Just purchased a Surface 2... My thoughts

[WillysJeepMan]

The Surface 2's screen is less sensitive then the original RT and as much as enjoyed the Adonit Jot Pro on the original RT it has never matched the performance on the S2. My Wacom Bamboo Capacitive Stylus works better in the S2. I received the LinkTec Apex Glide last night which uses a battery to give a Capacitive Charge on a fine tipped stylus, still testing but early test are promising. Decent inking in OneNote, iffy in DrawboardPDF, excellent in FreshPaint.

It is amazing on my Lumia 1520 BTW... wish the S2 had the same type of screen.

I can unfortunately confirm that the Adonit Jot works WORSE on the Surface 2 than the RT. I don't think that it is due to the Surface 2 being less sensitive than the RT, but that the 2 has been "tuned" to work better with rubber and foam tipped styli. On the RT, rubber and foam were terrible... most notable when slowly drawing a triangle. Using the Jot, performance overall was significantly better.

Now on the Surface 2, the Jot is producing terrible results, and the foam and rubber styli are nearly as good as what I was getting with the Jot on the RT.

This is all made more painful when I use Outline+ on my iPad (OneNote-clone) to draw in a OneNote page and then bring that page up on the Surface 2 to make additions... the difference in the flow and fine strokes between the two is quite evident.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I can unfortunately confirm that the Adonit Jot works WORSE on the Surface 2 than the RT. I don't think that it is due to the Surface 2 being less sensitive than the RT, but that the 2 has been "tuned" to work better with rubber and foam tipped styli. On the RT, rubber and foam were terrible... most notable when slowly drawing a triangle. Using the Jot, performance overall was significantly better.

Now on the Surface 2, the Jot is producing terrible results, and the foam and rubber styli are nearly as good as what I was getting with the Jot on the RT.

This is all made more painful when I use Outline+ on my iPad (OneNote-clone) to draw in a OneNote page and then bring that page up on the Surface 2 to make additions... the difference in the flow and fine strokes between the two is quite evident.

Thanks. But would you say that it is possible to mark up - by which I mean making short notes - on PDF documents on the Surface 2 using a rubber/ foam tipped stylus?

 

[jnjroach]

I've ran more tests with Apex TrueGlide, one interesting thing about it being an Active Capacitive Stylus is that it offers some rudimentary palm rejection, far from perfect but I'm getting good results.

I own the Bamboo Capacitive Stylus as well, it works for highlighting and some markups but writing isn't great.

 

[oion]

I've ran more tests with Apex TrueGlide, one interesting thing about it being an Active Capacitive Stylus is that it offers some rudimentary palm rejection, far from perfect but I'm getting good results.

I own the Bamboo Capacitive Stylus as well, it works for highlighting and some markups but writing isn't great.

Rudimentary palm rejection built into the pen? I hope you're going to do a separate detailed write-up for this, Jeff, especially pertaining to the Surface RT/2.

 

[jnjroach]

Still doing testing... it has been a busy weekend so I'll see what I can do as far as the write up is concerned.

 

[mcostan]

I almost got the surface pro, but remembered that I didn't have or want to purchase, a copy of office, so I opted for the surface 2.

So far I'm really loving it! My other option was an ipad, mostly because I love the kindle app designed for apple, even more than the kindle app on my fire. Go figure.

I'm glad I didn't get the pad, having office has been very useful for me. There are a few minor complaints, the speaker volume is just silly bad. It sounds great on my Bluetooth speaker or headphones though. And in all honesty, my netbook and laptop have crappy speakers as well, mostly because I choose to save money by skimping on that.

I still think the speaker could be improved on but it's not a deal breaker for me. I love being able to really surf the web. My tablet is more of a substitute laptop, rather than a substitute phone, I use each device for a different purpose. I don't need to have my calendar and such synced to all of my devices.

I do wish there were more apps, there is a lectionary app for the iPhone that I can't get on my fire or surface. I wish the surface kindle app was better. But overall my surface is so much more useful than an ipad would have been for me. I hope they continue to improve and support it.

 

[LadyRaider]

I just went to the local Best Buy and tested my current RT vs the Surface 2 vs the Surface Pro 3 in terms of stylus use. I have a rocketfish stylus and a bic brand stylus. I have to say that the "feel" of writing with these capacitive styli on the two RT machines were not that different. And really not that much different than the n-trig pen on the Surface 3. Honestly. I think people underestimate the Surface RT versions for their viability for note-taking. You just have to find the right stylus and it's not always the most expensive one.

