card every time you open it. The latest Adobe update at least makes sure Photoshop itself won't crash, but it won't do any hardware acceleration with the current intel drivers. ALSO, the photoshop gpu sniffer process will run forever once you launch the program, eating up a full thread of processing at 25%, indefinitely. Be sure to terminate the process once you open Photoshop.

Hopefully new intel drivers will fix this.

O.O
Ok no photoshop CC for now AT ALL then.
I've already have enough on my plate right now without having to deal with Adobe's BS.

 

[345triangle]

i got a surface 2 pretty much out of curiosity/as a windows store test device, and while i love the hardware (i've owned several ipads) i have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

i guess i'd mostly like to use it as a coffee shop computer for writing while still being able to keep an eye on the internet. are there any text editors that sync with dropbox or something so i could carry on on a mac later? using evernote now, which isn't really ideal.

any other essential app recommendations would be appreciated too.

 

[bedlamite]

No way to have it connected without me having to manually enter the password each and every time?
I mean I know it's less secure but I don't want to have an easy password so that me and my so can log in without a hitch :/

Win 8 autologin

 

[Mael]

Win 8 autologin

Ok that's awesome thanks.
Any wiki or something to get the usual stuffs to know about it?
I think that's something like my 1rst windows box outside of work (where you mustn't admin the box AT ALL or you get the risk of having internal support no longer helping in anything) so a little help would be greatly appreciated.
I guess I can cross

- Why do I even need to connect on my MSFT profile to even log on my Surface?

from my list of bad things of my surface pro 2

 

[Maninthemirror]

So I sold my iPad 3rd Gen 32 GB wifi and was going to get an iPad air and still thinknig about it but I am quite tempted by the Surface. I just want to know the following items if Surface has an advantage over the new upcoming ipad


- Software (Apps vs Windows Software)
- Weight
- Battery Life
- touchscreen response
- Performance
- Longevity
- Display

 

[345triangle]

So I sold my iPad 3rd Gen 32 GB wifi and was going to get an iPad air and still thinknig about it but I am quite tempted by the Surface. I just want to know the following items if Surface has an advantage over the new upcoming ipad


- Software (Apps vs Windows Software)
- Weight
- Battery Life
- touchscreen response
- Performance
- Longevity
- Display

the ipad air is better on basically every one of those metrics unless you're heavily invested in microsoft's ecosystem and/or need office.

 

[strata8]

the ipad air is better on basically every one of those metrics unless you're heavily invested in microsoft's ecosystem and/or need office.

It's better in a lot of those metrics regardless of whether you're invested or need Office. But those factor into the Surface's productivity advantage over the iPad, along with the native multitasking, mouse support, full size USB port, accessible file system, etc... which is another thing to consider depending on what you need. The Surface is $150 cheaper as well.

Though I'd argue that they're pretty equally matched in terms of response, performance, and longevity. I'd even say they're not that far apart in terms the display quality and battery life. It's only the app selection and weight where the iPad has a massive advantage.

 

[Izuna]

Win 8 autologin

Or you know, stop being silly and just put a Pin password on the thing.

Most of the iPad vs. Pro software comments just show how little knowledge people have with Windows...

 

[Windu]

yeah unless an exhange policy is forcing you to use the long password on login, use the pin.

 

[Xplatformer]

New Day

New keyboard for my SRT2 ($15)

Found out that NBA League Pass DOES archive some of the blacked out games.

Happy man I am. Loving the Surface 2.

 

[GK86]

Went to Best Buy to check out the SP2. They only had a Surface RT on demo...and it was broken. Useless. Then they wondering why nobody shops there.

 

[Liberty4all]

The quantifiable advantage of the iPad Air is the 207g less compared to a Surface 2. That is an enormous difference for devices of this size. Your suggestion that a stand makes the difference is about as unquantifiable as it gets... I mean... if you don't want to hold something you put it down, whether there is a stand or not. Chances are you'll sooner want to put the Surface 2 down compared to the iPad Air because it's heavier, so as I said...the iPad Air is more comfortable to hold. (I'm not suggesting the stand is pointless - it's a great feature and allows a laptop-style use that is fairly unique among tablets)

As for Safari vs IE11, I have no idea - I'm sure they're both fine/quick/intuitive and generally stay out of the way of what you're looking at.

I'm still carrying around my iPad original. Thing weighs a tonne.

 

[Dazzla]

I picked up a Surface 2 and purple type keyboard for £420, just £20 more than the iPad Air (16GB) so I'm pretty chuffed.

My use case is heavy Outlook usage for work, pretty high Office usage, note taking, decent remote desktop app, web browsing, music, video and Kindle. For me it's ideal and right now I have all the apps I need.

IE11 is a significant step above other tablet browsers, I just don't feel they compare. It's incredibly fast and great to navigate. Plus full flash is a great advantage as well.

I spend 80% of my time in the modern UI with the balance in Outlook and office. Office is surprisingly touch friendly as well. The keyboard just tops it off as well. The type keyboard is great, the touchpad is serviceable but when combined with the touch screen it's more than enough.

Battery life is great, I'm getting over 10 hours consistently. Easily making it through a working day plus a few hours at night chilling out on it.

