Help. Some questions

[Simon Tupper]

Okay here we go:

1. Any of you shared data from their Windows Phone 8 to a Windows 8 tablet? How fast is it?

2. What is the importance of a data plan for a tablet? (Other than sucking the money out of your wallet)

3. Bucks for bucks, Surface RT vs ATIV Smart PC?

I hope t get some answers as I am struggling to choose between the two and also because a data plan is always a plus, but it can be useless from time to time.

Share your personnal story or simply answer point by point.

Thank you guys for taking your time to help me with this.

 

[stmav]

I have shared documents and pictures from my phone to my surface and vice versa. It usually shows up on the other device in less than a minute.

 

[conanheath]

I have 920 and Surface on Att LTE in Dallas, TX. Hotspot is faster than my 20mbps home WiFi more often than not. You can tell when the network is under heavy use but rarely does mine time out. There were some problems with Surface initially staying connected to Hotspot, but I haven't had any issues in month or so. I think spending additional money on 4g tablet is a waste. You do have to turn on internet sharing and wait 10 seconds to get data, but that isn't worth additional cost of feature. Plus why pay additional $10-$20 each month for using your own data plan.

I have not used Ativ, but you can't go wrong with Surface. Build quality is very good, battery life is decent for screen of it's size. The form factor takes a little getting used to. Only complaint I've read about consistently is the Touch Cover coming apart at the seams. It has completely replaced my laptop for personal use. Still has a bit to go to replace work laptop, but if money is not an issue, wait for pro model and get the best of both.

 

[Simon Tupper]

I have 920 and Surface on Att LTE in Dallas, TX. Hotspot is faster than my 20mbps home WiFi more often than not. You can tell when the network is under heavy use but rarely does mine time out. There were some problems with Surface initially staying connected to Hotspot, but I haven't had any issues in month or so. I think spending additional money on 4g tablet is a waste. You do have to turn on internet sharing and wait 10 seconds to get data, but that isn't worth additional cost of feature. Plus why pay additional $10-$20 each month for using your own data plan.

I have not used Ativ, but you can't go wrong with Surface. Build quality is very good, battery life is decent for screen of it's size. The form factor takes a little getting used to. Only complaint I've read about consistently is the Touch Cover coming apart at the seams. It has completely replaced my laptop for personal use. Still has a bit to go to replace work laptop, but if money is not an issue, wait for pro model and get the best of both.

Can you try to share your connection between your Lumia 920 and your Surface? If you can, tell me how fast it is and if you could see it as a good replacement for a data plan.

 

[crystal_planet]

Can you try to share your connection between your Lumia 920 and your Surface? If you can, tell me how fast it is and if you could see it as a good replacement for a data plan.

I've tethered my Surface to my Lumia not too long ago and I found browsing was slightly slower than a pure wifi connection. I have a 5gb plan and it's more than adequate. If you can tether to your phone, then a lte tablet is not needed. There's a reason why MS didn't release a data variant of the Surface

 

[ivirsnezbit]

I have a 8x on Verizon, just connected my surface to it & ran a speed test

26.03 Mbps down
6.41 Mbps up
With a ping of 89ms

This is better than my cable modem at home & work.

I will be replacing my 8x with a Nokia 822, if you want I will post the results for that on Wednesday.

As for the surface, I love it and remote desktop, is better than any remote app I've used to date.

Also if you run a server or windows enterprise, you can use remote apps which allows you to use x86 programs streamed to windows rt as if it was native.

I think you will be happy with either table

 

[conanheath]

Can you try to share your connection between your Lumia 920 and your Surface? If you can, tell me how fast it is and if you could see it as a good replacement for a data plan.

I was talking about tethering to my 920 or mobile hotspot or internet sharing. Whatever you want to call it. I use hotspot as a generic term because tethering makes me think back to BB days and actually using cable. Sorry for the confusion. Tomatoes, tomatoes.

I don't have a designated data plan on att. At work we use Verizon and I have 4g air card for laptop as well as 4g "hotspot" on my phone. I don't know of it's a Dallas thing because att headquarters are here, but att data is noticeably faster than Verizon air card and blows the phone hotspot away. I haven't actually checked speeds but I can tell the difference.