The biggest difference between all three machines happened when I opened Fresh Paint. I was able to get much finer detail with the Surface Pro 3's dedicated pen. There was a huge difference in terms of ability to draw with that pen versus the capacitive styli.

However, since I am not an artist, I don't know that in my case, if the Pro 3 expense is worth it even as a person who LOVES digital writing.

As for the RTs not running legacy app: Well okay. But in my case, I have not had a longing to use many legacy apps on this machine. For me it is not a laptop replacement (I have a MacBookPro issued by work) but instead a companion device. Except for chrome, I have not missed any legacy apps. What legacy apps are people dying to use on the RT or the 2? Let me know as I am just begging for a godo reason to buy the Surface Pro 3.

Kindle, Netflix, Hulu Plus, IE for all the flash sites I like (like xm radio and amazon prime movies) evernote and one note and one drive. I use those the most. Sure I miss Plants vs. Zombies but I've been playing a lot of Microsoft Solitaire. If I have to play words with friends and pvz, I can use my phone. I do hope that MS gets the store at least caught up to windows phone. Sheesh.

That said, right now I am typing in Chrome on my Surface RT through Splashtop Remote Desktop. I am remotely connected to my macbookpro. I am just experimenting with this now, so I don't have a solid opinion of its usefulness right now. I am going to play Sims 3 and Simcity 4 and World of Warcraft and see how it goes. I bought a Surface Arc Mouse to help with the experiment. Using legacy apps with a touch screen is just garbage. I know that already.

I really think MS was on the right track with the RT concept. I hope they don't desert it. Instead I wish they'd add a friggin' active stylus! They are MS for crud's sake. They need to tell all the companies making xbox games to make an version for the window's store!

Anyway. If you can tell me why I need to run legacy apps, I'd appreciate it. Because I have money in the bank and a hankering to spend it. That active stylus.... yes, yes, but maybe not 1200.00 worth of yes for a non-artist like me!

 

[kundas1]

you will not be able to play games through splashtop... just an FYI

 

[LadyRaider]

you will not be able to play games through splashtop... just an FYI

Hmmm. Just curious why you would think that. Did you see the games I listed? When people talk about playing "games" They often mean those Halo and Titanfall and Skyrim type games. WOW and the Sim games are not as graphic intensive. Those are the types of games I play. I was building a house in Sims 3 just now. It might have been a bit laggy, but the worst thing was this stiff mouse. I sure think this arc mouse is cool, but it's giving me finger cramps!

That said, I still think it's rather pointless when I could just play the games on my computer in the first place. But it was a nice experiment.

The issue I have with Splashtop so far is that it won't wake up my macbook. I have to physically wake the laptop up before the surface will connect.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Anyway. If you can tell me why I need to run legacy apps, I'd appreciate it. Because I have money in the bank and a hankering to spend it. That active stylus.... yes, yes, but maybe not 1200.00 worth of yes for a non-artist like me!

Well, Can't tell you "why" you need to run legacy apps or any kind of app for that matter, I can tell you what I missed. I missed having academic reference software like Endnote or Mendelay etc. I have them on my desktop machine, but for the times that I am not in my study, and I am working outside, having these programs would be very helpful. With the SP3, I now can. Then I'd like a couple of other browsers - namely Chrome and FF. I don't use them often, but sometimes they are helpful to have.

I also find the very fact that the SP3 is a full PC though in a near Surface 2-like form-factor fascinating.

 

[kundas1]

Hmmm. Just curious why you would think that. Did you see the games I listed? When people talk about playing "games" They often mean those Halo and Titanfall and Skyrim type games. WOW and the Sim games are not as graphic intensive. Those are the types of games I play. I was building a house in Sims 3 just now. It might have been a bit laggy, but the worst thing was this stiff mouse. I sure think this arc mouse is cool, but it's giving me finger cramps!

That said, I still think it's rather pointless when I could just play the games on my computer in the first place. But it was a nice experiment.

The issue I have with Splashtop so far is that it won't wake up my macbook. I have to physically wake the laptop up before the surface will connect.

because those games you listed are legacy app games which don't run on Surface 2

 

[LadyRaider]

Krystalsoldier,
Ah yes then you definitely need a machine with that program.

Kundas1, the games aren't really running on the Surface when you use Splashtop. They are still running on the macbook. In fact I tried to be a smarty and run FaceTime. But instead of me looking at my Surface, all I could see was the camera pointing toward empty wall my macbook was facing. Heh.