I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface. Get a real x86 laptop/convertible.
Surface Pro, is less unappealing for enterprise than Surface RT. That doesn't mean it is better than a laptop or more conventional convertible like the Lenovo Yoga 13. A kickstand with one set angle and a non-supportive keyboard are inferior to the real deal on the Lenovo that can be set at any angle, and has a huge supportive base for the screen so you can type anywhere, including on your lap.
Both Surface offerings are novelty acts, that have significant usability issues. Even if you are a Windows Fan, you will get better designs elsewhere.
"I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface...."
Why not? Most college students just want a device for email, social networking, document creation / collaboration, web browsing, media consumption. If they can get by with one device that is extremely portable & serve their tablet and document creation needs, then why not? That's money saved.
The excitement for Surface is off to a good start. Obviously it's not the type of excitement generated by Apple launches but it's gained the best excitement seen by any MS products in a long time. Also, I'm not a Windows, nor for that matter an Apple fan. I'm a fan of cool & innovative technology & I don't care who makes it. Since you asked nicely / s, I own an iPhone 5 and put in a pre-order for an iPad 4. But by no means am I going to write off MS or the Surface. There's serious potential there and I'm definitely keeping my eye on it.
Got to love it when "analysts" forecast outrageous numbers and then blame Apple when they don't exceed them and how the stock tanks as a result. Record profits? Meaningless.
What a detailed answer! Glad someone had a chance to test it thoroughly. You must have had both Surfaces for a few months to give such definitive advice?
Have you never used a real laptop?
Normally I adjust the screen at just the right angle. There is only one angle on the surface.
You don't need to be an engineer to realize that superiority of the support you get from a real laptop, where the whole keyboard acts as large solid platform. The surface keyboard doesn't support it, it just attaches, the one support you have is the Kickstand.
With a real laptop it can work work on small airline tray tables. Think about, for the surface you need a table deep enough to make sure the kickstand/surface are the table behind, the keyboard which must also fit on their. You need a much deeper flat surface to setup.
With a real laptop you can actually pick it up, while open, and still type on the keyboard while standing (but only with one hand).
With a real laptop you can actually work on your lap if there is no table. with the surface you will be trying to keep the kickstand from falling off your knees, the screen is likely fixed at the wrong angle.
You just need to be able to think things through to spot the ergonomic weakness of the Surface keyboard mechanism.
"I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface...."
Why not? Most college students just want a device for email, social networking, document creation / collaboration, web browsing, media consumption. If they can get by with one device that is extremely portable & serve their tablet and document creation needs, then why not? That's money saved.
The excitement for Surface is off to a good start. Obviously it's not the type of excitement generated by Apple launches but it's gained the best excitement seen by any MS products in a long time. Also, I'm not a Windows, nor for that matter an Apple fan. I'm a fan of cool & innovative technology & I don't care who makes it. Since you asked nicely / s, I own an iPhone 5 and put in a pre-order for an iPad 4. But by no means am I going to write off MS or the Surface. There's serious potential there and I'm definitely keeping my eye on it.
Because the Surface starts at $500, (realistically $600 because they will want the keyboard), I don't see it as a real threat..
Only if the Surface Pro started in around that price point would I have considered it a real threat.. but as people realize that the RT edition is limited to the app market, same as apple, I think they would mostly opt for an iPad Mini, Nexus 7, or standard iPad..
Coming into this tablet market with an offering, when you're not already established, thats $500 or more is not going to get you traction..
Microsoft is going to have to do some hard marketing and partnering with chains like Best Buy, to really get this thing going off the shelves.
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
Office RT is not licensed for business use.
Even if it was, in our shop it would be useless because Office RT doesn't support Macros:
<div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:normal;">I'd say 15 seconds to open the email app and a word processor that cant even keep up with typing is a problem. </div>
7.1 second for mail app to cold-start, according to Annandtech Surface review... yes, still long. However, multitasking/switching between opened apps is faster and more elegant than other platforms, according to the same review. So that brings some leverage.
Office, according to all the reviews I have seen so far, is serviceable. In addition, it is not final version, only preview. I would expect that final, when available next month, will bring additional optimization.
Given that restriction it might as well be an iPad running Pages/Numbers in our environment.
