Microsoft Surface Pro Review
anandtech.com
anandtech.com
I don't get it. Why not spend that $999 buying a budget laptop that can outperform the Surface Pro, and an inexpensive tablet like a Nexus 7/10 or iPad mini? Design is about making compromises. Unfortunately for Microsoft, they chose the wrong ones.
1) some programs wants to use more screen. That's especially relevant for various IDEs and image manipulation programs. If you can work with simple text editor and command line, you are happy then.
2) too small keyboard. The smaller screen the smaller keyboard. Difference is 5-10% in typing speed but it is difference. Maybe for small person it is perfect size.
Meanwhile I'm very happy with 13 inch ultrabook.
Overall it is geek's wet dream to have device that is perfect size and perfect configuration at any moment. "Ubuntu for Android" (http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android) is the same dream in different form. Currently I am as far from this dream as possible: 3 computers, several tables and several smartphones.
I like to use it as a tablet for the brilliant gesture based UI , as a ultrabook when i have to reply to a email and to plug in a monitor + real keyboard (104 keys or bust) when i'm doing development in Visual Studio.
Surface will happily drive a 2560x1440 30" IPS panel display. Plenty of real-estate for Visual Studio.
The formatted drive has a binary capacity of 119 GB. 89 of which are available.
You can free up 7.8 GB by using the built-in tool to transfer the recovery partition to a USB drive.
The remaining space is 10.5GB for Windows, 4GB pagefile, 3.5GB hibernation file and 2.5GB for Office.
On the 64GB model, once you remove the recovery partition you have around 40GB of space available.
Remember when people used to buy laptops, and people like us used to say "don't be stupid, just buy a powerful white-box for half the price; it's going to spend 90% of its time on your desk anyway ... and if you really need portability just buy a cheap laptop as a second computer."? It's all happening again, and Microsoft has just realised it got left behind.
However, in the real world outside of the forums that are enamored by the latest and greatest toys put out by tablet makers, I think their real world usage is far less than observed.
Me personally, I get annoyed at having to use my phone (Galaxy Nexus) or tablet (2 HP Touchpads and a Nexus 7) for more than just checking mail, sending short IMs or SMS, or quickly viewing a few web pages. Doing much beyond that just requires much more time than if I did it on a PC with a keyboard and mouse. Those devices are just a way to get by when I can't be at my computer versus a replacement. I really just have them for development, but they're also fun toys to hack around on.
The allure of 3 large monitors tied to a nice desktop PC is one that I don't think I can pull myself away from either for real work. Tablets for productivity just feel more like a form of masochism if one to use it to write code on even with options out there[1]. If i desperately need to do something right away, sure, but most of the time, my laptop is with me if I also have my tablet. If I didn't have the tablets, I wouldn't miss them. They're just an expensive toy to me at least.
Unrelated to the above, but I think I would go for the Surface RT over the Pro now that it's been "jailbroke"[2] so you can cross compile any opensource app for it[3] and many already have been compiled[4]. Battery life is better and if you're a developer or power user, you can have a ton of fun hacking around on it now that you can self sign and compiled native apps that aren't metro.
[1]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui
[2]http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092158
Well, that's a very bold statement...
It beggars belief that Microsoft could consider this competitive as a tablet. As a laptop, the power and price point makes sense. But as a tablet it's thick, heavy, has very poor battery life and 99% of meaningful Windows software wasn't optimised for touch.
I was actually considering purchasing one of these. But watching reviewers attempt to use this thing as a tablet depresses me.
I'm probably dreaming, but I would love to see Microsoft just make a really nice touch screen laptop with the same design aesthetic as the Surface.
People, on the other hand, use computers all the time. And only buy computers when then break.
That's what market saturation means.
This class of product reminds me of the joke on sea planes: they're neither good planes nor good boats. Here, I fear it's just not possible to be a good tablet (light, long battery) and a good laptop (larger screen, more powerful).
As far as I'm concerned, and although I initially liked the idea, I'm now convinced it's hopeless just because of the screen size: I like it small on a tablet (7" is perfect to me) and larger on a laptop (13.3" minimum). So no hybrid can satisfy me.
But again, to each his own. Even if such products don't go mainstream, I'm sure some will stick around to serve the people who're happy with a single device and can live with the necessary trade-offs.
