I do like the Surface 3; it's a lovely piece of hardware, Windows 8.1 is an improvement, and for a desktop OS, the touch interface is pretty good. It's the best Windows computer I've ever owned, but I still turn to my Linux laptop for coding; the tooling and packaging for the languages I use just isn't really there on Windows.
That said, they need to improve their messaging - this is the first time, as a Surface 3 owner, that I've heard about this Surface Hub app that lets me adjust my pen sensitivity (and I've wanted that for a while!).
>"but I still turn to my Linux laptop for coding; the tooling and packaging for the languages I use just isn't really there on Windows"
What have worked for me so far is having an Ubuntu VM on Hyper-V. I works really well and I have never noticed that is virtualized instead of being running natively.
If I still ran Windows as my OS, I'd use a Surface 3 as my primary device. It really does strike a great balance of power user features, but that makes it hard to market unfortunately.
It's a nice toy. I have the big bad 8gb RAM, 500gb SSD that work paid for. As a pretty much exclusively .net/visual studio dev, the experience for development, while the machine is powerful enough to handle it, is utterly abysmal. Visual Studio and SQL server (which uses the VS shell) does not support touch screens in any sensible or usable way. I'm not asking for gesture rich smart windows here, just being able to scroll a text editor with one finger. Every other MS app on there seems ok, just not the VS based ones. Nothing but text selecting when you're expecting to scroll. The physical keyboard is too flexible and cramped to use on your lap - despite all the marketing videos claims, and probably my single biggest annoyance is that when that physical typecover is installed, it still pops up the soft keyboard every time you touch a textbox, anywhere. That, and if your soft keyboard isn't set up right, many times it will take maximized or docked left/right windows and resize them, only to leave them resized once the keyboard goes away again.
So while I love to hear people say it's good for "creating content", as long as that content is a drawing, that might be true, but if that "content" is any kind of written work, spreadsheet, or coding task, it's almost useless.
Also, the version of OneNote that comes with it is so handicapped that it also borders on useless. For the price of these things and the advertisement of having Office on them, the pared down versions were a big disappointment.
Your complaints in the first paragraph, while valid, come from trying to use VS and/or other text input tools with touch - (correct me if I'm wrong).
I'd be interested to also hear about your experiences with using it 'normally'. I.e. if you just put the surface+keyboard on a desk or your lap and treat it as a laptop without using touch, how usable is it for VS and the likes?
I've never had this problem, but I've heard its a bug in
chrome on surfaces (I'm using Firefox). Are you talking about textboxes in web pages, or textboxes in VS?
edit: also the SP line was never advertised as having office on it. But I agree the presentation of the differences between earlier surfaces was confusing.
Kudos to Microsoft for going out of their way to support and improve an important product after launch. Microsoft certainly has a history of doing this with their larger initiatives like XBox, but in the PC industry, this kind of post product improvement isn't so common.
When was the last time you saw Dell really iterate on a product post launch in a meaningful way.
To revive the PC market, Microsoft needs to do what Apple did for the last 15 or so years - stop treating PC like a commodity market where you ship beige boxes to customers without much care to differentiation or a delightful end user experience.
Surface is easily the most interesting PC I've seen in probably 10 years in Windows' ecosystem. I hope Microsoft sticks with it.
Delightful end user experience you say? I happened to be visiting my father and to my surprise he pulled out a Surface 3. He turned it on and it ... spent 90 minutes rolling back some service pack because Dad had had the temerity to put the device to sleep when the service pack was being installed. Needless to say, all the end users in the family were delighted by this endless administrivia.
I am quite impressed with the surface pro 3. But because of their awful marketing I'm actually embarrassed to admit I own a surface pro 3. When those terrible commercials come on when I'm around friends I feel compelled to explain the merits of the device.
Since I suspect not many artists lurk around here, let me just say this: the newly updated pressure curves make a _huge_ difference. It was one of the few complaints I had with the device. As it is, it's an almost perfect tool for artists. Say what you will about Microsoft, but this is a fine machine.