Office RT can be licensed for business use if business owns required licenses - Office 365, Office Standard 2013, Office Pro Plus 2013 or commercial use license via VL.
I don't know what would be the most affordable option (beside already having one of required solutions).
Macros, true. Bad luck for companies using them. For companies that don't (heck, we even have customers disabling macros on purpose), it is still way more convenient/compatible that any other ARM tablet Office solution.
End of the day, RT is planned for non-profit: students, home use... but I still expect it to prove more corporate friendly than other tablets. We'll see.
Normally I adjust the screen at just the right angle. There is only one angle on the surface.
You don't need to be an engineer to realize that superiority of the support you get from a real laptop, where the whole keyboard acts as large solid platform. The surface keyboard doesn't support it, it just attaches, the one support you have is the Kickstand.
With a real laptop it can work work on small airline tray tables. Think about, for the surface you need a table deep enough to make sure the kickstand/surface are the table behind, the keyboard which must also fit on their. You need a much deeper flat surface to setup.
With a real laptop you can actually pick it up, while open, and still type on the keyboard while standing (but only with one hand).
With a real laptop you can actually work on your lap if there is no table. with the surface you will be trying to keep the kickstand from falling off your knees, the screen is likely fixed at the wrong angle.
You just need to be able to think things through to spot the ergonomic weakness of the Surface keyboard mechanism.
Of course it s not as convenient as proper laptop. That works for all tablets compared to laptop, in laptop usage scenario.
But then, proper laptop is hardly the best solution for tablet usage scenarios. Reading in portrait mode, or doing anything outside of desk, that does not require heavy keyboarding, where keyboard might end up being in a way.
Surface solution is supposed to reduce the gap in laptop-specific scenarios, while keeping advantages of tablet in tablet-specific scenarios. I think concept does achieve that to some degree, though it is open to argument how significant (or not) improvement is. I didn't have a chance to work on Surface, so I don't have any experience based opinion. End of the day, it will depend on each individual's usage scenario.
Likewise the stand. While angle of screen is fixed, screen size and IPS nature make it more flexible, in a way that you don't really need to find the sweet-spot angle characteristic for common cheap laptop screens on so many PC laptops. It is not perfect, but it is usable (and most review I've seen tend to agree). But when it comes to airline tray tablets... since I live in NZ and have parents and rest of the family in Europe and travel long-distance flights (30+ hours) every year or two, I found trays too small anyway - unless I'm flying business or 1st class. In order to wide-open laptop, base would have to hang in the air anyway - especially if seat in front is leaned back.
This is all based on the assumption that Apple can ramp up production to keep up with demand. There was also no mention of Windows 8 / MS Surface and how that will impact sales. This is more of a threat to Apple, on the tablet side, than Android.
I think they've already been building additional facilities to do this. Apple has a much chance of hitting these numbers despite what happens to Android and Windows Surface. Out of the three platforms, Apple is the major player in the Educational and Corporate Market and the others are just going after either low budget buyers (Android) and the COMPLETELY brainwashed Microsoft die hards that will buy ANYTHING Microsoft, even Vista and Zune. Microsoft doesn't have a REAL good solution, they don't really have an OS that tailored towards the handheld market, plus there are no apps and that much third party support.
7.1 second for mail app to cold-start, according to Annandtech Surface review... yes, still long. However, multitasking/switching between opened apps is faster and more elegant than other platforms, according to the same review. So that brings some leverage.
Office, according to all the reviews I have seen so far, is serviceable. In addition, it is not final version, only preview. I would expect that final, when available next month, will bring additional optimization.
Office is coming out for both iOS and Android next month, but a LOT of these tablet users really aren't seeing Office as the app they actually need. From what I've seen, the apps these corporations are using are pretty much custom apps and customized cash register apps. The Educational system is heavily starting to use IBooks and they want to have a platform they can count on since there is a bunch of Educational related apps, Podcasts, and iOS is just better supported, more secure, easier to use and the products are typically very well built products.
Microsoft thinks that a tablet should be more like a net book computer. Well, yeah on some levels they can, but these tablet buyers from corporations are more for specific applications, people that don't always have a desk to put the unit down and flop down a keyboard. Having a keyboard is not an absolute must have for tablets. I just don't see much retail store and restaurant chains going for a Microsoft Surface product. The air line industry already has the iPad and I doubt they will give them up for a Surface product.
