Surface Pro 128gb (First Gen) $500 at Bestbuy

See post #18. :p

I'm tempted to get one of these for school too. I've been using my M11x R2 for the past couple years and its been decent enough. But sometimes it's much easier or more practical to take notes with pen/pencil if you're drawing simple graphs or just making annotations on things. Can anyone speak to the stylus input for taking notes? Is the software pretty well laid out for it and is the digitizer/display fast and accurate?

Another thing I really don't like on my M11x is the display. I thought it was nice enough a few years ago when I got it, but now I just can't fit enough things onscreen at all to be productive. It's sad that small 5" phone displays now have higher resolution than this 11.1" display.

I also owned an m11x a few years back.
The software is just standard windows 8 software for notetaking. By default I'm not sure what people do but I'm sure there are some decent things out there (free and not).
The stylus/screen are as accurate as you're going to get for this kind of device. It's a wacom digitizer. If it's good enough for professional artistry then I would think your note taking would be fine.
 
FWIW, I have the V8P solely for note taking in one note. For that, it works fantastically. It's awesome to have it sync back to my work and home computers. It does take some getting used to, since the screen provides MUCh less friction than a piece of paper. But very doable.
 
I was tempted but the battery life sucks. Having had the Duo 11 which has the same battery life I had to get the Surface Pro 2. Which oddly enough is stupid hard to find around Houston.

That's what the power cover is for. I'm just waiting for it to be released.
 
In lieu of the Power Cover, I've been looking at the Intocircuit Power Castle PC26000 battery pack for $85 which apparently adds an extra 1.25x charge on top of the SP1's battery (~7 hours of heavy usage or ~14 of light use). It's slightly smaller than the Surface Pro itself which might be too large for some but it may be perfect for some usage scenarios (out in the field with no access to a power outlet). It has the added benefit of being able to charge a wide variety of other electronics:

http://www.amazon.com/Intocircuit®-PC26000-Compatible-Thunderbolt-Connectors/dp/B00BB5VQCE

You will need to purchase a modified Surface Pro power cable from here (towards the bottom of the page):

http://www.mikegyver.com/Surface-Battery-Car/

*On a side note, I have a suspicion that the Power Cover will not ship for the SP1/SP2.*
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
In lieu of the Power Cover, I've been looking at the Intocircuit Power Castle PC26000 battery pack for $85 which apparently adds an extra 1.25x charge on top of the SP1's battery (~7 hours of heavy usage or ~14 of light use). It's slightly smaller than the Surface Pro itself which might be too large for some but it may be perfect for some usage scenarios (out in the field with no access to a power outlet). It has the added benefit of being able to charge a wide variety of other electronics:

http://www.amazon.com/Intocircuit®-PC26000-Compatible-Thunderbolt-Connectors/dp/B00BB5VQCE

You will need to purchase a modified Surface Pro power cable from here (towards the bottom of the page):

http://www.mikegyver.com/Surface-Battery-Car/

*On a side note, I have a suspicion that the Power Cover will not ship for the SP1/SP2.*

If that's the case I'll be really pissed off. I've had an SP1 since release and I love it, but I bought it in anticipation of the power cover (which they've strongly hinted at since before the SP1 release). If it's not SP1 compatible, I'm sure MS will lose some betrayed customers.

That said, I bit on this deal and bought a second SP1. I needed a tablet to use as a lab notebook/general computer for the lab I work in, and since there's a power outlet at my bench this was the best option. I'm loving OneNote for recording my data and observations. Wish it shipped with a keyboard but still a great deal.

On a side note, I bought a new type cover 2 for it... WTF did they do to the mouse buttons? Why don't they give a tactile response? I had to buy a bluetooth mouse because I couldn't use it wearing rubber gloves. Pretty sad when the touchscreen works with gloves 100x better than physical mouse buttons.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
If the power cover doesnt come out for the Surface Pro 2 I might sell mine back. I bought the Surface Pro 2 because the Vaio Duo 13 I have is really getting heavy and a little too big for me as I have to move around a lot every day now. I need the 10+ hr battery life so I dont have to worry about charging.
 
Back down to $600 (at both Best Buy and in the Microsoft Store). Very tempting...
 
Just got another surface pro - refurbed for $450. 128gb.

This is also terrible. Has the exact same wifi issue. As soon as its connected, my router reports a 5.5mbit connect speed. cant get downloads faster then 3-4mbit.

basically, it's useless.

Also has some backlight bleeding. And the startup surface screen is an ugly glitched red, despite a factory reset.

My last surface.

3335069224.png
 
Are you sure the issue isn't with your router? Mine works just fine over our wifi:


Are you sure your router supports the wireless speeds that you're wanting? We're using a TP-Link Archer C7, and it's been working very well with it. I can torrent and everything. Whatever issues you're having, try testing the Surface out with other connections (ie other routers and such) before coming to the conclusion that it's the Surface Pro that's messed up.

