Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tolerating the Surface Pro

ozar.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 63 posts

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#31

Post by BrentOzar »

robomartin wrote: post #30

The author needs a laptop, possibly augmented with a Wacom tablet to draw during presentations. With the myriad of amazing laptop/netbooks available in the windows ecosystem a tablet would be my absolute last choice for his use case. The other angle is to consider that Surface is but one choice. Other manufacturers make excellent tablet/hybrid Windows 8 devices. They are probably a far better choice for general busin…

Brent the author here. As I stated in the article, I do indeed do have a laptop. However, carrying around a laptop, plus another backup laptop, plus a Wacom tablet is a little beyond what I'd like to travel with.

About Excel with your fingers - you'd be surprised. The touch experience is surprisingly compelling once you get used to it. I'm always surprised at how often I reach out to touch the display on my laptop after I've been using my iPad or the Surface, even just for a few minutes. (This is especially true when using the Surface because the Type Cover's trackpad is laughably small.)

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#32

Post by mikerg87 »

I switched to the Surface Pro as my primary development box. Surprised that I could get VS2012, SQL Express 2012 and IIS working with decent performance.

If you are using an SDXC card to supplement your storage and don't intend to eject it on a whim, you can get better performance by going to the device manager and changing the removal policy and the write caching.

Options for 256gb or 512gb SSD would have made this an easier choice for many.

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#33

Post by PaulHoule »

BrentOzar wrote: post #24
PaulHoule wrote: post #19

My boss uses a Surface Pro like a laptop and is happy with it. Add a good quality wireless mouse and a USB 3 hub, leave the keyboard at the desk and you've got a docking station as good in practice as anything on the market.

That's interesting. How does he work around the high-DPI resolution problems when connecting an external display? I'm assuming he's using one - when you say "a docking station as good in practice as anything on the market", that usually means an external display.

I'll say that if you've been using Windows for years you get used to using Windows on strange screen systems, everything from 640x480 to video wall panels. If you adjust magnification factors, font sizes, and such for the apps you actually use to help out a lot.

One thing I found with Windows 8 is that it is even better to use keyboard shortcuts to access the shell. Instead of groping for the 'Start' button, I hit the Windows key and the same thing happens if I am running Win7 or Win8. So Win8 didn't cause me disorientation at all, it just trained me to do the right thing.

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#34

Post by ninetenel »

I've had a surface pro since launch -- and all I can say is that I can't imagine using different portable right now (before that I was using a x230).

once I got used to the form factor and what it was designed for it's changed how I compute in subtle ways.

Last night for example.. rather then going to my desk .. I watched some lectures on the couch while using the pen to take notes in one note .. then docked it to do some work.

that's just one example of many; but for me personally i feel like i'm doing more with my computer then I was before

though, I've usually docked my laptops when doing any serious work .. and my mobile work is usually restricted to coffee shops for only 3-4 hours at a time ..

battery life I guess could be better .. I usually only get 4hours or so off power when streaming movies off amazon but it's not really bad IMO, but of course I'd like it to be longer .. my main worry when it comes to the battery is that it's not user replaceable honestly

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#35

Post by lmm »

muyuu wrote: post #27
lmm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it pretty easy; I went from an asus transformer (14 hours real-world, and I did use it) to a samsung ultrabook-like (<4 hours). Just get in the habit of plugging it in; how much of the day do you really spend away from a power socket? It might not be for everyone, but it's been fine for me.

The moment I need to bring the power cord and adaptor with me, portability goes to "desktop replacement" levels. People who work on the go need their 8h+ battery life, the more the merrier.

>The moment I need to bring the power cord and adaptor with me, portability goes to "desktop replacement" levels.

Surely you don't just carry a tablet in your hand when walking to the office? Once something's too big for pockets I resort to a messenger bag over my shoulder, in which it's just as easy to include the power. Given that tablets don't seem to come with cases, how else would one transport it?

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#36

Post by dangrossman »

My biggest gripe is that you really need DPI scaling to use some desktop apps at 1920x1080 on a 10" screen, but half the apps I use don't scale well or at all (I'm looking at you, Chrome). I still use the SP on a daily basis and it was a worthile purchase for a few things:

1) It's a great tablet when you want a tablet. With no keyboard attached, it's a joy to read reddit and play games on in bed.

2) I throw it in the car with me whenever I leave home. I'm always on-call if a site/server goes down. The SP is a full computer with a hard keyboard, so there won't be any situation I need to drive back home to handle, even if it takes several hours to resolve.

3) It's a suitable desktop replacement for anything but hard gaming. I stick it on my desk, plug in a big monitor, and pair a bluetooth mouse. Now screen size and DPI scaling don't matter, and the Core i5 has all the power I could need for compiling software, photo editing, etc.

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#37

Post by bones6 »

BrentOzar wrote: post #24
PaulHoule wrote: post #19

My boss uses a Surface Pro like a laptop and is happy with it. Add a good quality wireless mouse and a USB 3 hub, leave the keyboard at the desk and you've got a docking station as good in practice as anything on the market.

That's interesting. How does he work around the high-DPI resolution problems when connecting an external display? I'm assuming he's using one - when you say "a docking station as good in practice as anything on the market", that usually means an external display.

Dual 22 inch monitors vs a 27 inch makes it less annoying.

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#38

Post by BrentOzar »

PaulHoule wrote: post #33
BrentOzar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. How does he work around the high-DPI resolution problems when connecting an external display? I'm assuming he's using one - when you say "a docking station as good in practice as anything on the market", that usually means an external display.

I'll say that if you've been using Windows for years you get used to using Windows on strange screen systems, everything from 640x480 to video wall panels. If you adjust magnification factors, font sizes, and such for the apps you actually use to help out a lot. One thing I found with Windows 8 is that it is even better to use keyboard shortcuts to access the shell. Instead of groping for the 'Start' button, I hit th…

Yes, but then you're constantly switching magnification factors, font sizes, and such every time you plug into the desktop dock or unplug to hit the road?

Re: Tolerating the Surface Pro

#39

Post by canthonytucci »

Random_Person wrote: post #6
hkmurakami wrote: post #4

So the gist is "good hardware, really really unacceptably crappy software experience" > I bought the Surface Pro to use as a backup laptop: a secondary presentation device in case my main laptop bit the dust. I make a living teaching people via PowerPoint. For a long list of reasons, I can’t really switch presentation tools, and the iPad doesn’t cut it as a secondary presentation device. The Surface Pro does. This is…

Essentially, yes. I convinced work to buy me a Pro after around a decade of being Windows free... and I'm underwhelmed. I like the hardware. But having two entirely separate interfaces is really terrible. Like he pointed out, it's no longer intuitive how to interact with the device, you have to constantly switch between input modes which is extremely annoying.

>you have to constantly switch between input modes which is extremely annoying.

I never switch modes unless I am switching tasks.

Desktop tasks (writing code, workign with office apps) all mouse/keyboard/trackpad

Consumption tasks (news, video) all use touch with keyboard folded out of the way

Drawing and taking notes I use the stylus.

I see this as having the right input mode available for each of my tasks, not some sort of "nightmare".

Post reply on HN