Microsoft Surface

I recently got a Lenovo Yogo 13, which has a similar processor. I think about the top level game the Intel integrated graphics will handle is Mark of the Ninja. And that's just barely handle with noticeable slow downs on bigger open areas of a level.

I think Haswell will be more reasonable.

Well not surprisingly everyone sold out immediately. It's interesting, our Microsoft store (Mall of America) is directly across from a big Apple store and usually the Apple store is packed, the MS store....not so much. Was nice to see the MS store almost as packed.

I did get to play with one for a half hour. The Type cover keyboard is really fantastic, I think the touchpad on it is very functional. The pen is also really nice although I'm not sure I'd use it much. The screen and construction are also A+, it is just a beautiful piece of tech.

I was a bit taken aback by the weight. I had read the reviews that it was too heavy to use as a carry around tablet which I had dismissed. But after picking it up, I have to agree. Sure you could use it that way but it would not be nearly as comfortable as say an iPad. I think it's best when used on a flat surface, kickstand down and Typepad out. Basically as an ultra book.

After reading about the upcoming Haswell, I think I'm going to hold off until the next gen. It is a nearly perfect device for what my dream tablet would be. But I'm guessing the next generation will have fewer compromises and I could see a lot of buyers remorse. I really want to see Microsoft succeed in this arena, Apple needs some serious competition and some of the arrogance in their decisions (still no Flash support!) drives me crazy. But I don't think I'm going to jump in just yet.

I'll be interested to see how soon Haswell hits, seeing as intel have been saying it's going to have a slow roll-out.

No Pen with the display unit at the Best Buy here and they only received two units... which filled pre-orders. Surface Pro is off to a roaring start here in Iowa.

Well my wife made me feel like a heel for Valentine's day. I got her a box of chocolates. She got me flowers and a Surface Pro with Typecover. Yup, wife of the year for sure!

First impressions....I have an Ipad 3 but which is beautiful but this thing is REALLY beautiful. Something about the screen is amazing. Still fiddling with Windows 8 which I think I like but too soon to say for sure. The construction and keyboard cover are really fantastic.

For gaming, I am amazed at what this thing can do. So far main issue is Win8 but runs Anno 2070 just fine, Arkham Asylum runs but some lag. Reports are that D3 runs well but have not tried it yet. Warlock Master of Arcane also runs great.

So far I'm really enjoying it a lot, have used it fine in both tablet mode (heavy but not a bother) and awesome in ultrabook mode.

Nice. I was pretty happy with tickets to see Daniel Tosh but I think I'd rather have the surface pro.

Docjoe wrote:

For gaming, I am amazed at what this thing can do.

Have you tried anything that substitutes mouse clicks with taps on the touchscreen? I'm interested in how point-and-click adventure games might work without using a mouse or touchpad.

Docjoe wrote:

Well my wife made me feel like a heel for Valentine's day. I got her a box of chocolates. She got me flowers and a Surface Pro with Typecover. Yup, wife of the year for sure!

First impressions....I have an Ipad 3 but which is beautiful but this thing is REALLY beautiful. Something about the screen is amazing. Still fiddling with Windows 8 which I think I like but too soon to say for sure. The construction and keyboard cover are really fantastic.

For gaming, I am amazed at what this thing can do. So far main issue is Win8 but runs Anno 2070 just fine, Arkham Asylum runs but some lag. Reports are that D3 runs well but have not tried it yet. Warlock Master of Arcane also runs great.

So far I'm really enjoying it a lot, have used it fine in both tablet mode (heavy but not a bother) and awesome in ultrabook mode.

I see a belated Ipad 3 Valentines gift in her future!

PaladinTom wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

For gaming, I am amazed at what this thing can do.

Have you tried anything that substitutes mouse clicks with taps on the touchscreen? I'm interested in how point-and-click adventure games might work without using a mouse or touchpad.

Civ V has a specific Win 8 touch interface that works well on my Lenovo Yoga. I would assume it would perform similarly on the Surface Pro. Haven't tried any adventure games.

