Surface 2 Reviews and videos

[oion]

That Verge Review is beyond bad, its an insult and its the most unprofessional thing that i have seen and heard.

The vast majority of "professional" tech "journalism" these days are amateur at best but worst of all--somehow are given more weight than actual use cases. This is why user review scores for both first gens have averaged HIGHER than the "official" reviews--the official reviewers do not bother to actually try using them.

The only thing official reviews are good for are the benchmarks.

 

[demandarin]

updated post #2 with a great article on Why MS didn't build a baytrail Surface and why MS is so gung ho on sticking with RT platform. its by Paul Thurott from winsupersite. from my understanding he originally slammed the RT platform when it first released. But with the new Surface 2 release with a more powerful tegra4, he is changing his tune now basically. as now the platform is finally powered by a chip with enough horsepower to make performance a non issue.

check it out.

 

[The White Falcon]

Lisa Gage over at MobileTechReview always seems to offer an honest review. But I don't think she nor Mossberg at AllThingsD have released their reviews yet.

 

[demandarin]

Lisa Gage over at MobileTechReview always seems to offer an honest review. But I don't think she nor Mossberg at AllThingsD have released their reviews yet.

I love mobile tech reviews..she's really thorough. Now I want to see the surface 2 compared to new Nokia lumia 2520. Its running with snapdragon 800.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Just a quick note - I bought the purple coloured Type Cover!! (from PC World). It's quite nice... definitely got a better feel to it. Backlight works well. I like the fact that the back of the keyboard is NOT the felt material. The touch pad is a bit better - got to use it more. But over all, it is quite good. Is it worth 110 quid? Hmmm... I'll reserve my comments on that.

Now, in about a month, the Surface 2!!!!!

 

[oion]

Just a quick note - I bought the purple coloured Type Cover!! (from PC World). It's quite nice... definitely got a better feel to it. Backlight works well. I like the fact that the back of the keyboard is NOT the felt material. The touch pad is a bit better - got to use it more. But over all, it is quite good. Is it worth 110 quid? Hmmm... I'll reserve my comments on that.

Now, in about a month, the Surface 2!!!!!

What? How come no one else mentioned this? That's great. The felt backing annoyed me to no end for a variety of reasons.

Edit: Oh, I see it's mentioned in a separate Anandtech review thing yesterday. Judging from multiple sources, it sounds like the new Touch 2 can now replace a real keyboard for many folks due to the increased sensitivity--too bad it doesn't come in extra colors, but oh well.

 

[kristalsoldier]

What? How come no one else mentioned this? That's great. The felt backing annoyed me to no end for a variety of reasons.

Edit: Oh, I see it's mentioned in a separate Anandtech review thing yesterday. Judging from multiple sources, it sounds like the new Touch 2 can now replace a real keyboard for many folks due to the increased sensitivity--too bad it doesn't come in extra colors, but oh well.

Yeah...I was also pleasantly surprised. And, for all the talk about the reduced travel of the keys, it works very well. I am not sure about the lessening of the sound. It still is clicky, if you know what I mean. One thing that I thought the new Type (and Touch) covers had was the swiping in from the edge to reveal the Charms menu. Can't figure out how to do this... yet.

 

[oion]

Yeah...I was also pleasantly surprised. And, for all the talk about the reduced travel of the keys, it works very well. I am not sure about the lessening of the sound. It still is clicky, if you know what I mean. One thing that I thought the new Type (and Touch) covers had was the swiping in from the edge to reveal the Charms menu. Can't figure out how to do this... yet.

Thanks for the note about the shorter keystroke. Anandtech also commented about the reduced travel being not-very-noticeable so that's good...

As for the new keyboard gestures, I'm pretty sure that's only the Touch 2 covers.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Well, there is another thing. While the Type Cover works well... the Trackpad app does not seem to work. It shows that no cover is attached. I wonder why!

Edit: From what I understand, the gestures are supposed to work on both. See here: http://www.winrtsource.com/2013/09/26/touch-and-type-cover-2-feature-modern-trackpads/

 

[oion]

Well, there is another thing. While the Type Cover works well... the Trackpad app does not seem to work. It shows that no cover is attached. I wonder why!

Edit: From what I understand, the gestures are supposed to work on both. See here: Touch and Type Cover 2 feature "Modern Trackpads" | Windows RT Source

OH, the gestures are for the trackpad, not the entire keyboard itself. Well, that makes a lot more sense. (Clearly I've been paying attention this detail. ) I'm sure there are still issues that MS needs to iron out, but at least it's only the app that doesn't work and not the trackpad itself, right?

 

[kristalsoldier]

OH, the gestures are for the trackpad, not the entire keyboard itself. Well, that makes a lot more sense. (Clearly I've been paying attention this detail. ) I'm sure there are still issues that MS needs to iron out, but at least it's only the app that doesn't work and not the trackpad itself, right?

That's correct. Thank god! I hope MS issues a firmware update ASAP though because it would be really cool to have the swipe-in gesture on the trackpad! But I am very happy with the keyboard though - definitely an improvement - but in a subtle sort of way, which is difficult to describe. You have to experience it!

 

[jnjroach]

With the Touch 2 there are gestures for the Keyboard, they allow for selecting text, arrows and deleting whole sentences...the Type 2 has the full multitouch Trackpad, swiping from right or left, two finger right click and scrolling, zooming, etc.