Surface Pro Anticipation

Went to best buy and they didn't have any nor did the microsoft store... A few staples around me had some 64gb ones. I ended up just snagging a 64gb one even though I wanted a 128gb.

I'll probably just pick up a 64gb microSD card for this. So if anyone wants one badly and can deal with a 64gb go check out Staples. I'd do a search for their inventory on their site before you head out though of course.
 
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Ya best buy sucks, the 10+ closest stores have non available for any model per their website for me in central MI
 
Initial impressions. It's definitely not light as an iPad but I think its very usable in tablet mode. I actually had a Vaio Duo 11 at one point and this is so much easier to handle then that was.

Performance is great as expected. Not a hint of any slowness.

Already installed Windows Media Center on it (Which was one of the reasons why I wanted a Windows 8 Tablet).

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How did you get it already? Best Buy?

I reserved it and still have not heard anything.

never mind, just got the email....it was in my spam
 
Went to Delaware and picked up two 128 gb versions at the Microsoft store.
 
I have the impression that the distribution of the surface pro, especially the 128 gb models was non existant. Not a single best buy near me had them today, or the 64gb model for that matter. And there is no way they sold out that fast. I Live in Mass and all roads had been closed by the governor until 4pm today since last night and as of 4:30pm today there were none in stock of any flavor in MA, CT, NH, VT, ME. The bestbuy website claims that Warrick RI has 64GB in stock.

The local Staples was open this afternoon but only got the 64GB models.

The Local Microsoft Store opens tomorrow Morning, I'll check them out when they open.
 
Yeah, part of me wonders if Best Buy and Staples were playing it cautious on their orders, seeing how the MS store did. Hoping the supposed sell out spurs the brick and mortar to place orders. But, in regards to the "supposed" sell out, who knows what qty the MS Stores actually had. Was it a decent stock? Artificial scarcity on MS part? MS didn't make as many based on how RT sold, playing cautious themselves? Who knows? :(
 
Well, I just picked up my 128GB Surface Pro. The Microsoft Store had them this morning. It looks like if anyone really wanted any chance to get one, they needed to have a MS store nearby.
 
The complete lack of any hard data on how many were actually sold combined with their obsessiveness pushing the idea that they "sold out" makes me think they had extremely limited stock in the first place.
 
The Wii U only had like three consoles in every store I called on launch day, but it had what 500,000 preorders? I think these days preorders/shipping get most of the stock, people don't go to brick and mortar as much as they used to.
 
Still loving my 64gb. Setup with all my apps including the full adobe cs5 suite and still have 20gb available.
 
I got my surface today at the Microsoft store. Beautiful machine overall. Can't power my Lacie USB 3.0 bus powered 2.5" drives, I need a powered USB 3.0 hub....rrrrr. I also can't right click in Lightroom 4.3. Any insights about the right click issue? This may be a dealbreaker;(
 
Andyk5 said:
Here is my biased gaming review. Things with pen and touch input get messed up towards the middle and ruin my video :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnzVIBoxTTs
Click to expand...

I wonder if the difficulty arises from having 1080p desktop resolution with 720p game resolution, and the calibration being off?

How's the TypeCover keyboard feel? What kind of accuracy and speed are you getting on it, compared to a typical laptop and desktop keyboard?
 
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I mean touch and pen, neither right click works in Lightroom 4.3. It does work everywhere else.
 
Jaerb4 said:
I wonder if the difficulty arises from having 1080p desktop resolution with 720p game resolution, and the calibration being off?

How's the TypeCover keyboard feel? What kind of accuracy and speed are you getting on it, compared to a typical laptop and desktop keyboard?
Click to expand...

Type cover is good, touch cover needs getting used to. If I try to type too fast sometimes i miss the keys because I can not tell if I actually actuated the key or not. I guess it would work fine if you could type on it while never looking at the keyboard and only the screen.

The problem with the pen and touch was the scaling issue. This is actually a very big problem and unless it get fixed/patched in a big way, it is going to steer me away from owning a win8 tablet.