Nice double post.

PaladinTom wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

For gaming, I am amazed at what this thing can do.

Have you tried anything that substitutes mouse clicks with taps on the touchscreen? I'm interested in how point-and-click adventure games might work without using a mouse or touchpad.

I haven't. I'm not big on touch gaming for bigger games, I prefer using the wireless mouse or plugging in my Xbox controller.

Well I picked up the Pro today because I wanted to play older games, like Planescape torment, and point and click adventure games. I have one PC that I use for most of my gaming and it's hooked up to my TV so games with a lot of text I'd rather play on a laptop since the UI can be small. I have another PC in my den but I usually don't feel like sitting in a computer chair since I do that all day at work. I have an iPad but most of the games I want to play haven't been ported. I was debating getting a laptop or this tablet, I chose the tablet, did I make a mistake?

First impressions of the hardware is it's pretty heavy. The screen is really nice though and the touch works well. I bought the touch keyboard and its ok, better than the iPad keyboards I've tried, the keys do have a nice feel to them. The track pad also works well but like a laptop's it's not really good for gaming. The charger is magnetic and is out of the way so you can put it in your lap and charge it easily. The stylus is different from any that I've tried before, there's a button on it that makes the touch a right click, pretty neat. It also shows a dot on the screen of where your stylus is so you can be very detailed with your touch. I have noticed the fan noise a little, but that was with no sound. I was able to hook up my bluetooth headphones and Magic mouse to the system easily. I also tried the microsoft wireless receiver for my 360 controller and I was able to use xpadder just like on my main PC, as a mouse within windows. Now onto the games.

After loading Steam the first game I tried was Fallout since it was a small download. Installed and loaded fine, but the stylus didn't match the cursor on the screen, it was off about 2 inches, my finger had the same problem. The trackpad and mouse worked fine so the touch is off for some reason. Now when you run in desktop mode the default setting for the screen is to zoom the desktop in 150% so it's readable at the 1080P resolution. I've read this causes problems with some games so I messed with that, but couldn't get it to work. I tried using the xbox controller with xpadder and had the left stick acting like a mouse and it worked fine until the game loaded up then it stopped moving the cursor, it was like the program lost focus and stopped working. Not sure if there is a setting to change this or not but that was disappointing.

The next game I tried was Planescape torment. I installed the game and put some recommended mods on it and it loaded fine. This time when I tried using the stylus instead of moving the cursor it created a small box and I could see my desktop inside of it, it was like I was making the view behind my cursor transparent.
Once again I had no problems with a mouse or the trackpad, same problem with the xbox controller.

I tried Tex Murphy and had the same results as Fallout.

Next was Don't Starve next and it worked with the stylus, I maxed out the graphics and changed the zoom size to 100% which requires a logoff and logon. The fan did start making noises then, but it wasn't too bad.

I got pretty frustrated trying to get these older games working with touch and having to use the mouse isn't really what I was hoping for. It's not a big issue, but makes sitting and playing on the couch a little more difficult. If you were at a desk and using it like a laptop then the issue goes away. I figured it wouldn't be easy and I haven't seen any articles or discussions for getting older games running on the system.

I'm trying some newer adventure games tomorrow and see how that fares. Overall it's a nice piece of hardware, but it's not exactly working the way I had hoped, at least for older games. I need to try Civ 5 and see how that touch is implemented. I have 60 days to try before I decide to return it so I'll keep trying and let you know my results.

hollams wrote:

I need to try Civ 5 and see how that touch is implemented.

I'm surprised how well it works on my Lenovo Yoga. Should be just as good on the Surface Pro. Only real difference might be native screen resolution, which you might have to drop.

Gabe from PA put up a review of the 128GB MS Surface Pro today.

Eezy_Bordone wrote:

Gabe from PA put up a review of the 128GB MS Surface Pro today.

Oooh, he says Xcom runs fine on the Surface Pro. Time to load that up on my Yoga for next week's travel.

... damn him. I was doing so good ignoring it. Maybe there will be a sale? Yeah. That's it. Not until it's on sale!

