Surface Pro 2
penny-arcade.com
penny-arcade.com
The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is. Maybe at the beginning Microsoft tried marketing itself in too many directions, but they're finding their feet. The Surface Pro 2 wants to be the iPad of the business and enterprise market, not a device for checking email and playing Angry Birds. Sure it also appeals to other needs as well, but going after the business sector is smart because ultimately that's where the money is. Heck the Surface isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable.
I am thinking of getting one of these as a laptop replacement for coding on plane and train trips. You can't code on an iPad, but you could code on a Surface for sure and run all needed IDE's like Sublime Text and an NGINX server with PHP and or Node.JS.
Yet you keep comparing it to the iPad when you should be comparing it to the MacBook Air which has similar hardware, roughly the same price, the ability to connect external storage, external displays, has USB 3.0, has an SD card slot (on the 13" model).
But the MBA has so much more going for it: PCIe based SDD, Intel HD Graphics 5000 (vs 4400 on the SP2), 802.11ac (vs 802.11n on the SP2), Thunderbolt, a "real" full-sized backlit keyboard, a useable trackpad, the ability to run OS X or Windows, and the trump card, 9 to 12 hours battery life (reportedly 15 hours with Mavericks).
The better WiFi and graphics capabilities and will make no difference for the majority of use cases. The HD 5000 will perform better for gaming of course, but then again you're on OS X... not really too many games available there compared to Windows.
Thunderbolt is nice, but most people will only use it to hook up an external monitor, which you can also do with the Pro 2. The keyboard on the MBA is not full-sized at all and at least the German keyboard layout that Apple provides is a pain in the ass for programming purposes compared to the Windows based layout (though not really a problem with the US layout). The trackpad on the MBA is much better, but the Pro 2 comes with a touch screen and Wacom pen.
Don't forget about the great IPS screen on the Pro 2. The MBA's screen is getting kind of pathetic for 2013, I really hope they up it to Retina in the next revision.
Battery Life is in my opinion however still the biggest disadvantage of the Pro 2.
This seems pretty heavily aimed at Gabe's usecase, which isn't universal. I'm not an artist, but I do create things, and I do it on my iPad sometimes. I don't even hold it against this review for not pointing that out. And for what it's worth, you can code on an iPad, you just need the right tools.
That said, I don't think it's "good enough." It's not a cheap machine: 8GB/256GB model reviewed by Gabe retails for $1,299. It's got a small screen and a keyboard/touchpad combo that, on an Ultrabook, would be considered absolute trash. I think you have to really love that Wacom pen to justify the Surface Pro 2, and that makes it a pretty niche product. Of course, "niche" can be turned into "market-creating" but with continued mis-steps like underwhelming battery life, it's not clear Microsoft can make the "pen tablet PC" market happen.
This isn't a tablet competitor, it's an ultraportable competitor.
e: made a bit more concrete
And like those early smartphones, it's got some growing to do. But the market it's trying to carve out strikes me as a real one with real demand. I'm surprised we're not seeing more doctors and other specialists-on-the-go wielding them.
Much like the HTC Dream was basically a first generation joke, I'm hopeful and very much intend to be carrying one of Surface's offspring in my backpack in a few years time.
I'm excited to see what comes of the Ubuntu tablet distro, but at the same time, they were the ones who made Unity, which isn't really good at anything. So I'm not super optimistic either.
Windows's "metro" UI is obviously touch friendly, but even the desktop can be made touch friendly-ish via its DPI scaling, which I think works pretty well. I haven't been able to get that same usability out of any Linux desktop environment yet. (If someone has, I'd love to know about it!)
I hope Jolla and Sailfish will help in that department.
I'm surprised every single doctor in a hospital doesn't own one of these yet, for example.
And now it's too heavy to carry around all day every day.
And from what I've heard and used, both the touch and type cover aren't "awful" or "terrible". They're not 'good' either, but I'd certainly put them in the 'usuable' category. Would I write a book on it? Hell no, but I'd also be tempted to swap my mac's chiclet keyboard for a mechanical keyboard anyhow. There is certainly room for improvement, but people in HN seem to have an particularly high disdain for the surface's covers... they're not the demon they're made out to be.
If the products competing here are $1000 ultra-protables with pretty great keyboards and $1000 tablets with crappy keyboards, which has the bigger audience?
What is the most accessible creative occupation? Writing? STEM fields? Or drawing? We could draw before the written word existed. We could write before we created more abstracted languages like modern symbolic math.
