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Surface |OT|

I

IronChef

Banned
Wow! Lots of Surface news lately. To sum up:

- 256 GB version
- Ridiculous deal for attendees of some tech convention
- Free cover with RT promo

For someone on the sidelines waiting for the Surface Pro 2 (or the family of Surface 2 products), this is exciting times. Rumors for that is already starting to surface (pun not intentional) - it might be announced later this month:

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/mo...red-7-inch-and-9-inch-models-incoming-1148544
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
So what's the word for June 30th, which is when I'm assuming MS announces their next hardware lineup.

Have there been any rumours that they realized that windows RT shouldn't exist? Smaller Surface = Atom processor running Windows 8 Pro. And Surface Pro can be the same as always. Atom version has to be lower price. Touch/type cover included or at least much cheaper than now.

/would consider

I waited a year to see the second revisions. Lets see if they can sway me from just caving to a retina mini.
 
H

hwalker84

Member
-Pyromaniac- said:
So what's the word for June 30th, which is when I'm assuming MS announces their next hardware lineup.

Have there been any rumours that they realized that windows RT shouldn't exist? Smaller Surface = Atom processor running Windows 8 Pro. And Surface Pro can be the same as always. Atom version has to be lower price. Touch/type cover included or at least much cheaper than now.

/would consider

I waited a year to see the second revisions. Lets see if they can sway me from just caving to a retina mini.
Click to expand...
RT is perfectly fine for my needs.
 
R

Rommel

Junior Member
Have to admit it'd be really hard for me to use another laptop now. I can almost type just as fast with the touch keyboard as I can with a regular keyboard. Helps that it has little to no lag.

I bought it day one and I'm still finding all kinds of interesting nuggets with this thing. Day one for Pro 2.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
brotkasten said:
You want Microsoft to release a shitty and rushed product? I don't know if that's such a good idea.
Click to expand...

you guys don't get it. If I wanted the same product I'd just get that shitty acer. There's a reason I'm saying I want Microsoft to make it, because if it's a surface I know it will be a lot more polished. I just mean in terms of specs and size I want similar. But with Surface's hardware quality. 8 inches. Good price. Running atom which should offer more than RT and amazing battery life.

And I don't mean it as a surface pro replacement, just as an RT replacement.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
-Pyromaniac- said:
you guys don't get it. If I wanted the same product I'd just get that shitty acer. There's a reason I'm saying I want Microsoft to make it, because if it's a surface I know it will be a lot more polished. I just mean in terms of specs and size I want similar. But with Surface's hardware quality. 8 inches. Good price. Running atom which should offer more than RT and amazing battery life.

And I don't mean it as a surface pro replacement, just as an RT replacement.
Click to expand...

yeah, if you're in the market for full win8 on an 8incher, this is probably a good purchase for cheap. If you want the extra polish for longterm use, wait for the supposed surface model.
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
Totakeke said:
No way, other than the fixed stand angles, Surface's implementation is still far more mobile.
Click to expand...
Fixed stand angles is huge though. I couldn't use the Surface Pro on my lap while out and about.

More to the point:
Surface Pro — 13 mm depth + Touch Cover (3.25 mm) or Type Cover (6 mm)
Dell XPS 11 — "sub-15mm"

Of course I'm comparing a first generation product to a next generation device; Microsoft will likely improve with the Surface 2.
 
Amory

Amory

Member
I'm in the market for an ultra portable laptop for notetaking when I go back to school in the fall. I've considered a chromebook (which I don't really like the idea of) and a Macbook Air (which is more money than I really want to spend).

Then I remembered that the Surface RT comes with Word pre-installed and combined with a type cover it could be all I need. Can anyone who's used the office apps a bit give me an impression of how they run? I'd imagine with a type cover it would function pretty much exactly the same as it would on a laptop.
 
C

campfireweekend

Member
Amory said:
I'm in the market for an ultra portable laptop for notetaking when I go back to school in the fall. I've considered a chromebook (which I don't really like the idea of) and a Macbook Air (which is more money than I really want to spend).

Then I remembered that the Surface RT comes with Word pre-installed and combined with a type cover it could be all I need. Can anyone who's used the office apps a bit give me an impression of how they run? I'd imagine with a type cover it would function pretty much exactly the same as it would on a laptop.
Click to expand...

OneNote alone obliterates any of the competing services on mac an chromebook. I use my rt primarily for note taking, and combined with the type cover (which comes free right now) its perfect for that. Know the limitations of RT going in and you'll be more than content. I say go to a best buy and check them all out first.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Amory said:
I'm in the market for an ultra portable laptop for notetaking when I go back to school in the fall. I've considered a chromebook (which I don't really like the idea of) and a Macbook Air (which is more money than I really want to spend).

Then I remembered that the Surface RT comes with Word pre-installed and combined with a type cover it could be all I need. Can anyone who's used the office apps a bit give me an impression of how they run? I'd imagine with a type cover it would function pretty much exactly the same as it would on a laptop.
Click to expand...
if you just want basic features of office i suggest checking out the office web apps.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
campfireweekend said:
OneNote alone obliterates any of the competing services on mac an chromebook. I use my rt primarily for note taking, and combined with the type cover (which comes free right now) its perfect for that. Know the limitations of RT going in and you'll be more than content. I say go to a best buy and check them all out first.
Click to expand...

