I'm glad to see the Surface Pro getting some good reviews. I actually really want this sort of hardware to take off--and I _really_ want to see a compelling Linux offering on it. This sort of device would fit the needs I have both for a laptop and for a tablet, and if/when I hear that Linux is running great and Plasma Active works like a charm on the Surface Pro (or, indeed, comparable piece of hardware), I'm dropping the full sticker price on one.
The MS Surface Pro
21–30 of 159 posts
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#22I'm just impressed that someone's finally found a practical way to do work on a tablet.
2010 has called and wants their comment back. People have been doing work on tablets for awhile, have you been to a Starbucks in the states recently?
People at Starbucks with tablets are usually too busy posing to get any real work done.
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#23I really want one of these. As a Cintiq 24HD owner I could totally see the Surface Pro replacing it — denser screen, portable, doesn't weigh 40KG.
The only thing that really annoyed me is that the 150% DPI setting throws off the colour picker in Sketchbook Pro. How is the OS allowing this to happen? It seems stupid that the DPI setting is so badly implemented it actually breaks apps. (I have heard that Civ 5 with touch on the Surface Pro also requires the DPI to be changed.)
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#24I'm still a bit disappointed that Apple has yet to add a Wacom layer to their devices. It's so unquestionably better at doing writing, sketching, and note-taking than crudely smudging your fingers. iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class. I had an old-style swivel tablet (Windows Vista?), and it was a fantastic device to take notes on, invaluable for classwork. OneNote + pen-input really seemed…
Apple's been incredibly anti-stylus in the past, if I recall correctly. Didn't Jobs say something along the lines of "if your tablet uses a stylus, you're doing it wrong" at the genesis of the iPad? Although we've seen that isn't necessarily the case, I can't see Apple eating their words in this case. Especially not with the success and visibility of Samsung's Note line.
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#25> I left it at 125% and just like he had suggested my color picker was working again! I finished the strip at 125% magnification with no trouble but then I had to switch it back to 150% when I was finished. You can disable the DPI scale up in the compatibility tab of the file properties of the exe. In this case he could've set it for Sketchbook's exe and the rest of the OS would continue to be at 150%. Hopefully, thi…
That URL is deeply confusing.
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#26Interesting. We now have an actual niche/use case where the Surface Pro could be a compelling leader, and not just "totally decent." Artists. Also, doesn't an apple-style commercial where somebody gets an email with a word doc attached, edits it, and emails it back with changes while on the train or something seem obvious....
> Also, doesn't an apple-style commercial where somebody gets an email with a word doc attached, edits it, and emails it back with changes while on the train or something seem obvious....
Do that all the time with an iPad. This ad needs to show the pressure sensitive pen. Why not Sketchbook Pro just like in the review? And MSFT needs to pressure Adobe, stat. Get Lightroom pen editing running on it as well.
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#27I'm still a bit disappointed that Apple has yet to add a Wacom layer to their devices. It's so unquestionably better at doing writing, sketching, and note-taking than crudely smudging your fingers. iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class. I had an old-style swivel tablet (Windows Vista?), and it was a fantastic device to take notes on, invaluable for classwork. OneNote + pen-input really seemed…
Apple's been incredibly anti-stylus in the past, if I recall correctly. Didn't Jobs say something along the lines of "if your tablet uses a stylus, you're doing it wrong" at the genesis of the iPad? Although we've seen that isn't necessarily the case, I can't see Apple eating their words in this case. Especially not with the success and visibility of Samsung's Note line.
Apple hasn't been anti-stylus, Jobs was. And the stylus he was referring to was the resistive Palm-type stylus, not a pressure-sensitive, digitized pen with side button(s).
Jobs has also stated a belief in one thing, and then contradicted it later. Take the original iPhone screen size, for example.
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#28I'm still a bit disappointed that Apple has yet to add a Wacom layer to their devices. It's so unquestionably better at doing writing, sketching, and note-taking than crudely smudging your fingers. iPads still fail pretty hard at being useful during math class. I had an old-style swivel tablet (Windows Vista?), and it was a fantastic device to take notes on, invaluable for classwork. OneNote + pen-input really seemed…
Apple's been incredibly anti-stylus in the past, if I recall correctly. Didn't Jobs say something along the lines of "if your tablet uses a stylus, you're doing it wrong" at the genesis of the iPad? Although we've seen that isn't necessarily the case, I can't see Apple eating their words in this case. Especially not with the success and visibility of Samsung's Note line.
"It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it."
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/jobs-if-you-see-a-stylus-...
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#29I really want one of these. As a Cintiq 24HD owner I could totally see the Surface Pro replacing it — denser screen, portable, doesn't weigh 40KG. The only thing that really annoyed me is that the 150% DPI setting throws off the colour picker in Sketchbook Pro. How is the OS allowing this to happen? It seems stupid that the DPI setting is so badly implemented it actually breaks apps. (I have heard that Civ 5 with tou…
I would look at it the other way. Why is the app so broken that it doesn't have support for multiple DPIs?
Re: The MS Surface Pro
#30It's nice to hear this kind of device review from a corner you don't usually hear it from. Rather than the usual kind of review broken up into the usual sections, maybe a storage, space, benchmarks, screen, software kind of thing, we have a guy who has specific use cases for it talking about how he used it for those cases, what worked and what didn't. And then comparing it to how he normally does those kinds of activ…
I think the better summary is -- "great to hear a device review from outside the echo chamber". I'd like to see other non-tech specific reviews of Surface Pro (and similar hardware). All too often, we focus on what is most relevant to our own particular use cases. Looking at possible Win8 laptops, I'm wanting something comparable to my MBA -- decent SSD storage and ram for development (8gig) -- a few options there, b…
Sony Duo 11. I have one as my primary dev machine and it works pretty well + I can play Civ 5 on the plane.