I think the end game is to include high resolution, precise, accurate stylus input, a'la Wacom technology or something like it.
I cry a little every time I see a Microsoft product with Wacom built in and an equivalent Apple product without it. What I'd really like is something like a Surface 2 running Ubuntu or SuSE, but with an Apple-worthy battery life.
But it has, admittedly, a better shot at doing it than anything else that came before it.
There have definitely been many microsoft products I've seen that were incredibly impressive, but were simply not taken the rest of the way.
Maybe a 3rd party manufacturer can take where the surface is now, and provide that polish, which I think was the goal of the surface anyways. Show what is possible to 3rd parties and let them take the ball the rest of the way. If that can happen, then the surface will have done its job.
It's all a perfect storm of bad decisions the reason why Surface itself has bad battery life.
[1] - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/10/why-does-windows-ha...
In the Surface's defense, it is running a wacom digitizer over a 1080p IPS display. Not only is it pushing 2x the pixels as the 11" MBA, but it's doing it over IPS (up to 15% greater power consumption according to Wiki).
But yes, Windows has much poorer battery life, my speculation is that since Apple targets their hardware to a few small (comparatively) number of hardware permutations, they can take this to their advantage, and power-optimize the shit out of everything.
Here's a question complaining about 1/2 battery life for ubuntu, and an answerer said they were able to match the battery life by using proprietary drivers. http://askubuntu.com/questions/158778/why-does-ubuntu-have-a...
See http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4600.86106.0.... and http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-5000.91978.0....
Although, that said the Surface Pro 2 actually has an HD 4400 which is definitely inferior to the HD 5000, though the difference is not that really huge (probably roughly 20% overall), which in most cases is not enough to make a difference in playability of games - if you're getting 25fps average on the HD 4400, 30fps on the HD 5000 will be noticeably better but still bad IMO, especially in high load scenarios when the framerate dips. Personally I prefer to play with over a 60fps average so that even in more intense scenes it doesn't drop to below 30fps.
And if you're not playing games, it's really not even relevant.
(edit to correct incorrect autocorrect on ... iPad ;-)
I'll agree that most of the market doesn't want that kind of form factor, but two segments in which the convertable tablet has really taken off are in the education and health care industries. I work with a few schools that manage to hand out tablet + stylus + keyboard laptops to all of their students and do pretty well with it.
My school isn't a fan of the Surface due to serviceability issues (non-replaceable battery being a big one) and that it is a great tablet, but gives up some ground in the general-use laptop area to do that. The other schools in our group share the same sort of sentiments.
Why is the battery life bad? It seems like you can get it to last up to 8 hours if you're careful. Gabe was using photoshop which is an energy intensive application and got 6 hours. The new iPad is supposed to get 10 hours if you're careful, so does a difference of 2 hours make the battery life bad? I'd call it acceptable.
The screen looks great, though.
I'm kind of curious now how the Dell XPS 11 turns out. I'm looking for some alternative to MB Air 11", but with better screen and digitizer pen input/hybrid.
After reading Gabe's reaction to the original Surface Pro (and as an artist of sorts myself) I was determined to buy a Surface Pro but was stymied by the awfulness of the keyboard covers (which is silly, since it was the stylus that attracted me, but if I'm getting a do-everything machine, I expect to do everything on it), which I found less useful than the iPad's "glass keyboard".
So far, there are some Sony convertible tablets that almost seem to make the grade, but that's about it.
The screen size is perfect for me. The resolution is phenomenal so I fit more onto it than my old Samsung Series 7, which had 11", same as my MBA. The other problem with 11" is that it's the tipping point for bag size. I like to travel light, and the 10.3" of the Surface fits onto as large a bag as I like to comfortably carry over one shoulder.
Luckily price is not a factor for me.
Its like watching Charlie Brown try to kick the football.
They need to be more concrete and directed in their marketing. IMO, they should be running series of ads targeted to very specific professions.
They are (see video below). They just don't show these much, because boring business is... boring.
Best of all, I have Visual Studio, SQL Server and everything else I need for my job. Oh, and Video, which is awesome. It's the best non-desktop device I've ever used.
So niche it may be, but definitely broader than just pen computing.
For the record, I have a MBA too. It hasn't been switched on since the Surface arrived last week.
Actually, the device that gets you creating in the way most comfortable for one's self is the better tool. You also skipped over the "take notes, and draw diagrams" -- pen computing there.