The screenshot of the task manager looks like something from windows NT, the display appearance screenshot looks like win7, and the whole thing is glossed over by a new fancy design that seemingly is only a thin slice of beauty that reveals the ugly interior as soon as you start delving into the system. From a UI standpoint it looks like a complete mess, where the ugly head of legacy rears its head at every corner.
This is the major differentiator between Apple and Microsoft, and is a large factor in the continued success of Apple. Microsoft doesn't seem to understand this at all.
Why bother judging by the screenshots? There are plenty of actual Windows 8 devices out there. It's fairly pointless to post guesswork about the UI.
You can't experience using a product with some photographs.
Similarly, you can't pretend to be a judge of good design based on a couple of photographs.
This guy was clearly just spouting an opinion based on nothing, and we shouldn't respond to such comments as if they deserve merit.
More likely, looking at screenshots would divert her attention to secondary things like the textures and illustrations used in the apps rather than the actual UI design.
Well it looks like Android is largely catching up on Apple's iOS, and actually selling more than iOS phones worldwide. Tablets is yet another story. Apple's edge may not be enough to justify the extra bucks they are asking for, and Apple's share in laptops remains marginal at best. And Apple has no intent to make things cheap anyway, so their reach will remain limited in that field.
At least that's the global statistics. Most of the rest of the world isn't nearly as Apple-obsessed as America is.
I have not seen anything that suggests that any single Android phone yet outsells the “latest” iOS phone on a full quarter basis. In CQ3 2012, the S3 topped the iPhone 4S by a couple million “shipments” (vs verified sales), but that's not surprising because the iPhone 5 was introduced.
I didn't pay attention to the recent earnings reports, though, so it's entirely possible that this changed this quarter—but I have my doubts.
1. iPhone 5
2. SGS3
2. iPhone 4S
4. iPhone 4
This fits, more or less, with what I saw on the uSwitch site that our erstwhile correspondent indirectly referred to. I "tied" 4S and SGS3 because they're going to go to different needs. I suspect that the SGS3 is roughly the same "price" as the 4S (it's actually $20 more with a contract at bell.ca) but includes LTE which the 4S does not.
Unless Apple changes its release cycle (unlikely, IMO, but entirely possible given the rapid iteration from iPad 3 to iPad 4 + iPad mini), CQ3'13 will probably see the SGS4 outsell the iPhone 5—for the same reason that the SGS3 outsold the iPhone 4S: a new lead product from Apple was introduced.
Is it possible that the SGSx becomes the most popular phone for more than an Apple introductory quarter? Yes. Samsung is investing VERY heavily in brand marketing (see Asymco for an analysis on that, but it's something like 13x Apple's entire marketing budgest) and the SGS3 is supposed to be a Very Good Phone. Claiming that this is true now, however, is an Extraordinary Claim, requiring Extraordinary Evidence.
This was only the first hit in Google - so there'll be other reports as well: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s3-outsell...
The PCWorld article (in a niece comment) is similarly problematic—and it reports exactly the same thing I already said. The S3 reportedly outshipped (no proof that it actually outsold, sorry; Samsung doesn't report verifiable shipments, and has never reported sales) the iPhone 4S in CQ3'12—the very quarter that Apple released the iPhone 5.
It's therefore unsurprising that the S3 would outsell the iPhone 4 (which would see a sales decrease as the interest in and sales of the iPhone 5 pick up).
It did not keep this position for CQ4'12 (Apple's FQ1'13), where the iPhone 5 topped the S3 and any other individual Android device in most, if not all, markets. Yes, Android outsells Apple collectively, but you read something that isn't evidenced by the facts.
The RDF is strong in this one
You pointed to two articles: one which had no numbers (and whose actual source currently contradicts your assertion) and is therefore suspect; the other which had numbers, but that I had already addressed in my initial response and acknowledged. For a very brief moment, the S3 did, indeed, outship‡ the iPhone 4S in CQ3'12. It has not, however, kept that sales position against the latest iPhone for CQ4'12. It's entirely possible that the S3 or the eventual S4 will take the crown from the iPhone as the most successful mobile phone.
I can point you to this note by Strategy Analytics which suggests that, in the U.S., at least, Apple became the largest mobile phone vendor—not just of smartphones, but of all mobile phones in CQ4'12. http://blogs.strategyanalytics.com/WDS/post/2013/02/01/Apple...
I do happen to be a fan of quality products (and consider Apple products to be generally higher quality than non-Apple products), and far prefer the iOS ecosystem to the Android ecosystem (I don't have enough money to spend on random gadgets to be as disappointed as I was with the N7 on a regular basis; on the other hand, the N7 has only gotten better since I bought it, so Android is getting better incrementally). I am not, however, uncritically supportive of Apple. What I am is dismissive of claims without merit—like yours were.
