Discussion on:

Going Pro: One hot Surface that's a joy to touch

This seems to hit the nail squarely on the head.

Reading over this after it was published, I see that I have a typo in the fourth paragraph: "Windows 8 Professional vs. Windows 8" should be "Windows 8 Professional vs. Windows RT." Obviously, as I talk about the RT operating system further down in the article.

Which are of course, the same thing, but still, the surface pro just seems to be a double priced netbook.

Basically, it gives you the power of an ultrabook (which are priced comparably for the same specs) with the size/weight of a netbook, along with the flexibility of detaching the keyboard and using it as a tablet. The i5 processor is what makes the difference in performance and is also what bumps up the price. The pen input, for graphic artists, is a big bonus (although I wish they had included a slot to store it inside the device, like the Note 10.1 has).

I think if I was standing in the store with money in my hand, I would probably go to a netbook instead.
For portability, a netbook is nearly as good as the surface, for a much lower cost.
If I lost the netbook (or stolen) I would feel less bad about it as it was cheaper.
When it breaks in a year (You said yourself your keyboard is already getting finicky) I won't feel as bad.
And I know I can use the keyboard of the netbook on my lap, the surface needs a flat surface to use that kickstand properly.
The only advantage I can see with the surface pro is the ability to use it as a touch tablet. But that price makes it hard to swallow when I can get a Nexus 7 for 240 bucks instead. And I can buy a cheap case for that that allows it to stand up and a roll out keyboard if I need to use it for serious typing.

A netbook is just that. Netbooks have limitations that a fully functional computer does not. If what a netbook has to offer fulfills your needs then that's what you should be looking for. A Surface Pro or even RT is certainly overkill and you'd probably never be happy about having shelled out for one.

I have had my Surface Pro for about 2 weeks and am really enjoying it. As an avid photographer the first thing I did was load my photo editing software. I use both Adobe Lightroom 4 and Corel Paint Shop Pro X5. I haven't had any issue with either.

There is a substantial group of people who buy a computers for personal use that wants to buy just one device instead of a desktop, and a netbook and a tablet.

They will mostly use the device in their home in the "computer cubby" but like the idea of it being portable, "just in case". These folks will see that the Surface Pro will let them use the same software that they use at work (one level of justification for home computers), it's easy to take with them somewher (another level of justificaition) and it's like an iPad/Kindle thingie. It might cost a little more, but they will appreciate the simplicity of one machine. Even if it brings a headache or two along.

Yes, as a Microsoft Partner, I also was simply amazed with the idea that it was so hard to get one of the Surface Pro 128 units-- even for Microsoft's own employees! This has to be filed under "Missed Opportunities", though I took the time at every Microsoft conference and training to fill their ears with how one of the best marketing campaigns involves putting these Surface Pro units in the hands of their employees and partners ASAP. Microsoft is well-known for offering employees and partners discounted and "Internal Use" software so that the business world sees those individuals and companies using the latest and greatest Microsoft software; it's simply the BEST way that business decision-makers see those products in action. I have championed both the Surface Pro and Windows Phone to clients, who ask us "What do YOU use" when making purchasing decisions. It's simple really-- put your product in the hands of companies who will market it for FREE. Do so by offering them a steep discount so that the will outfit their entire company with your wares. Apple has been doing this with school districts and such for years. They "get" marketing... or a least Jobs did. I was shocked to see how many Microsoft employees DON'T have Windows Phone, for instance. At a recent conference, I was showing off the seamless integration with my Windows Phone 7 HTC Arrive with our Office 365 "Internal Use" account that the company I own uses. There were a lot of "Windows Phone Converts" that day-- straight from iOS and Android. Then, on Day 1 with my Surface Pro 128, I sold 3 of them to one of our Medical MSP clients for the doc and their medical assistants. It was the thing that they had been waiting for that fit perfectly into a niche that their iPads had failed miserably on: Being able to run their medical practice software without being limited by whatever "App" their medical vendor has turned out. Seriously Microsoft. Figure this out and do with hardware what you have done so well with software! Get your employees and partners to market for you! By the way, in order to make that sale I went through the hell known as walking into Best Buy, talking with an employee who knew little or nothing about the device but immediately asked why I wasn't getting the new iPad instead, and pre-ordering said device to insure that I had it on the launch date (a first for me-- I've NEVER done that for any other device). Then, on launch day, myself and MANY other hapless souls watched with horror as our pre-orders never arrived that day... or for two weeks afterward. Yeah. Really.