Have they improved the pen tracking? For example, using a ruler can you slowly draw straight lines at a 45 degree angle? [0]
In my experience with the SP3, the N-Trig pen tracking was far inferior to the Wacom pen in the earlier Surfaces. The poor tracking made my handwriting unacceptably sloppy-looking. I'm surprised artists can use it, but maybe you use mostly faster and longer pen strokes?
I'd really like to get a surface pro 3 at some point for on the og type stuff. I really like literally sketching things out and when I tried the surface at best buy I loved the feel. I'm doing a lot to learn higher math that I never did and it seemed pretty great for that too
As a side note, one thing I've noticed on hn is actually a lot more love for what Microsoft does right than I might have first predicted. That's not to say that it's all great all the time but level heads opinions seem to surface pretty quickly. I'm not in love with ms myself, but I really like and appreciate a lot of what they're responsible for, which includes the surface. Going to have to get one.
As an artist, I still found the surface pro 3 heats up after using it for longer than 30 minutes, making drawing on the screen uncomfortable. I still have my surface pro 1, and it's usable with a glove, but I generally don't like drawing with gloves.
It's not a problem that I have with my Cintiq Companion Hybrid. I hope Microsoft fixes the heat issue at some point.
This is the reason I hope Apple guys mac a pen tablet, they are the only ones that take heating seriously, even at the application level.
Microsoft has so much legacy code when the mantra was "it does not matter how inefficient the computer is if development is fast", or "people just can add bigger batteries to laptops and the problem is solved".
I have created a lot of content (markdown, TeX, drawings, HTML, Python code) on my iPad 1, and I am following through with my newer iPad Air. If I have a very long piece to write I always go to my laptop, but for revisions or for initial drafting I much prefer the iPad. My experience with Android devices is shorter, but they also seem decent to create text and in some cases, decent enough drawings.
If suddenly my laptop stopped working the only thing I'd miss from day-to-day work would be compiling go. With a VPS, I could easily work with only my iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard.
That's a silly attitude that even Microsoft isn't pushing anymore. How do you rationalize it against the rumored upcoming Office support for iOS and Android?
"Other tablets are thinner, sleeker, lighter, or easier to use for CONSUMING content, but they're a poor substitute for creating content."
This is what was said of the graphical interface at first, when all the serious applications for creating content were on the command line.
Who uses VisiCalc, Lotus 123 or Wordperfect in the command line anymore?
About creating content, it depends on what you do for a living.
I prefer to talk to my wordprocessor than typing, I prefer to stand with my tablet in my hand when I give a presentation that a computer. A tablet is much better for multiple people looking at the screen that having to move the people to a fixed screen or a laptop with fixed movement.
Just today I was at a Microsoft Store and played with a Surface Pro 3 for the first time. I was quite impressed and almost bought it but when I looked up on the internet about running Ubuntu on it, there are few un-resolved issues. Such as the bluetooth doesn't work or wifi only works for the 2.4GHz networks. Overall I was impressed with the hardware, and would totally get one in the future when it's possible to run Ubuntu on it.
Nice! I bought Surface Pro, thanks to Penny Arcade. I have 17" laptop with intuos 5 for heavy painting, but surface with manga studio is my go to for sketching and drawing. Manga studio with its brush engine really simulates real life drawing way better than PS. Specially on Surface Pro.
I decided to go with surface 1, because of the price and how next ones have not evolved so much. Around 400 euros gets you a decent, quite comparable with the latest ones. I would prefer bigger screen, but it is not 500 euro difference need.
couple of things that still annoy me:
-border accuracy with the pen is awful
-touch keyboard is useless rubbish. Even on-screen is better, I didn't know it doesn't have real buttons before I purchased it.