That might be a great poll - what percentage of HN posts are done with a pen versus dictation (which I do a lot of mine with when I'm on a smart phone) versus keyboard (vast majority) versus pen.
Right now the Wacom tablet is the niche that justifies the high-price for the Pro. Bring it down another $200-$300 and it starts to make inroads into the mass market (where it most certainly is not a player right now)
For those people with neat handwriting, that the recognition algorithms can pick up - I can understand how writing with a pen might be more cnovenient.
By contrast, an iPad won't replace a Newton in this context -- you can't write on it worth a damn, and typing on a glass keyboard is still typing.
I think Microsoft's vision for the Surface as a do-everything computer is admirable, but their execution has been fairly poor thus far, and I suspect it's because the hardware and software aren't there yet.
Does anyone doubt that Apple would release a Surface-like device if they thought it was good enough? I'm sure there are prototypes at Apple dating back years (in fact I saw a demo of a pen-based Duo back in the mid-90s -- between Jobs's first and second comings). Mac OS X already has handwriting recognition and all kinds of supporting infrastructure in it, the difference is that Apple doesn't release products it doesn't think it can sell; Microsoft is willing to experiment and kind of desperate.
How's the handwriting recognition? Evernote integration? What do you use for diagrams? Drawing? Will Inkscape and Gimp run and work with the pen? How does handwriting work when there's no network connectivity?
As for notes, OneNote is by far the best note taking app out there (IMHO), I went an entire year in college without using a single sheet of paper. Though I understand Evernote's appeal as well. (It has always been a bit too heavyweight for me, I just want a really big piece of lined paper and some tabs for organization)
For notes I use my native language, sometimes the language of the country I work in, and I mix in a lot of English as well. I think my android keyboard prediction (SwiftKey) hates me.
In regards to just note taking though, I can tell you that OneNote doesn't have to auto convert your handwriting into text, rather it allows you to keep everything as Ink. OneNote then allows you to search your ink as if it was text, and that is the amazing part! Diagrams, sketches, math equations, etc, can all be searched as if they are a document. Really cool stuff. Again though, I am not sure how well it works across multiple languages. (Now I wish I had a proper Wacom enabled tablet so I could try it and find out!)
(You can of course choose to have everything auto converted into text, but for pure note taking I find leaving things as ink to be far more useful!)
I had a tablet PC, convertable kind, Toshiba.
I was a 'freak' for having such a device, but doing an engineering degree, it was perfect. Equation I scribble down to LATEX yes!
One note is still my favourite note taking program, frankly puts evernote to shame.
I noticed I was the only one in a class of about 200 with one. 3 years later that had changed to eight, based on people asking me.
These things were expensive, I was lucky enough to get some grants for being dyslexic.
I honestly think they are great devices, battery life is now adequate, ultimately a Pro would be my go to university machine, enough power for any engineer that didn't require a rack. Great note taking.
However the price is objectionable. Most uni students I know would waste money on an iPad. Most people who buy iPads don't want a real computer, and RT offers little in apps they use. Outlook?! Why do they want that for their simple emails, its too complex.
I'd be pretty happy with a digitizer, I think, but I wouldn't be able to stand all of the other little quirks of the surface.
I only did that for a year or two before I decided that laptops and note-taking in general were counterproductive and switched to never taking notes at all. I still occasionally took notes on my own time while reading the course material, but I found that paying closer attention instead of trying to write things down ultimately worked better.
(Apple has a very long history in the education space, and now that is paired up with some truly exceptional products. It's a potent mix, at least in theory. In practice, well, you get the LA school district iPad catastrophe...)
To be clear: if the Sony Vaio Duo 13 was using Wacom as the original did, I'd have bought it instead of the Retina 13 (and in addition to the first Surface).
Having a tablet form factor with the hardware to run everything locally and a physical keyboard is exactly what I am looking for. Sure there is the MacBook air which is an awesome device and has its advantages over the Surface 2, but to use it you need to be in a "deployed" state even if it is just on your lap. With a surface you can quickly check up on email or just relax and then deploy when necessary or convenient.
I think the only thing that still would bug me is the touchpad, I haven't used the new keyboard cover but I'm almost certain the touchpad experience is no where close to a MacBook, correct me if I'm wrong because I'd love to hear it. I feel carrying around a bluetooth/usb mouse with it everywhere is going to be required to get a comfortable production experience which would be a nuisance.
