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Surface |OT|

R

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Out of curiosity, is there anything regarding the build of the Surface Pro that's better than, say, the Samsung ATIV 700T? In particular Ib seem to be having a hard time finding out about the glass on the Samsung. The surface Pro I've tried in store and is silky smooth, but the ATIV 700T supports Wintab drivers...
 
F

Feep

Banned
What's that contest that involves showing how you use a Surface Pro? Because I'm using my Surface Pro (with a nice condenser mic attached via USB) to livestream an end-of-Kickstarter-campaign party. Maybe that could win me something?
 
Alx

Alx

Member
hillsighed said:
Rayman Jungle Run
Click to expand...

By the way I just tried (and bought) Rayman Jungle Run yesterday. Great game, it really captures the feel of the "real" game, even with simple tapping controls. I got flashbacks of Legends when playing my first "land of the dead" level again. :) (great, now I have the music stuck in my head...)
 
T

ttony678

Neo Member
Anyone else having trouble updating or downloading apps from the store?

Edit: Fixed. Had to do some weird reset to the windows store app then a restart.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
If you have a Surface Pro you should get a Ring Mouse. It provides a huge improvement to the tablet's desktop experience. Touch is quite good for the Metro UI apps but it still doesn't measure up for the desktop environment. Pen is better but the targets are small on a 10.6" screen and your arms will be moved a lot. A Ring Mouse is more accurate and flexible. I spend a lot more time than I would have imagined surfing the web with Firefox desktop snapped to maximized mode. I much prefer using the Surface Pro in portrait orientation with a combination of Ring Mouse and the onscreen keyboard instead of landscape orientation with the type cover. I only pull out the type cover/pen when i d

The Surface Pro is almost my dream tablet. Two main problems:
  • It gets warm. Not as hot as some Macbook Airs I've used but those are laptops and I use the Surface Pro as a tablet. Moreover the vent pushes warm air unto my skin while I'm handling the tablet. It can be uncomfortable after long browsing sessions.
  • The resolution is relatively low. 1080p is the best available for a Windows computer but I've been spoiled by the retina displays of the past year. I want crystal clarity.
They aren't deal breakers per se. The heat is manageable (and avoidable if you use the stand instead of holding the tablet) but I keep looking lustfully at the Nexus 10 display.... C'mon Mircosoft, deliver the good stuff already.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
So, i finally managed to grab a surface pro. Loving it so far, I'm using mine for a couple days, and while there are some flaws it already comes pretty close to being my dream one to rule them all device. The kickstand + touch cover + pen + touch screen does make this device suited to being a single device you can use when standing, or on the bed, or the sofa, or on top of a desk... I now have no doubt that a Surface 2, with improved battery life, connected stand by and hopefully a better touchpad on the cover is going to be truly special...

The battery life is pretty nice so far too, i'm hitting 5-6 hours of usage, which while it's not very extraordinary, it's enough so i can do anything i want long enough to last in between power outlets... Having to plug it in during the day as opposed to just put it to charge when sleeping is a annoyance, specially because it gets VERY hot when charging, and the position of the cable makes it very awkward to hold it when plugged, but it's manageable...

Having a tablet that you can use in your bed and that runs a full blown windows 8 OS is pretty awesome too. I can download files directly to a network device, like my desktop, and access them with no problem, even videos, not needing a single extra app installed on neither the desktop or the tablet is just so awesome. And no transcoding or anything of the matter too. I can take the raw file sitting on my desktop, even if it is a 1080p video, and just instantly play it on the surface... So awesome.

I'm not sure about many desktop apps on it, though... Metro with Mobile.HD already offers a good alternative to movie playback without requiring any extra codecs, which is nice, but there are a few instances where i can't find a complete replacement on metro... For instance, skydrive, the metro app allows me to access the files, but i lose the convenience of having a folder that's always updated with the cloud...

What's the verdict on those kind of apps? Do they drain much of the battery? I usually have a folder on my skydrive where i dump everything that i need to be synced (images, movies, downloads etc) and them organize it... Is it good for the SSD to have files constantly being downloaded/moved/deleted? I'm thinking of buying an SD card for this, but then there's the problem of battery...