I compared it to an iPad 4 today with Logitech keyboard and it seems lighter and a better combined unit. The Air shaves a ton of weight off which will make a significant difference. But if you want a laptop which can also offer productivity you just can't compete with a decent keyboard and Office. MS really are right, I don't care what people say. If you have any inkling that you want to be productive on a tablet then iWork on an iPad or Quick Office on an Android tablet just do not compare.

The hardware itself is beautiful Exceptionally well made. With the pair sat on my laptop the type keyboard seems a little noisy, a little hollow sounding. I'm a little worried about the VaporMg finish. It has a few marks on it already, not dinks or scuffs, just dirt maybe, or where a pencil has caught it and the lead is hard to clean up. Also the felt on the type keyboard will be pretty hard maintenance (I think).

Definitely recommended, I think I've turned a few at work who feel the iPad is too limiting. Full office and the USB port is really a big appeal. As well as integrating into the work environment in ways that the iPad just can't. I'm a big fan of the iPad and own a Mini but it's just not suited to a work environment, MS should really be selling this as a great BYOD device.

 

[Betta Lines]

I've had a few hours to play with my Pro 2 (128G), time to answer some questions.

In terms of build quality and "pleasure of using" would you guys say the Surface ranks right up there with the iPad?

The unboxing experience (did I just type that?) was certainly of Apple quality. An absolute pleasure. Build seems great, the kickstand in particular feeling extremely sturdy. However I'm very wary of this metal finish - after handling it with the utmost care it is already showing some very small marks of what seems to be the bare metal shining through. One happened after a single insertion of a USB connector. One is where the hinge of the stand causes the two pieces to rub together slightly. I'm talking about really tiny dots here, but it seems like a very fragile finish compared to my iPad, where the multipin connector received a load of careless connections when charging and looked like new after a whole year.

-Obviously the Surface is not a gaming machine by any stretch, but my current laptop runs most of the older games I enjoy fine at 1366x768 with an HD4650M. Would the HD4400 in the SP2 do ok on similar settings at least? I barely game on my laptop as is, but it'd be nice to play well optimized and older games like Dirt 2/3 and such with my 360 pad if possible.

I ran Dirt 3 a while. I like a smooth framerate for driving games, and I was able to achieve very decent performance at 1280x720, no AA, v-sync off, and most settings on medium to low. Dirt 3 scales really nicely and looks absolutely stunning on this screen, I really don't miss the AA. Weirdly it had shadow draw problems on anything but ultralow, where there shadows look way better! Running my dualshock3 through the USB port, working great.

How does the Pro 2 handle a windowed Skyrim at mid-high settings? Just curious.

I've heard that it does a pretty decent job running the game on low settings at full resolution.

Full resolution? Not a chance. It's playable at 1280x720 with everything on lowest, but I'm struggling with v-sync - it seems to be forced on in Skyrim, which means it is jumping wildly between 60 and 30fps. Perhaps there is a sweet spot at slightly higher settings that makes it stick to 30fps. I've yet to try forcing triple buffering, which may help. I'm very sensitive to such things, so I'm being quite critical here. Short answer is you can definitely play Skyrim on it. I did have a 'holy shit, I'm playing Skyrim on my tablet' moment earlier!

I have a question for the owners of the Surface Pro 2.

How do you see the size of the things on the monitor? I mean, having a resolution of 1080p in a 10" panel with Windows may have the things pretty tiny to see properly. I've read about the zoom but I don't know anymore about that fact.

I've yet to play around too much with this, but by default the desktop does not look like 1920x1080 does on a normal PC, because they run a scaling feature. There are three options, the most zoomed in looking (at a guess) like a typical 1366x768 laptop, but even that looks small. So at the totally zoomed out 1920x1080 goodness, stuff is crazy small. Impossible to operate with touch accurately, but just about manageable with stylus or mouse.

 

[GK86]

edit. mistaken.

 

[Milchjon]

So it seems like the Surface 2 is actually supply constrained? The 32 GB version isn't available on the German store at all, the 64GB version has an expected delivery date of December 15th...

 

[Dead Prince]

Just wanted to say I got myself a 128gb sp2 last week And loving it a lot.

 

[strata8]

So it seems like the Surface 2 is actually supply constrained? The 32 GB version isn't available on the German store at all, the 64GB version has an expected delivery date of December 15th...

It's not in Australia. Ordered mine on Wednesday and it shipped Thursday evening.

 

[Lucifon]

Is anyone else who's considering a Surface RT2 waiting for the verdict on the Lumia 2520 like me? I'm just about to start up my own marketing agency and the idea of picking up a tablet in a few months which can be used as a lite-work machine is becoming very appealing. Already own an iPad 3 for my personal use, but it's pretty useless for doing any kind of work on.

 

[Xplatformer]

Love this thing.

 

[Dead Prince]

is there a chance microsoft makes more colored covers or another LE version? the power cover sounds neat but i also want a touch/type cover as well.

 

[Watevaman]

That picture above actually reminds me of another question I had about the Surface in general. It'll be nice to have a USB port, but how does it handle hubs and everything? Being a student, it'd be nice to have a mouse and a flash drive plugged in at the same time but it feels like it might be burdensome.