OneNote is truly a great application.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
lastflowers said:
yeah, if you're in the market for full win8 on an 8incher, this is probably a good purchase for cheap. If you want the extra polish for longterm use, wait for the supposed surface model.
Click to expand...

just have this bad feeling MS is going to continue to try and push RT but who knows, maybe they'll whip out a whole lineup with every possible option.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
brotkasten said:
RT is a long term thing and here to stay.
Click to expand...

and it'll continue to flop until it's ready to be worth much. I mean if it's fine for some people that's cool but there's clearly no real traction happening despite how bad MS wants to happen.

Even some manufacturers are all :/ I don't NEED microsoft to do it though, who knows maybe someone else will make one better than Acer's which is definitely subpar in quality. Here's to hoping MS does one RT at 8 inch, one Atom at 8, inch, and whatever else for the updated Pro. Everyone wins.
 
J

jagowar

Member
I am going to be very interested to see the next gen of surface hardware.... my RT has been fine but I am itching for an upgrade. If a next gen RT adds more processing power and ram to power the 1080p display and add the pen input that will be my winner but I have a feeling I may be moving to a Pro if haswell really does have 8+hr battery life.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
RT's biggest problem is that it's basically a tablet OS and as such it's reliant on apps. There aren't that many good Windows Store apps to compensate for the lack of desktop apps. Many of them really suck, even the ones that come with the OS. And as always, it's not a number thing, but a quality thing. Out of the 70,000 apps on the store, maybe a handful are really, really good and that's not enough.
 
T

Totakeke

Member
While having Windows 8 on a 8 inch tablet is nifty, there's less of a difference in functionality because you're going to get Atom at most on it right now. I'd think most of the people looking at 8 inch tablets aren't really looking for something they can plug into their large monitors to do more work especially if it comes with a substantial price difference. Tegra 3 isn't great with RT, but it's still more than usable.
 
R

Razdek

Banned
-Pyromaniac- said:
just have this bad feeling MS is going to continue to try and push RT but who knows, maybe they'll whip out a whole lineup with every possible option.
Click to expand...

RT is such a compromise that it really is not needed especially with the new Intel chips coming out. As mentioned here it is dependent on apps from the store and most of them are terrible. People say that once they get RT devices down to $200-300 that it's going to sell better but I don't really think there is a demand for RT.
 
V

Via Purifico

Banned
So does anyone know where we are with the fifth core optimization of the tegra3 for RT? Last I heard Nvidia was in beta stage and were close to release, but that's been a couple of months ago. Is it still coming or is all hope lost since microsoft seems to have ditched nvidia for their new line?
 
D

dLMN8R

Member
I can't believe Outlook on RT. They must be making severe modifications to Outlook to get it to play nicely with connected standby, background tasks, overall battery life, search indexing, etc. because otherwise it's an absolute hog.

Unless it'll just be for new RT devices this fall? But the wording does seem to imply existing Surface RTs will get it too.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
dLMN8R said:
I can't believe Outlook on RT. They must be making severe modifications to Outlook to get it to play nicely with connected standby, background tasks, overall battery life, search indexing, etc. because otherwise it's an absolute hog.

Unless it'll just be for new RT devices this fall? But the wording does seem to imply existing Surface RTs will get it too.
Click to expand...

The blog actually explicitly states its coming to Surface RT:

So I am thrilled for myself, for Edie’s colleague, and for everyone else who really likes Outlook to point out that all Surface RT users will get Outlook 2013 RT
Click to expand...

http://blog.surface.com/b/surface/a...ok-2013-rt-coming-to-surface-rt-and-more.aspx
 
B

brotkasten

Member
campfireweekend said:
They just need to find ways to make it more and more attractive to the consumer. ARM isn't going anywhere, and windows needs a foothold in that space. They were never going to abandon RT.
Click to expand...

Then get good apps on the store. Personally, I think 8/RT is the best tablet OS out there, but it's simply useless without good and popular apps.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Ugh, the shortcuts for the surface covers don't work with the wedge mouse, despite them having the same button layout and functions...

Is there any where I can give Ms a feedback about that?
 
K

Kung Fu Jedi

Member
I'm a blogger who works with MS and is part of their Windows Champion program. A few weeks back they I was contacted because members of the Surface team were going to be in town (I live in Austin) and they wanted me to meet with them. Quite frankly, I wasn't all that excited about it, as I've already played with Surface quite a bit and wasn't sure if they could provide me with any new info. But, being part of the program and having MS treat me very well with products over the past couple of years, I agreed to meet with them.

We connected up at the local MS store and hung out for about 45 minutes to an hour. They showed me the features of both the RT and the Pro, and gave me an overview of most of the things I already knew. Still, I learned a few nuggets that I hadn't before and it was the first time I really saw the Pro in action.

At the end of the meeting they asked me if I would prefer an RT or a Pro. I said I was intrigued with the Pro since it has so much more upside. They handed me a 128MB version, two keyboards (one touch, one type) and VGA and HDMI cables. I was definitely surprised and wasn't expecting it in the least. The two people I met with said they were looking forward to feedback and told me to enjoy the Surface Pro.

I'm looking forward to getting it set up this weekend. Haven't even had enough time to take it out of the box yet. I'm excited to see what I can do with this thing.
 
Mick Swagger

Mick Swagger

Member
So Lenovo announced the Miix 8 at Computed today.

Basically, feature wise it's everything I would need to abandon my iPad mini. Hopefully MS can drop something equivalent feature set wise in the 8 inch form factor.

Surface team don't let me down.
 
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