Oh another thing, that power brick is very huge for a tablet charger, are there any alternatives yet? Anything that has a longer cord and/or doesn't have a brick... If it was a usb cable that would be even better (even if it took a eternity to charge)
 
M

maeh2k

Member
Greyface said:
  • The resolution is relatively low. 1080p is the best available for a Windows computer but I've been spoiled by the retina displays of the past year. I want crystal clarity.
Click to expand...

What the hell? 1080p on a 10.6" screen is anything but a low resolution.

The Surface Pro has a pixel density of 208 pixels per inch, whereas the 15" Retina Macbook has 220 pixels per inch. And you think crystal clarity starts somewhere in between? And that those 12 ppi make she screen one of your main problems, no less. ^^
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
I got a Pro for work to start testing (hooray for having a boss that is also the boss of the Infrastructure/Support team!) and I've been using it in place of my laptop this week and am pleasantly surprised. I don't need a ton of power for my job so the Surface Pro is working great. Works with all of our apps so far and is much better to carry around than my big Dell and power brick.

Now, can this thing run any kind of games? :p


Greyface said:
If you have a Surface Pro you should get a Ring Mouse. It provides a huge improvement to the tablet's desktop experience. Touch is quite good for the Metro UI apps but it still doesn't measure up for the desktop environment. Pen is better but the targets are small on a 10.6" screen and your arms will be moved a lot. A Ring Mouse is more accurate and flexible. I spend a lot more time than I would have imagined surfing the web with Firefox desktop snapped to maximized mode. I much prefer using the Surface Pro in portrait orientation with a combination of Ring Mouse and the onscreen keyboard instead of landscape orientation with the type cover. I only pull out the type cover/pen when i d
.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Right now I'm using the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse and it works very well too. Small and portable.
 
S

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
RurouniZel said:
Out of curiosity, is there anything regarding the build of the Surface Pro that's better than, say, the Samsung ATIV 700T? In particular Ib seem to be having a hard time finding out about the glass on the Samsung. The surface Pro I've tried in store and is silky smooth, but the ATIV 700T supports Wintab drivers...
Click to expand...

The Surface is an Apple class piece of hardware. The Samsung is a plastic thing.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
maeh2k said:
What the hell? 1080p on a 10.6" screen is anything but a low resolution.

The Surface Pro has a pixel density of 208 pixels per inch, whereas the 15" Retina Macbook has 220 pixels per inch. And you think crystal clarity starts somewhere in between? And that those 12 ppi make she screen one of your main problems, no less. ^^
Click to expand...
I hold the Surface Pro a lot closer that I do a MacBook Pro. I use the Surface Pro like a tablet. Its 208 ppi is noticeably low res when compared to the 264 ppi of the iPad3/4 or the 300 ppi of the Nexus 10.

Deadly Cyclone said:
Interesting. Right now I'm using the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse and it works very well too. Small and portable.
Click to expand...
Did you check out the Wedge Mouse? I was considering that one.
 
B

Bit-Bit

Member
Has the pen issue with not working in photoshop and other software been fixed yet? I'm thinking about making the Surface Pro my main computer for making art.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
I know the pro charger is compatible with Surface RT, but is the other way around valid too? Even if it charges at a slower rate the RT charger feels like it's more variable...
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Slayer-33 said:
What's the general consensus in here?

Do people love the SPro? Even apple fans?
Click to expand...

I only have mine for a week, but so far I'm completely in love! Not to say there aren't any room for improvements, but this is already so damn close to my dream perfect device. I barely even touched my home Pc or my iPad after getting mine, and not just because I was excited of my new purchase, I just didn't have any need to.
 
Slayer-33

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
LukasTaves said:
I only have mine for a week, but so far I'm completely in love! Not to say there aren't any room for improvements, but this is already so damn close to my dream perfect device. I barely even touched my home Pc or my iPad after getting mine, and not just because I was excited of my new purchase, I just didn't have any need to.
Click to expand...

That sounds great man, hows the Win8 experience on this compared to dat feel on a regular desktop? lol
 
S

snoopen

Member
I love mine. Getting 5 to 6 hours real world usage out of it after dropping the max cpu usage when not plugged in.