The only RDF involved is the one you seem to have that suggests for Android to win, Apple must lose. I happen to think that there is room for quality products from a variety of vendors. As much as I don't think that RIMM^WBlackBerry’s chances are very good anymore, I do have a desire to see them succeed, in part because I know people who have worked there, and, well, they're Canadian.
‡ Shipments aren't sales, but you don't keep high shipments of the sales are not there (cf. Blackberry Playbook), so it's a reasonable proxy, even if it's probably incorrect by a few percentage points at any given time because of channel stuffing.
That's rubbish. I don't like either the S3 nor iPhones. And I couldn't care less which platform outsells which other platforms. I just get fed up with people like yourself rewriting history to promote Apple.
You asked for citation. I provided. Now you're dismissing the evidence because it doesn't fit with your world view; which makes you beyond reason. So I'm not going to waste any more time trying.
There was an assertion (SGS3 is the most popular phone in the UK for the 7th month in a row). Not one place in the entire breathless article was a single number backing that assertion—nor even a link to the supposed source (uSwitch). Since it didn't, I decided to find out what uSwitch is, and look at its own site.
What I found, and what you deride as fanboyism and an RDF, is that the website is a dealfinder type of website. This doesn't make it an invalid source, but it does make it a skewed source unless it's pulling data from actual points-of-sale. I've done a bit more looking and there is a page that suggests that some form of the SGSx series has been the top phone in the UK for most of the last year (http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/mobile_tracker/).
I don't believe it to be true for all phone buyers in the UK, mostly because the current #3 phone is the Nokia 100. More than that, I also don't believe it because of the statement at the top of the page: “Take a look at the UK's most popular mobile phones this week, ranked by deal popularity and sales. Statistics are derived from uSwitch.com, plus our network of mobile phone comparison partners.” In other words, uSwitch is reporting phone popularity not just based on the choice of a phone, but based on the popularity of particular deals. It also reports no verifiable numbers (e.g., SGS3 sold 30k units last week, while the iPhone 5 only sold 29k units), but a private algorithm that includes deal search results.
I can see exactly where the supremely lazy “reporter” from the article you lazily (and uncritically) grabbed from Google treats this as a Big Deal for Samsung—but it's not. It's not verifiable and only speaks more toward deal discovery than actual sales reported by O2, Vodaphone, T-Mobile, etc.
The second article (that you pointed someone else to) is something else. It points to real data. It is verifiable. It's also something that I had already indicated was the case, and that is utterly unsurprising given that the iPhone 4S was down at least 3MM sales because of the availability of the iPhone 5 for just over a week at the end of CQ3'12 (the 5MM figure is the iPhone 5 opening weekend sales; the iPhone 4S was down about 2MM sales over the previous quarter, normal growth should have seen it up 3MM if there weren't an iPhone 5). So yes, in CQ3'12, the SGS3 outsold the iPhone 4S 18MM to 16MM. By another light, it still missed sales against the "flagship iPhone" by at least 3MM (21+MM combined iPhone 4S + iPhone 5 vs 18MM).
Then it goes off the rails into editorial rambling on facts not in evidence. The first couple of paragraphs were good, though. (It's interesting, though, that I can't find anything concreate about “Kirk Linsky” or “Content Works” that doesn't end up referring to these LogMeIn-sponsored articles on the PCWorld website.)
I find the task manager in Windows 8 to be a big improvement over previous versions, so I spent 10 minutes going back and forth through the article trying to find what you're talking about.
There are no pictures of the task manager at all.
You're attempting to base an opinion on some random photos, rather than actually trying the product for yourself.
So now up to Apple, Samsung, Asus, MS etc to make something with 10+ hours battery life, 2560x1600 resolution, tablet and laptop in one, with the performance of an i5/i7 :) Transformer Infinity is almost there besides the performance of course. For me that's almost never an issue as I value battery life much more, but in an ideal world I can take my entire environment with me even when there is no internet available (I compile in the cloud now).
Edit: Wacom + pen would be a huge plus for my ideal machine. I wouldn't really care about the price for such a thing.
Edit: maybe someone knows; is there some kind of solar panel tech in existence which can be put 'on' the entire laptop/tablet surface without you seeing it or being bothered by it? When I go for long walks I take my solar panel on my back which keeps my Android tablet loaded for hours more than it would normally do. It seems like a good idea to just put that in if it's possible?
