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Comment by digitalengineer | Hacker News Reader

I don't get it. The Surface is cool becasue of the keyboard? Logitech made the iPad keyboard some time ago. That's all there is to it to help you type like on a laptop. Review: http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/29/review-logitech-ultrathin-ipad...

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It is more then just adding a keyboard. All the interactions in surface are first class keyboard friendly. Switching, closing app, switching tab etc. work well with keyboard. So you have a device which supports multiple usage perspectives either working on a 5 page word doc/blog with keyboard, touchpad or browsing web, watching movie, playing angry birds on a light weight touch enabled tablet

Likewise, Asus' eee Transformer Prime has been around for a while now. While somewhat pricey for an Android tablet it's still a lot better value than the Surface.

I have an external blue tooth keyboard for both my iPad and droid phone. Not having it integrated into the device is clunky, at best. Especially considering my keyboard and stand take up more space than the tablet itself. It's not elegant. Would love to see Apple come out with a sexier, more integrated, slim keyboard cover. Also, multi-tasking on the iPad blows, hard. It's better on my Android phone.

My neighbor got an Asus Transformer (the T300 model or what ever it was called). It's definitely slick and I could type quite well on it. Can't wait to see how the Win 8 RT app ecosystem plays out, because I like a lot of things MSFT is doing with their multi-tasking and side-by-side apps. Having good multi-tasking hot-keys on the keyboard is a big boost in productivity. Get me a good RDP client on it and I could find it very useful for a lot of work scenarios.

It also depends on execution. However bad surface RT is, I'm sure it won't be as frustrating to use as an Asus transformer (both the initial version as well as the prime). I've used both of those for a week only to return them without 2nd thoughts.

edit: The Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover is sort of similar, but because the iPad doesn't have a kickstand, you lose keyboard real-estate to make the whole thing balance. Also, you lose the 'fold open/closed' movement. And it needs its own battery and hence another wall-wart. Also: no touchpad.

Surface (with its kickstand) + thin keyboard cover is an advance on that. You've got something that folds open and closed like a laptop, but is about the same thickness as iPad+smart cover.

I remember many strikingly similar designs as these "new" concepts of Windows 8 tablets being presented 10-15 years ago as new concepts of computing devices powered by Windows CE Handheld PC Edition (with some of them being actually manufactured then).

While I agree with your general point, it is worth remembering that in the last 10 - 15 years battery life, processing power (in small devices) and the capacitative touch screen have improved dramatically.

It's a little bit like comparing the first truly practical cars (Model T vintage) to the very first cars and saying that they haven't done anything revolutionary.

That Logitech doesn't have a trackpad.

iPads don't have cursors.

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