Surface Reviews Thread

[crystal_planet]

I don't think you're a hater or troll, I just think you're dissatisfied with the offering at this point. Hopefully you will revisit this in a few months.

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[berty6294]

my god can somebody get rid of this kid. His trolling is beyond ridiculous.

Edit: nvm, looks like somebody already did!

 

[cj-m]

Here is a really poor review

Beautiful Microsoft tablet let down by software gaps: reviewers | Reuters

yes, I know it is Reuters...

 

[ironsoulreaver]

Here is a really poor review

Beautiful Microsoft tablet let down by software gaps: reviewers | Reuters

yes, I know it is Reuters...

That's a pretty poor review, It lacks content. It tells truth but it's still the same song and dance. Not very many apps compared to Apples iPad. Nobody points out the best parts like the interface being so robust or the full featured browser. Why is everyone so focused on Apps. I don't care if it only has 2000 Apps as long as it has the core apps/functions like Facebook, twitter, news feed, Media support, E-mail, web browser, ect. I really could care less if there are 5000 flashlight apps or whatever. It's plenty enough to be productive and the good extras will come with time. It's off to a better start then IOS or Android was. The fact that a brand new operating system is able to launch with a decent library pretty cool.

 

[dkp23]

Here is a really poor review

Beautiful Microsoft tablet let down by software gaps: reviewers | Reuters

yes, I know it is Reuters...

MS explained RT was your traditional tablet and Pro is the ultrabook type device. I just cant understand the "confusion" of people not knowing you cant download a program and install on RT, RT is you traditional consumption tablet with some office in it.

I think it was pretty clear when MS said Pro which is ultrabook would be released 3 months later.

 

[smoledman]

MS explained RT was your traditional tablet and Pro is the ultrabook type device. I just cant understand the "confusion" of people not knowing you cant download a program and install on RT, RT is you traditional consumption tablet with some office in it.

I think it was pretty clear when MS said Pro which is ultrabook would be released 3 months later.

Surface Pro is not an ultrabook.

 

[dkp23]

Surface Pro is not an ultrabook.

Ms said Pro is comparable to one. That is why they are going to price it in comparison to an ultrabook.

 

[Rallicat]

This was not true of the iPad at launch - it could run the existing iPhone apps. That made it much more palatable to spend that kind of money on a luxury item. A phone by then was a necessity, so the decision was whether to buy a blackberry, or WM, or an iPhone, not to buy an iPhone or buy nothing. Tablets today, even with the iPad and Kindle success, are still luxury items. The apps help justify that luxury purchase. Office helps in this way for the Surface and other WinRT devices, I just don't think that it helps enough, given that the Surface can't even play MS Minesweeper and Mahjong.

Having 'double-sized' iPhone apps certainly helped, but this was little more than a temporary appeasement for the iPad. If you were buying an iPad on day one in 2010, you'd still be doing so knowing that 'proper' apps would take time to appear, and as Apple themselves said yesterday, the most common thing people use a tablet for is to browse the web.

Still, the same rules apply to Windows 8/RT - the Apps will come, and it's not as if there are /no/ apps. There are already a large number (heading toward 10k), and that includes some big names too. Add the in-built functionality in the box, and I find it unlikely people would toss it aside with little satisfaction. The 'not enough apps' argument is based on Microsoft /not/ have hundreds of thousands of Apps yet .. but how many apps does the average user actually use? 100? 1000? If it's a quantity game, Microsoft lose, but I'd say they only need to win the quality game to have relevance in this area.

As for the specific examples of Microsoft's own games not being available on ARM - yes, I'll grant you that such things seem silly. Whether this proves to be a problem for adopters of ARM tablets I suspect will be something we won't know for a little while (will X86/x64 tablets just end up with more capabilities that devleopers exclusively target? Who knows). In the meantime, I don't see how these sort of examples are actually meaningful.

Everything has to start somewhere - when the Xbox was first launched, I remember people complaining there were very few games titles available ... it comes with time.

 

[power5]

I thought MS said any WP7 app could run on wp8 or win8 metro. And any app designed for win8 metro could run on RT. Did something change or am I not remembering correctly?

I dont think there will be 5000 flashlight apps. There is no flash on the surface.

 

[ironsoulreaver]

I thought MS said any WP7 app could run on wp8 or win8 metro. And any app designed for win8 metro could run on RT. Did something change or am I not remembering correctly?

I dont think there will be 5000 flashlight apps. There is no flash on the surface.

I don't know about cross platform compatibility but it's probably there, even if they don't allow it. WP7 apps will run on WP8 though.

The surface might not have a flashlight but that won't stop a 3rd party manufacturer from making one. Even if nothing has a camera flash/flashlight, that doesn't stop people for charging a buck for an app that just turns the whole screen white .

 

[oblivman]

Updated app count, to keep everyone on the same page: Windows Store – The (almost) Final Countdown |

 

[Dr. Impossible]

Yeah I don't like any of the reviews I'm reading so far there knocking the OS more then anything and for apps? I feel like there reviewing wp7.5 or something. The surface pro should put all the tablets to the grave yard when they finally come out I just hope there not to expensive.