However, from any other POV, this product seems to fall flat. Unless you have to, nobody is going to use a win32 app on a tablet if they can use a similar iPad app designed for touch. Nobody will give up the battery life of a real tablet for the difficult to use win32 stylus programs, and the win8 apps just aren't there yet. So this device will fail to compete in the tablet sector for the identical reasons the RT tablet did not compete. It's just not as good a tablet for tablet uses as an iPad.
Obviously it won't compete in the desktop/high end laptop segment, it's just not capable enough.
I don't see this device being any kind of success in the short term, but with revisions and company deals it may be able to corner the mobile business market in future - a very large market - if it survives that long with the politics at Microsoft and is able to reduce the price to compete with current budget business laptops.
What is it not capable of?
For me, it hits the perfect sweet spot. It's iPad-sized; there are no fans or vents; and I quite like the "Metro" touch apps because I'm already used to Windows Phone. At the same time the Clover Trail platform is fast enough to run Win32 desktop apps and the tablet comes with a pressure-sensitive Wacom pen, so it's a pretty great little machine for sketching and painting. I rather like the refreshed Office 2013 apps too, they're fine for mixed touch and pen input.
The Thinkpad Tablet 2 is also much less expensive than the Surface Pro, so I'm very happy with this choice... On the other hand I realize that my needs are those of a minority. The market for 10-inch Wacom tablets is presumably not that great. But if there is demand for "pro" tablets where precision input and access to the existing Windows x86 ecosystem are requirements, then Clover Trail + Windows 8 could have some legs.
The screen resolution is indeed mediocre. I can live with that since it makes it easier to use desktop apps and of course it increases battery life too...
It's better to compare the Thinkpad Tablet 2 to the Surface RT rather than the Surface Pro. At roughly the same price and form factor as RT, it runs x86 Windows apps and feels much faster than the ARM-based sibling. There doesn't seem to be any point to Windows RT, as far as I can tell.
I haven't noticed a problem with Win32 desktop apps. It would certainly be too slow for something heavy-duty like the latest Visual Studio... But my use is more oriented towards Office, browsing and art software which it handles fine.
Edit: Wait, AND a wacom? OMG.
I feel like this is a step into the future where everyone carries one cloud connected device that can then be docked when you want to get serious work done. Is there an official dock that makes it simple to connect it to an extra monitor, keyboard, speakers, etc ?
The keyboard base has USB 3 and displayport (separate from those on the "tablet" bit). They also have a USB 3 dock that then has video, audio, more USB etc ports.
For all of the criticism on notebook touchscreens--namely, that people don't want to touch an upright screen--I find that I am using the touchscreen when in "notebook mode." It's never tiring and it usually just makes sense. For example, I use it when I'm plugged into an external monitor a lot and I don't want to move my mouse all the way over to what's on the screen of the Yoga. My only complaint is that I find myself going to touch other screens and get disappointed that I can't.
The surface pro, an actually here device seemed promising to me as a concept. In particular, the ability to do some work in a different physical position, (on the can, at the coffee shop, etc).
The surface pro seems enticing at first glance as I could run my main working software (pro tools). It's dawning on me now lately though that I need a very optimized, particular environment to work with any semblance of efficiency. Powerful desktop, big monitor, custom set of input and pointing tools, the particular set of utilities installed and running, plus speakers, comfortable chair. And I need every thing in just the right spot. I need my desktop setup just so, I rely on Mac os x spaces. I have custom keyboard macros. When all this is just so, I can rock it, my efficiency goes way up.
It's just not worth it try to do actual work at the coffee shop, because even if I can the experience is so sub optimal,I'd rather just skim the internet on my nexus 7, and wait till I'm at my studio to work.
Buying a device that compromises both experiences, the long battery life, light to hold tablet, and the serious workstation is not an improvement. A nexus 7 is so cheap and light. I have a hand me down Mac book that does laptop stuff just fine if I really need to work portably. And my work station stays put, ready for heavy lifting.
What is the advantage of a hybrid device if any of the use cases are worse than the stand-alones, if those use cases matter to you.
The surface is a worse experience compared to the dedicated devices in all three form factors it's trying to compete in: desktop replacement, notebook, tablet.
How is this a benefit? Most people who buy the surface pro are going to be serious users of computers. It's worth it to pay for good tools. It's not that hard to carry a 7inch tablet and a notebook.
