4 ms·

AnandTech does a great job with in-depth technical dives, but for general product reviews sites like the Verge seem to do a much better job. http://www.theverg

by hinting 14y ago

AnandTech does a great job with in-depth technical dives, but for general product reviews sites like the Verge seem to do a much better job. http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface-review http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface... The promise of the Surface was that it could deliver a best-in-class tablet experience, but then transform into the PC you needed when heavier lifting was required. Instead of putting down my tablet and picking up my laptop, I would just snap on my keyboard and get my work done. But that's not what the Surface offers, at least not in my experience. It does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market, and it often makes that job harder, not easier. Instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.

hackoder 14y ago
Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there is a way to achieve both. If you want a reasonably sized keyboard, the screen will end up being too large (as is the case with Surface). Or if you want a more traditional tablet sized screen, the keyboard will suffer (for e.g. the Transformer Prime).
guelo 14y ago
Their review is more negative but I'm not sure why it's a much better job.
Mythbusters 14y ago
I wonder why the author tried to treat this as a full desktop replacement knowing that this is ARM based unit and hence does not run full windows 8. The Surface Pro is the one that should fir the bill of a tablet that is a laptop replacement. The author is expecting things from the unit that it is not quite designed for.
- tesseractive 14y ago
  It has an awful lot of affordances to make it look like it might be a laptop replacement -- the keyboard covers, the desktop mode, Office. It's obviously not suitable simply as a laptop, nor is it a very credible straight-up replacement for an iPad, at least at this point. So if it was going to succeed at something, the most likely outcome would be as a good-enough laptop replacement and a good-enough tablet replacement, even though it would be a compromise as either. Instead, the reviewer came to the conclusion that it was more of a "neither fish nor fowl" product. Having not had a chance to use one myself, I nevertheless suspect that will be my conclusion when I have a chance to try one out.
  - Mythbusters 14y ago
    I get that it was not a replacement for a desktop. That's a given. but I don't get "not a replacement for iPad" part. I don't see why it is not a replacement for iPad for doing most of what people do on iPad, browse, game, read, watch, listen, etc. If you consider broad app ecosystem, nothing is going to be a replacement for iPad except iPad. Agreed Windows8 doesn't have a whole lot of apps at this point but its not even released yet.
    - tesseractive 14y ago
      Android doesn't have nearly as many tablet apps for full-size tablets as iPad has, but it definitely has an app ecosystem. Windows RT is starting almost completely from scratch -- like previous marketplace failures like the Playbook and the TouchPad. If Metro apps take off, then in 6 months to a year, Surface could be a completely viable iPad replacement. But right now, you would have to have a pretty limited set of needs to be satisfied with a Surface. Worse, I've read more than one review claiming that the software is still glitchy. While understandable in a 1.0 product, that's a huge disadvantage when compared to the famous stability of an iPad. So while I'm sure there will be some interest just because it's a cool-looking product, I don't think more than a small minority of users will find it a realistic substitute for an iPad.
bencxr 14y ago
It comes down to expectations. I'm not sure about the Verge, but Anand is someone who understands the limitations of hardware - There were several interesting points on wifi performance, display resolution notes and what could be achieved on the NV Tegra3. Anand's review is a technical one (he know's this is v1 of a product) and comes from a content-creator's POV. That is what resounded with me more than the verge's article.
- simonh 14y ago
  > ...comes from a content-creator's POV... Where 'content creator' means typist - ok, writer. Meanwhile if you are a musician, painter, sketch artist, calligrapher, or casually work with video or photography or many other artistic or creative media the iPad is a fantastic content creation device. To be fair to Anandtech they don't appear to fall into the trap of narrowly equating typing with creation, but so many people in this comment and many others here and all over the web do so regularly. It's an infuriatingly narrow perspective.
  - sremani 14y ago
    He meant a programmer. A business analyst. A CEO. A CFO. The President, Secretary of Defense. You know anyone and everyone that uses a keyboard daily at work and home.

by hinting 14y ago

hackoder 14y ago

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there is a way to achieve both. If you want a reasonably sized keyboard, the screen will end up being too large (as is the case with Surface). Or if you want a more traditional tablet sized screen, the keyboard will suffer (for e.g. the Transformer Prime).

guelo 14y ago

Their review is more negative but I'm not sure why it's a much better job.

Mythbusters 14y ago

I wonder why the author tried to treat this as a full desktop replacement knowing that this is ARM based unit and hence does not run full windows 8. The Surface Pro is the one that should fir the bill of a tablet that is a laptop replacement. The author is expecting things from the unit that it is not quite designed for.

tesseractive 14y ago
It has an awful lot of affordances to make it look like it might be a laptop replacement -- the keyboard covers, the desktop mode, Office. It's obviously not suitable simply as a laptop, nor is it a very credible straight-up replacement for an iPad, at least at this point. So if it was going to succeed at something, the most likely outcome would be as a good-enough laptop replacement and a good-enough tablet replacement, even though it would be a compromise as either. Instead, the reviewer came to the conclusion that it was more of a "neither fish nor fowl" product. Having not had a chance to use one myself, I nevertheless suspect that will be my conclusion when I have a chance to try one out.
- Mythbusters 14y ago
  I get that it was not a replacement for a desktop. That's a given. but I don't get "not a replacement for iPad" part. I don't see why it is not a replacement for iPad for doing most of what people do on iPad, browse, game, read, watch, listen, etc. If you consider broad app ecosystem, nothing is going to be a replacement for iPad except iPad. Agreed Windows8 doesn't have a whole lot of apps at this point but its not even released yet.
  - tesseractive 14y ago
    Android doesn't have nearly as many tablet apps for full-size tablets as iPad has, but it definitely has an app ecosystem. Windows RT is starting almost completely from scratch -- like previous marketplace failures like the Playbook and the TouchPad. If Metro apps take off, then in 6 months to a year, Surface could be a completely viable iPad replacement. But right now, you would have to have a pretty limited set of needs to be satisfied with a Surface. Worse, I've read more than one review claiming that the software is still glitchy. While understandable in a 1.0 product, that's a huge disadvantage when compared to the famous stability of an iPad. So while I'm sure there will be some interest just because it's a cool-looking product, I don't think more than a small minority of users will find it a realistic substitute for an iPad.

bencxr 14y ago

It comes down to expectations. I'm not sure about the Verge, but Anand is someone who understands the limitations of hardware - There were several interesting points on wifi performance, display resolution notes and what could be achieved on the NV Tegra3. Anand's review is a technical one (he know's this is v1 of a product) and comes from a content-creator's POV. That is what resounded with me more than the verge's article.

simonh 14y ago
> ...comes from a content-creator's POV... Where 'content creator' means typist - ok, writer. Meanwhile if you are a musician, painter, sketch artist, calligrapher, or casually work with video or photography or many other artistic or creative media the iPad is a fantastic content creation device. To be fair to Anandtech they don't appear to fall into the trap of narrowly equating typing with creation, but so many people in this comment and many others here and all over the web do so regularly. It's an infuriatingly narrow perspective.
- sremani 14y ago
  He meant a programmer. A business analyst. A CEO. A CFO. The President, Secretary of Defense. You know anyone and everyone that uses a keyboard daily at work and home.