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
Let me explain something to you: You DO NOT get MS Office with this turd. You get MS Office RT, which is a pale shade of what you and I think of of as MS Office. In fact you really don't even get that, you get a alpha version of MS Office RT. It's FREE because that's what it is worth; not no friggin' $100. What does Office RT let you do? It let's you OPEN Office documents and do some LIMITED editing. Yeah, you read that right... you get to do about what Apple Pages can do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shameer Mulji
Remember for $599, you get not only the keyboard but a free copy of Office 2013. For those that need and rely on Office (think college students) and want a device of this type, that's a big selling feature. And the apps for the Windows Marketplace are coming. There's already 10,000 at launch. Not a bad start.
Surface Pro will be appeal a lot to Enterprises. It runs Office (which owns the business space), is backward compatible with LOB Win32 apps, and has excellent integration with MS' servers - all big pluses when trying to sell to business customers. Yes, I realize the iPad has had strong momentum in businesses, and for Apple's sake hopefully they can continue that, but how long can they keep that going?
You are drinking the same Ballmer Kool-aide as Nikon133. No one is getting MS Office with the Surface RT. You are getting a mangled and crippled alpha version of Office RT, which is no more "Office" than Apple's Pages/Numbers/keynote. In fact, may not run a touch interface as well as Apple's offerings.
The apps for Windows Marketplace promise to be mostly for the Surface Pro and may have limited touch implementation. App writers are not going crazy writing for the Surface RT until is shows some life of its own. The lack of lines at MS stores is not a harbinger of that happening.
Let me explain something to you: You DO NOT get MS Office with this turd. You get MS Office RT, which is a pale shade of what you and I think of of as MS Office. In fact you really don't even get that, you get a alpha version of MS Office RT. It's FREE because that's what it is worth; not no friggin' $100. What does Office RT let you do? It let's you OPEN Office documents and do some LIMITED editing. Yeah, you read that right... you get to do about what Apple Pages can do.
Note that you will receive the final version for free when they finish it.
Note also that I used when, very generously, instead of if.
Of course it s not as convenient as proper laptop. That works for all tablets compared to laptop, in laptop usage scenario.
But then, proper laptop is hardly the best solution for tablet usage scenarios. Reading in portrait mode, or doing anything outside of desk, that does not require heavy keyboarding, where keyboard might end up being in a way.
Surface solution is supposed to reduce the gap in laptop-specific scenarios, while keeping advantages of tablet in tablet-specific scenarios. I think concept does achieve that to some degree, though it is open to argument how significant (or not) improvement is. I didn't have a chance to work on Surface, so I don't have any experience based opinion. End of the day, it will depend on each individual's usage scenario.
Likewise the stand. While angle of screen is fixed, screen size and IPS nature make it more flexible, in a way that you don't really need to find the sweet-spot angle characteristic for common cheap laptop screens on so many PC laptops. It is not perfect, but it is usable (and most review I've seen tend to agree). But when it comes to airline tray tablets... since I live in NZ and have parents and rest of the family in Europe and travel long-distance flights (30+ hours) every year or two, I found trays too small anyway - unless I'm flying business or 1st class. In order to wide-open laptop, base would have to hang in the air anyway - especially if seat in front is leaned back.
There are much better solutions than Surface. Lenovo Yoga 13. It really sacrifices nothing on the laptop front. It is a full fledged laptop. Where you fold the screen over flat to make use of it as a occasional use tablet. Which I think is a much better Fit for Windows 8.
I see Surface Pro as Mediocre Laptop + Mediocre Tablet. Lenovo Yoga 13 is at least a Good Laptop + Mediocre Tablet. When spending ~$1000 on these things, being all around mediocre just doesn't cut it.
One thing that annoys me with just about all the Windows Solutions: 16:9. This is not a productivity oriented aspect ratio. Too short in Landscape, too skinny in Portrait. Much less suited to portrait mode (and thus tablet usage).