Need to review the above gamw recommendations. Installed civ 5 but it's doing some weird shit and launching in a windowed weird res mode which doesn't use touch. I also have no fucking idea how to play the game.

Played a bit of trine 2 and it worked well. Got Dota 2 to try as well but Jews to carry a mouse around to play.

I got the origin update. Is thee a way to filter touch specific games?
 
E

eastmen

Banned
snoopen said:
I love mine. Getting 5 to 6 hours real world usage out of it after dropping the max cpu usage when not plugged in.

Need to review the above gamw recommendations. Installed civ 5 but it's doing some weird shit and launching in a windowed weird res mode which doesn't use touch. I also have no fucking idea how to play the game.

Played a bit of trine 2 and it worked well. Got Dota 2 to try as well but Jews to carry a mouse around to play.

I got the origin update. Is thee a way to filter touch specific games?
Click to expand...
Gotta pick the botton option for windows 8 touch. Also need to set resloution in the menus works finr afyer that
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Greyface said:
I hold the Surface Pro a lot closer that I do a MacBook Pro. I use the Surface Pro like a tablet. Its 208 ppi is noticeably low res when compared to the 264 ppi of the iPad3/4 or the 300 ppi of the Nexus 10.


Did you check out the Wedge Mouse? I was considering that one.
Click to expand...

I use wedge mouse and keyboard for serious and two screen work. It's a joy.
 
M

Malleymal

You now belong to FMT.
I want to bring this to the office for the next week or so to see how I can incorporate it into meetings and stuff like that. any case recommendations ?? or a page in this thread that has some good ones?
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Malleymal said:
I want to bring this to the office for the next week or so to see how I can incorporate it into meetings and stuff like that. any case recommendations ?? or a page in this thread that has some good ones?
Click to expand...

See my post directly above. Micro HDMI cable and at least on rt it performs better if you don't mirror displays but use two separate displays. Mine works fine on HDMI projectors, never bothered with VGA so far.
 
T

TKR92

Member
ordered 128 GB with 10% discount coupon for student and getting this Thursday.

I had Compaq tablet PC, when I was in college. So excited to use this one.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Slayer-33 said:
That sounds great man, hows the Win8 experience on this compared to dat feel on a regular desktop? lol
Click to expand...

I gotta say, i always advocated for metro on the desktop, and while i still think it's usable with a keyboard + mouse I agree that it really needs a touch screen to shine. There are lot of clever designs that makes W8 really good with touch... The way it handle slides, the awesome on screen keyboard (with arrows, ctrl and shift buttons, and you can even use shortcuts!)...

The lack of apps hurts it, in some cases a lot, but in others like facebook, instagram, tumblr, mog for example... Being able to use the desktop version of these sites with whatever vodu Ms makes to get them working properly with touch mitigates the problem, and eventually, like facebook, i'm actually preferring having the complete site with all options and features compared to the ios app (Specially because the app crashed a lot on my ipad XD)

On that same line of though, having a touchscreen, a digitizer and a cover with a full blown keyboard offers enough input options to suit many usage scenarios, and that's just the surface by itself, not mentioning the accessories you can plug in... That redundancy of input, sided with the kickstand makes surface the best transformer device i've ever had (it's not by any means the best in class for all of those scenarios, but it does very well in most of them)... It's also a very useful companion device, when you need to use it alongside another Pc, or even as a notebook (Surface is smaller, thinner, and not much heavier than the notebook that i used to carry into meetings, and onenote is incredible for that)

I can use it on top of a desk, on my lap, laid in bed... There wasn't a single position i tried that i couldn't find a very comfortable way to use it...

So far surface is delivering big time on my dream of carrying only a single device that suits all my needs... I'm really, really impressed.
 
N

Nero3000

Member
So I was talking to an old friend over Skype the other day. She is a novice when it comes to technology.

When I started talking about the Surface, she said "oh is that the "clicking" thing...?".

Anecdotal I know, but I guess the adverts must be working on some level.
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
Nero3000 said:
So I was talking to an old friend over Skype the other day. She is a novice when it comes to technology.

When I started talking about the Surface, she said "oh is that the "clicking" thing...?".

