My Review of the Surface

Iristheangel

The Surface Pro will have an i5 processor and full version of Windows 8 to run exe files which is why many of us are waiting for it to come out in a couple months to purchase it. As far as the Windows RT, since it's running on an ARM processor, that means it can't run x86 applications

FloOz

Great review, thanks! I am thinking of getting this for my mom for her birthday. I think this would be a good fit for her since it has basic applications she uses daily like IE and Word.

DevilWAH

Work is going to get me a Pro I am actual starting to like the idea of the surface for business.

A serial adapter and I think this will make a great device to carry around when working on the network. And for users to be able to have tablets that are AD ready will be a huge thing for us. No trying to get Ipads and Androids to work with business applications. Keep it all native and simple...

Death Dream

Sweet. I'd have my work pay for one too but I just had to buy a new laptop for myself as my last one broke. If only it could of held out a bit longer haha.

tpatt100

Guy at work who got his wife one bought it when he did because Best Buy was offering a keyboard with it that also had a battery in it that helped extend the battery life. That was tempting.

Everyone

I haven't seen anyone NOT like the Surface yet. Everyone who's actually had hands on it seems to love it. I can't wait to get mine. If I wasn't getting one for free in December, I would have bought one already.

AlexNguyen

Bad news: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet - Yahoo! Finance

Iristheangel

I'm not too concerned and this is fairly predictable. I didn't see the Surface RT taking over the market when the Pro version was coming out a couple months later. Ironically, Microsoft is going to be Microsoft's biggest competitor on the Tablet market.

Now if the Surface Pro bombs, they're in some trouble but I don't see it doing that poorly. I think the timing of the release of the RT was just poorly planned and they sunk their own battleship there.

ptilsen

Yeah, let's wait and see how Surface Pro. I expect that most consumers paying attention are skipping the released Ultrabook convertibles and Surface to see Surface Pro. I liked Surface, but I didn't find it a compelling replacement for my laptop or my iPad. Surface Pro could replace both.

it_consultant

Someone just asked if their father should get an ATT windows phone with the Asus Vivo Tab running Windows 8 RT. I said "yep, but I would just get the phone and then buy the Surface Tablet". For people who need a certain type of computing I would prefer them run RT. Less of an opportunity to screw something up by installing bad software; which IMHO is the main problem with the Windows OS.

I just read that sales of Windows 8 has surpassed all versions of the iPad. Someone is buying it. Not me, I used a technet license

ptilsen

I agree, but since even x86 Windows 8 is moving in the same direction I don't view that as a major advantage for RT. Plus, RT still has the same underlying OS, the same ability to run executable files not from the store. It's more or less Windows 8 ported to ARM. That being said, RT being new and unused, it won't have the same amount of bloatware and malware available for download, and people will be less likely to even try to get things outside of the Windows Store.

Yeah, sales of Windows 8 are doing well. On the one hand, I'm surprised that so many people want the OS upgrade. On the other hand, it's priced really aggressively, which is a big change for Microsoft. It might have been the right call, because people actually buying the software rather than just getting it with a new computer is a big change.

tpatt100

Is it the Windows 8 Operating systems themselves that are selling well or is it new pcs with Windows 8? People usually hold out for the pre Christmas sales to buy new machines and they all came with Win 8. I always figured Windows 8 would be adopted by the public mostly out of having no choice since it comes with new machines.

whatthehell

Nice vid reviews! Sigh, never got a chance to do the mini Android device reviews ....such a lazy bastard I am (more like super busy).

Great work +1

whatthehell

Crap, can't give you a +1 since you were one of the recent +1s I gave! I owe ya one!

GAngel

tpatt100 wrote: »

Is it the Windows 8 Operating systems themselves that are selling well or is it new pcs with Windows 8? People usually hold out for the pre Christmas sales to buy new machines and they all came with Win 8. I always figured Windows 8 would be adopted by the public mostly out of having no choice since it comes with new machines.

it only cost me $15 for a win 8 disk (new serial) with the purchase of a new laptop. If most of the major retailers are doing something similar i'd think it would be a bit of both that are driving the adoption rate.

AlexNguyen

tpatt100 wrote: »

Is it the Windows 8 Operating systems themselves that are selling well or is it new pcs with Windows 8?

Here's an interesting article: 40 million copies of Windows 8 sold? Don't believe it | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld

"Maybe it's true that Microsoft is selling more copies of Windows 8 than it did Windows 7. But if so, I guess the people who bought Windows 8 aren't as interested in using the Web as their Windows 7 cohorts -- by a factor of four."

Mike-Mike

AlexNguyen wrote: »

Here's an interesting article: 40 million copies of Windows 8 sold? Don't believe it | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld

"Maybe it's true that Microsoft is selling more copies of Windows 8 than it did Windows 7. But if so, I guess the people who bought Windows 8 aren't as interested in using the Web as their Windows 7 cohorts -- by a factor of four."

We're getting off topic here, but infoworld isn't being fair. Just because an upgrade has been sold doesn't mean it's been installed, surely a large number of these could be Christmas presents

They are also basing this off of percentage of web traffic, as someone in the comments of that article pointed out:

4% market share based on how much volume compared to the 1.18%. My guess is there are a lot more devices out there now compared to 2009.

wd40

Off Topic

The guys in Hawaii Five-0 use the Surface

Claymoore

Mike-Mike wrote: »

They are also basing this off of percentage of web traffic, as someone in the comments of that article pointed out:

4% market share based on how much volume compared to the 1.18%. My guess is there are a lot more devices out there now compared to 2009.

I upgraded my personal laptop and my wife's laptop the weekend after Win7 was released. At that time we had 5 devices connected to the internet - my work and personal laptops, my wife's laptop, an Xbox 360 and a PS3 - so Win7 was 60% of our connected traffic. This time I upgraded my wife's laptop the weekend after Win8 was released. Her original laptop and my old personal laptop are no longer connected, and my work laptop had already been upgraded to Win 8. However, we now have 2 Kindle fires and 3 android smartphones added into our device mix, plus a Win7 VM running on her Win8 laptop that my wife uses for work. That makes 10 'devices' connected, only 2 of which are Windows 8, giving us 100% adoption rate of Win8 but only 20% of our connected traffic.

Back on topic, I found out yesterday that I will be getting a Surface RT in a couple of weeks instead of the Samsung Series 7 Slate I was expecting. It will be for personal use and I'm hoping it will become my primary device, but that will depend on the Windows App store. I like the Kindle reading app for Win8, but Amazon hasn't released a video app yet so that will influence which Fire HD I eventually buy. Actually the Win8 built-in Reader app is pretty slick for reading PDFs, particularly in 2 page side-by-side view on a large widescreen monitor. If the Surface RT meets my casual computing needs, I can skip buying a new personal laptop and put more money into building a proper lab server.