4 ms·

Unsatisfied new user/owner of iPad Pro + keyboard + pen, generally happy OS X user here. Touch screen was the hook (as I dabble in visual arts) but for me this

Unsatisfied new user/owner of iPad Pro + keyboard + pen, generally happy OS X user here. Touch screen was the hook (as I dabble in visual arts) but for me this has proven to be a very expensive mistake. What are the issues/peeves with Surface Go? Is this space (touch screen large form factor mobile computing devices) generally underwhelming or is this simply Apple doing UX RnD on my dime?

rjsw 6y ago
I have a cheap HP convertable tablet/laptop. Windows 10 seems to work well with both touch screen and keyboard/touchpad to me so I would expect the Surface machines to be similar.
kitotik 6y ago
If you are looking for a somewhat realistic drawing/writing experience, Apple’s solution is pretty far ahead of Microsoft in almost every important factor: preciseness, accuracy, palm rejection, pressure sensitivity, stability. But that’s just actual pencil/stylus experience. Everything else is just a matter of taste and software availability.
- aeneasmackenzie 6y ago
  A while back I walked into the mall of america to buy my wife a tablet to draw on. This was when the stores were right across from each other. Walk into the apple store, pick up an iPad, can't get it to vary line width by pressure with the stylus. Walk across the hall to the microsoft store, surface stylus works perfectly. Easy choice.
  - lloeki 6y ago
    You must have missed the critical “open Procreate” step. It was a instant buy for me.
redacted 6y ago
If you're looking for a general-purpose tablet computer I think the Surface lineup is nearly unparalleled, with some important caveats. You get a very well built machine with the best aspect ratio (3:2), Win10 tablet mode is decent _and_ you can drop back to full Windows whenever you want. This is a double edged sword - if you get a good tablet interface for a program it's wonderful, but sometimes you're reduced to pecking at the screen for mouse targets in legacy Win32 apps (the pen or cover with trackpad is helpful here). For me, the ability to run any software I want is worth the rough edges and inconsistency compared to an iPad. I have WSL for local dev with full Linux utilities, real Photoshop, alternate browsers, Steam games, etc. I can install whatever nifty little Windows utilities or tweaks I want, customize the machine exactly as I like it, and I feel like I have lot more ownership over the machine as a result. That flexibility definitely comes with a cost compared to the out-of-the-box experience with an iPad. As for the Go itself, its a really cute little computer but somewhat underpowered compared to a Surface Pro or Surface Book. I know a couple of people using them as their main computers and the feedback is pretty positive, FWIW.
- eternalban 6y ago
  Yes, that's what I was looking for. Thank you.
karatestomp 6y ago
I've only used one and it was a couple years ago but the UI was really laggy and slow, if you're expecting something like iOS. The touch interface experience in Win10 was probably fine if you're someone who didn't mind using 2005-era PC laptop trackpads (I gather such people exist?).
- izacus 6y ago
  This exact tablet didn't exist couple of years ago :/
  - karatestomp 6y ago
    Well yeah, it was an earlier Surface, of course. This was about three generations in to my reading about how good they were, though. I was pretty surprised at the reality of it when I finally got my hands on one.
avolcano 6y ago
The problems with the Go 2 that I've seen in reviews are: * The base model has a woefully underpowered Pentium CPU * The upgrade model has a more reasonable but still not great m3 that seems like it'd be a tad too underpowered for dev work, unfortunately - maybe this is my fault for being an IntelliJ user, though. * The keyboard/trackpad cover is a separate purchase, and while it's not the eye-watering $350 that the newest iPad Pro keyboard/trackpad is, it's still an extra $100 or so. * The keyboard/trackpad cover is a bit wobbly and too small to be comfortable for extended use. The biggest issue is that the Go 2's upgrade version + keyboard cover is a total of around $720, which is the same cost as a lot of solid entry-level Windows laptops that have much more powerful processors. Pricing is a constant problem with Surface hardware across the board, so this isn't that surprising, but was disappointing to me - the Pentium version sounds underpowered to the point of uselessness, but the upgrade variant is too expensive to justify as anything but my primary computer and far too underpowered for that. Here's The Verge with more: https://www.theverge.com/21259805/microsoft-surface-go-2-review-windows-tablet-speed-intel-processor-price https://www.theverge.com/21259805/microsoft-surface-go-2-rev... That said I know there have already been some small sales during the Go 2 launch (e.g. Best Buy took $25 off the cover), so I'm kind of hopeful that within the next six months it'll somehow dip below $600 or so.
- izacus 6y ago
  It sounds like you expected to get a high-powered dev machine comparable to 1500$ laptops (which are kinda required to run IntelliJ) and not, what is essentially, a lowend laptop without about the slowest Core CPU out there.
  - vimslayer 6y ago
    And here I am using Toshiba Chromebook 2 with 4 GB of RAM to do schoolwork Java assignments with IntelliJ. No wonder it was taking so long to compile

rjsw 6y ago

I have a cheap HP convertable tablet/laptop. Windows 10 seems to work well with both touch screen and keyboard/touchpad to me so I would expect the Surface machines to be similar.