Anecdotal I know, but I guess the adverts must be working on some level.
Click to expand...

Dat clicking is patented yo.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
Slayer-33 said:
What's the general consensus in here?

Do people love the SPro? Even apple fans?
Click to expand...

I like it a lot. For an Apple fan it's... complicated. The Surface Pro looks good, has a sharp screen (with more desktop real estate than all current Apple laptops except the 15" retina) a type keyboard that surprising works well. However the trackpad is crap and the hinge is frustratingly fixed and provides fickle support. The Surface Pro isn't exactly a MacBook replacement because the Surface Pro isn't a very good laptop.

But of course the Surface Pro is more than a laptop/notebook. On too many occasions I've wanted to detach the Macbook's screen and rotate it, or touch it, or scribble on it, and it's just not possible (unless you buy a $3,000 third party mod). The Surface Pro does all that with aplomb. My Surface time is split between lounging around using it casually without the type keyboard and the looking for a flat hard table when I need to do 'real work' (i.e. cut, copy & paste) and use the type cover with a mouse. It's like I have a tablet and a desktop but not a laptop.

So I'm going to switch it up and check out the Thinkpad Tablet 2 + desktop combo for a bit. Perhaps even give that Kupa Ultranote a go if it's ever released. Then I'll comeback to the Surface Pro and get the 128GB version.
or chicken out and get a MacBook Retina


Bit-Bit said:
Has the pen issue with not working in photoshop and other software been fixed yet? I'm thinking about making the Surface Pro my main computer for making art.
Click to expand...
No, and I'm starting to suspect it won't be until after Wacom releases their own tablet in the summer :|
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
Is MS trolling? No offense to my Chinese brothers, but them getting it before the rest of the world (read non US/Canada) and with a special Chinese edition on top is simply madness.

HEY MS YOU FUCK HEADS RELEASE THE PRO FASTER TO PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY GIVES A CRAP GRRRRRR
 
D

derFeef

Member
MCD said:
Is MS trolling? No offense to my Chinese brothers, but them getting it before the rest of the world (read non US/Canada) and with a special Chinese edition on top is simply madness.

HEY MS YOU FUCK HEADS RELEASE THE PRO FASTER TO PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY GIVES A CRAP GRRRRRR
Click to expand...

MS is giving less shit as Nokia, so no...
 
I

Izuna

Banned
Still no sight of the Surface Pro, and my final term is starting. It's hilarious, I planned to use the Surface throughout the first year of Uni and I neglected doing various assignments until I got it and now I gotta do everything with a standard laptop.

=(

January launch my arse.
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
I've got a question about the surface pro if anyone knows the answer. I asked people at the microsoft store and they didn't seem to know. If there's a program that fixes it then that's fine too.

1. Is there a way to set the default for the F keys to funtions as the F keys instead of secondary functions like audio, dimming, etc? I always ALT+F4 to close programs but with the default setup you're forced to press FN+ALT+F4 to close a program since it doesn't recognize it as F4 unless you hold function.

2. The second question, is there a way to change the scrolling so it's not the inverse scrolling when using the keyboard cover? I prefer the inverse scrolling when using a tablet but when using the trackpad I hate having to scroll in inverse, it just feels weird and I always mess it up.

Those were my only two negatives so if they're addressed then I wouldn't mind getting this over something like a macbook air. The 4GB of ram only sucks too but not much you can do...
 
Z

Zaraki_Kenpachi

Member
btrboyev said:
Yes - since it's full windows you can customize keys.

Yes - download the surface touch pad app

4gb of RAM is just fine.
Click to expand...

4GB isn't going to be soon. There's no excuse why that is literally the only option. And how do you customize keys for something like that? I just want it to work like it has on every laptop ever. I'm not sure why they felt the need to fuck with the shortcuts.
 
iFootball

iFootball

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
1. Is there a way to set the default for the F keys to funtions as the F keys instead of secondary functions like audio, dimming, etc? I always ALT+F4 to close programs but with the default setup you're forced to press FN+ALT+F4 to close a program since it doesn't recognize it as F4 unless you hold function.
Click to expand...

Edit: Never mind... it turns out there isn't yet
 
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