Anyhow, rant over. Maybe it will reach the right person at Microsoft eventually. Since Deb's article is about the Surface Pro, my two cents is that I LOVE this device and pretty much everything about it-- with the exception of the Pen/Stylus location. It seemed like an afterthought almost. Here you have a tablet/laptop/ultrabook device that functions as all of those and does things no iPad can ever dream of... only to functionally disable its Tablet abilities by choosing a Pen location where:

1) It blocks the charging port.
2) It blocks the display port.
3) It falls off the device if you look at it wrong.
4) It naturally gets RIGHT in the way when you grab the Tablet like any normal user would whe trying to use it as a tablet... in Panoramic mode. It often falls right off when you grab it.
5) It inhibits typing via the "OnScreen" keyboard. The onscreen keyboard-- especially the "Split" keyboard-- is simply a triumph... except for when trying to type on it with the Pen attached. There it a complete failure of Human Engineering concepts. When we as humans "type", we keep a mental reference of "stationary" items that guide our fingers to the right locations of the keys we intend to strike. The physical keyboard is a great example. The keys stay in the exact same location every time. Imagine if someone was moving the keyboard as you typed. That's what happens when the Pen on the Surface Pro is docked. Your right hand slightly misses the target and you end up with plenty of typing errors.

Now, to be fair. This "complaint" is like me complaining about the cherry on top of my ice cream sundae not being perfectly centered on top in a world where ice cream sundae's don't have cherries. After all-- it's a 1st-Gen device folks. The other "problems" with this spectacular device are not problems for me at least. Battery life is WAY better than the heavy and awkward HP TouchSmart laptop I was carrying (only because Lenovo didn't have a great tablet when I bought it). After all, iCore5 processor and a great bright screen... what do we expect? With that kind of device, I would have been happy with only 4 hours of battery and I seem to make it through the majority of my work day visiting clients and such without it being too much of an issue. Battery life is a moving target and a poor reference point. I don't want to hear iPad references as they are "apple-meet-orange".

One final note on my Surface Pro. Don't discount the beauty and functionality of two items... the "Touch" keyboard and the Microsoft Wedge Mouse. The Wedge mouse really has to be used to be appreciated. It fits cleanly into a pocket or small laptop bag in little more width-space than the Surface tablet itself. Clients see it and ask about it immediately-- much like the touch keyboard. They assume it's too small for them-- only because of how they have used a mouse traditionally. It's really a great human-engineering example. You "pinch" it on the sides with your thumb and pinkie or ring-finger rather than holding your hand over it like a traditional mouse. It seamlessly connects to your Surface Pro WITHOUT A DONGLE OR TRANSCEIVER, which would of course occupy your only USB port. It tracks seamlessly on all surfaces... yes-- even glass. The surface of the buttons are "gesture-sensitive", similar to Apple Mac mice. Though the Wedge only currently supports vertical and horizontal scrolling gestures... future driver updates will likely add more gestures. Consider grabbing one. It's a great little device and perfect for your Surface Pro.

Now for my biggest surprise... the Touch keyboard. I almost dismissed it out-of-hand, figuring it was an aesthetically-pleasing toy that would not work for me (Just like the iPad proved to be... cough cough ). I went ahead and got a Touch cover in "Ferrari Red" (My masculinity requires me to brand it that), assuming that it would quickly be returned to the store in favor of a Type cover. Man was I surprised. You see, I tend to be rather verbose (shocking admission, I know)-- so the thought of hammering out long passages via the Touch Cover was a laughable thought. Shockingly, it works BETTER than a real keyboard in almost every way. Not kidding. Back to the human-engineering concept. When most of us type on real keyboards, we inevitably accidentally hit two keys at once. Then you backspace, correct, etc. It's a daily ritual that we all take part in without complaint, if only because it's all that we know. With the Touch cover, I type almost twice as fast because I simply don't hit two keys at the same time... ever. the key spacing is PERFECT and the keys respond beautifully with either light touches or hard touches. The only issue I had was getting used to it. There was an issue with typing on soft surfaces or while trying to use it on my actual lap while on a couch... but thankfully the latest firmware update on Microsoft Patch Tuesday addressed that pretty well. Anyhow, the touch cover is really the perfect companion to this device and fits into the "Surface" brand perfectly. How good is it? Well, I typed this entire novel... er, ahem... post with it!

A person with advanced tech skills had to what just to get it to work? You have got to be kidding.

A really great review, properly balanced. I will forward it to all of my colleagues wrestling with the tablet / ultrabook choces. I particularly liked where you balanced any disappointments against the other alternatives. Unlike you, I can't afford one of everything, but I can afford the Surface Pro, and will.

As to "the perfect computing device, but it isnt ??? quite.", Congratulations, that's as good as it gets in Release 1.0 of anything! Still leaves you wanting more, and by the time the next revision comes out, magic!, it will all be there. When you get V2, I'll happily take your used V1 off your hands.