I might give it another look if they release a 256GB model.. not sure why they didnt.. there are tons of MSATA 256GB SSD's right now.. and the manual upgrade seems to be a nightmare.

I picked up an Asus VivaTab Smart -- a 64GB Atom-based Win 8 tablet (not RT). In addition to looking for a new gadget I wanted to try Win 8 on a tablet. Thus far mixed impressions -- certainly things to like but also some of the inevitable Windows "glitchiness". Much of it I attribute to the drivers.

I'm going to give it a week or two before I decide of I'm looking to return it or not. I do miss the quality of apps from my iPad though.

Picked up a Microsoft Wedge touch mouse, a remarkable marvel of mouse technology. A great companion to any Surface!
And testing some games with it, reconfirms how much this platform is nice for touch AND mouse+keyboard.

ReijMan wrote:

Picked up a Microsoft Wedge touch mouse, a remarkable marvel of mouse technology. A great companion to any Surface!
And testing some games with it, reconfirms how much this platform is nice for touch AND mouse+keyboard.

I just picked up an older MS portable bluetooth mouse to use with my Yoga so that I don't have to give up a USB port to use a mouse (only have two). Why aren't there more USB mice?

(Got it for $10 on clearance at Office Max).

I just completed a month of using a Surface Pro (128G) as my primary work computer and it has been fantastic! Prior to the Surface, I used a HP 17" laptop with a docking station and external monitor, so I was running dual screens pretty much all the time. When I moved to the Surface Pro, I requested the Lenovo ThinkPad USB 3.0 Dock that includes two display outs as well as Ethernet, a few USB 3.0 inputs, a few USB 2.0 inputs and a headphone jack.

Now I'm running two screens out of the Lenovo "dock" and also use the Surface Pro as a screen (all in HD resolutions) - basically 3 screens worth of display real estate! The Surface seems to handle things fine and I've yet to run into any performance issues.

My typical work day consists of VS2012 (2 or 3 instances), SMS 2012, Office 2013 and the occasional Photoshop or Expression app with Xbox music running the background a majority of the time. Everything has performed above expectations. Photoshop CS5 launches about 30 seconds faster on the Surface than my HP Core i7. I'm sure that's mostly due to the SSD in the Surface, but I was shocked at how big of a difference I've seen in things like apps launching and start up times. When getting started in the morning, it takes less than 10 seconds to get the power and USB plugged in and logged in. On the older laptop, it would take several minutes before the thing would boot up and be ready for action.

I also have been pleasantly surprised by Windows 8 - I have a few nits to pick, but for the most part it has been easy to use or adjust to. That being said, I am looking forward to the 8.1 updates.

If anyone has been considering a similar set up, I'd highly recommend the Lenovo dock and the Surface Pro.

Thank you for the bit about the Lenovo dock. I didn't know you could use Surface Pro with third party docks. Our Controller here uses a Surface Pro and we're considering buying some for our field engineers who need actual Windows based software in the field but for whom actual laptops are a trick. Knowing there are good docking options is great!

Toshiba's Dynadock is also pretty nice. I use it with my Ultrabook. Also a USB 3.0. Stay away from the Targus USB 3.0 dock, it's junk.

The Lenovo has been fantastic - would highly recommend it. The only thing was that I had to get the latest DisplayLink drivers, but that was fairly simple. My only complaint is that the power button is on the top and I unintentionally turned it off a couple times when I was plugging stuff in. Now that I have everything plugged in where I want it, I don't mess with it beyond plugging in headphones every now & then.

Hemidal wrote:

Toshiba's Dynadock is also pretty nice. I use it with my Ultrabook. Also a USB 3.0. Stay away from the Targus USB 3.0 dock, it's junk.

I saw very similar things about both docks. I did see some middling reviews of the Lenovo, but most folks said that once they got the DisplayLink drivers updated, all issues were resolved.

