Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

I use a Surface Pro, and am considering getting my 10 year old a Surface RT for school. I'm a little scared of not going Bay Trail, but the Surface hardware is so nice, and the limitations of RT have some benefits (I don't have to worry about malware, some app hanging and chewing up the battery, etc.). Loss of Intel compatibility scares me a little, though, but with Flash support on the RT browser, and with Office built-in, right now she can run everything needed for school. (I mostly just fear something she'll need to do in the future of it needs a new browser plugin, Google chrome, a new desktop app, etc.) Once I got Win8.1 I realized how much better equipped it is now for doing work in the metro interface, with the 50/50 split view being really nice.

 

[dolphinparty]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

lol BrRip.mp4 ya **** pirate. Good video. where are u flying to?

I own this on Blu-ray but its much less effort to let someone else rip it for me

Sunny Spain (for work)

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

PEN SUPPORT: I know MS states that their pen is only for the Pro and Pro 2. Early reports for Surface RT were that the pen would work with it, but with limitations.

Has anyone with a Surface Pro tried their pen on the Surface 2 to see if it works at all, e.g. in OneNote and Fresh Paint?

Thanks!

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Another video to demo the speakers and multitasking (abit).

Surface 2 Quick Play - YouTube

Looking to see if I can construct a tripod or something to improve the shakes!

Great to see Halo running on it well.

Does Halo render at1080p, or is it upscaling as it does on RT ?

 

[dolphinparty]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

bsd107, seems to support it. Alarm worked perfectly even after it turned it off.

The instant switch on is one of the things I love compared to my pro.

 

[Highdefjunkie]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

PEN SUPPORT: I know MS states that their pen is only for the Pro and Pro 2. Early reports for Surface RT were that the pen would work with it, but with limitations.

Has anyone with a Surface Pro tried their pen on the Surface 2 to see if it works at all, e.g. in OneNote and Fresh Paint?

Thanks!

Surface 2 works with OneNote and fresh paint.

 

[SwimSwim]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

PEN SUPPORT: I know MS states that their pen is only for the Pro and Pro 2. Early reports for Surface RT were that the pen would work with it, but with limitations.

Has anyone with a Surface Pro tried their pen on the Surface 2 to see if it works at all, e.g. in OneNote and Fresh Paint?

Thanks!

You can only use a passive stylus, the same kind of rubbery tipped styli you find people using with iPads and other tablets, the kind that tries to emulate your finger. The Surface RT and Surface 2 both lack a digitizer, so you can't use a Wacom active stylus, unfortunately. This means you don't get the accuracy of an active stylus, nor do you get the ability to rest your hand on the screen.

Also, on the Rt anyways, the screen was configured for finger input, so using a stylus could actually lower accuracy in some cases.

 

[Daniel Curry]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

dolphinparty,

Does the Surface 2 support InstantGo? I would assume yes, but can find no reference to it.

I'm afraid not. Having got my Surface 2 on Saturday, and after trying several things, the Surface 2 doesn't come with InstantGo.

 

[Jealy666]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

PEN SUPPORT: I know MS states that their pen is only for the Pro and Pro 2. Early reports for Surface RT were that the pen would work with it, but with limitations.

Has anyone with a Surface Pro tried their pen on the Surface 2 to see if it works at all, e.g. in OneNote and Fresh Paint?

Thanks!

Tried my friend's Pro Pen on my Surface 2 - doesn't work.

 

[onysi]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

I own this on Blu-ray but its much less effort to let someone else rip it for me

Sunny Spain (for work)

oh I thought you were a teenager.

 

[SwimSwim]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Tried my friend's Pro Pen on my Surface 2 - doesn't work.

Impossible for it to work. The Surface Pro's stylus is an active stylus and requires a digitizer to work. Without that essential digitizer layer built into the screen, it's useless. Seeing as the Surface 2 lacks the aforementioned digitizer, it obviously won't work.

 

[TheCodifier]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

I'm afraid not. Having got my Surface 2 on Saturday, and after trying several things, the Surface 2 doesn't come with InstantGo.

Unless I'm missing something here, InstantGo is only another name for Connected Standby.

