Surface Pro Anticipation

Just went to Staples to try it out and it really didn't help at all. :| It's hard to get a feel for weight and balance with the big security device on the back, and they didn't have a pen or Typecover available to play with.

Beyond that, they didn't even have the 128gb model. I'll stop by Best Buy later to see if they do a better job selling it. Quite frankly, this thing could cure cancer and Staples wouldn't have sold me on it.
 
You may want to call your local BB before heading down there to confirm they have them on display, as mine didn't when I went.
 
When I went on Feb.9 at my local bestbuy, they have the Pro with the stylus so I got to play with it for a good 20 mins. I came back last Thursday to confirm with them for availability and told me that their shipment will be receiving on Friday.

Just got the email that 128GB model is available at their store on Feb 9th.
 
CEpeep said:
I do exactly this on my iPad using a capacitive pen for input and Quasar to have multiple apps running in windows at the same time. I use it to build design mockups/sketches at the same time as I'm looking at a website or a PDF. Android can do this too, but you usually need a custom ROM in order to bake in a window manager. Windows 8 gets points for being the only mobile OS to support this out of the box though.
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Thanks for the info. There is a big difference between a capacitive and a digital pen however. I've not seen anything on the iPad dealing using a capacitive pen for notation that worked anywhere near as well as a Wacom pen in OneNote.
 
I am looking forward to it. This is a device that many keep acting like is going to solve everything and be for every use...its not.

I have a specific need in mind, and it fits that perfect. I will still have my full laptop, iPad, and desktop. I want this for mobile working with a full x86 OS so I can use full blown office and other internal work apps.
 
OK, that pen and recognition is ridiculous. It kept up in speed in the paint program and kept up perfectly with my messy handwriting with the recognition keyboard.

Still no type keyboard to play with and I couldn't see what the text scaling was like since I couldn't install third party stuff. Worried about it in my lap but interestingly the stand helps for holding it in tablet mode. Not sure how reliable that'll be.
 
Jaerb4 said:
OK, that pen and recognition is ridiculous. It kept up in speed in the paint program and kept up perfectly with my messy handwriting with the recognition keyboard.

Still no type keyboard to play with and I couldn't see what the text scaling was like since I couldn't install third party stuff. Worried about it in my lap but interestingly the stand helps for holding it in tablet mode. Not sure how reliable that'll be.
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Honestly I used a Surfact RT in my lap without issue for hours at an airport. Sure it's not as stable as a regular laptop because the weight isn't on the bottom, but it was hardly difficult. I suppose the angle of the chair might matter, but the keyboard does act as a stabilizer albeit a light one. I actually crossed my leg as well and the space between the extended kickstand and the Surface actually wedged onto my cross leg really well and was completely stable.
 
Jaerb4 said:
OK, that pen and recognition is ridiculous. It kept up in speed in the paint program and kept up perfectly with my messy handwriting with the recognition keyboard.
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The speed and accuracy of the onscreen writing panel in Windows 8 I think is a notch above Windows 7. It works well even on Atom devices and it flies on a Core machine. Not perfect but the correction mechanisms are fantastic. I much prefer entering text with a pen than using the onscreen keyboard.
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks for the info. There is a big difference between a capacitive and a digital pen however. I've not seen anything on the iPad dealing using a capacitive pen for notation that worked anywhere near as well as a Wacom pen in OneNote.
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Yup, that was the number one reason I was excited about it. Glad it lives up to expectations.

However, the rest of the package isn't enough for me to ditch the iPad yet. The pen I have is good enough (really, it works quite well, it just isn't as fine/exact as I would prefer) and the 4:3 screen aspect ratio is too important to me. The potential is there, but I need something different than the Surface Pro, I guess. Hopefully Haswell and the next round of Atoms can help OEMs build what I want to buy.
 