-original pen has only one button(would not be problem without the next one)
-no intuitive way of using modifier keys while drawing/missing modifier keys and this slows everything way down. Maybe there is way to remap volume buttons, haven't tried it yet.
If you are thinking of getting one, take get surface 1 off from the ebay. It is cheap, if you don't like it, you don't lose money when reselling. It is not a tablet, it is a laptop, with tablet capabilities.
Have had my SP3 for more than a month now and I'm so happy I bought one. I've seen the previous models and read Penny Arcade reviews previously and was never quite sold on it. I went to MS's TechEd conference and had a play with one.. Everything just worked. It's better than any laptop I've owned and more convenient to boot. I wasn't even sold on Windows 8 prior to this, but now - bring on the change!
The drawbacks: It runs hot. If you're watching a movie, it'll be fanning full speed. Having screen brightness to max will drain your battery in <4 hours. The kick stand is great but after a month of use it's no longer got that perfect rigid movement it once had, it moves slightly (< 2cm on the end) from what position I put it in. Paying separately for the keyboard which in my opinion is essential, and too pricey was annoying - but it's good quality and very nice to use. The end of the pen nib wears easily, however you can contact MS Support for free replacements.
That's it. In the scheme of things that's piss all drawback for a mobile device. I'd put the engineering behind it next to that of my Nexus 5 phone. It just works.
The thing I disliked about my surface (owned a surface pro 1) was the lack of touch integration and Windows.
Touch integration - someone mentioned for VS/SQL server that the touch is horrible to even view text. The reality is that almost every application is broken by default. Only recently have Chrome and Firefox been useful with touch. The beautiful experience in IE and Explorer were the only places where that happened. It really sucked to be held back from doing something because the system started to fight me.
Windows - The above complain is more specific, but this is more my disdain for the Windows Platform. There aren't good touch OS alternatives to Windows for the surface, so Windows stays, and it's not very good at open source things. I prefer Linux, or even OS X like I am using now, over Windows and the surface.
~That said, I do like the surface if these things can be fixed
Pros of the surface:
- The pen really was amazing, OneNote used it perfectly
- Gaming wasn't perfect, but it was pretty powerful for the size as well
... There's more but I need to do things. I've listed my complaints.
I've been taking a real hard look at it's gaming capabilities. Technically it's sound specifications wise that indicates it shouldn't have major problems with gaming with the exception of the Intel Iris Pro GPU which in many demos has show to be a pretty capable graphics processor. Yet there are details of the GPU that simply don't make sense for example how can it score so low on general firestrike benchmarks yet run League of Legends and Assassin's creed at 90FPS. It's even been tested playing WoW at 120 FPS in some instances yet a game that wouldn't at first guess be so demanding like Diablo 3 runs at a unexplainable low 20FPS, what makes that specific game so different? My guess is Particle or general physics which the GPU doesn't handle well however Starcraft 2 seems to run just fine which in my option should be the same as Diablo 3. Also most games are designed to default to CPU processing if bullet or PhysX options are not available. Maybe someone else can unravel this mystery.
It could have something to do with CPU throttling, though I'm sure there are other factors at play. Once the temperature crosses the threshold, performance will deteriorate significantly. My guess is the better performing games operating below threshold.
I have heard that Ubuntu works "OK" (which I interpret as "barely tolerable") on a Surface Pro 3. Does anyone have firsthand experience with that or another Linux distro on that hardware?
I have also heard of people running Ubuntu via VirtualBox or HyperV on a Surface Pro 3, which I'd expect to work as well as anything else.
I've been using a Surface Pro 3 for a few days. I bought it to eventually replace my laptop of 4 years, a ThinkPad W500 running Linux (Ubuntu, then Linux Mint Debian Edition).
For now I'm using it with Windows 8.1, and Ubuntu under VirtualBox. Supposedly Hyper-V would run faster but it disables Connected Standby so I'm sticking with VirtualBox until I get around to installing Ubuntu for dual-boot.
