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Should I buy Surface RT over Surface pro

For me the best solution I've found is having a Windows 8 Desktop that I can remote into that has Office 2013 Professional Plus installed. I have the desktop at work so I can VPN in to it as long as I have an internet connection. Because of Windows 8 support of touch through RDP I can use it has a Windows 8 Tablet as well :cool2:....Yes that is Outlook 2013 in the picture....
 

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I was in the same dillemma before, but I have a different reason- I am running Hyper-V with three Windows Server 2012 (one is Core) and two SQL Server 2012 (one is Core) that I can always take with me. Currently my Acer S3 does that, and when I read that the Pro is only 4GB / 128GB, my interest waned. I got the Surface RT which I don't need, but I want.

I'm sorry if this post offers no help.

:)
 
Russ said:
dstrauss --

I think your price guesses will be right on the money. I intend to pre-order the 128G Pro as soon as it is available. I am anxious to get my hands on it, because I do think it will be her laptop replacement. You're also right about OWA; sometimes she goes to places where she simply has no internet access, so her device must be capable of performing stand-alone.

Evaluating the device from her perspective has proven to be very useful, especially as her travels often take her into rural and semirural China. For instance, she cannot rely on the hotel having wireless, so must connect via ethernet, if at all. Yesterday I tried connecting the Surface to my network using USB to ethernet. Can't get there from here. I am convinced that it is a problem waiting for a software/firmware solution, but, for now, it doesn't work.

Size and weight are important for a 5'2", 105 lb Lady who trudges all over China. Price is not a prohibitive impediment. She reminded me how it compares to the overall cost of her trip. Oh; ok.

I will look at competitive offerings while I wait, but still intend to pre-order the Pro. My first travel "computer" was a TRS-80, Model 100. My, my, how far we have come.

Regards,
Russ
Click to expand...

Keep in mind the other disadvantage of the Pro -- battery life. Unlike a Clover Trail x86 tablet, it's got a fan and considerably worse expected battery life. In rural and semi-rural China, battery life could be an issue?

Only a few USB to Ethernet bridges work on the RT. I've heard that the Wii adapter is one such.

--randy

Sent from Boards for Windows on Windows 8
 
Randy & Hans --

Battery life is not so much an issue, as it is compared to her present laptop, she is usually not away from electricity except on the occasional bus or train ride.

Thanks for tip on Wii adapter. I may try one to see if it works.

re: "small travel router" -- I have looked at those, although Surface Pro will have an ethernet port.

Fortunately, I have time to play around with this. Her next trip will be in April, so whatever it is (probably Surface Pro) will be set up and ready. I'm looking at the Asus Vivo as well, but will wait until I have hands on the Surface Pro. I have a sense that I'm going to end up with some extra hardware before this is done, but she will probably give it to one of her employees.

Take care,
Russ
 
My only issue with the Surface Pro is that for that money, I can buy Surface RT plus a Acer S5 laptop and get the best of both worlds. I just don't need access to much legacy software on my tablet. And with how fast the Windows Store is generating content, by the time the Surface Pro comes out I would bet that my needs will be met in Windows RT anyway.
 
A couple of other considerations with Surface Pro.

It's a full computer with windows 8 pro and an I5 processor, so....

- It will be more susceptible to virsuses and malware than the closed ecosystem of RT. That's actually part of the point along with portability.
- 64 GB is probably too small, especially when you start adding applications to it like Full MS Office and Photoshop. I think VM's are most likely out of the question. Even 128 is about the smallest you'd go with an SSD. I have one in my laptop and I have to space manage all the time. It's a world where software vendors expect eveyone to have at least 500GB drives for installing software.
- The battery life in the best laptops with I5 processors is about 5 hours, so you will probably need to top it up sometime during the day. Nothing has been published on battery life, so MS may have something up their sleeve.
- Intel chips run hotter than ARM. Again MS may hve something up their sleeve for this.
- The increased number of pixels is likely to make everything on the screen very tiny in desktop apps... I think the Surface RT screen is gorgeous, with the resolution just right for the size screen it is. Windows settings can make make text and icons on the desktop bigger, but the applications themselves are usualy not so well behaved. They normally just shrink when the resolution goes up. A 10 inch screen running older Windows apps could be hard to read.
- The surface Pro will be able to work with any vpn or external security hardware. If you have to be able to d that then you really need the Surface Pro.
- I use my phone as a personal hotspot for my Surface and my laptop both. If you can do that then the lack of 4G LTE is no big deal.

All that said, I'll take a close look at the Surface Pro when it comes out, but for a lot of reasons the RT version is still attractive.
 
Hi!
I'm new here and this is my first post, but I think I've got another thing to add, that hasn't been mentioned so far.
At the Surface Experience Center in Stuttgart I was told, that the Surface RT doesn't support digitizers, but the Surface Pro will have that feature. I'm waiting to buy a surface pro just for that reason and to be able to have a full and pleasent experience with OneNote for example.
 
Sauerkraut said:
Hi!
I'm new here and this is my first post, but I think I've got another thing to add, that hasn't been mentioned so far.
At the Surface Experience Center in Stuttgart I was told, that the Surface RT doesn't support digitizers, but the Surface Pro will have that feature. I'm waiting to buy a surface pro just for that reason and to be able to have a full and pleasent experience with OneNote for example.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on what you need to digitize. I use the handwriting recognition built into Win 8 all the time for note taking and casual editing of MS Office and PDF files. It works really well. Because it's built in as an onscreen keyboard, it can be used anywhere and in any application. It's one of the things I always wanted to do with my iPad. For this I use a standard stylus that was made for the iPad (I use PenGo).

It doesn't work all that well anywhere else with the Surface though. I find it unusable with apps that were meant for free hand drawing, like Notable and FreshPaint. So I'd say that if you your need is being able to write freehand and have the notes transcribed into text as you write, then the Surface RT works great as is. If you need to do any kind of drawing or notetaking that involves mixtures of text and drawing, then you probably need some thing else.

For me, the Modern UI version of OneNote from the App store and the handwriting keyboard serves all my normal notetaking needs.
 
Sauerkraut said:
Hi!
I'm new here and this is my first post, but I think I've got another thing to add, that hasn't been mentioned so far.
At the Surface Experience Center in Stuttgart I was told, that the Surface RT doesn't support digitizers, but the Surface Pro will have that feature. I'm waiting to buy a surface pro just for that reason and to be able to have a full and pleasent experience with OneNote for example.
Click to expand...

Hi Sauerkraut, welcome to the forum. You are correct that RT doesn't support the digitizer and is a good reason to get the PRO if you need the functionality. However, the RT is very capable in OneNote with just a capacitive stylus. Take a look at this thread http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/...des/2056-how-optimize-onenote-surface-rt.html.

JP
 
Thanks for your two answers. I was actually quite surprised about all the note-taking abilities there are and I hadn't really realized them yet. But especially after viewing your video, JP, it was one thing that got me thinking: If Windows RT doesn't really support palm blocking, the actual writing experience will always be a bit different and maybe difficult.
In conclusion: With pen, digitizing, inking and note-taking it's the same story as with everything else. You have to know exactly what your looking for in a tablet/laptop hybrid and then you have to choose the one which suits your needs the best.
Thanks to you two I can take the RT-Version in consideration for the first time and see if I can save some euros after all.
 
Just try the RT-Version. If you're not in the need of a full laptop replacement, it's a good thing between two worlds and if it doesn't suit you, just send it back ;)
 
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