One thing that annoys me with just about all the Windows Solutions: 16:9. This is not a productivity oriented aspect ratio. Too short in Landscape, too skinny in Portrait. Much less suited to portrait mode (and thus tablet usage).
...but... but... but... The 16:9 ratio is perfect for a "recreational tablet."
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowdog65
I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface. Get a real x86 laptop/convertible.
Surface Pro, is less unappealing for enterprise than Surface RT. That doesn't mean it is better than a laptop or more conventional convertible like the Lenovo Yoga 13. A kickstand with one set angle and a non-supportive keyboard are inferior to the real deal on the Lenovo that can be set at any angle, and has a huge supportive base for the screen so you can type anywhere, including on your lap.
Both Surface offerings are novelty acts, that have significant usability issues. Even if you are a Windows Fan, you will get better designs elsewhere.
"I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface...."
Why not? Most college students just want a device for email, social networking, document creation / collaboration, web browsing, media consumption. If they can get by with one device that is extremely portable & serve their tablet and document creation needs, then why not? That's money saved.
The excitement for Surface is off to a good start. Obviously it's not the type of excitement generated by Apple launches but it's gained the best excitement seen by any MS products in a long time. Also, I'm not a Windows, nor for that matter an Apple fan. I'm a fan of cool & innovative technology & I don't care who makes it. Since you asked nicely / s, I own an iPhone 5 and put in a pre-order for an iPad 4. But by no means am I going to write off MS or the Surface. There's serious potential there and I'm definitely keeping my eye on it.
Got to love it when "analysts" forecast outrageous numbers and then blame Apple when they don't exceed them and how the stock tanks as a result. Record profits? Meaningless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ankleskater
What a detailed answer! Glad someone had a chance to test it thoroughly. You must have had both Surfaces for a few months to give such definitive advice?
Have you never used a real laptop?
Normally I adjust the screen at just the right angle. There is only one angle on the surface.
You don't need to be an engineer to realize that superiority of the support you get from a real laptop, where the whole keyboard acts as large solid platform. The surface keyboard doesn't support it, it just attaches, the one support you have is the Kickstand.
With a real laptop it can work work on small airline tray tables. Think about, for the surface you need a table deep enough to make sure the kickstand/surface are the table behind, the keyboard which must also fit on their. You need a much deeper flat surface to setup.
With a real laptop you can actually pick it up, while open, and still type on the keyboard while standing (but only with one hand).
With a real laptop you can actually work on your lap if there is no table. with the surface you will be trying to keep the kickstand from falling off your knees, the screen is likely fixed at the wrong angle.
You just need to be able to think things through to spot the ergonomic weakness of the Surface keyboard mechanism.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shameer Mulji
"I wouldn't suggest anyone go to University with an underpowered ARM based Surface...."
Why not? Most college students just want a device for email, social networking, document creation / collaboration, web browsing, media consumption. If they can get by with one device that is extremely portable & serve their tablet and document creation needs, then why not? That's money saved.
The excitement for Surface is off to a good start. Obviously it's not the type of excitement generated by Apple launches but it's gained the best excitement seen by any MS products in a long time. Also, I'm not a Windows, nor for that matter an Apple fan. I'm a fan of cool & innovative technology & I don't care who makes it. Since you asked nicely / s, I own an iPhone 5 and put in a pre-order for an iPad 4. But by no means am I going to write off MS or the Surface. There's serious potential there and I'm definitely keeping my eye on it.
You see no problem with the below? Watch these:
http://youtu.be/VTtf_BgFS08
http://youtu.be/Wwhv8U614Vo
http://youtu.be/zEfsMCmk4mo
I'd say 15 seconds to open the email app and a word processor that cant even keep up with typing is a problem.
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikon133
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
Office RT is not licensed for business use.
Even if it was, in our shop it would be useless because Office RT doesn't support Macros:
http://www.zdnet.com/office-2013-for-microsoft-windows-rt-tablets-wont-support-macros-third-party-add-ins-7000002336/
Given that restriction it might as well be an iPad running Pages/Numbers in our environment.
7.1 second for mail app to cold-start, according to Annandtech Surface review... yes, still long. However, multitasking/switching between opened apps is faster and more elegant than other platforms, according to the same review. So that brings some leverage.