First thing I did in Windows was disable indexing and other background processes and it runs quiet and just warm most of the time (i7, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD). I'm happy with it in this aspect, the fan comes up some times but so does the W500, and the noise is much less intrusive. The T41 and W500 I've used have an annoying "yaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" sound, worse for the T41 in my recollection, but the Surface has a constant white noise that bothers me much less.
Then I installed Firefox, GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, and Emacs. They work very well. Still no pressure sensitivity in GIMP, even after installing N-Trig's WinTab drivers, both 64 and 32 bit versions, so I would not lose anything by using them under Linux, but the graphics under VirtualBox is quite slow, even with 3D acceleration enabled.
The pen is very accurate, the smaller parallax compared to Wacom helps in using it as a mouse, but for freehand drawing it's still worse, compared to a Wacom Intuos 3 (external USB) and to a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. I tried using the Galaxy Note as my main computer since I'm compiling in remote machines most of the time anyway, but I'm very disappointed with Android. Linux console applications work fine after you install one of the Debian chroots, but I've tried a GIMP-Inkscape-Xserver[1] bundle app for Android and the re-drawing is uselessly slow.
The biggest problem with the pen, now that pressure curves can be adjusted, is the wavy diagonal lines. This is not visible at 1:1 zoom, but when drawing freehand in Inkscape, when you zoom in it's absolutely obvious and you need to adjust the spline handles everywhere. I normally draw curves by adding the points one by one though, so for me it's fine.
I find the type cover excellent given the constraints. It's not as good as the W500, sure, but it's good enough for constant writing and programming with Emacs. It's better than the ThinkPad Tablet Folio Keyboard (USB) that I modified to remove the cover part. I'm considering getting a ThinkPad Compact USB keyboard because some of my usage involves positioning the tablet as a monitor, separated from the keyboard.
The touch screen is great and it's surprisingly easy to use normal applications just with your fingers. Not great, but I find it much more accurate than the Galaxy Note.
I've tried other combinations before to have both a retina-class display and Linux in a portable package: Toshiba AC-100 with Lubuntu + iPad 3 which was OK for LaTeX and then visualizing and browsing in the iPad, Samsung Chromebook 3 (ARM) + iPad which was an improvement for browsing on the laptop and console use (Ubuntu with crouton) and still allowed me to use LUKS encrypted external storage which Android doesn't, then Galaxy Note 10.1 with Debian chroot as mentioned above, and now the Surface.
My impression is that once I get it to boot in Linux with the type cover [2], bluetooth and 5GHz WiFi working it'll finally cover all my needs.
Do you think that this would make sense for a typical Linux tiling window manager / text mode user?
The form factor is great. I'd like something that i can place in my desk, a bit far away from me, and attach a usb keyboard to. Much better ergonomics than a laptop.
For occasional use, I can use a soft keyboard when it's converted to tablet mode.
I still think the Pro 2 is a better compromise, esp. when you consider the price difference these days. You can get an i5 128GB for around 1/2 the price of the Pro 3 i7. The i5 doesn't get hot, too.
It wouldn't cost much to hire some recent illustration or design school grads and have them do nothing but test the Surface all day and give feature and usability suggestions. Asking a busy person like the Penny Arcade artist to offer suggestions right before the ship date, and then use his suggestions in post-ship date fixes is just half assed.
No. I don't think Ubuntu can be installed with all required drivers to run properly. But that's more a guess. Also, the GUI of Windows 8.1 is quite nice for hybrid touch/mouse usage. So, for best and easiest GUI (touch or mouse)interaction Win 8.1 is better, but:
Linux shines with it's shells. The bash is by far the most productive environment I've ever used. Just install Virtual Box and run Ubuntu in it.
I really disagree with how MS pushes this device (laptop + tablet).
IMHO it's a lot better to look at it like a desktop machine which can transform to a tablet.
