Official "I have the Surface 2" thread

[berty6294]

Dont fret too much about build quality, the strip on the top is slightly misaligned (hard to tell unless your looking for it in most cases) But everything else on the Surface is immaculate and insanely premium feeling!

See I bought my Surface at the Best Buy I work at and I would feel bad if I returned it for just a hair of misalignment. Plus ill probably drop it at some point and have to go through the GSP to replace it anyway lol

 

[HeyCori]

I must say that I'm pretty concerned seeing all these build quality problems, speakers problems and crashing / instability problems that are popping up in these forums. I am receiving my Surface 2 by UPS today. I will see how it goes.

Now, instability problems can be fixed by updates. Speakers problems too I guess, unless they put cheaper ones in the Surface 2. But build quality problems, I don't like that at all...

I will make sure to inspect the device from all angles when I get it.

Everything is fine aside from a few software hiccups. Presumably the speakers can be fixed with a firmware update like MS did for the first Surface. IE11 will get patched. The slightly misaligned edge is a pain but probably only affects a limited batch, especially since most reviewers didn't receive misaligned units. I'm still in my but I just got it! phase so every nitpick seems 10x worse but I don't things will be too bad in the long run (fingers crossed, lol).

 

[jason8957]

So far, my Surface 2 experience has been good. A bit of a learning curve having never used RT.

Had most of my frustration with Outlook and how to configure and reconfigure it. They don't make it very obvious how to get to those menus.

Internet Explorer is great on the Surface 2. Faster than Firefox on my laptop. And the PDF viewer works quite well. Had terrible initial experience with PDF reader on Windows Phone 8.

All the Skydrive space is great. Time to start filling it up.

Have yet to spend much time with the XBOX music, but will soon.

 

[SwimSwim]

Sucks that the Surface 2 is suffering from so many issues. I know my Surface Pro 2 is running perfectly fine without issue (except for one odd instance where it randomly shut down, even though I had 80% power. But I turned it on and all my apps were tombstones, so I was immediately able to get back to work, within 20 seconds of it turning off). Of course, the Surface Pro 2 features the same design, only the it's only different on the inside. Using the same shell probably helps.

The Surface 2 meanwhile, features a new design (which can lead to problems in itself), and I hear Microsoft is utilizing a wide variety of part manufactures. I.E: (completely made up numbers, just got to say that ahead of time) the screen can have 5 different people making it and shipping it for final assembly. From what I hear, the manufacturing process is a bit of a mess.

Hopefully they'll update the software with time, and ensure future shipments don't suffer the same build defects. Of course, Apple has had it's fair share of defects (several Mac recalls for hard drive issues, the current iPhone 5S has horrid gyroscope and accelerometer problems, and of the ever infamous "antenna-gate"). Still needs be addressed, but even the company commonly referenced as the symbol of premium product manufacturing has had its fair share of problems.

 

[onysi]

Easy, placing two fingers on any of the letter keys will allow you to glide your fingers back and forth across the keyboard to move the text cursor. The same two finger gesture across the number row selects test, and simply lift your fingers away to delete. Finally, you guess it: two fingers again. Now when it suggests corrections or words for you, you can place two fingers on the spacebar and slide back and forth to select autocorrect options.

I don't get the last part. Are we talking about the auto correct while I'm doing this? It automatically does it for me.

 

[SwimSwim]

I don't get the last part. Are we talking about the auto correct while I'm doing this? It automatically does it for me.

No, the typing suggestions it gives. Only appears under some circumstances, however.

 

[chezm]

No, the typing suggestions it gives. Only appears under some circumstances, however.

I have noticed this as well on my Pro 2...i dont get suggestive correction on emails for example.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

Sucks that the Surface 2 is suffering from so many issues. I know my Surface Pro 2 is running perfectly fine without issue (except for one odd instance where it randomly shut down, even though I had 80% power. But I turned it on and all my apps were tombstones, so I was immediately able to get back to work, within 20 seconds of it turning off). Of course, the Surface Pro 2 features the same design, only the it's only different on the inside. Using the same shell probably helps.

The Surface 2 meanwhile, features a new design (which can lead to problems in itself), and I hear Microsoft is utilizing a wide variety of part manufactures. I.E: (completely made up numbers, just got to say that ahead of time) the screen can have 5 different people making it and shipping it for final assembly. From what I hear, the manufacturing process is a bit of a mess.

