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The digital pen part is the one that keeps tempting me to check out the surface pro 2. I'm no artist, but having a digital notebook would be really nice. I wa

The digital pen part is the one that keeps tempting me to check out the surface pro 2. I'm no artist, but having a digital notebook would be really nice. I want something that really comes close to the fidelity and feel of a notebook and a pen. For instance, when I'm sketching out a design or an idea, I like to jot down the ideas, connections, etc, and move them around. I like doodling random notes during meetings, and I also think it would be nice to have that while I'm working through math books. The Surface Pro came up when I was reading the review of it as an artistic tool written by Gabe from penny arcade. Really tempting now, as well, since I need to get a new windows machine to do some side .net work. In your opinion, does it feel as good/natural as others have said for hand-writing notes?

LukasMathis 13y ago
Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. You should probably go to a store and play with one to see if it suits you. I bought my Surface after I did that.
- doorhammer 13y ago
  Awesome. Yeah, I think I'm going to do just that today. I've got an ipad, which I love for a lot of things, but even with the various pens/stylii, the writing experience is pretty bad, for me.
  - LukasMathis 13y ago
    Same here. Even just the faster processor, and the responsiveness while drawing that comes with that, makes a big difference.
  - slantyyz 13y ago
    The one gotcha, especially if you go for a heavily discounted Surface Pro 1, is battery life when compared to the likes of an iPad. If you can deal with that, the Surface Pros are fantastic devices.
    - doorhammer 13y ago
      I figured that might be the case. If I got one I'd go with the Surface Pro 2, more than likely. I also plan on keeping the iPad around. lstamour mentioned this in another post, but weight-wise, I'm assuming I'll still prefer it for reading pdf's and such. That's actually the main reason I got an iPad to begin with. I wanted to be able to read tech books, pdf's, papers, etc on something electronic and iPad beat everything else I tried.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  >> Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. Agree 100%. The only catch is that the pen tracking can go a little wonky near the edges. There is, however, a fix: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 If you don't need handwriting recognition (I don't personally, but it is nice to have), I've found that Stylus Labs Write to be better than the App Store's version of OneNote (http://www.styluslabs.com/ http://www.styluslabs.com/). It seems to have a little less lag than OneNote for note taking also. FWIW, Write is cross platform, and I imagine it would work great on something like a Galaxy Note. The full version of OneNote, however, is worth the cost of admission. Works fantastic with the Stylus and is way better than the Win8 App store version.
  - LukasMathis 13y ago
    I've used a Cintiq for years, and it has the exact same issue with tracking the pen near the edges. If anything, it's worse than the Surface. So it never occurred to me that there might be a solution. Thank you for the link!
    - slantyyz 13y ago
      When you calibrate, you also need to make sure you hold the pen vertically. Even after the more detailed calibration, you'll get a few minor issues, but it's way better than the 8 point calibration. Landscape vs Portrait will also cause issues, because the angle of the pen is different, and causes tracking issues. It's imperfect, but I still love how good the pen is on the Surface compared to all the tablets that don't have a Wacom digitizer.
eropple 13y ago
I bought one yesterday on the strength of the pen alone. It was an impulse buy and I may return it (14 day return, no-restock-fee), but it is really, really impressive and I'm digging it. It'll also let me build a touch version of my game on a system I can also build on, which is pretty handy. I wasn't looking forward to deploying to Android ten bajillion times. Also, oh my god is OneNote wonderful with that pen. It is so good. Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  >> Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused. Is it though? I know a lot of pundits like to use the phrase "Post-PC", but I think of it more like "Post-OS". I am in the exact same boat as you, except that I have a Nexus 7 in addition to my Surface Pro. Contrast that to 2010, when iOS was much more compelling at the tablet and phone level. Android, Windows Phone and Windows have pretty much caught up, and I love how all this competition has created consumer choice. I can pick the device that best suits my use case for computing, tablet and phone. In 2010, I was all-in on OSX, iPad and iPhone. Today, just like you, I'm using three OSes. Moving data between the devices is painless. In my mind, there's really no need to go all in with a single company's ecosystem any more.
  - eropple 13y ago
    I have a Nexus 7 and a Nexus 10, too. :-P I just don't carry them around all the time. If I keep the Surface Pro, I think that'll take their place - it's not great for reading but I do most of that on my rMBP anyway.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    OS matters way way less than it used to (Think of the bad old days, where Macs couldn't read Windows floppies), but it can still be a pain. For example, Google Music integrates best with Android. Microsoft OneDrive is most slick on Windows. iTunes runs like crap on anything other than OSX. You can get away with any hodgepodge mix these days if you want, but it's still more convenient to match.