Instead of buying the type cover, think using the cash on the docking station instead. 8gigs RAM + i5/7 + SSD + 2 monitors + ethernet + full keyboard and a mouse. And you can unplug it to read/annotate pdfs, write OneNotes in meetings and other tablet perks.
If you can afford it, buy the cover too. It's nice in some situations where you might need the keyboard on the go, although I wouldn't expect too much from it.
OTOH, I really wish they released a Service Pack 2 for Windows 7. It takes over 4 hours to download and install all the updates since SP1. I understand they want all of us to upgrade to Windows 8, but not at the cost of making existing user's life difficult
[+] [-] andrewgodwin|11 years ago|reply
That said, they need to improve their messaging - this is the first time, as a Surface 3 owner, that I've heard about this Surface Hub app that lets me adjust my pen sensitivity (and I've wanted that for a while!).
[+] [-] pmelendez|11 years ago|reply
What have worked for me so far is having an Ubuntu VM on Hyper-V. I works really well and I have never noticed that is virtualized instead of being running natively.
[+] [-] girvo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wlesieutre|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bbarn|11 years ago|reply
So while I love to hear people say it's good for "creating content", as long as that content is a drawing, that might be true, but if that "content" is any kind of written work, spreadsheet, or coding task, it's almost useless.
Also, the version of OneNote that comes with it is so handicapped that it also borders on useless. For the price of these things and the advertisement of having Office on them, the pared down versions were a big disappointment.
[+] [-] stinos|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gcb0|11 years ago|reply
even on a regular touch pad you can't scroll with one finger.
on a text editor is pretty much rather move the cursor/select with one finger
[+] [-] codeulike|11 years ago|reply
I've never had this problem, but I've heard its a bug in chrome on surfaces (I'm using Firefox). Are you talking about textboxes in web pages, or textboxes in VS?
edit: also the SP line was never advertised as having office on it. But I agree the presentation of the differences between earlier surfaces was confusing.
[+] [-] programminggeek|11 years ago|reply
When was the last time you saw Dell really iterate on a product post launch in a meaningful way.
To revive the PC market, Microsoft needs to do what Apple did for the last 15 or so years - stop treating PC like a commodity market where you ship beige boxes to customers without much care to differentiation or a delightful end user experience.
Surface is easily the most interesting PC I've seen in probably 10 years in Windows' ecosystem. I hope Microsoft sticks with it.
[+] [-] thrownaway2424|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sixothree|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noahbradley|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greeneggs|11 years ago|reply
In my experience with the SP3, the N-Trig pen tracking was far inferior to the Wacom pen in the earlier Surfaces. The poor tracking made my handwriting unacceptably sloppy-looking. I'm surprised artists can use it, but maybe you use mostly faster and longer pen strokes?
[0] http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-su...
[+] [-] doorhammer|11 years ago|reply
As a side note, one thing I've noticed on hn is actually a lot more love for what Microsoft does right than I might have first predicted. That's not to say that it's all great all the time but level heads opinions seem to surface pretty quickly. I'm not in love with ms myself, but I really like and appreciate a lot of what they're responsible for, which includes the surface. Going to have to get one.
[+] [-] elevenfist|11 years ago|reply
It's not a problem that I have with my Cintiq Companion Hybrid. I hope Microsoft fixes the heat issue at some point.
[+] [-] iancarroll|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Htsthbjig|11 years ago|reply
Microsoft has so much legacy code when the mantra was "it does not matter how inefficient the computer is if development is fast", or "people just can add bigger batteries to laptops and the problem is solved".
[+] [-] hayksaakian|11 years ago|reply
Other tablets are thinner, sleeker, lighter, or easier to use for CONSUMING content, but they're a poor substitute for creating content.
[+] [-] RBerenguel|11 years ago|reply
If suddenly my laptop stopped working the only thing I'd miss from day-to-day work would be compiling go. With a VPS, I could easily work with only my iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard.