In which case, Surface 2 definitively supports it.

The Surface 2 is connected standby enabled. That is not the case for the Surface Pro 2 however.

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Surface 2 works with OneNote and fresh paint.

I know - I was specifically asking about pen support (especially the pen that MS makes for the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2)

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

You can only use a passive stylus, the same kind of rubbery tipped styli you find people using with iPads and other tablets, the kind that tries to emulate your finger. The Surface RT and Surface 2 both lack a digitizer, so you can't use a Wacom active stylus, unfortunately. This means you don't get the accuracy of an active stylus, nor do you get the ability to rest your hand on the screen.

Also, on the Rt anyways, the screen was configured for finger input, so using a stylus could actually lower accuracy in some cases.

Thanks for the answer.

I am of course considering one of the many new 8" Bay Trail tablets and considering the pros and cons against the Surface 2. (I find everything better about the Surface 2, although I wish it had Bay Trail.)

I noticed that many of the new 8" Bay Trail Win8.1 tablets have a stylus as an option. This includes the Dell Venue 8 Pro as well as the Lenovo Miix2 product. Dell even calls their pen the "Dell Active Stylus". But are these still really passive stylus, with all the limitations you describe above?

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

I'm afraid not. Having got my Surface 2 on Saturday, and after trying several things, the Surface 2 doesn't come with InstantGo.

Did you try the "Alarm" app (that comes with Windows 8.1)? The help system for that app explains that InstantGo is required for the alarm to wake from sleep. Specifically in that app, you should get a warning the first time you set an alarm if your S2 does not support InstantGo.

The warning will appear at the top of the app, and have a "more info" button linking to a web page explaining why InstantGo is required.

Note that the warning will only appear the first time using the alarm portion of the app. I only got the warning once on my Surface Pro, and have not seen it again...

Thanks!

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Unless I'm missing something here, InstantGo is only another name for Connected Standby.

I am not sure if that is the case or not.

It does bother me that nowhere can I find any reference from Microsoft of the Surface 2 supporting InstantGo. (Meanwhile, Toshiba, for example, specifically calls it out in the specs of it's new 8" Win8.1 Bay Trail tablet....)

 

[TheCodifier]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

I am not sure if that is the case or not.

It does bother me that nowhere can I find any reference from Microsoft of the Surface 2 supporting InstantGo. (Meanwhile, Toshiba, for example, specifically calls it out in the specs of it's new 8" Win8.1 Bay Trail tablet....)

I agree it doesn't clearly states InstantGo / Connected Stanby in the specs of the Surface 2.

However, according to this battery report posted in this thread by dolphinparty, it is indicated that connected standby is supported. Another clue would be this page that says:

Standby
If you don?t use Surface for a little while, the screen turns off and Surface goes into connected standby mode. Connected standby means that while Surface appears to be sleeping, Surface stays connected to your wireless network. This way you can get app notifications, such as an incoming Skype call.

There is also this page:

On, off, standby, restart
There's really no need to turn off (shut down) Surface completely. If you don?t use Surface for a few minutes, it goes into standby mode, and the screen turns off and locks. When this happens, Surface stays connected to your wireless network and app notifications (such as how many new email messages you have) appear on the lock screen.

Those quotes are pretty much the definition of the connected standby feature.

For those interested, here is a white paper from Microsoft I found last week about that: Introduction to Connected Standby

 

[sinic999]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Surface 2 Kickstand on a plane - YouTube

I even uploaded this one on the Surface 2.

Very stable the whole flight / movie.

Does it work with srt subtitle file???

 

[bsd107]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Those quotes are pretty much the definition of the connected standby feature.

Understood - but I am still not clear that "InstantGo" is the same exact thing as "Connected Standby". Yes, it could be just a change in marketing terms, but this is not clear.

 

[SwimSwim]

re: Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

Woot!!! Rocking out my new Surface Pro!!!

It's too early to give a solid review yet, but I think I'm in love, and I haven't even used my Type Cover, the Pen, or installed any apps yet! Sure is a beast though, my old laptop seems incredibly sluggish now.