But actually as I was plugging a USB hub in anyway, it was easier to just use a cheap USB to VGA adapter. Similarly, there are loads of cheap USB to Ethernet adapters around. You can get away with USB2 devices, they dont need to be USB3 standard. Basically, its a windows laptop so pretty much any USB thing will work with it.
I notice that people make 'usb docking stations' (a docking station that connects via one usb port) but they all have separate power supply. I think there's a gap in the market for an unpowered all-in-one usb docking station, because such things can clearly be made to work.
I just feel that this tablet is more practical and more functional for me.
Like I said, I do have an iPad - a Gen 1 that we got for casual use, and for testing the lone iPad app that I created. It saw a lot more use in its first year than all the years since, and we (wife and I) never got the urge to upgrade. However, we upgrade one or both iPhones each year. I just don't see the iPad as approaching the potential practicality for me the way a Surface Pro does.
Being a student is _more_ than just taking notes in class. First and foremost, I need to be able to do my homework... and for an Engineer, that also means being able to use high-powered mathematical programs.
But not necessarily the Vim / Shell / Apache / MySQL environment which is very useful to Computer Engineers. At least, that sort of stuff is not easily done on a (non-rooted) Android Tablet yet.
* Journalism requires typesetting software. IE: Adobe InDesign.
* Graphic Designers require Photoshop... maybe Maya, 3d Studio Max or Blender as well.
* Other art majors will benefit from pretty much anything in the Adobe Suite: not just Photoshop, but Premier, After Effects (for Video Editing).
* I'd bet that a Communications major would use the same tools as art majors / graphic designers use.
* Architecture majors require CAD of some kind. Ditto with Landscape Architecture majors, Civil Engineers and Mechanical Engineers. Building homes and testing how they look like in virtual environments: turns out to be useful ya know?
* Everyone in the Biology field uses some form of statistical software. (The one that was big in my school was SAS, but IIRC there are lots of competitors)
* Actually, to hammer the above point even more, any subject that ever touches upon advanced statistics more or less requires training in SAS. So not only Math/Statistics majors, but Business, Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Health Policy (with potential applications into nursing...)... a lot of people use SAS.
* Any "lab" science practically requires Labview. Be it Physics, Chemistry, or Materials.
Basically, every major except English in the top 10 list requires advanced programs that run on Laptops. For many of these purposes, I guess a $2000 Macbook Pro would be usable... but the $899 Surface 2 just seems like a better buy in comparison.
IIRC, even English majors touch upon specialized software in the form of Library Management Systems, but I'm not very familiar with those.
It had a nice engraving, but still.
I post these because, despite my own preference for Apple, he represents a very specific demographic of power users and his opinion is very well thought out.
I'd argue that not being a power user is what makes him such a good spokesman for Microsoft.
The good. - I love being able to have this device sit flat on my lap similar to a tablet. - Having a touchscreen on a full fledge PC is pretty darn useful.
The Bad. - My qualms are mainly with the Windows 8.1 more than anything. - It seems by default Chrome opens as a tablet app. I downloaded a software, clicked the installer and nothing happens... turns out I had to hit the windows button and get back into desktop mode to give the installer administrative access to install. - Chrome app (desktop mode) in high res DPI is not compatible with touch. Hell, I'm finding a lot of apps aren't. - How I haven't missed the registry... uninstalling an app, doesn't really mean its uninstalled, there's still reminisce of the app lying around. - If you connect your device to skydrive, you have to use the same password you use online to login. WTF? The best part, there's a character limit restriction on the password so you can't even have a complicated one, but why would you? You wouldn't remember it. (Yes there is a pin option to unlock the device, but at times you have to put in your full password). - The UI is not intuitive at all. I gave the device to my friend who primarily uses Windows and he had a hard time with the metro UI. - I rarely find myself using the tablet mode. I almost wish I could disable it... apps by default actually open in the tablet mode... Double click an image, hey it swaps over to the tablet mode. Great... - This sucker attracts fingerprints like no other.... my MBA still looks pristine after 1.5 years... where as I've already gotten three or four light scratches on the Surface by merely placing the device on my table...
Despite all the shortcomings, I have to say, I'm still loving the Surface. Now if only Apple would put OS X into the iPad form factor and I'd be sold.
I don't think it is. I'm no fan-boy either - I use Kubuntu and the only MS think I have is a mouse (the only part of my system that doesn't work, needs replugging half the time to be recognised on startup, only half the time though).