Q: What is the most impressive/useful program MS makes, that is fantastic to use on a tablet, is never advertised, and almost no one knows about?
A: OneNote

It is such a great program, perfect for taking notes but so much more than that, IMO its the best part of Office. And is perfect for Surface.
 
Couldn't agree more. OneNote particularly with a pen adds a very useful dimension to a tablet and there really is no full analog to what OneNote can do even ten years after its release.
 
Onenote is badass, everyone that I show how to use it effectively loves it.

The only thing I dont like is the file structure behind it (how files are saved, hard to move between systems, etc.). But overall it is awesome.
 
Grentz said:
The only thing I dont like is the file structure behind it (how files are saved, hard to move between systems, etc.). But overall it is awesome.
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Not sure what you mean. A OneNote notebook is merely a directory and its contents. Simply copy that directory and contents to anywhere you like and open it up in OneNote, don't really now how much simpler it could be. Also if you open up a the same OneNote notebook on a network share, multiple machines can update and synchronize the same OneNote notebooks, edits, changes and deletes on one machine will synchronize to the rest and a local copy of the notebook is kept on each machine so that the notebook can be used away from the network and changes will sync up once you reconnect the machine to the network and open up OneNote. And there's even the option of creating a cloud based notebook in SkyDrive.

As you said, it's badass.
 
So who is going and buying one of these tomorrow? I will buy one if I can get a decent return policy.
 
heatlesssun said:
May pick one up eventually but I think I want the Lenovo Helix.
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What sells the Helix for you vs the Surface Pro? (Sorry if you already mentioned it elsewhere in the thread, I'm on mobile right now.)
 
Andyk5 said:
So who is going and buying one of these tomorrow? I will buy one if I can get a decent return policy.
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Best Buy will do 30 days. I'm not sure about the others.

I'm picking mine up tomorrow, assuming I find time.
 
CEpeep said:
What sells the Helix for you vs the Surface Pro? (Sorry if you already mentioned it elsewhere in the thread, I'm on mobile right now.)
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No problem. The main thing is the traditional clamshell folding keyboard dock with the extended battery and higher speced options, up to an i7 CPU, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. The screen is a bit bigger at 11.6" and while that's big for a tablet I think it's about the right size for a hybrid device.

Of course this machine will probably be double or more the price of the Surface Pro 128GB with the topline specs so that's going to be the big draw back but but even a conventional laptop with that kind of screen, memory, storage, weight and battery life isn't going to be cheap.
 
The helix also has an LTE option and the pen slots inside of it. And best of all, the the Lenovo keyboard nub!
 
Plan on going to Best Buy tomorrow and picking on up...really looking forward to it.
 
I was at BB today to evaluate, play, feel, hold the Pro floor/demo model....

Very nice... it is a tad heavy. (not heavy to carry around), but heavy when holding it on one corner and flipping through pdf magazines..... but never the less I will be at BB at 9am in the morning...
 
OldPueblo said:
The helix also has an LTE option and the pen slots inside of it. And best of all, the the Lenovo keyboard nub!
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All around a much more complete device than the Surface on paper, but you will pay for the privilege. I think part of the problem with the Surface strategy is that while it does help put focus on Windows 8 it also tends to suck a lot of oxygen out of the air and away from the wide variety of Windows 8 devices, not unlike the Fire and Nexus have done in the Android world. But I do think that it is important for Windows 8 to have an identity and 100 nameless devices by on OEMs aren't going to do that.
 
I think somehow the Lenovo tablet is lighter too, but it might be offset balance-wise because of the extra size. I wonder if there's any issue of optimized performance/drivers with the Surface Pro. Maybe at least for the pen input?
 
Here, I just went to local best buy and played with the pen and shot a crappy video with my phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FwAuHMpklc&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyxvjzwhaSc&feature=youtu.be

I am using paint since One note is not installed on the Surface Pro.
My impression. Best pen experience ever. I have used motion computing, Lenovo tablets/notebooks and Samsung S-Pen and this is by far the most responsive pen I have ever used.
I am making this statement after using it with crappy paint. I am sure it will be much better under One note with lots of pen and thickness options.