Office, according to all the reviews I have seen so far, is serviceable. In addition, it is not final version, only preview. I would expect that final, when available next month, will bring additional optimization.
Office RT can be licensed for business use if business owns required licenses - Office 365, Office Standard 2013, Office Pro Plus 2013 or commercial use license via VL.
I don't know what would be the most affordable option (beside already having one of required solutions).
Macros, true. Bad luck for companies using them. For companies that don't (heck, we even have customers disabling macros on purpose), it is still way more convenient/compatible that any other ARM tablet Office solution.
End of the day, RT is planned for non-profit: students, home use... but I still expect it to prove more corporate friendly than other tablets. We'll see.
Of course it s not as convenient as proper laptop. That works for all tablets compared to laptop, in laptop usage scenario.
But then, proper laptop is hardly the best solution for tablet usage scenarios. Reading in portrait mode, or doing anything outside of desk, that does not require heavy keyboarding, where keyboard might end up being in a way.
Surface solution is supposed to reduce the gap in laptop-specific scenarios, while keeping advantages of tablet in tablet-specific scenarios. I think concept does achieve that to some degree, though it is open to argument how significant (or not) improvement is. I didn't have a chance to work on Surface, so I don't have any experience based opinion. End of the day, it will depend on each individual's usage scenario.
Likewise the stand. While angle of screen is fixed, screen size and IPS nature make it more flexible, in a way that you don't really need to find the sweet-spot angle characteristic for common cheap laptop screens on so many PC laptops. It is not perfect, but it is usable (and most review I've seen tend to agree). But when it comes to airline tray tablets... since I live in NZ and have parents and rest of the family in Europe and travel long-distance flights (30+ hours) every year or two, I found trays too small anyway - unless I'm flying business or 1st class. In order to wide-open laptop, base would have to hang in the air anyway - especially if seat in front is leaned back.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shameer Mulji
This is all based on the assumption that Apple can ramp up production to keep up with demand. There was also no mention of Windows 8 / MS Surface and how that will impact sales. This is more of a threat to Apple, on the tablet side, than Android.
I think they've already been building additional facilities to do this. Apple has a much chance of hitting these numbers despite what happens to Android and Windows Surface. Out of the three platforms, Apple is the major player in the Educational and Corporate Market and the others are just going after either low budget buyers (Android) and the COMPLETELY brainwashed Microsoft die hards that will buy ANYTHING Microsoft, even Vista and Zune. Microsoft doesn't have a REAL good solution, they don't really have an OS that tailored towards the handheld market, plus there are no apps and that much third party support.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikon133
7.1 second for mail app to cold-start, according to Annandtech Surface review... yes, still long. However, multitasking/switching between opened apps is faster and more elegant than other platforms, according to the same review. So that brings some leverage.
Office, according to all the reviews I have seen so far, is serviceable. In addition, it is not final version, only preview. I would expect that final, when available next month, will bring additional optimization.
Office is coming out for both iOS and Android next month, but a LOT of these tablet users really aren't seeing Office as the app they actually need. From what I've seen, the apps these corporations are using are pretty much custom apps and customized cash register apps. The Educational system is heavily starting to use IBooks and they want to have a platform they can count on since there is a bunch of Educational related apps, Podcasts, and iOS is just better supported, more secure, easier to use and the products are typically very well built products.
Microsoft thinks that a tablet should be more like a net book computer. Well, yeah on some levels they can, but these tablet buyers from corporations are more for specific applications, people that don't always have a desk to put the unit down and flop down a keyboard. Having a keyboard is not an absolute must have for tablets. I just don't see much retail store and restaurant chains going for a Microsoft Surface product. The air line industry already has the iPad and I doubt they will give them up for a Surface product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikon133
You are forgetting Office which, like it or not, is killer app for majority of businesses. You are not paying tablet and keyboard for $500. You are paying tablet, keyboard AND MS Office. Big difference. Office alone would be worth, what? $100-ish?
These days, most companies we are dealing with are doing collaboration through SharePoint portal, which does not require devices to be part of domain. But it still requires devices to be fluent in MS Office.
