Delete the recovery partition, put it on a USB drive and you'll free up 6GB making it 24GB. Plus the Surface 2 includes 2 years of 200GB SkyDrive space free, you also have a Mini SD drive. There is plenty of space if you need it. You also get 1 year of Skype calls, not sure if that matters but still nice for those who use Skype as a telephone.
I agree with you that there is enough space. I actually bought a Surface Pro 2 and think its brilliant. I just think its a marketing mistake to advertise 32gigs of space when the free space is so much lower. The average person isn't going to want to delete the recovery partition and the minute you read 32gigs you want that kind of space, but it creates a negative when you don't get it. Advertise 18 and it would still be a plus but without any negative of less space.
MS defines productivity as Office. Unless you write lots of documents or spreadsheets, and most people don't, Office won't help you be productive. It all depends on what you need to get done. A musician might be more productive with GarageBand. A photographer doesn't need office. But plenty of other apps could be useful. A graphic designer doesn't need office either. Most people don't need office. Office does not make a better letter, term paper, etc than many other apps. Office is way over powered for the majority of users.
From high school to graduate school, most students prefer using Word and Excel. Of course there is the open office and Apple stuff, but W and E are pretty much dominating the campuses.
I agree with you that there is enough space. I actually bought a Surface Pro 2 and think its brilliant. I just think its a marketing mistake to advertise 32gigs of space when the free space is so much lower. The average person isn't going to want to delete the recovery partition and the minute you read 32gigs you want that kind of space, but it creates a negative when you don't get it. Advertise 18 and it would still be a plus but without any negative of less space.
I like it too or Windows 8 tablets in general. The iPad is also a very good tablet but it has a lot of restrictions, enough where a 2nd tablet is justified for myself anyway. I use the iPad for general surfing and music creation apps, music is my favorite hobby so an iPad makes total sense. Everything else though I use my ThinkPad Tablet 2. People complain about the lack of apps but I have found everything that I need and so will most people that have actually used the platform for anytime of length. Having a Wacom pen is just awesome and I use it quite often, love running desktop applications on a touchpad screen like Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator or Office but even the small stuff like WireShark or Picasso is very cool. All of the negative comments in the world from this forum still won't stop those who still like things, like; built in HDMI, USB, Mini SD, Wacom Pen, NFC, pop-out stands, docking-stations that are connected to larger monitors with keyboard and mouse, file-managers, a desktop OS, run multiple OS's like Linux or ChromeOS, i5 processor, 8GB RAM, ect. It's not for everyone, I am not trying to shove these machines down peoples throats as everyone has their separate needs but saying that they are bad machines is just absolutely ridiculous. Microsoft includes 250 dollars worth of freebies like 200GB of Skydrive and Skype phone which also makes the Surface2 a very good deal for those who need/want it of course.
I don't get the big deal about this device. So Microsoft took the laptop form factor and moved the guts from the keyboard to the display. Almost every promotional shot of this device shows it with the kickstand and keyboard. That's not a tablet. And not something I'd want to snuggle up in bed with to read a book or slip in a purse or back back when I'm out and about.
For me the problem with this device is there aren't a lot of pure tablet benefits. So if its mostly going to be used as a laptop, why not just buy the real thing where you get better specs and functionality. John Siracusa tested the 13" MBA with Mavericks and got 15 hours battery life. Neither of these surface tablets come anywhere close to that.
Well, not really... as long as you use any Windows 8 or 8.1 tablet, Pro or RT, within Metro/Modern GUI environment, you get very regular tablet experience. You get some perks, like multiple apps on screen (8.1 should push over 2, I think - 3 or 4?). You don't need external keyboard with Modern GUI apps - not more than you'd need it on iPad or Android tablets, anyway.
Classic desktop is feature you don't have to use at all, and it is not in your way - Windows will be perfectly happy never to show you classic desktop. If you do need Office (or, in case of Win Pro tablets, almost any other desktop application), then classic desktop is good extra to have, but it comes with a price - it works best in laptop mode. You can invoke on-screen keyboard and use touch instead of mouse pointer in desktop as well, but you will see right away that it is not designed for such usage; you can, but you will not want to.