First of all a 1080p resolution on a 10inch screen is a lot. It is not apple's retina but still it is a very high resolution. Meaning when the desktop and the programs run on their native state, it is very hard to interact with the windows. Everything is just way too small. It is sometimes hard to even see what you are doing. Ok there is the scaling property, yes you can change the scaling on your computer and can make the menu's and buttons up to %150 larger than original but that comes with 2 of its own problems. Number one, even if you do the scaling, the graphics quality of what is being scaled down goes down considerably. So you are on a 1080p screen, working the crap out of your video card to get that resolution and staring at an artificially magnified icon which totally pixelated. It makes no sense at all, waste of battery and unnecessary heat is being generated to create an image that is pixilated and looks like crap. Second problem is that most software that I own does not play well with scaling. On top of what you have seen on the video, most of the software that I run will ignore the scaling options and still run native resolution. Meaning it is impossible to click on a line in Altera's design software or Pspice circuit editing program. You have to squint to see the menu's. Then there are software that are half compatible, meaning they are not compatible, it's just some of their windowing options are controlled by windows. In that case you get the weird effect of some pixelated readable bars and some high resolution unreasonably small bars all in the same interface. Then there are completely incompatible ones like some of these games, where before you play them you better put your scaling back to %100, which requires to log off and on.

Overall it is such a big hassle that neither Win8, nor any Win8 tablet is worth it. I spend more time trying to configure this thing for my needs than actually using it.

I wish they came out with an Ipad that had an active digitizer. I would give up my on the go x86 computing needs in a heart beat if i could take notes on an ipad with palm rejection.
 
At 125% scaling i have had no issues with the adobe cs5 suite and all my main apps. Only picky one is chrome, but chrome is kinda an odd duck anyhow with how it runs.
 
notsane said:
So you think it is a scaling setting issue? Where do you change that?
Click to expand...

Where you change the screen resolution there is a link.

Andyk5 said:
Here is my One note note taking with the pen review.
I basically copied one page of notes from one of my classes on the One note 2013 using Surface pro and its pen.

http://youtu.be/LmWsLopdgZQ
Click to expand...

It works very well. As does palm rejection. I rest my hand on it like a notebook.
 
Andyk5 said:
Type cover is good, touch cover needs getting used to. If I try to type too fast sometimes i miss the keys because I can not tell if I actually actuated the key or not. I guess it would work fine if you could type on it while never looking at the keyboard and only the screen.

The problem with the pen and touch was the scaling issue. This is actually a very big problem and unless it get fixed/patched in a big way, it is going to steer me away from owning a win8 tablet.

First of all a 1080p resolution on a 10inch screen is a lot. It is not apple's retina but still it is a very high resolution. Meaning when the desktop and the programs run on their native state, it is very hard to interact with the windows. Everything is just way too small. It is sometimes hard to even see what you are doing. Ok there is the scaling property, yes you can change the scaling on your computer and can make the menu's and buttons up to %150 larger than original but that comes with 2 of its own problems. Number one, even if you do the scaling, the graphics quality of what is being scaled down goes down considerably. So you are on a 1080p screen, working the crap out of your video card to get that resolution and staring at an artificially magnified icon which totally pixelated. It makes no sense at all, waste of battery and unnecessary heat is being generated to create an image that is pixilated and looks like crap. Second problem is that most software that I own does not play well with scaling. On top of what you have seen on the video, most of the software that I run will ignore the scaling options and still run native resolution. Meaning it is impossible to click on a line in Altera's design software or Pspice circuit editing program. You have to squint to see the menu's. Then there are software that are half compatible, meaning they are not compatible, it's just some of their windowing options are controlled by windows. In that case you get the weird effect of some pixelated readable bars and some high resolution unreasonably small bars all in the same interface. Then there are completely incompatible ones like some of these games, where before you play them you better put your scaling back to %100, which requires to log off and on.

Overall it is such a big hassle that neither Win8, nor any Win8 tablet is worth it. I spend more time trying to configure this thing for my needs than actually using it.

I wish they came out with an Ipad that had an active digitizer. I would give up my on the go x86 computing needs in a heart beat if i could take notes on an ipad with palm rejection.
Click to expand...