kitotik 6y ago

If you are looking for a somewhat realistic drawing/writing experience, Apple’s solution is pretty far ahead of Microsoft in almost every important factor: preciseness, accuracy, palm rejection, pressure sensitivity, stability. But that’s just actual pencil/stylus experience. Everything else is just a matter of taste and software availability.

aeneasmackenzie 6y ago
A while back I walked into the mall of america to buy my wife a tablet to draw on. This was when the stores were right across from each other. Walk into the apple store, pick up an iPad, can't get it to vary line width by pressure with the stylus. Walk across the hall to the microsoft store, surface stylus works perfectly. Easy choice.
- lloeki 6y ago
  You must have missed the critical “open Procreate” step. It was a instant buy for me.

redacted 6y ago

If you're looking for a general-purpose tablet computer I think the Surface lineup is nearly unparalleled, with some important caveats. You get a very well built machine with the best aspect ratio (3:2), Win10 tablet mode is decent _and_ you can drop back to full Windows whenever you want. This is a double edged sword - if you get a good tablet interface for a program it's wonderful, but sometimes you're reduced to pecking at the screen for mouse targets in legacy Win32 apps (the pen or cover with trackpad is helpful here). For me, the ability to run any software I want is worth the rough edges and inconsistency compared to an iPad. I have WSL for local dev with full Linux utilities, real Photoshop, alternate browsers, Steam games, etc. I can install whatever nifty little Windows utilities or tweaks I want, customize the machine exactly as I like it, and I feel like I have lot more ownership over the machine as a result. That flexibility definitely comes with a cost compared to the out-of-the-box experience with an iPad. As for the Go itself, its a really cute little computer but somewhat underpowered compared to a Surface Pro or Surface Book. I know a couple of people using them as their main computers and the feedback is pretty positive, FWIW.

eternalban 6y ago
Yes, that's what I was looking for. Thank you.

karatestomp 6y ago

I've only used one and it was a couple years ago but the UI was really laggy and slow, if you're expecting something like iOS. The touch interface experience in Win10 was probably fine if you're someone who didn't mind using 2005-era PC laptop trackpads (I gather such people exist?).

izacus 6y ago
This exact tablet didn't exist couple of years ago :/
- karatestomp 6y ago
  Well yeah, it was an earlier Surface, of course. This was about three generations in to my reading about how good they were, though. I was pretty surprised at the reality of it when I finally got my hands on one.

avolcano 6y ago

The problems with the Go 2 that I've seen in reviews are: * The base model has a woefully underpowered Pentium CPU * The upgrade model has a more reasonable but still not great m3 that seems like it'd be a tad too underpowered for dev work, unfortunately - maybe this is my fault for being an IntelliJ user, though. * The keyboard/trackpad cover is a separate purchase, and while it's not the eye-watering $350 that the newest iPad Pro keyboard/trackpad is, it's still an extra $100 or so. * The keyboard/trackpad cover is a bit wobbly and too small to be comfortable for extended use. The biggest issue is that the Go 2's upgrade version + keyboard cover is a total of around $720, which is the same cost as a lot of solid entry-level Windows laptops that have much more powerful processors. Pricing is a constant problem with Surface hardware across the board, so this isn't that surprising, but was disappointing to me - the Pentium version sounds underpowered to the point of uselessness, but the upgrade variant is too expensive to justify as anything but my primary computer and far too underpowered for that. Here's The Verge with more: https://www.theverge.com/21259805/microsoft-surface-go-2-review-windows-tablet-speed-intel-processor-price https://www.theverge.com/21259805/microsoft-surface-go-2-rev... That said I know there have already been some small sales during the Go 2 launch (e.g. Best Buy took $25 off the cover), so I'm kind of hopeful that within the next six months it'll somehow dip below $600 or so.

izacus 6y ago
It sounds like you expected to get a high-powered dev machine comparable to 1500$ laptops (which are kinda required to run IntelliJ) and not, what is essentially, a lowend laptop without about the slowest Core CPU out there.
- vimslayer 6y ago
  And here I am using Toshiba Chromebook 2 with 4 GB of RAM to do schoolwork Java assignments with IntelliJ. No wonder it was taking so long to compile