BBC Review gets it completely wrong

[Rallicat]

Once again, the BBC 'Click' program offers up another overly biased review of a Microsoft product.

Here we see Marc Cieslak taking a look at a few tablets, with the review of the Surface taking up the first half of the segment : BBC News - Review of Microsoft, Google and Apple's latest tablets

Basically, it's a big load of BS from start to finish. Marc quickly skips over a few positive notes about the Surface (USB port etc), and heads straight into bashing it. He declares the Touch Cover to be unresponsive, and is seen struggling to use it. My experience varies drastically (I have no problems at all). I can only assume Marc had a faulty review unit.

Marc also makes the tired attack that there are no apps available. No mention of how Windows 8 has only just launched, nor is it pointed out that both Apple and Google started small - nothing.

There's an attack on the product's weight. Marc tells us the product is much heavier than other tablets, and they go as far as showing us a scene of a weightlifter bench-pressing the tablet, before Marc tells us if he owned the Surface he could cancel the Gym mmembership, and places a Surface neatly amongst a rack of weights. I checked, and the Surface is only 24g heavier than the latest iPad - hardly in another league.

Finally, Marc makes a strong implication that touch works very differently on the Surface compared to other tablets. Again, this is just not true, and the example Marc offers us is merely to show us an aspect of the Windows 8 UI, and ignores the fact that all interfaces have their own particular way of doing things. The way touch works in general on a Windows 8 Tablet is of course, the same as other tablets.

Most people on this forum are -i'm sure- already using a Surface, but if you are not, and are here because you're curious of the Surface, don't let this review discourage you!
If you live in the UK, and want to complain, the form to do so is here: https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor

 

[jnjroach]

Judging from how the Surface was performing in the demo, I would guess it was straight out of the box and haven't received the firmware upgrade and the updated Office.

 

[J515OP]

Such a disservice to the public to have shoddy reviews

 

[mrasmussen]

what folks have to realize is that browsing the web on the surface is superior to other tablets, including ipad. I have used them all, extensively, and having a browsing experience as good as the surface removes the need for many apps, like facebook, twitter, whatever bank you use, etc...

My only wish is more games, which will come. I hope for lengthy RPG games, which basically only exists in the console world so far...

 

[dallasfreak]

there will always be the apple click....I had the first gen 64 3g ipad....the flood took it this summer and wanted to wait and see the Surface before I made another ipad buy.....so glad I did.Yes the Surface has made me want to scream out loud,many of times!!!! but so did the ipad and still my 4s iphone makes me yell...apps will come and so will the updates ....just to make this clear I LOVE MY SURFACE and as soon as the 920 comes to Verizon by by apple.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MR HAPPY DALLASFREAK

 

[Horace]

Thanks Rallicat, I will certainly send a complaint. The good points he selects are merely mentioned in passing - e.g. the fact it runs Office, has a USB port etc. Some are totally ignored - e.g. that it has a microSD port, that this combined with the USB port gives much more storage than the iPad at each price point, that Metro actually works very well...and as you say he gets stuck in on the negative points - e.g. use of a strong metaphor on apps and weight. The app point is inadequately explained and the weight point is ridiculous.

Some of the reviews I have read online have been very strange. I could understand in very consumer man on the street orientated magazines that the Desktop might confuse casual users, or that the very average music app is disappointing. However, to read reviews in professional magazines (e.g. PC Pro, which has long developed an Apple bias) that gloss over the existence of the expansion ports, just to take one example, is bizarre to say the least.

Like you, I just hope it doesn't put people off buying it, or developing apps. Having said that, the App Store really has got better over the past few weeks, and MS really are not helping themselves by not having it on sale in high street shops as people will rely even more on reviews if they can't physically test one...

 

[Ishy]

I saw the review and it was very shoddy. The bit with the weightlifter was just ludicrous. I'm surprised he didn't just reel off a string of hoary old chestnuts, like M$, or 'Microsoft only write buggy software', or 'only every other MS OS is any good'. He does have a point about the app store though. On my android phone I've installed 180,000 apps and I've an iPad that's got 900,000 on it (sorry 899, 999 as I've just uninstalled maps). Until M$, provides that sort of volume on their tablet I'll consider it a flop.

 

[mrasmussen]

you don't need a large number of apps, you just need the right apps. I am quite familiar with all the app stores and I use a handful of apps.

 

[MSurfaceWA]

What a joke on the weight issue - iPad Gen 4 is 1.44 pounds - Surface is 1.49 pounds. Are you telling me 0.05th of a pound is worth all that fuss?? Even without seeing the whole review, that exaggeration says a lot about how impartial they are. That's an embarrassment for a news organization, do your homework.

 

[Horace]

I saw the review and it was very shoddy. The bit with the weightlifter was just ludicrous. I'm surprised he didn't just reel off a string of hoary old chestnuts, like M$, or 'Microsoft only write buggy software', or 'only every other MS OS is any good'. He does have a point about the app store though. On my android phone I've installed 180,000 apps and I've an iPad that's got 900,000 on it (sorry 899, 999 as I've just uninstalled maps). Until M$, provides that sort of volume on their tablet I'll consider it a flop.

Only 899,999?! What an amateur, I have several million on my iPad. I've got loads of space you see from using all its expandable memory slots for my media.

 

[v10type-r]

I've gone on a few rants about biased reviews on MS products (WPhone and Surface), there's not much we can do but enjoy our products and support them. I would say there's about 3 out of 100 reviewers who aren't Pro-Apple.

The thing is, they write this junk and anyone who isn't an Apple-lover will just see it as being plain ridiculous...

 

[R0bR]

He does have a point about the app store though. On my android phone I've installed 180,000 apps and I've an iPad that's got 900,000 on it (sorry 899, 999 as I've just uninstalled maps). Until M$, provides that sort of volume on their tablet I'll consider it a flop.

There is a big difference between number of Apps in the store and number of TABLET Apps in the store. I'd rather have Tablet specific Apps then look at stretched out phone apps on my tablet. A year after the first Android tablet was released there were about 16 Android Tablet Apps available, they are estimating that as of today that has grown to a couple of thousand. The Apple store has over 700,000 Apps of which about 90,000+ are tablet specific. Considering those numbers and the fact that Windows 8 Apps are already over 20,000 shows that it won't take long for MS to surpass both Android and Apple when it comes to tablet apps. I guess MS should have allowed their phone apps to also work as Windows 8 Apps, then they could boast 140,000 + Apps and silence all the naysayers.