But regardless of tablets' capability to perform "real" work or not, 10" screen is not where you want to be productive. Even with 1080p. This is where docking stations, available for new Surface Pro 2 and a few OEM tablets, can help. Use tablets with light and small screen/touch interface optimized mini apps on the move, plug it to dock and use it with large screen/desktop keyboard & mouse/network connection while in office... but I'm pretty sure Surface 2 cannot do that, you'd need one of Pro tablets with x86 logic for that.
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Delete the recovery partition, put it on a USB drive and you'll free up 6GB making it 24GB. Plus the Surface 2 includes 2 years of 200GB SkyDrive space free, you also have a Mini SD drive. There is plenty of space if you need it. You also get 1 year of Skype calls, not sure if that matters but still nice for those who use Skype as a telephone.
I agree with you that there is enough space. I actually bought a Surface Pro 2 and think its brilliant. I just think its a marketing mistake to advertise 32gigs of space when the free space is so much lower. The average person isn't going to want to delete the recovery partition and the minute you read 32gigs you want that kind of space, but it creates a negative when you don't get it. Advertise 18 and it would still be a plus but without any negative of less space.
MS defines productivity as Office. Unless you write lots of documents or spreadsheets, and most people don't, Office won't help you be productive. It all depends on what you need to get done. A musician might be more productive with GarageBand. A photographer doesn't need office. But plenty of other apps could be useful. A graphic designer doesn't need office either. Most people don't need office. Office does not make a better letter, term paper, etc than many other apps. Office is way over powered for the majority of users.
From high school to graduate school, most students prefer using Word and Excel. Of course there is the open office and Apple stuff, but W and E are pretty much dominating the campuses.
I agree with you that there is enough space. I actually bought a Surface Pro 2 and think its brilliant. I just think its a marketing mistake to advertise 32gigs of space when the free space is so much lower. The average person isn't going to want to delete the recovery partition and the minute you read 32gigs you want that kind of space, but it creates a negative when you don't get it. Advertise 18 and it would still be a plus but without any negative of less space.
I like it too or Windows 8 tablets in general. The iPad is also a very good tablet but it has a lot of restrictions, enough where a 2nd tablet is justified for myself anyway. I use the iPad for general surfing and music creation apps, music is my favorite hobby so an iPad makes total sense. Everything else though I use my ThinkPad Tablet 2. People complain about the lack of apps but I have found everything that I need and so will most people that have actually used the platform for anytime of length. Having a Wacom pen is just awesome and I use it quite often, love running desktop applications on a touchpad screen like Photoshop, Gimp, Illustrator or Office but even the small stuff like WireShark or Picasso is very cool. All of the negative comments in the world from this forum still won't stop those who still like things, like; built in HDMI, USB, Mini SD, Wacom Pen, NFC, pop-out stands, docking-stations that are connected to larger monitors with keyboard and mouse, file-managers, a desktop OS, run multiple OS's like Linux or ChromeOS, i5 processor, 8GB RAM, ect. It's not for everyone, I am not trying to shove these machines down peoples throats as everyone has their separate needs but saying that they are bad machines is just absolutely ridiculous. Microsoft includes 250 dollars worth of freebies like 200GB of Skydrive and Skype phone which also makes the Surface2 a very good deal for those who need/want it of course.
Well, not really... as long as you use any Windows 8 or 8.1 tablet, Pro or RT, within Metro/Modern GUI environment, you get very regular tablet experience. You get some perks, like multiple apps on screen (8.1 should push over 2, I think - 3 or 4?). You don't need external keyboard with Modern GUI apps - not more than you'd need it on iPad or Android tablets, anyway.
Classic desktop is feature you don't have to use at all, and it is not in your way - Windows will be perfectly happy never to show you classic desktop. If you do need Office (or, in case of Win Pro tablets, almost any other desktop application), then classic desktop is good extra to have, but it comes with a price - it works best in laptop mode. You can invoke on-screen keyboard and use touch instead of mouse pointer in desktop as well, but you will see right away that it is not designed for such usage; you can, but you will not want to.
But regardless of tablets' capability to perform "real" work or not, 10" screen is not where you want to be productive. Even with 1080p. This is where docking stations, available for new Surface Pro 2 and a few OEM tablets, can help. Use tablets with light and small screen/touch interface optimized mini apps on the move, plug it to dock and use it with large screen/desktop keyboard & mouse/network connection while in office... but I'm pretty sure Surface 2 cannot do that, you'd need one of Pro tablets with x86 logic for that.