I have a review here that pretty much echos what you've stated here usign AutoCAD and PShop were such a pain in the ass. Really hard to make out the icons, even with AutoCAD's ribbon or more traditional toolbar setup. While the digi was super accurate while drawing and such, I had a hell of a time selecting tools. Office 2013 was easier, but not by much. I'm hopin gthe Helix or something similar has a digitizer on a larger screen. I have the Yoga and have used a generic iPad type pen with great results, it just blows for any kind of fine writing or sketching. I found the screen to be too small for a usable PC, but the colors were fantastic.
 
My local Best Buy sold out before the people working there even knew they had it. My wife and I showed up that afternoon and the first 4 people we asked said it wasn't even on sale yet...sigh...

However my wife managed to order one from MS before they finally sold out there, too.

Looking forward to giving it a spin. I've grown used to Win8 on my desktop, so I'm pretty certainly using it on a device designed for it should be a breeze.
 
So far, I am enjoying the 128gb surface pro. They Type cover is pretty good. Not quite as good as a laptop keyboard, but not far off. I can type pretty quickly and accurately on it.

I have been using an Asus EP 121 for a couple of years now so I already had a decent feel of how a windows 8 tablet runs. The surface is definitely better than my Asus. The Asus has a larger screen (12.1) but lower resolution. I prefer the 1080p display even though it is smaller.

CPU performance is significantly better on the surface, though it wasn't bad on the Asus. Faster graphics performance, much better disk performance, and slightly better battery life than the Asus. Neither has great battery life, but it is serviceable. .

If I have any complaints, it's that the power cord is too short. and there is no place to store the pen.

Speaking of the pen, you can use non-Microsoft pens as well. My Wacom pens for my EP121 works on my Surface Pro. So, if you are having right click issues you should be able to use a different pen.
 
I must say I do NOT want a screen any larger. Glad they stuck with the size they did.

I know for some of you it makes things to small, but for me it is wonderful. The scaling works well at 125% and it is really nice having the real-estate for some things.

I have used image editors on lower res screens and dont like it, I like the working room.
 
To me this is an image editing, note taking tablet that doubles as text editor. Good for "small" excel chart and using word. good for browsing the web, good for pen use, However this thing can never replace my laptop. I think 13-15 inches is the smallest I can go for my uses and this thing with the keyboard is just as heavy as some ultra books and MBPr and even thicker.
 
I would never switch to it as a laptop or desktop replacement, but it is so slick for working mobile and going to meetings with.
 
1080p on a 10.6" screen is way too small. I don't even like 1080p on a 13" laptop, for me the sweet spot is 1680x1050 on anything <15". But that is a resolution that's disappeared, no one makes those panels anymore :(
 
no_control said:
I have a review here that pretty much echos what you've stated here usign AutoCAD and PShop were such a pain in the ass. Really hard to make out the icons, even with AutoCAD's ribbon or more traditional toolbar setup. While the digi was super accurate while drawing and such, I had a hell of a time selecting tools. Office 2013 was easier, but not by much. I'm hopin gthe Helix or something similar has a digitizer on a larger screen. I have the Yoga and have used a generic iPad type pen with great results, it just blows for any kind of fine writing or sketching. I found the screen to be too small for a usable PC, but the colors were fantastic.
Click to expand...

Those issues are things that don't go away unless there's a concerted effort on behalf of the developers and Microsoft in addressing the inherent craptitude of DPI scaling in Windows. The Helix isn't going to fix any of it unless you run your software at native resolution on a screen large enough such that it makes sense.

I work with AutoCAD a lot, and I've found that 1080p on anything lower than a 15.6" laptop is a huge PITA. 14" is alright with 1600x900, but any higher and you're screwed. Anything smaller than 14" and you need 1366x768, otherwise you're bumping up against the same problems. I have an X220 and the 1366x768 resolution is at the higher end of the spectrum; any higher and you'd get the same issues. On a ~10" tablet screen the resolution would have to be below 1366x768 to be usable, but then you're giving up so much screen real estate that it makes no sense to run the program in the first place.
 
As I have said before I dont think MS can fix this, the only one who can is the consumers as they buy more devices of vastly different sizes with vastly different resolutions eventually companies will be forced to fix their DPI scaling issues.
 
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