I am hearing this.

I feel as though people are going out of there way to nitpick every little thing and really beat the piss out of it, and possibly take the piss out of it. All of the other tablets out there had periods of not having apps to run in the beginning days, and quite a few of the reviewers really just hammer this point to death. It really should be a non-issue. The apps will be there, especially coming from someone/something as big as MS. I don't remember what Android had when they started releasing tabs, and sure, I understand Apple had the phone apps to tide them over, but it still seems a little much.

And no, I don't think the resolution thing means much. That to me is similar to the way HD tvs are sold today. Everyone pushes 1080p and makes it sound as though 720p is like being a smoker. The reality of it is(as I found doing research after receiving a 720p HD tv as a gift) it really doesn't matter or, rather, there is more to it than that. Without going off on too much of a tangent, most output signals are 720, NOT 1080. Not only that, but your eye cannot tell the difference between the 2 resolutions because(this is merely one reason) the jump from standard to HD is soooo huge. I gathered from my readings and research that even hardcore techphiles(is that even a word?) i.e. people in the industry would have trouble discerning 1080 from 720 in a blind test.

I will say, that MS did not present the RT properly. They could have easily IMO, but didn't. And now we have a lot of reviewers saying things like "It's kind of a gimped version of Windows 8" or " It's like a chopped down version of Windows 8", which is not helping the Surface or MS, and which it is not at all. In fact, I think RT is where they ultimately want to go. In fact, I'm already wishing that when I buy my RT, that it didn't have the desktop Office stuff in it; I wish it was redesigned and optimized purely for RT. I really don't want the desktop.....on that RT tablet. I want the pure experience of this new direction and that, I feel, is it. The desktop on Pro? I'm down. I will probably trade up or get a whole other Win 8 portotabhybrid in the coming months. But I'd rather it not on RT. I want the pure tablet experience.

Sorry for the quasi-rant.

Sorry for going off-topic a bit.

Thanks

-Doc

 

[Dr. Impossible]

Updated app count, to keep everyone on the same page: Windows Store ? The (almost) Final Countdown |

I have been under the strong impression for quite a while that all the apps would be cross platform: they were using basically the same framework so that if it worked on Pro, for instance, it would work on all other forms of Win8? Am I incorrect?

From Winappundate:

"Almost all applications are available in both x86 and x64 architectures. Only two apps appear to solely target Windows RT (ARM), 31 target only Windows 8 x64 and don?t have Windows 8 x86 or Windows RT support. The gap I first noticed some time ago is still there, however. While almost all apps support Windows 8 on x86 and x64, 6% of apps do not support Windows RT on ARM at this time. This may change after GA when developers can test on Windows RT systems ? but it may always stay lower, reflecting the challenges of developing WinRT apps on Windows RT that I have heard from several developers."

Thanks

-Doc

 

[mparker]

I just counted 5005 apps in the app store (see my post in the thread http://forums.windowscentral.com/1722887-post3.htm) . That's including desktop apps, WinRT x86 apps, and WinRT ARM apps.

There are mercifully only 6 flashlight apps and only 5 fart apps, BTW

 

[Coreldan]

Really waiting to see user reviews on 26th. Although there will probably be fanboyism too, but hearing reviews from people who bought the device especially for what it was design-wise is more important to me than having a review from Applefied tech blogger who can't see the Surface RT as anything other than iPad from Microsoft which we've been seeing with some reviews, they just don't review it as what it sorta is (which I bet is hard, cos its one of a kind for the time being).

 

[Jaybotics]

Definitely looking forward to picking up my Surface this Friday. I am a little nervous from a couple of videos that I've seen regarding the lag. I was hoping the system would be optimized for doing multi-tasking well, but the lag is a huge turn off. I am hoping that this can be fixed in a future update? I hope that I'm correct.

PS, this will be my first tablet that supports SDXC, if I decide to store music on them, how fast are these memory cards?

 

[cckgz4]

This is why I refuse to be active in this forum during release time LOL. REFUSE to let a few idiots dim the excitement for a product that I like due to their foolish ways. #overit

 

[blehblehbleh]

PS, this will be my first tablet that supports SDXC, if I decide to store music on them, how fast are these memory cards?

Depends on the card you buy. Go to newegg and look up sdxc cards. They'll show the read and write speeds.

 

[anotherhawkeye]

The reviews, esp. from verge,are scary. I'll wait till there are more apps and for it to become popular (if). I have already been a beta tester with windows phone 7, so no thanks.

 

[justreason]

This is why I refuse to be active in this forum during release time LOL. REFUSE to let a few idiots dim the excitement for a product that I like due to their foolish ways. #overit

Totally agree.. But I'm so excited over this product IDC what reviews said.. I think majority of this forum follow your philosophy as we continue to support windows phone..

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