3 ms·

To each his own, but I just bought a Surface Pro and love it. It replaces a laptop and tablet and more, it's my main (and only) device from now on. Windows 8 ma

To each his own, but I just bought a Surface Pro and love it. It replaces a laptop and tablet and more, it's my main (and only) device from now on. Windows 8 makes total sense for a tablet, and is not in the way when I'm coding (hooked into a real keyboard/mouse/display). The killer feature for me though is the Wacom pen which is absolutely fabulous. I have like 10 notebooks spread out at work and at home with my notes, thoughts, diagrams, illustrations etc. Writing notes and todos in a text-editor feels like a straight jacket, but with the Surface it's even better than paper. I have an infinite drawing surface, I can zoom in and out, move stuff around, mix drawing with typing, draw diagram boxes, circles, insert images, copy and paste, undo, erase, share digitally etc. Now I can keep my notes all in one place, backed up and searchable. Writing with it even feels better than paper for me (not sure if being left-handed has anything to do with it), it's very responsive, has a sharp tip (unlike any pen you'll find on capacitive screens like the iPad). It just all fits together very nicely. This is the new PC, this is the productivity device I've always wanted. Being the Surface 1.0, it's not perfect, so I'll be transitioning to the Surface 2.0 when it comes out so that I'll get 9-10 hours of battery life instead of 5-7 now. Would also like to clarify that the Surface RT is as useless as the iPad, if not more because of the lack of apps. Having Office on it might make it worth it for some people though.

pelemele 13y ago
1. Nobody cares about handwriting all day long, quite a niche use (the same as for Tablet PC 8 years ago). 2. Nobody cares about MS Office anymore. There are alternatives (and free) for regular folks. 3. There is no new PC coming and MS learnt that today. 4. I have a feeling that this post is a well prepared marketing pitch... Peace!
- purplelobster 13y ago
  Might be a niche usage, that's true. I don't care about MS Office either, except for OneNote which is great for taking notes with a stylus. I don't do much word processing beyond that, so it's not much use to me. It's certainly your right to be suspicious of anonymous comments, but perhaps your disbelief of any positive coverage for a Microsoft product is more telling of yourself. I use the best solution out there for me, right now that happens to be a Surface Pro. If Apple comes out with an equivalent device not based on iOS, so that I can do real work on it, then I'd consider switching.
ximeng 13y ago
What software do you use for note-taking? I also have a surface pro and am also very happy with it despite a few minor problems. For me there is occasional poor response to multitouch scrolling on the touchpad, and sometimes the cursor stops responding to the touchpad until I press escape. Also no middle click on the touchpad is annoying, no right ctrl bugs me, and not having separate pgup, home etc. keys is not convenient. Nowhere to put the pen when charging either. I hope at least some of these problems will be resolved by driver updates, e.g. nothing to stop Fn+F acting as Ctrl+F. Despite the above, the specs, design and portability of the surface pro were better than anything I found when buying it . I get a tablet while still being able to work, which for me requires access to MS software including office. It's comparable with ultrabooks but with the stylus support and detachable keyboard it's just about in a league of its own, though some products are close nothing seemed as well designed, featureful or portable at the price.
- purplelobster 13y ago
  I prefer the desktop version of OneNote, the app store version is neat, but missing some essential features. The type cover is not that great, but mostly I'm "docked", so it's not that big of a problem.

pelemele 13y ago

1. Nobody cares about handwriting all day long, quite a niche use (the same as for Tablet PC 8 years ago). 2. Nobody cares about MS Office anymore. There are alternatives (and free) for regular folks. 3. There is no new PC coming and MS learnt that today. 4. I have a feeling that this post is a well prepared marketing pitch... Peace!

purplelobster 13y ago
Might be a niche usage, that's true. I don't care about MS Office either, except for OneNote which is great for taking notes with a stylus. I don't do much word processing beyond that, so it's not much use to me. It's certainly your right to be suspicious of anonymous comments, but perhaps your disbelief of any positive coverage for a Microsoft product is more telling of yourself. I use the best solution out there for me, right now that happens to be a Surface Pro. If Apple comes out with an equivalent device not based on iOS, so that I can do real work on it, then I'd consider switching.

ximeng 13y ago

What software do you use for note-taking? I also have a surface pro and am also very happy with it despite a few minor problems. For me there is occasional poor response to multitouch scrolling on the touchpad, and sometimes the cursor stops responding to the touchpad until I press escape. Also no middle click on the touchpad is annoying, no right ctrl bugs me, and not having separate pgup, home etc. keys is not convenient. Nowhere to put the pen when charging either. I hope at least some of these problems will be resolved by driver updates, e.g. nothing to stop Fn+F acting as Ctrl+F. Despite the above, the specs, design and portability of the surface pro were better than anything I found when buying it . I get a tablet while still being able to work, which for me requires access to MS software including office. It's comparable with ultrabooks but with the stylus support and detachable keyboard it's just about in a league of its own, though some products are close nothing seemed as well designed, featureful or portable at the price.

purplelobster 13y ago
I prefer the desktop version of OneNote, the app store version is neat, but missing some essential features. The type cover is not that great, but mostly I'm "docked", so it's not that big of a problem.