Let me explain something to you: You DO NOT get MS Office with this turd. You get MS Office RT, which is a pale shade of what you and I think of of as MS Office. In fact you really don't even get that, you get a alpha version of MS Office RT. It's FREE because that's what it is worth; not no friggin' $100. What does Office RT let you do? It let's you OPEN Office documents and do some LIMITED editing. Yeah, you read that right... you get to do about what Apple Pages can do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shameer Mulji
Remember for $599, you get not only the keyboard but a free copy of Office 2013. For those that need and rely on Office (think college students) and want a device of this type, that's a big selling feature. And the apps for the Windows Marketplace are coming. There's already 10,000 at launch. Not a bad start.
Surface Pro will be appeal a lot to Enterprises. It runs Office (which owns the business space), is backward compatible with LOB Win32 apps, and has excellent integration with MS' servers - all big pluses when trying to sell to business customers. Yes, I realize the iPad has had strong momentum in businesses, and for Apple's sake hopefully they can continue that, but how long can they keep that going?
You are drinking the same Ballmer Kool-aide as Nikon133. No one is getting MS Office with the Surface RT. You are getting a mangled and crippled alpha version of Office RT, which is no more "Office" than Apple's Pages/Numbers/keynote. In fact, may not run a touch interface as well as Apple's offerings.
The apps for Windows Marketplace promise to be mostly for the Surface Pro and may have limited touch implementation. App writers are not going crazy writing for the Surface RT until is shows some life of its own. The lack of lines at MS stores is not a harbinger of that happening.
To learn the REAL truth about MS Office RT, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-preview-FX103210361.aspx
Originally Posted by Macky the Macky
Let me explain something to you: You DO NOT get MS Office with this turd. You get MS Office RT, which is a pale shade of what you and I think of of as MS Office. In fact you really don't even get that, you get a alpha version of MS Office RT. It's FREE because that's what it is worth; not no friggin' $100. What does Office RT let you do? It let's you OPEN Office documents and do some LIMITED editing. Yeah, you read that right... you get to do about what Apple Pages can do.
Note that you will receive the final version for free when they finish it.
Note also that I used when, very generously, instead of if.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nikon133
Of course it s not as convenient as proper laptop. That works for all tablets compared to laptop, in laptop usage scenario.
But then, proper laptop is hardly the best solution for tablet usage scenarios. Reading in portrait mode, or doing anything outside of desk, that does not require heavy keyboarding, where keyboard might end up being in a way.
Surface solution is supposed to reduce the gap in laptop-specific scenarios, while keeping advantages of tablet in tablet-specific scenarios. I think concept does achieve that to some degree, though it is open to argument how significant (or not) improvement is. I didn't have a chance to work on Surface, so I don't have any experience based opinion. End of the day, it will depend on each individual's usage scenario.
Likewise the stand. While angle of screen is fixed, screen size and IPS nature make it more flexible, in a way that you don't really need to find the sweet-spot angle characteristic for common cheap laptop screens on so many PC laptops. It is not perfect, but it is usable (and most review I've seen tend to agree). But when it comes to airline tray tablets... since I live in NZ and have parents and rest of the family in Europe and travel long-distance flights (30+ hours) every year or two, I found trays too small anyway - unless I'm flying business or 1st class. In order to wide-open laptop, base would have to hang in the air anyway - especially if seat in front is leaned back.
There are much better solutions than Surface. Lenovo Yoga 13. It really sacrifices nothing on the laptop front. It is a full fledged laptop. Where you fold the screen over flat to make use of it as a occasional use tablet. Which I think is a much better Fit for Windows 8.
I see Surface Pro as Mediocre Laptop + Mediocre Tablet. Lenovo Yoga 13 is at least a Good Laptop + Mediocre Tablet. When spending ~$1000 on these things, being all around mediocre just doesn't cut it.
One thing that annoys me with just about all the Windows Solutions: 16:9. This is not a productivity oriented aspect ratio. Too short in Landscape, too skinny in Portrait. Much less suited to portrait mode (and thus tablet usage).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowdog65
One thing that annoys me with just about all the Windows Solutions: 16:9. This is not a productivity oriented aspect ratio. Too short in Landscape, too skinny in Portrait. Much less suited to portrait mode (and thus tablet usage).
...but... but... but... The 16:9 ratio is perfect for a "recreational tablet."