The "your favourite apps, next to your favourite apps" didn't make sense to me without checking back - so they allow a fullscreen app next to a phone-mode app. Seems ... interesting.
Just make sure you don't take any naughty pics or you might get your Live account banned.
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-skydrive-reddit-ama-in...
"You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, distribute or facilitate distribution of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data, information or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that: - depicts nudity of any sort including full or partial human nudity or nudity in non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga."
And over past experience? http://www.neowin.net/news/man-says-microsoft-blocked-him-be...
http://abarristerswife.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/exhibit-a-th...
UK, but I can see this happening elsewhere.
I think they really want to pioneer a mobile form factor which works with Windows. They need to have people inside the tent telling their UI people what to do. No-one else is going to take the risk, because it's there's a big danger that other vendors will copy them once they've done the hard yards, and they don't want to risk Microsoft screwing up the interface for Windows 9.
Eventually, MS will get there - they'll have a great x86 tablet, which can run Windows and Office. Then the OEMs will copy it, and sell it at a lower price point, keeping Wintel (and the Windows App store) competitive with iOS and Android.
Microsoft deserves the blame. Why they saddled such a powerful device with the same brand as the failed SurfaceRT and undesirable Windows8/Metro is a mystery to me.
Actually it's not a mystery. It's pure hubris. They thought they could brute-force the market by sheer will.
Not saying i agree entirely with this comment, but they haven't been proven that they can't "brute-force the market by sheer will" as long as they're still in the game. Some would say that's how they won the first OS wars.
If MSFT were more aggressive in pricing the Surface units then those Chromebook "experiments" (dare I say "hobbies"?) the big OEMs are running might also get more aggressive..
This is exactly the problem with my Ipad 2. It is just the opposite.
When I've tried to update the device to Windows 8.1 the WLAN driver refused to work and I had to update it from another computer.
Using it as a tablet is okay, but it's very heavy and big.
I hope the Surface Pro is better - but the Samsung is really underwhelming. I'd rather buy a small desktop or a tablet.
I'm part of a company which sells hardware/software/other assorted technology solutions to businesses. That's what we do. We are the technology providers for literally 80% of the businesses in the town we are in.
There is no way we can buy a lot of say 10 Surface Pros and resell them without going through one of the three retail stores (and adding another block of GST + general markup).
Because of that, we can't on sell them to business, users with money won't use them and they'll get barely anywhere.
IPads were originally marketed as fun devices for on-the-go "things", so people were happy to go and buy one for themselves to use personally. Kind of expanded to the point where so many people had them that app developers had the market to go towards businesses. - If the Surface Pro 2 is intended for business at all, it needs to let the people that sell to businesses get their hands on them.
/2c
For obvious reasons, the RT/non-pro/whatever they're calling the bastard ARM version, is of zero interest to me at any price point.
It would be a high-end netbook replacement for me (of which I get tremendous usage out of), not a desktop replacement. For the kind of money the SP2 is at, I can get an excellent desktop or a really nice laptop. The touch-screen and stylus support would be a cool enabler, but not so much a differentiation that I'd be willing to part with more than $50-75 premium over a normal tablet.
That, and the slightly slow CPU (for development work) are what is keeping me from getting one. Other than that, it is a very interesting and attractive device as an alternative to a high(ish)-end laptop.
On the go would be the biggest difference, and though I like the idea of the Surface 2 Pro, Microsoft has yet to convince me that it would be a better device than either of my current machines.
Why do folks care about a $500 cost difference in the main computing tool that makes their daily bread?
Seems like it's a matter of a few hours' worth of work for most of us. (Don't mean to sound arrogant, either.)
If you're comparing my Lenovo to my MB Air, the price difference is significant because I prefer my Lenovo, and therefore, the cost of my MB Air isn't the $500, but the full $1100, as the only reason I have it is to package an iOS app occasionally.
meanwhile creative types buy microsoft hardware and tries to say how it is a machine for creators and not consumers.
and jobs is not even cold. (bye karma. but i cant resist a bad taste joke)
Imagine partnering with Wacom and making a portable OS X Cintiq...
As for pressure sensitivity, Apple doesn’t need to build that into iPads, Wacom already sells pens for iPad that have 2048 pressure levels and palm rejection. [1]
[1] = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runge%E2%80%93Kutta_methods
Also, on a non-tablet device, Windows 8 actually feels like a downgrade because of the many annoying UI quirks it's throwing at you. You're better off sticking with Windows 7.