Thanks.

First, great review. Thanks for the comparisons not only between the two products, but also to their competition.

I originally planned on buying a Surface Pro to replace my aging desktop, but Windows 8 ran so well that I couldn't justify the expense. Instead I bought an SSD drive and, wow, my 8-year-old PC is as fast as my Core i5 desktop at work!

But I do need something portable. I have a netbook but the screen size and keyboard are not ideal for typing, and writing is what I do most.

So knowing that I have a desktop to do the heavy lifting, and that writing and managing a web site (using Joomla) is mostly what I'd use a tablet for, which do you think would fit the role best, the RT or the Pro? Is Word and Excel the same on each? Is Lync available on RT? Does Citrix run on RT? I'm really hoping I can avoid spending the extra $500.

... and comments as well. After all this mud-wrestling of MS and Apple fanboys. It's really time for substantial reviews and discussions.
Thanks so much Debra!

I picked up my 128GB model on 2.25. For the first few days I loved this device. (Of course, the first thing I did was install Start8 and boot strictly to the desktop.. after giving the tile screen a couple of hours.. and deciding immediately that that screen was going to result in endless frustration except for the most simple of tasks which did not require multiple screens and multiple program quick access.. I need to see my screens as I work.)
After 3 days I started to have overheating issues. I was doing some file copying, but strangely when I laid the tablet down and was doing nothing it would freeze, which I found to be an issue with overheating. This was frustrating since it seemed that there was nothing actually active.
Microsoft got it right with the Surface Pro, you NEED a pen on a tablet, but the Win7 interface was substantially better for use on a tablet for the pen input, the Win7 interface "grows" with your input so you can decided when to input it into your program, while Win8 consumes almost 1/2 of the screen and has no other options. (I personally liked the functionality of the Win7 pen input MUCH better.)
The screen is amazing. 1920x1080 gives you an incredible screen and crisp clear images and text on the small size screen, so even high information screens are easy to read and use.
Even though, I took mine back, I will probably give them another chance (the overheating issue was a MAJOR decision in taking it back). But in retrospect, the tablet is lacking a couple of things that I hope they improve for version 2.
1) Let's not mess around with SSD's less than 128gb with full Win8 and given the price of eSATA drives there should be at least a 256gb offering. The 64gb is pretty much a no buy even with additional microSD storage.
2) Add more USB ports. Just as well have them all USB 3.0 ports. 3 would be nice. 2 would be almost required.
3) GPS?!?!? with the size of GPS receivers (some you can put 4 on a dime) this device needs to have a GPS built in.
4) Replaceable battery. I have no problems with 4 hrs battery life (even though I normally got closer to 5.5hrs), but with a replaceable battery, the shorter battery life issue goes away quickly.
5) Docking solution!! This device is very functional with the i5 (or maybe an optional i7 quad core) so that if it could be docked (dock should include a second battery slot for charging - see 4 above) and used as a primary device for the vast majority of users. Add an Ethernet plug on the dock and even in secure environments this thing could wipe out the need for a desktop or high performance tablets.
6) Dump Win8 - I know there is a large investment in the UI but it is not a good UI for multi program users. The back end or under the hood improvements are worth keeping, but the UI is just not a winner, on a notebook or a tablet. Win8 (I installed it briefly on a W510 i7 quad core laptop) is quite a bit faster than Win7 in a lot of areas, but its just not very user friendly, unless you are primarily a user of single apps at a time. Not a good match for heavy lifting unless you stay with the desktop.
7) slim charger. I've seen them for replacements for laptops, and Apple has them. The power brick could have been reshaped into a 1-1.5 inch thick device that was larger in the other dimensions but would fit better in a slim carrying case.
8) while there are some available via 3rd party vendors, when being used as a tablet, it would be nice to have a fitted folio case with a strap that your hand goes through to make holding the device as like a paper tablet easier (and more secure). I was a little nervous when holding the device and doing check lists while not at the desk.

This is version one. It's a pretty good start, but there are many improvements that could turn this into an almost essential device for business users, mobile or not.

The Pro is a great device and I bought it primarily to read ebooks. The fact that it's a full fledged Win 8 Pro computer with a touch screen is icing on the cake. However, gripping the thing while reading is tiring because the case is so smooth and slippery. What would be really nice is if it had a rubberized finish that wrapped up around to the screen borders.

The article mentioned "magical all-in-one device that could do it all. In that respect, I was disappointed." Did i miss something? What can't the Surface Pro do? Why isn't it an "all-in-one?"

The problem I am having difficulty with is not the hardware it's the OS.
win 8 pro is terrible.