[+] [-] tdicola|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akerl_|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Htsthbjig|11 years ago|reply
This is what was said of the graphical interface at first, when all the serious applications for creating content were on the command line.
Who uses VisiCalc, Lotus 123 or Wordperfect in the command line anymore?
About creating content, it depends on what you do for a living.
I prefer to talk to my wordprocessor than typing, I prefer to stand with my tablet in my hand when I give a presentation that a computer. A tablet is much better for multiple people looking at the screen that having to move the people to a fixed screen or a laptop with fixed movement.
[+] [-] diptanu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DocG|11 years ago|reply
I decided to go with surface 1, because of the price and how next ones have not evolved so much. Around 400 euros gets you a decent, quite comparable with the latest ones. I would prefer bigger screen, but it is not 500 euro difference need. couple of things that still annoy me:
-border accuracy with the pen is awful
-touch keyboard is useless rubbish. Even on-screen is better, I didn't know it doesn't have real buttons before I purchased it.
-original pen has only one button(would not be problem without the next one)
-no intuitive way of using modifier keys while drawing/missing modifier keys and this slows everything way down. Maybe there is way to remap volume buttons, haven't tried it yet.
If you are thinking of getting one, take get surface 1 off from the ebay. It is cheap, if you don't like it, you don't lose money when reselling. It is not a tablet, it is a laptop, with tablet capabilities.
[+] [-] dpark|11 years ago|reply
This is really bizarre advice, especially given that most of your complaints do not apply to the Surface Pro 3.
"border accuracy with the pen is awful" - SP3 uses an entirely different pen technology
"touch keyboard is useless rubbish" - Get the type cover instead. I'm pretty sure the touch cover isn't even manufactured for the SP3.
"original pen has only one button" - Not the case for the SP3.
Disclosure: Microsoft employee
[+] [-] Mandatum|11 years ago|reply
The drawbacks: It runs hot. If you're watching a movie, it'll be fanning full speed. Having screen brightness to max will drain your battery in <4 hours. The kick stand is great but after a month of use it's no longer got that perfect rigid movement it once had, it moves slightly (< 2cm on the end) from what position I put it in. Paying separately for the keyboard which in my opinion is essential, and too pricey was annoying - but it's good quality and very nice to use. The end of the pen nib wears easily, however you can contact MS Support for free replacements.
That's it. In the scheme of things that's piss all drawback for a mobile device. I'd put the engineering behind it next to that of my Nexus 5 phone. It just works.
[+] [-] cportela|11 years ago|reply
Touch integration - someone mentioned for VS/SQL server that the touch is horrible to even view text. The reality is that almost every application is broken by default. Only recently have Chrome and Firefox been useful with touch. The beautiful experience in IE and Explorer were the only places where that happened. It really sucked to be held back from doing something because the system started to fight me.
Windows - The above complain is more specific, but this is more my disdain for the Windows Platform. There aren't good touch OS alternatives to Windows for the surface, so Windows stays, and it's not very good at open source things. I prefer Linux, or even OS X like I am using now, over Windows and the surface.
~That said, I do like the surface if these things can be fixed Pros of the surface: - The pen really was amazing, OneNote used it perfectly - Gaming wasn't perfect, but it was pretty powerful for the size as well ... There's more but I need to do things. I've listed my complaints.
(screw reading through what I wrote. Post!)
[+] [-] namsterdamus|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pragmar|11 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC8rCeDMqFw
[+] [-] fiatmoney|11 years ago|reply
I have also heard of people running Ubuntu via VirtualBox or HyperV on a Surface Pro 3, which I'd expect to work as well as anything else.
[+] [-] serf|11 years ago|reply
use of a touch-screen centric DE/WM (unity) would be advised, but other than that it should be OK.
[+] [-] AlbertoGP|11 years ago|reply
For now I'm using it with Windows 8.1, and Ubuntu under VirtualBox. Supposedly Hyper-V would run faster but it disables Connected Standby so I'm sticking with VirtualBox until I get around to installing Ubuntu for dual-boot.