LukasMathis 13y ago

Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. You should probably go to a store and play with one to see if it suits you. I bought my Surface after I did that.

doorhammer 13y ago
Awesome. Yeah, I think I'm going to do just that today. I've got an ipad, which I love for a lot of things, but even with the various pens/stylii, the writing experience is pretty bad, for me.
- LukasMathis 13y ago
  Same here. Even just the faster processor, and the responsiveness while drawing that comes with that, makes a big difference.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  The one gotcha, especially if you go for a heavily discounted Surface Pro 1, is battery life when compared to the likes of an iPad. If you can deal with that, the Surface Pros are fantastic devices.
  - doorhammer 13y ago
    I figured that might be the case. If I got one I'd go with the Surface Pro 2, more than likely. I also plan on keeping the iPad around. lstamour mentioned this in another post, but weight-wise, I'm assuming I'll still prefer it for reading pdf's and such. That's actually the main reason I got an iPad to begin with. I wanted to be able to read tech books, pdf's, papers, etc on something electronic and iPad beat everything else I tried.
slantyyz 13y ago
>> Not as good as pen on paper, but the closest I've ever seen. Agree 100%. The only catch is that the pen tracking can go a little wonky near the edges. There is, however, a fix: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2171198 If you don't need handwriting recognition (I don't personally, but it is nice to have), I've found that Stylus Labs Write to be better than the App Store's version of OneNote (http://www.styluslabs.com/ http://www.styluslabs.com/). It seems to have a little less lag than OneNote for note taking also. FWIW, Write is cross platform, and I imagine it would work great on something like a Galaxy Note. The full version of OneNote, however, is worth the cost of admission. Works fantastic with the Stylus and is way better than the Win8 App store version.
- LukasMathis 13y ago
  I've used a Cintiq for years, and it has the exact same issue with tracking the pen near the edges. If anything, it's worse than the Surface. So it never occurred to me that there might be a solution. Thank you for the link!
  - slantyyz 13y ago
    When you calibrate, you also need to make sure you hold the pen vertically. Even after the more detailed calibration, you'll get a few minor issues, but it's way better than the 8 point calibration. Landscape vs Portrait will also cause issues, because the angle of the pen is different, and causes tracking issues. It's imperfect, but I still love how good the pen is on the Surface compared to all the tablets that don't have a Wacom digitizer.

eropple 13y ago

I bought one yesterday on the strength of the pen alone. It was an impulse buy and I may return it (14 day return, no-restock-fee), but it is really, really impressive and I'm digging it. It'll also let me build a touch version of my game on a system I can also build on, which is pretty handy. I wasn't looking forward to deploying to Android ten bajillion times. Also, oh my god is OneNote wonderful with that pen. It is so good. Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused.

slantyyz 13y ago
>> Mac laptop, Windows tablet, Android phone. My digital ecosystem is confused. Is it though? I know a lot of pundits like to use the phrase "Post-PC", but I think of it more like "Post-OS". I am in the exact same boat as you, except that I have a Nexus 7 in addition to my Surface Pro. Contrast that to 2010, when iOS was much more compelling at the tablet and phone level. Android, Windows Phone and Windows have pretty much caught up, and I love how all this competition has created consumer choice. I can pick the device that best suits my use case for computing, tablet and phone. In 2010, I was all-in on OSX, iPad and iPhone. Today, just like you, I'm using three OSes. Moving data between the devices is painless. In my mind, there's really no need to go all in with a single company's ecosystem any more.
- eropple 13y ago
  I have a Nexus 7 and a Nexus 10, too. :-P I just don't carry them around all the time. If I keep the Surface Pro, I think that'll take their place - it's not great for reading but I do most of that on my rMBP anyway.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  OS matters way way less than it used to (Think of the bad old days, where Macs couldn't read Windows floppies), but it can still be a pain. For example, Google Music integrates best with Android. Microsoft OneDrive is most slick on Windows. iTunes runs like crap on anything other than OSX. You can get away with any hodgepodge mix these days if you want, but it's still more convenient to match.