> Full disclosure MS did give me this Surface Pro 2 since I was so vocal about my love of the first one.
So the lesson here is that if you like/pretend to like Microsoft's products in your reviews, they will give you free stuff?
That's not an attack on the author here, but on Microsoft. They find out which reviewers praised their devices most, and then send them free stuff, so they're more likely to review positively their future products, too, knowing that they will probably be "rewarded" afterwards, again.
Microsoft would send out free devices to all kinds of reviewers - including tech news sites that may or may not review it favourably. Just like Apple does, just like Samsung does, just like Google does.
> so they're more likely to review positively their future products, too, knowing that they will probably be "rewarded" afterwards, again.
That's a fairly big assumption you're making there - bribing future reviews. As if no one who has written a poor review has been gifted the next generation with the hopes of redeeming themselves.
This is like finding out someone still thinks Santa is real.
"Honestly though if I want to play games I’m going to Steam not the MS app store."
Maybe Valve has less to worry about than it thinks?
With the Surface Pro 2, which is only ~$100 more than a Wacom Cintiq, you get a comparable painting experience, and the additional benefits of having an portable laptop.
I think it comes down to what you intend to use if for and from that, how to draw your comparisons and justify whether it is right for you or not.
Oh, and calibration of pen in the corners still feel off even after the 130/272 pt calibration task which gets ultimately ignored by wacom feel drivers.
Edit: Tomb Raider & Saints Row 3 run at playable framerates in low settings when in battery mode (as opposed to charging mode); this is important if gaming is an important data point to you. When people have been discussing gaming performance, I think reviewers have been tethered to an outlet, which probably is more generous with allocating hardware to games. The one USB slot and Windows 8 were fine w/ third party xbox 360 controller bluetooth dongles after installing official drivers. snes8x (the metro app version of snes9x) makes for a fun plane ride. :) OH, and audio coming out of the surface pro is surprisingly good for an ultraportable. As a tablet, the weight balance in portrait mode feels off but web browsing is pretty fantastic in portrait. On some sites that aggressively optimize for the fold, you might even see some significant white space at the bottom of a page. Kindle books (mobi) not purchased from amazon (e.g. O'Reilly, PragProg, etc) aren't supported in the app. But if you buy ebooks from a great publisher like PragProg you have them in epub and PDF format. For programming books, epub doesn't seem to work out well, even in the popular Freda app. Then again, without the bells/whistles, I've enjoyed the code formatting advantages of reading PDF files. If you're wetware supports it, the bizarre aspect ratio affords for a great PDF book reading experience when reading 2 pages per screen in landscape mode.
It is basically an "I like Surface Pro because it isn't an innovative product" review where the reviewer could have had the same experience with a convertible ultrabook or previous generations of Window tablet computers.
How is this not getting flagged as spam?
I'm fine with that, as long as the person doing the writeup makes it clear he was comped gear. The ATP (Marco/Casey/Siracusa) crew recently scored some synology gear, and I, while I'm sure it impacted their objectivity, it was still interesting hearing about how they were using it / configuring it.
Anyways - nobody who reads Gruber frequently would suggest he isn't partisan, and he doesn't pretend otherwise.
He admitted he's not a computer guy and then went on to describe why the surface pro 2 is a perfect device for a regular user like himself.
That in itself is a refreshing change from the typical technical specification arguments that happen here when new hardware comes out.
I get that its easy to throw out quick one liners but I think you'll find you get more out of this site if you actually offer something of substance.
Edit: Anyone downvoting this obviously missed his previous psot where he talks about how MS flew to to NYC and wined and dined him.
They even have a history of only allowing advertisers whose products they enjoy advertise on their website as well. These adverts are almost always games. They have no problem lampooning 'AAA' games with large advertising budgets if they think the product is crap. However, if they enjoy the product they have no problem supporting it either by doing custom content for the developers, which is put off on a specific section on their website and given the disclaimer that it is content paid for by developers.
Mike, in his time as a Surface user, has been very explicit about what he enjoyed about the device and what he didn't enjoy. He has also wrote up blog posts about what Microsoft sent him for free or where they sent him and has given his readers full disclosure about his relationship with Microsoft.
I think it's rather silly to lampoon a person, based off of an article of him giving a favourable review of a product that you think is bad or dubious.