Posted: 6/30/2013 4:28:25 AM EDT
| I'm using a Microsoft surface RT and I like it, except for the low volume of apps (I have used a Motorola Xoom for the past 2 years and love the Android app availability). Windows 8 makes a helluva lot more sense on a tablet than a non-touchscreen laptop. Now if I could just find a good podcast reader.... |
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So you're the one that bought it! Jk. I don't have one but want to check it out just so that I can see how windows 8 was supposed to be. LOL, yeah the guys at best buy were very excited that somebody was actually interested in one. Windows 8 on a laptop/desktop is frustrating because it's a bit harder to navigate the border tools than on a tablet, and the start button is gone. The latter is fixed with classicshell.net, and Windows 8.1 is bringing back the start button plus boot to desktop. Having said that, windows 8's tile screen is a pretty cool way of having all your frequently used apps on one place. I have windows 8 on my home laptop and I like it. But on a tablet, it shines. the simplicity of swiping the edges to bring up tools and options is elegant. It's an entirely different interface from Android and the app selection is weak for now. But if more people tried it, they would like it. Problem is the lack of apps. It's a chicken vs. egg thing. Nobody wants to invest in making apps for an OS that might not be around, but the OS might not be around because nobody wants to invest in making apps, around and around and around it goes....... |
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I have a full Win 8 tablet - Acer W700.
I like it. Win 8 on a tablet has some pretty neat features. A lot of the "slide from the top/side' stuff works great on a tablet. It took me all of 30 seconds to figure it all out. It's not perfect, but I still like it. It's very fast and responsive, and I can still run anything I ran on Win 7 on it. |
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The wife is getting a Surface Pro soon, makes sense for her as she can use it for work more effectively than her iPad. I debated long and hard about RT vs Pro. I decided I did not need a laptop replacement, I needed a portable crutch with long battery life. But the Pro is pretty damn impressive. |
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The wife is getting a Surface Pro soon, makes sense for her as she can use it for work more effectively than her iPad. I debated long and hard about RT vs Pro. I decided I did not need a laptop replacement, I needed a portable crutch with long battery life. But the Pro is pretty damn impressive. My Acer will do 7 hours or so on battery with just poking around and browsing. And the screen is amazing. |
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The wife is getting a Surface Pro soon, makes sense for her as she can use it for work more effectively than her iPad. I debated long and hard about RT vs Pro. I decided I did not need a laptop replacement, I needed a portable crutch with long battery life. But the Pro is pretty damn impressive. We were going to wait until they put a haswell processor in one for better battery life, but she is getting a smoking deal through a microsoft conference one of her co-workers is attending ($399 for a 128GB Surface Pro). |
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So you're the one that bought it! Jk. I don't have one but want to check it out just so that I can see how windows 8 was supposed to be. LOL, yeah the guys at best buy were very excited that somebody was actually interested in one. Windows 8 on a laptop/desktop is frustrating because it's a bit harder to navigate the border tools than on a tablet, and the start button is gone. The latter is fixed with classicshell.net, and Windows 8.1 is bringing back the start button plus boot to desktop. Having said that, windows 8's tile screen is a pretty cool way of having all your frequently used apps on one place. I have windows 8 on my home laptop and I like it. But on a tablet, it shines. the simplicity of swiping the edges to bring up tools and options is elegant. It's an entirely different interface from Android and the app selection is weak for now. But if more people tried it, they would like it. Problem is the lack of apps. It's a chicken vs. egg thing. Nobody wants to invest in making apps for an OS that might not be around, but the OS might not be around because nobody wants to invest in making apps, around and around and around it goes....... I really like that Microsoft showed that they are willing and able to innovate, when Apple and Google have been in a vicious copy each other mode for years now. I actually hope it catches on, I just have zero faith in Microsoft to pull it off. |
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snip We were going to wait until they put a haswell processor in one for better battery life, but she is getting a smoking deal through a microsoft conference one of her co-workers is attending ($399 for a 128GB Surface Pro).  WOW yeah I'd jump on that deal.
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I'm testing out an HP elite pad right now.
As mentioned. The metro interface makes much more sense on a real tablet than on a laptop or convertible. I like it much better than the convertible HP laptop thing I played with right when windows 8 came out. The tablet itself works well so far. There are some nitpicky little things that I wish we're more ipad like, but that's more due to my familiarity with the ipad than anything else. The one thing I hate is the IE interface. I like my tabs visible for faster tab switching and I HATE how the URL bar and refresh button are hidden at th bottom of the screen rather than the top. My other complaint is the screen. It is not as shard with web based fonts as the ipad 2 I'm on right now. I have to zoom in to see things properly on the elite pad or some fonts don't draw properly or that lines don't appear. Very "beta" on that aspect. When you can't see horizontal lines on web forums, it looks bad. The elite pad has a dock for desktop use and a battery life extending sleeve thing with a bunch of extra ports on it, making it easy to connect to TV/monitors, keyboards, USB devices, etc. The HP is thin and pretty light. It works pretty well. I like the there is easy access to a windows desktop when needed. I wouldn't trade my ipad for one, but I'd use it if given to me. Doubly so, if I really needed windows compatibility. I need to get office installed on it to see how that works in e touch screen format. |
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The Haswell processors and video chips should be awesome in a tablet. I'll probably upgrade once they come out. I don't know exactly how long batteries should last in them, but I get 7 or so right now, I think they'd do 2-3 times that. Or they will just increase the battery life slightly and use a smaller battery to make it thinner. |
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The Haswell processors and video chips should be awesome in a tablet. I'll probably upgrade once they come out. I don't know exactly how long batteries should last in them, but I get 7 or so right now, I think they'd do 2-3 times that. Or they will just increase the battery life slightly and use a smaller battery to make it thinner. That's an option as well... but I think "hey, this thing will run for a full day!" will get more attention than "this one will run the same amount of time, but will be 1/4" thinner!" |
| Huh. Turns out that while this tablet has a fullsize USB port, there is no microUSB port -- meaning I cannot hook it up to my llaptop for data transfer with the same cable I use for my Android phone and tablet. Then I was like "Duh, that's why there is Skydrive." |