The rest unfortunately sucks. It is big, heavy and awkward for a tablet, but it is also not a laptop. It is not even a hybrid. It is more of a slate to be honest. With a hefty top, you want a matching bottom. Battery infused thinkpad chicklet keyboard + touch pad and thinkpad nub and being able to store the pen inside the tablet may swing it towards Helix for me.

Oh and Win8 sucks as usual, I tried to browse a bit under portrait tablet mode. Explorer kept on crashing, chrome would not scroll properly, it took a lot of effort to navigate around. Definelty not the tablet experience that and Ipad brings to the table. I felt like, man this is not a tablet, i should put this back on the desk and attach the keyboard to it. .... :(
 
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How did Chrome look with the text scaling issue? Is it as bad as people say? I didn't want to install any third party stuff.

I found the weight/balance 100% fine when holding it vertically (like a pad of paper,) but I agree about horizontally. That's why I was kind of using the kickstand as an extra support but I don't know how durable that thing really is.
 
Chrome did not work in portrait. It kept on resizing the whole screen to 1/3rd of its original size, locked it self to upper left corner and blacked out the rest of the screen, Internet Explorer works in portrait mode but virtual keyboard never pops out, you have to manually get to it and I could not find the setting to change it. They both sucked at horizontal scrolling. on www.sherdog.com in full screen portrait mode, it was so laggy, I thought I was using one of my older atom netbooks. ( Yes the device was plugged in)
 
Andyk5 said:
Chrome did not work in portrait. It kept on resizing the whole screen to 1/3rd of its original size, locked it self to upper left corner and blacked out the rest of the screen, Internet Explorer works in portrait mode but virtual keyboard never pops out, you have to manually get to it and I could not find the setting to change it. They both sucked at horizontal scrolling. on www.sherdog.com in full screen portrait mode, it was so laggy, I thought I was using one of my older atom netbooks. ( Yes the device was plugged in)
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Thanks for the info. Not sure what's going on with everything you saw but I can explain some of it.

On the desktop, the onscreen keyboard doesn't automatically popup which is a change from Windows 7 and prior versions. The automatic popup never worked particularly well as the keyboard tended to get in the way far too often I think. In Metro apps though the keyboard pops up properly and doesn't obscure content and behaves well.

I don't know what is causing the crashes or issues with portrait orientation as those work perfectly even on my old Windows 7 tablets upgraded to Windows 8 and even my lowly Atom Clover Trail based Samsung Ativ Smart PC 500T. The Chrome browser isn't nearly as touch optimized as IE 10, desktop or Metro but both should work in portrait mode and I've never seen an app crash in portrait mode in Windows 8 though some desktop apps will report that they can't run in a odd portrait resolution.
 
Well we will see tomorrow if I get one. I will try to post a review full of my subjective opinions :)
 
Appreciated the youtube videos Andyk5. Stopped by a local BB, but unfortunately they didn't have the Pro on display yet.
 
Surface Complete is still $99. That's a comfort. I'm not sure it's worth investing in for two years of coverage, though. Three years and I'd go for it.
 
All the Best Buys in my area had only one 128GB model and not 64GB models....obviously that one 128GB model goes pretty fast.
 
Yeah, should have grabbed one online at midnight last night if I wanted one. All sold out today. Will call some local BB's and see what is up. Not surprisingly, no 64gb's are sold out ;-)

MS should have them shipped back, drop the 64gb line, and put some 256's in them lol
 
Best Buy's website is slow for me right now. Didn't expect that.

edit: Must've been temporary.
 
Well i am here at bestbuy 15 minutes prior to opening and i am the only person here lol. So much dofferent than apple launches.
 
I went 45 minutes early and when they opened they only had the display model. I was first in line. :(
 
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