I could see for a student, who is very budget comscious maybe this be useful.
I have not used Surface but have a laptop with Windows 8. Hardware wise, Surface is quite good but Windows has two basic problems:
1. Legacy Code: No matter what, there will be some part of Windows that will behave oddly and not upto current standards. I use multiple Wi-Fi networks and my iPhone, iPad and my friend's Windows Phone automatically use proxy settings for that network. Windows 8 needs a manual change.
2. Slapped On Metro: Metro feels very unpolished. There are settings and other apps in Metro but real power still lies with classic Windows UI.
Microsoft is presenting it as a "no compromises" approach but it feels like an all compromises approach.
Recently switched from Linux to Windows on my main laptop (driver proplems with Linux) and still using Linux on my development laptop, but I think Microsoft is on to something. Still needs improvement, no question...
I had an iPad and it was kind of "too simple"... Dont know how to describe it.. With my current laptop (the Yoga, which has touch and doubles as tablet and laptop), I kind of have everything in one device... I can do tablet in the tub on in the bed and do development at my desk with one device.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Iconia-W700-6691-11-6-Inch-Tablet...
Especially now with touch screen laptops, the only utility I see here is the lack of dedicated keyboard, but that's as big an advantage as disadvantage.
But for programming, I can't really understand using a tablet at all, while a normal cheaper laptop will do just fine.
Obviously with the poor battery life and weight the Pro doesn't quite get there, but it's clear this is the evolutionary path Microsoft is headed for.
Things should get really interesting with each iteration of the device.
For now, the device will be considered a flop though.
"It tries to do everything, but misses doing anything really well"
Something like the Surface Pro has a lot of compromises, starting from the schizophrenic UI, to high price, too small screen to be productive on it, low battery on it, heat, noise, fans, and so on. It's not the "best of both worlds". It's the worst of both worlds.
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/5/3955130/microsoft-surface-p...
Many years ago, I read a comment on Reddit calling HN a bunch of Apple fanboys. After these years I have realized it mostly consists of Google and Apple fanboys and irrational. Why else would someone with good karma go out of their way to flag this _review_ from Anandtech of all people?
I am sure people are waiting for the inevitable deprecating takes of Gruber, Marco, Siegler etc. on the Surface. Those will shoot straight up the front page.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177366
Funnily, THAT story got flagged as well and is sitting on third page now.
I hope there exists a place on the web, where news is served/discussed as facts minus all the fanboyisms. If not, I should make one for a better future.
Expected better from you Anand
I do not think that it is true that the Surface Pro has "the same capability" as a MacBook Air, out of the box. The two keyboards available for the Surface Pro, the "Touch Cover" and the "Type Cover" each cost more than $100 above the base price of the device. Anyone who does not buy them will be using a device that looks significantly more like an iPad than a MacBook Air.
The Surface line, with keyboards as optional extras, are clearly intended to compete both as tablets and as laptops. So they're going to be compared with both categories.
But really, I'm not sure what to compare this against, or how it fits in between my iPad and MacBook Air. Which one does it replace?
Because it has touch and is the size of a tablet (like an iPad) and the power and form-factor of an ultra-book (like a Macbook Air) it seems obvious to me that it meant to replace both devices with one device. Why is this hard for folks to see? Now, is it a drop-in replacement? The battery (as Anand says) lets it down, so the answer is negative in this respect but you are saving on the cost of having to buy an iPad and a Macbook Air so the answer is positive in that respect. Comes with a pen for precision drawing input, positive. Runs Windows, negative (joke! ok, you can see the Linux guy coming out in me). Um, so on balance I'd have to say, intriguing device - has its plusses and minuses. If they up the battery life significantly with Surface Pro 2 and shrink it some more they are on to a definite winner and game changer. It'll _never_ be as portable as an iPad (because it has the guts of an ultrabook) so we need to get that out of our heads, all Microsoft needs to do is make it svelte _enough_.
That's my take on the whole thing. Now back to me Gentoo server ...
What I find interesting is the confusion about the product's positioning in the market. I am also confused and don't think it bodes well for the customer. At the base, it's most commonly known as a tablet, but the keyboard begins to confuse things. The moment you get into the Pro territory, the price confuses things even more. Even outside of the "RT/Pro" discussion, I'm not sure if it's lack of clear (existing) product category is beneficial for MS
But I think my habits are unique, not representive of th typical consumer.
So hopefully, the review will be updated.