First thing I did in Windows was disable indexing and other background processes and it runs quiet and just warm most of the time (i7, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD). I'm happy with it in this aspect, the fan comes up some times but so does the W500, and the noise is much less intrusive. The T41 and W500 I've used have an annoying "yaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu" sound, worse for the T41 in my recollection, but the Surface has a constant white noise that bothers me much less.
Then I installed Firefox, GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, and Emacs. They work very well. Still no pressure sensitivity in GIMP, even after installing N-Trig's WinTab drivers, both 64 and 32 bit versions, so I would not lose anything by using them under Linux, but the graphics under VirtualBox is quite slow, even with 3D acceleration enabled.
The pen is very accurate, the smaller parallax compared to Wacom helps in using it as a mouse, but for freehand drawing it's still worse, compared to a Wacom Intuos 3 (external USB) and to a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. I tried using the Galaxy Note as my main computer since I'm compiling in remote machines most of the time anyway, but I'm very disappointed with Android. Linux console applications work fine after you install one of the Debian chroots, but I've tried a GIMP-Inkscape-Xserver[1] bundle app for Android and the re-drawing is uselessly slow.
[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gimp.inksc...
The biggest problem with the pen, now that pressure curves can be adjusted, is the wavy diagonal lines. This is not visible at 1:1 zoom, but when drawing freehand in Inkscape, when you zoom in it's absolutely obvious and you need to adjust the spline handles everywhere. I normally draw curves by adding the points one by one though, so for me it's fine.
I find the type cover excellent given the constraints. It's not as good as the W500, sure, but it's good enough for constant writing and programming with Emacs. It's better than the ThinkPad Tablet Folio Keyboard (USB) that I modified to remove the cover part. I'm considering getting a ThinkPad Compact USB keyboard because some of my usage involves positioning the tablet as a monitor, separated from the keyboard.
The touch screen is great and it's surprisingly easy to use normal applications just with your fingers. Not great, but I find it much more accurate than the Galaxy Note.
I've tried other combinations before to have both a retina-class display and Linux in a portable package: Toshiba AC-100 with Lubuntu + iPad 3 which was OK for LaTeX and then visualizing and browsing in the iPad, Samsung Chromebook 3 (ARM) + iPad which was an improvement for browsing on the laptop and console use (Ubuntu with crouton) and still allowed me to use LUKS encrypted external storage which Android doesn't, then Galaxy Note 10.1 with Debian chroot as mentioned above, and now the Surface.
My impression is that once I get it to boot in Linux with the type cover [2], bluetooth and 5GHz WiFi working it'll finally cover all my needs.
[2] there is a kernel patch already for it
[+] [-] nextos|11 years ago|reply
The form factor is great. I'd like something that i can place in my desk, a bit far away from me, and attach a usb keyboard to. Much better ergonomics than a laptop.
For occasional use, I can use a soft keyboard when it's converted to tablet mode.
[+] [-] muyuu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BobMarz|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] listic|11 years ago|reply
* I specifically like a smaller sized Surface. Unless Microsoft will release a compelling update for a 10.6" model, I will stick with SP2.
[+] [-] KobaQ|11 years ago|reply
Linux shines with it's shells. The bash is by far the most productive environment I've ever used. Just install Virtual Box and run Ubuntu in it.
[+] [-] blumkvist|11 years ago|reply
IMHO it's a lot better to look at it like a desktop machine which can transform to a tablet.
Instead of buying the type cover, think using the cash on the docking station instead. 8gigs RAM + i5/7 + SSD + 2 monitors + ethernet + full keyboard and a mouse. And you can unplug it to read/annotate pdfs, write OneNotes in meetings and other tablet perks.
If you can afford it, buy the cover too. It's nice in some situations where you might need the keyboard on the go, although I wouldn't expect too much from it.
[+] [-] arunitc|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonova|11 years ago|reply