My thoughts on the Surface(6 months later) and things i notice

[Surface Dude]

Thanks for the best wishes
Yeah I like my RT a lot...I don't really game much so the gaming isn't a huge deal to me. I do wish I could download Firefox but IE works decently enough on it.

I think really the only think I miss is a slightly bigger screen & Better camera.
I love the fact that all my textbooks are in here and all I have to grab every morning before class is the RT and a notebook
(Can't tell you how many times I've forgotten or grabbed the wrong text book )

I may just buy the first gen pro as I don't really need the second SP2 for its specs.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Better camera? You mean you've actually used it? I haven't and haven't seen much evidence of others doing so either! I did try a Skype call once... but it wouldn't work

 

[Lolvo]

Better camera? You mean you've actually used it? I haven't and haven't seen much evidence of others doing so either! I did try a Skype call once... but it wouldn't work

For Skype, it works fine, but the cameras on this device are honestly terrible. Picture quality is on par to my old Motorola RAZR..

@SurfaceDude - I see your point about the SP, but I think you'll find that the original SP is less of a device than you currently have...think about it, and reconsider the SP2 as an option. If you'd like me to elaborate on why, I'd be fine with doing so.

 

[oion]

Thanks for the best wishes
Yeah I like my RT a lot...I don't really game much so the gaming isn't a huge deal to me. I do wish I could download Firefox but IE works decently enough on it.

I think really the only think I miss is a slightly bigger screen & Better camera.
I love the fact that all my textbooks are in here and all I have to grab every morning before class is the RT and a notebook
(Can't tell you how many times I've forgotten or grabbed the wrong text book )

I may just buy the first gen pro as I don't really need the second SP2 for its specs.

You have to think very carefully about your use case and your device priorities:
WHY would you buy a Surface Pro 1 for school, unless you intend to use it as a primary machine with external monitor/keyboard outside class?

So the main differences between Surface Pro and RT are--
install 3rd party software not in the app store (e.g. full Adobe software)
performance (e.g. gaming)
battery life (Pro1 has less--you really have to tweak it to get 6 hours, and there are other threads about this, or buy the upcoming battery-cover).

Keep in mind that the full Windows 8 tablets like Surface Pro don't come with MS Office.

I'll be perfectly honest, though. If screen size continues to niggle at you AND you intend on using your mobile device as a primary machine (i.e. you don't have a desktop), then you should go ahead and switch from the Surface RT to a heavier and larger Win8 hybrid tablet (not SPro) and buy MS Office on student discount. It'll definitely cost more than what you have, but you may be a lot happier with that setup in the long run.


Special note about IE on Surface RT: The metro version and desktop version apparently have different "profiles," so I find when I'm logged into Gmail on the desktop version, opening Google.com on the metro version doesn't show I'm logged into my Google account. So I do my regular surfing on the metro version of IE and all my "log in" stuff on the desktop version.

 

[Surface Dude]

I'm not going to lie, the cool commercial with the dancers made me want it initially especially with the keyboard and i figured since this was made by Microsoft it would be a good product to buy since it likely will have great updates and support and I was right. I love seeing the support Microsoft pushed out for it.

I do like the surface because of the computer but i may wind up getting myself one of those yoga laptops It doesn't take much to excite me when it comes to electronics lol

Gmail on IE is abysmally slow for me. It takes 5 secs(if i am lucky) to hit the back arrow in gmail to check multiple emails. But outlook for rt does help alot.
(I am going to move all my email over to outlook...i have one for my lumia)

I just wish microsoft would hurry and update the windows phone app so it'll make my lumia visible with my surface rt on windows 8.1 preview.

 

[beman39]

^^ why are you having trouble with gmail? mine isn't slow at all, are you using the desktop version or the metro version of IE? I find the desktop version faster than the metro...

 

[Surface Dude]

^^ why are you having trouble with gmail? mine isn't slow at all, are you using the desktop version or the metro version of IE? I find the desktop version faster than the metro...

Yea it's slow using internet explorer desktop and Gmail.

 

[CrippsCorner]

For Skype, it works fine, but the cameras on this device are honestly terrible. Picture quality is on par to my old Motorola RAZR..

I'm glad it worked for you. It's a shame Messaging is gone in 8.1, but hopefully it means there will be updates for Skype including making messaging better and hopefully call improvements!

 

[Russ]

You have to think very carefully about your use case and your device priorities:

Oion --

That is a very novel idea, ya think? I got the first Pro to serve as a laptop replacement for my Ladyfriend's travels, and it serves that purpose admirably. I was neither surprised nor disappointed that the Pro did not have 8 hours of battery life, because neither did her laptop. She has now made two major trips with it, and a couple of minor ones, and loves it. She has not complained that it will not make her tea in the morning, because her laptop wouldn't do that either.

I "acquired" the second Pro because she thought it was such a wonderful machine that I ought to have one -- so, now I do. It was also a laptop replacement for me. I made two short trips with it and gave my laptop to my daughter. I don't particularly like the aspect ratio, but it is the same as my laptop, and I didn't like that either. In fact, I really don't like "widescreen" monitors, although I bought one to use in setting up the two Pros and now use it as an external monitor when I'm doing semi-serious stuff with one of the Pros.

In short, the Pro is and has done what I expected of it. It offers a few small pluses that I had not considered, so that's a bonus. No, it is not perfect, but neither am I, and I won't complain about its lack of perfection if it won't complain about mine.

Take care,
Russ

 

[CrippsCorner]

Well written! Very reasonable and some fanboy haters need to see that...