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The MS Surface Pro

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Re: The MS Surface Pro

#71

Post by tluyben2 »

Excellent review. Like others say; it's really nice to see a non technical pov as the pure tech part has already been done to death on a lot of sites. What I even like more is that this is really heating up the niche; Asus, Samsung, Acer, HP, Dell are all watching and rapidly introducing competitors. Good for us.

Maybe 2013 will be the year I can buy my dream system :) Currently the Thinkpad Helix seems to be closest; if it had double the battery life, I would buy it without looking further.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#74

Post by FaddiCat »

dbaupp wrote: post #67
jmspring wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've been looking for a new laptop recently and the Asus UX31A seems to crop up often, and there is a Touch version (I haven't actually used either the touch or non-touch versions so this is a bit of a pointless comment).

I have a UX31E.

The trackpad was atrocious when I first got it, but they rolled out some driver updates and now it's really good.

The keyboard is sub-par but doesn't bother me too much, and the newer Zenbooks have much better keyboards.

Other than that, everything is awesome. In hindsight I would have waited for the UX31As with the better keyboards but still, I'm not disappointed. It's probably one of the best computers I've ever owned.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#75

Post by ohwp »

raganwald wrote: post #64
ohwp wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Issues like the battery life, heat, weight, RAM free, and so on are reasonable for a Windows machine." Common, this is so childish... As if other devices don't get hot and don't weight that much. You are very wrong in thinking that company X will take over the world. There are different people with different needs. Hipsters like hip devices, cartoonists like Surface Pro's. jacquesm points it out: the iPad market mig…

Childish? I feel old, stuck in world where HN was civil and we didn't abuse each other with accusations of childishness. I own an iPad and an iPad Mini. Neither has ever run so hot that it was uncomfortable to place on my lap. The review specifically states that he did experience it running too hot for his comfort. I read that the surface pro is 2 lbs, while a full-sized iPad is less than 1.5 lbs. Nowhere did I state…

"Childish?" I was abusing you of a childish reaction because I think your tone towards Windows systems is unfair.

"Nowhere did I state that company X, Y or Z will take over the world." No you didn't but you made it clear that you think only Apple can serve the tablet market because you explicitly mention the iPad all the time. You also compared Microsoft's vision vs Apple's vision as if these are the only two companies in the tablet/laptop market.

"Are you responding to my actual comment? Or are you reflexively responding to me as if I was saying things that other people are saying?" I was responding to your actual comment and I think you also are saying things that other people are saying. But that didn't trigger a reflex ;) I responded because I don't agree with you. I think a comparison between 2 companies is wrong because it's not what matters in the real world. There are a lot of different devices serving different needs. I don't think the laptop or desktop will go away any time soon because they are still very relevant.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#76

Post by elemeno »

Cushman wrote: post #25
recoiledsnake wrote: post #14

> 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.

I'd imagine that it's a result of people running into the same issue whilst duel booting Windows on Macs with Retina screens.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#77

Post by hdra »

maybe this shows how terrible of a job the marketing department at Microsoft is doing ? reading this review alone made me look for the device online to check its price and I've had mostly the "meh" reaction since launch with all of their ads.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#78

Post by highace »

iamdave wrote: post #33
habosa wrote: post #18

Great review, it's awesome to see gadget reviews from a specific use case instead of just "7/10 on our random everything score scale". I wish there was a review site for the HN crowd. Someone that would use every device like a software developer would: tinkering with settings, trying to write/run code, integrating with other services, etc. I generally like reviews on Engadget/The Verge but sometimes I feel they care…

We should start said site.

An excellent idea and I'm sure there's definitely a gap for it, as long as you're a decent and enthusiastic reviewer and writer.

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#79

Post by tripzilch »

raganwald wrote: post #65
jacquesm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a while since the tablet market was defined as 'iPad'.

I didn't say that, what I said was that Apple's vision is that there's a market for tablets and that iPad will thrive as long as there's a market for tablets. Thrive as in 90%? 70%? 40%? 320% but 50% of the profit? Who knows. But I don't define the tablet market as iPad and only iPad. And it's possible that Apple is wrong and that there isn't a tablet market. Maybe it's just that PCs suck so much, but given time and…

> the Surface Pro is a terrible iPad and an excellent PC laptop

Or maybe the iPad is a terrible Surface Pro :-P

But seriously:

> Maybe it's just that PCs suck so much, but given time and innovation we'll all end up with really lightweight PCs that have tablet interfaces.

Maybe given time and innovation we'll all end up with really open iPads that you don't need to pay for the privilege to run your code on and have touch screens actually deserving of the name "tablet" (meaning you can draw on them).

That would be awesome because those actually are the two main things like to do on my computer, coding and drawing :)

But with the iPad's battery life and (lack of) heat.

It will also have an eInk screen on the back, and a programmable strip of LEDs on the sides. Also a strong, retractable piece of string loop, for if you're in a pinch and you need a wall clock, lamp or as a painting: when you're done working, set it to the "HOME SWEET HOME" screensaver on the eInk side, and hang it on the wall.

Anyone got an idea of how to work a 3D printer into a tablet? Cause we need those, too.

(so that cybercriminals can infect it with a virus that makes it build legs and walk away into the thief's hands)

(and people will still be complaining "if this is the future, where's our flying cars??!")

Re: The MS Surface Pro

#80

Post by lucian1900 »

asafira wrote: post #60
Bockit wrote: post #11

It'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'm going to admit that I haven't had the chance to read the review in its entirety, but I wanted to reply to this comment anyway. I have a similar issue where I feel as if I am not getting a lot out of many of the reviews I read for products online. For one, I think it's really hard to convey succinctly how well a product works. Many reviews will put up charts and graphs with benchmarks. But what exactly does a scor…

Benchmarks are useful for excluding particularly bad options.
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