Yeah, the DisplayLink and the Ethernet can flaky at times. I've had the network adapter get stuck authenticating as on the domain, so I'm basically offline. Have to remove and re-add. Had some monitor flakiness too, but that seems to have stabilized since the latest displaylink drivers.

3 Months in and my Surface Pro is simply the most useful piece of technology I have owned in years. The ability to morph between a seamless tablet and full fledged laptop makes my iPad seem essentially like a giant iPhone that is all but useless. I never use my iPad now..certainly never travel with it like I used to. On all my short business trips I'm down to a tiny Tumi bag that fits my Surface Pro, my Parrot Bluetooth Headset, the Surface Charger, Razer Orochi mouse, and an umbrella.

I've gone ahead and sent those Lenovo docks to all our companies to have them in my cubes so I can easily connect to the monitors and keyboards in those cubes. It's a life changing device that Microsoft needs to get more marketing behind and get people to understand how much nicer it is to carry one device.

Full PC means I'm not locked into anyone's ecosystem.. I can rip my own movies and throw them on the 64GB SD card and watch them on the plane.. As well it can play light games

Still, only 4GB of RAM total?

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Still, only 4GB of RAM total?

With an SSD, you don't really need anything more than 4 GB for running pretty much any application. You really only need that for very serious games, running virtual machines, and a few applications here and there. I can't think of any that would require more than 4 total. Anything more than 4 ends up getting used for caching which really isn't a huge deal when you are using an SSD.

I have a laptop with an SSD and 4 and that never even approaches using 4 unless I run a serious game.

Edit: I thought of a better way to put it. I'd much rather have a laptop/tablet with 4 GB of memory and an SSD than a laptop/tablet with 4 GB of memory and an HDD.

TheGameguru wrote:

3 Months in and my Surface Pro is simply the most useful piece of technology I have owned in years. The ability to morph between a seamless tablet and full fledged laptop makes my iPad seem essentially like a giant iPhone that is all but useless. I never use my iPad now..certainly never travel with it like I used to. On all my short business trips I'm down to a tiny Tumi bag that fits my Surface Pro, my Parrot Bluetooth Headset, the Surface Charger, Razer Orochi mouse, and an umbrella.

I've gone ahead and sent those Lenovo docks to all our companies to have them in my cubes so I can easily connect to the monitors and keyboards in those cubes. It's a life changing device that Microsoft needs to get more marketing behind and get people to understand how much nicer it is to carry one device.

Full PC means I'm not locked into anyone's ecosystem.. I can rip my own movies and throw them on the 64GB SD card and watch them on the plane.. As well it can play light games

I'm not that far into using it, but I can already see a huge improvement in my mobility and just getting stuff done no matter where I'm at. While I rarely travel for business, I do commute every day and the ease and simplicity of the Surface Pro has made it much easier to work from home or the office with minimal challenges. I've already downsized from a massive tech backpack for my 17" laptop and various gadgets to more of a messenger bag that is much easier to lug around. I will also get the Lenovo "dock" for my home set up at some point in the not too distant future.

Also, the typepad has been FANTASTIC. I have been very pleased with using it when I'm working remotely. I'm now looking for a nice mobile mouse to use with it - probably will check out the arc touch unless someone has some recommendations.

One minor complaint is that my Lumia 900 can't connect to the Bluetooth - not sure what I'd do with it, as I don't have hotspot enabled, but from what I've read it is something to do with the Surface BT drivers. I'm hoping to upgrade to the 920 or whatever is next from Nokia/MS there, so it isn't a huge deal for me.

Agree about the marketing - they are missing the boat on the enterprise angle BIG TIME. I had high hopes and middling expectations when I ordered it and have been blown away by it since.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Still, only 4GB of RAM total?

Indeed..it's not a huge issue but I look forward to the Haswell version with 8GB ram and a 256GB SSD.

That should be game over for Apple. But Microsoft isn't aggressive enough and has to appease their sh*tty partners. I say f them and just price it aggressively as all hell..And give a year of Office 365 with every Pro. That way you get people using their cloud infrastructure which simply blows everyone else's away IMO.

It's the device Windows 8 is made for.