I got the Surface RT the day it came out last year from the Microsoft store. When I brought it home, I loved everything about it except for 3 things. I found that I didn't care for the Touch Cover (functionality wise, but as a cover for my screen, it was perfect) and would've liked to have a Type Cover instead. I found that the volume from the speakers was too low. And finally, my main complaint was what most people complained about that had any complaints with it: it was just too slow. I kept the tablet all the way up until the extended date to which you could return it for money back in full (total of about 3 months, I believe) and I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and just wait for optimizations, wait for Microsoft to optimize the tablet for the battery saving core of the Tegra 3 and all that jazz. In the end, I felt that it was obvious that the totality of the picture was always gonna be there for the RT. Maybe it would get there in the next release, but as a product then, it just wasn't cutting it. It was simply hampered by unfortunate spec choices, so I went back to the iPad (this time using my money to get a 4).
Well that maybe seems very much to have been fulfilled. Based on the info currently present about the hardware, plus with RT 8.1 out now and an obviously better supported ecosystem behind it than what was there at launch last year, I can't wait until the device comes out. I'm personally not going to preorder, but I will wait until it comes out and then visit the Microsoft Store nearest me to try it out, sell my iPad to them, and then get it. The changes to Xbox music seem to make that a lot more usable than the mess it was before and I'll finally be able to get to manipulate my Xbox Cloud Collection (which for whatever reason you can't do from Windows Phones, but that's another topic for another day). They gave it the same screen and resolution as the Pro. The updated processor, just from videos that I've seen alone, seem to make the thing fly. The refinements that've made to design impress me, although I'm not sure how I'll take to the fact that it only comes in silver as opposed to the black of the RT, but in the end that's a bit of a minor detail. I love the wider screen for media playback (a.k.a. Netflix, Hulu, and Youtube) and the office integration adds value to it that I just haven't been able to quite get from my iPad. I'm super excited.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram