Surface RT questions

[cthulhucometh]

I'm getting a Surface in a couple days but I'm stuck on two things, the touch cover and whether to get the 32GB or the 64 GB. The touch cover because I have never messed with one and I can buy an awesome cover to fit my Surface off of Etsy. Is it worth buying or would it be better to get a USB keyboard? Secondly, I know it has a SD slot in it and can use a 64 GB SD card in it but what are your views on which is the best? I plan on putting movies and shows on it as well as games and books.

 

[Flagz]

I'm getting a Surface in a couple days but I'm stuck on two things, the touch cover and whether to get the 32GB or the 64 GB. The touch cover because I have never messed with one and I can buy an awesome cover to fit my Surface off of Etsy. Is it worth buying or would it be better to get a USB keyboard? Secondly, I know it has a SD slot in it and can use a 64 GB SD card in it but what are your views on which is the best? I plan on putting movies and shows on it as well as games and books.

Get a 64GB IF your not delete movies when using, otherwise to me its a waste. As foe Keyboard, do you type alot? This is how I put it:
Light Browse - Touch Cover
Heavy user - Type Cover
Job oriented, school ir super heavy typer (coders etc)- USB/wireless/bluetooth keyboard.

 

[erasure25]

Depends on your budget. If you can afford it, get the 64gb. The type cover is nice but just know that when you fold it back to hold the surface like a tablet, your fingers on the back side will press the keys (they won't register since he surface disables key presses on the covers when folder back). Of course you can always detach the type cover but that seems a hassle to me. I have a 32gb version with touch cover and I can work on it perfectly well. I don't need a lot of space as I use Skydrive and stream Netflix if I want to watch stuff. I use my 64gb card to download videos for offline viewing and I use my phone for music.

 

[TeknoBlast]

The touch cover is something to get used to, but you will get used to it after a while. I purchased the 64GB Surface, plus a 64GB microSD card. The space on the Surface, I leave that for any local files and apps. The microSD card, I load it up with tons of movies. If you like watching tons of movies on the go, then get the SD card.

 

[martinmc78]

Ive got a 32GB no touch cover. Already had lots of wireless keyboards laying around if i need them. The MS wedge keyboard is an awesome choice if your looking for one. Same sort of length as the surface and comes with its own protective cover. Was initially worried about the storage and bought a 64gb SD card but with the recent discoveries of remote desktop and storing apps on the sd card those worries have dissappeared. Have got all my films and music stored on my machine at home if i ever need anything I just do a remote connection to my machine and download what i want to the surface, then delete it when im done. As for the SD card its best to get a class 10sdxc.

 

[conanheath]

Go 64gig. I've heard that after OS you are only left with 20 or so gig on 32gig unit. As for card, first get Sandisk class10 and its not as easy as inserting card and having all your info available to all your apps. By that I mean, media on SD card won't be seen in media apps. You can access SD from desktop mode all day, but you need to search forums for workarounds for certain aspects. Have to remove drive assignments so you can include SD in myDocs for app access to media. Also there are ways to remove backup partition and give yourself more memory on device. I highly suggest reading forums here and surfaceforums.net before you start setting Surface up. It will save you a lot of time if you do it initially. I'm OCD about how my devices are set up and had to start over to get everything working like I wanted.

As for touch vs type. If you are heavy keyboard user, get type. Touch works just fine, after initial learning curve, but you will find it is impossible to be as fast on touch as with type. Or get touch and have full size bt keyboard when needed for heavy use.

 

[msdugn]

I'm getting a Surface in a couple days but I'm stuck on two things, the touch cover and whether to get the 32GB or the 64 GB. The touch cover because I have never messed with one and I can buy an awesome cover to fit my Surface off of Etsy. Is it worth buying or would it be better to get a USB keyboard? Secondly, I know it has a SD slot in it and can use a 64 GB SD card in it but what are your views on which is the best? I plan on putting movies and shows on it as well as games and books.

If you can afford it, get the 64GB. I've never heard of anyone complaining about too much space. That said, with only the 32GB model, a 64GB SDHC card and SkyDrive mapped as a network drive, I've got plenty of space.

Get one of the Touch or Type covers specifically for the Surface - not an aftermarket keyboard. The Touch Cover is great for casual emails and moderate typing. Get the Type Cover if you're going to type a lot (like use the Surface as a replacement laptop). I have both and I honestly am very accustomed to either one. The 'pop' sound the Surface makes when you hit a key on the Touch keyboard is such a great, responsive sound, I sometimes wonder if we're all just too accustomed to the 'clacky-clack' sound of real keyboards to make the switch. FWIW, the Type cover adds 3mm to the thickness - a miniscule amount you'll never even notice. A USB keyboard may work - even though I wouldn't recommended it. With a USB keyboard, you'll have to carry an extra piece of hardware, the drivers may not work on RT, you lose the protection the cover provides to the screen, and you'll use up your only USB port. And with a USB keyboard, you'll lose out on the built-in touchpad on the Touch/Type covers (which is huge).

You can store tons of music, movies, documents and photos if you add a 64GB card. I researched them all for price, warranty, reliability and settled on the SanDisk Ultra 64GB micro SDXC class 10 UHS-1 Memory card. Microsoft gave these out with reviewer versions of Surface (so they work) - and the reviews indicate they are the fastest of the Class 10 cards that seem to have no compatbility issues across a large range of devices - including the Microsoft Surface.

If you want to store data on the SDHC card so it is included in your libraries so other apps can use/read/play them (and who doesn't), be sure to use Paul Thurrott's tips to configure your SD card to be used (and indexed) by the libraries. There are 3 different ways to do this (Paul's method, create a VHD from your SD card, change default library location to your SD card). I've tried all three, and Paul's method is the only one that works perfectly and reliably.

Also - you don't have to store all of your movies/video locally. Don't forget the option to stream movies from a network share or homegroup if you'll primarily be on your local network. The absolute best app I've found is Media.HD. It's the only app I've found that does MKV files - and it streams them flawlessly from my Media PC and Home Server. So whether you're streaming or putting movies on your local SDHC card, this app is Highly Recommended.

I hope that helps.

 

[cthulhucometh]

Thanks, that helps alot! I plan on getting the 64 GB if at all possible now. Does the cyan blue touch cover look good?
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