Surface Pro - First Impressions
So I picked up a Surface Pro on its release a couple days ago. Funny enough the Microsoft Store in Corte Madera was fairly empty and there was no trouble at all picking one up in 128GB (plenty of stock). Guess they aren't very good at marketing.
I installed pretty much everything I normally keep on my laptop onto it without a hitch. Virtually no cons so far. Runs Photoshop, Premiere, FL Studio, Visual Studio, WinSCP, etc all just fine. Type cover keyboard works great and I'm able to run anything I normally do on my regular desktop. If you don't like Windows 8, you can just download ClassicShell which brings back the Start menu and lets you switch to Desktop mode permanently, making it essentially Windows 7. Even the lack of 3G/4G is easily fixed by tethering it via Bluetooth to the cellphone in my pocket.
The only thing that bugged me so far is the type cover sometimes is not responsive; noticed this occurred the most when the device was left charging overnight or running on the carpet for a few hours. Reconnecting doesn't help; usually it just resolves itself if you turn off the unit for some time to cool off. Maybe heat or static charge bugs it or something, I'm not sure, but the few times that happened were when the tablet got warm lying flat on carpet or on someone's lap.
*Update 20130218: Contacted MS's Surface team about the keyboard issue and they promptly shipped me a new Surface Pro. New one works fine so far, so no more issues there.
Otherwise pretty content here, don't think I'll be bothering to look for competing products (currently none out in release). Been waiting a long time for a real upgrade to my existing Dell M1330 laptop that would be significantly lighter and still as powerful for video editing etc. The stylus and touchscreen are just pluses on top of that.
In retrospect, the lack of demand in the store and all the bad press just makes it more perplexing whether I'm missing out on some defect of the product or something. I don't really understand the comparison to regular tablets (lack of apps, etc) since the functionality is entirely different with it being a full-featured computer, but Microsoft supposedly only stocking 1-2 Surface Pros in some other retail stores around the country doesn't really help its own case either.
I installed pretty much everything I normally keep on my laptop onto it without a hitch. Virtually no cons so far. Runs Photoshop, Premiere, FL Studio, Visual Studio, WinSCP, etc all just fine. Type cover keyboard works great and I'm able to run anything I normally do on my regular desktop. If you don't like Windows 8, you can just download ClassicShell which brings back the Start menu and lets you switch to Desktop mode permanently, making it essentially Windows 7. Even the lack of 3G/4G is easily fixed by tethering it via Bluetooth to the cellphone in my pocket.
The only thing that bugged me so far is the type cover sometimes is not responsive; noticed this occurred the most when the device was left charging overnight or running on the carpet for a few hours. Reconnecting doesn't help; usually it just resolves itself if you turn off the unit for some time to cool off. Maybe heat or static charge bugs it or something, I'm not sure, but the few times that happened were when the tablet got warm lying flat on carpet or on someone's lap.
*Update 20130218: Contacted MS's Surface team about the keyboard issue and they promptly shipped me a new Surface Pro. New one works fine so far, so no more issues there.
Otherwise pretty content here, don't think I'll be bothering to look for competing products (currently none out in release). Been waiting a long time for a real upgrade to my existing Dell M1330 laptop that would be significantly lighter and still as powerful for video editing etc. The stylus and touchscreen are just pluses on top of that.
In retrospect, the lack of demand in the store and all the bad press just makes it more perplexing whether I'm missing out on some defect of the product or something. I don't really understand the comparison to regular tablets (lack of apps, etc) since the functionality is entirely different with it being a full-featured computer, but Microsoft supposedly only stocking 1-2 Surface Pros in some other retail stores around the country doesn't really help its own case either.
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