As for backlight bleed... I can't really comment. I guess mine has some, but it also may be IPS glow. I have a lot of experience with identifying defects with 1440p 27inch monitors, but not much with tablets of this size. I'm not sure how the IPS glow on them would normally look. I can tell you that I watch anime on mine all the time and it looks great, though. Excellent picture.
 
Are you sure the issue isn't with your router? Mine works just fine over our wifi:


Are you sure your router supports the wireless speeds that you're wanting? We're using a TP-Link Archer C7, and it's been working very well with it. I can torrent and everything. Whatever issues you're having, try testing the Surface out with other connections (ie other routers and such) before coming to the conclusion that it's the Surface Pro that's messed up.

I've been using this router for a good 4 years. wrt320n with dd-wrt. It's rock solid and never had an issue with literally dozens of devices, currently ~7 of which connect just fine, single (20mhz) or dual (40mhz).

You're right - I have not tried it on another router. Given how outstanding this router has been to me (and continues to work find with all devices I have now) there may be some kind of special and very specific incompatability between the surface and my router.

So one has to go. Unless microsoft plans on sending me a new router, it's going to be the surface. :-D
 
All of my WiFi devices... Cell phones laptops tablets etc can max out my internet connection just fine over WiFi on a speed test. The surface can barely get 1/10th. (30mbit) I wouldn't put much stock on that Google search the 320n was an extremely high volume selling router.

The surface does the same thing on 5ghz and 2.4 GHz. The WiFi settings dialog will show it connected at ~120mbit (varies) but downloads will be locked at 4mbit. If you look at the connection speed in ddwrt, it locks at 5.5mbit anytime the surface is transferring data. As soon as I turn off WiFi on the surface, the connection speed jumps back to 100+ ( there are 3 or so other devices always connected.)
 
I would still try messing with your router settings or maybe upgrading your router firmware. Chances are this is a problem that was only brought to light by you connecting the Surface... not actually directly caused by it.

Or you can pout and call it crap and not try solving the problem. I mean personally when I buy electronics and have issues I first try seeing if I can solve the issues. Too many variables involved in modern electronics to just assume that the makers of anything can account for every setup out there...
 
I would still try messing with your router settings or maybe upgrading your router firmware. Chances are this is a problem that was only brought to light by you connecting the Surface... not actually directly caused by it.

Or you can pout and call it crap and not try solving the problem. I mean personally when I buy electronics and have issues I first try seeing if I can solve the issues. Too many variables involved in modern electronics to just assume that the makers of anything can account for every setup out there...

That's exactly what I did - I came here to call it crap. You don't think I tried to troubleshoot it? I tried every imaginable combo of settings, disabling 2.4ghz, 5.0ghz, wireless g only n only, ng mixed, channels, bonding, power, resetting, various drivers on the surface, factory resetting, disabling bluetooth

And the router is running the most recent dd-wrt, which again works just fine with dozens and dozens of devices that have crossed it.
 
I like how the power cover simply disappeared. Did they make that shit up?
 
I bit on the $450 128GB Manufacture Recertified and a new Type 2 Cover. I'm away on Customer Engagements so I can't report on it until I get home this weekend. Couldn't pass up the deal.
 
That's exactly what I did - I came here to call it crap. You don't think I tried to troubleshoot it? I tried every imaginable combo of settings, disabling 2.4ghz, 5.0ghz, wireless g only n only, ng mixed, channels, bonding, power, resetting, various drivers on the surface, factory resetting, disabling bluetooth

And the router is running the most recent dd-wrt, which again works just fine with dozens and dozens of devices that have crossed it.

Did you try a site survey on your area so that you can be sure it's not too congested with other devices using all the channels?
 
Consider routers from outside, such as neighbors. Are you in a house with no neighbors close by or an apartment building?

I really don't think that's it either. If he has umpteen devices working fine and one not, it's probably the one device that's the problem.
 
I really don't think that's it either. If he has umpteen devices working fine and one not, it's probably the one device that's the problem.

I tend to agree. Just trying to help cover all the bases.

Right now, for example, I am getting 17 access points inside my home, and I live in an older residential neighborhood where the houses are pretty spread apart. You can see how this can get very congested if you are say in New York City in an apartment building with APs on all sides, above, and below.
 
So does this have the built in pressure sensitive digitizer? Something a professional / amateur artist could use to sketch with or produce professional results? I'm seriously looking at this to buy if so.
 
It has a 1024 pressure level Wacom active digitizer with WinTab driver support.

Artist's actually seem to be the demographic that the Surface has the best reception with.
 
I really wish Wacom stop being so protective of their Cintiq line and allow licensing of their full ditigizer technology to monitor and tablet manufactures.

I would love for the surface 3 to support pen rotation and tilt. These features are not only great for artist, but will allow for much more accurate pen input positions.

The surface pen is most accurate when you hold the pen perfectly normal to the surface (pointing straight down). Currently if you tilt your pen 45°, your pen cursor position will be off by 2-3mm or more. A tilt sensor can compensate for this offset.
 
Ok..well...got home last night from business travel and got it setup and started the Update to Win8.1 and woke up this morning to a bricked unit. Going back....:(
 
Back
Top