Hopefully they'll update the software with time, and ensure future shipments don't suffer the same build defects. Of course, Apple has had it's fair share of defects (several Mac recalls for hard drive issues, the current iPhone 5S has horrid gyroscope and accelerometer problems, and of the ever infamous "antenna-gate"). Still needs be addressed, but even the company commonly referenced as the symbol of premium product manufacturing has had its fair share of problems.

this random turning off has been happening to my RT since I installed the 8.1 preview, still does it on the final

 

[HeyCori]

Just wanted to say that I'm loving the fact that I can truly dual monitor. I used to output my Surface RT to a 1080p monitor but things would become noticeably slower, especially if I was using Xbox Music. If I didn't need both then I would just use the 1080p monitor. Not ideal but still better than two laggy monitors. With the Surface 2 I'm pretty effortlessly outputting to my second monitor while still running Xbox Music on the Surface.

 

[Ushae]

I have to say this is my second 'tablet' device .. the first being the iPad mini. The hardware is by far the best quality I have ever seen, period. MS have built a fine device.

The biggest flaw here is the Windows Store, the quicker this gets built up (and possibly redesigned) the faster these devices will sell. And I feel this device does deserve to sell really well. My only other gripe is the disconnect I feel going between Desktop to Metro, would be great if they managed to streamline all the the desktop features into metro eliminating the need for desktop entirely. That being said there are some HUGE positives here no other company is able to match. Full office for free, 200GB Skydrive and free Skype for the first year. Very nice indeed.

I hope the app situation continues to grow and we get another OS overhaul. I'm in it for the long haul.

 

[Alex Rodriguez Jr.]

I have to say this is my second 'tablet' device .. the first being the iPad mini. The hardware is by far the best quality I have ever seen, period. MS have built a fine device.

The biggest flaw here is the Windows Store, the quicker this gets built up (and possibly redesigned) the faster these devices will sell. And I feel this device does deserve to sell really well. My only other gripe is the disconnect I feel going between Desktop to Metro, would be great if they managed to streamline all the the desktop features into metro eliminating the need for desktop entirely. That being said there are some HUGE positives here no other company is able to match. Full office for free, 200GB Skydrive and free Skype for the first year. Very nice indeed.

I hope the app situation continues to grow and we get another OS overhaul. I'm in it for the long haul.

We're getting there Young Padawan. Slowly, Microsoft is switching things over. Once Office gets a Metro interface, we'll be pretty damn close.

 

[TheSuperShoe]

I picked my Surface 2 up today at Best Buy. I bought the last 32GB one they had and they were out of 2 Type Cover 2 colors... including the one I wanted. I plan on getting one from another Best Buy nearby.

 

[sinic999]

Does anyone have problem charging their phone with the surface 2 through an USB cable??? I try charging my Lumia 900. The Surface is able to read the phone but it is not charging.

 

[HeyCori]

Does anyone have problem charging their phone with the surface 2 through an USB cable??? I try charging my Lumia 900. The Surface is able to read the phone but it is not charging.

I'm gonna have to test this when I get home. Maybe it has something to do with the tech behind USB 3.0?

 

[Christian Kallevig]

I just plugged in my Lumia 1020 (my surface 2 is in sleep mode at the moment) and it is charging just fine

 

[sinic999]

I see. I will try using a different cable and see how it goes. Does anyone else experience a rapid battery drain while the tablet is in sleep mode??? Mine does. Is that a software issue or hardware issue???

 

[SwimSwim]

I see. I will try using a different cable and see how it goes. Does anyone else experience a rapid battery drain while the tablet is in sleep mode??? Mine does. Is that a software issue or hardware issue???

No, actually, as Panos promised, I experience zero battery drain on my Pro 2 while in sleep mode. Maybe you want to check your power settings, it could just be locked and not fully asleep.

 

[sinic999]

No, actually, as Panes promised, I experience zero battery drain on my Pro 2 while in sleep mode. Maybe you want to check your power settings, it could just be locked and not fully asleep.

I always use the manual way for sleep mode which is through the power button of Charm bar. I will try to set it to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity and see how it goes.

 

[BIGPADDY]

Order mine off PC World and got 10% off!

It will be a great present!

 

[Son Of Belushi UK]

I got my Surface 2 yesterday and i'm loving it. Put my Micro SDXC card in and Windows RT treats it like it belongs, which means even XBox Music (which I still have issues with) finds the music without the need to create junctions. Performance-wise, it's very fast compared to the original Surface RT (although the Store is still sluggish) but it just looks and feels so much better. Ignore whatever bad press you've heard about Windows 8.1: here it really does make a huge difference to the way you use the device. I was every-so-slightly embarrassed about the original Surface compared to an iPad because it was sluggish, but this is the real deal.

I just wish we had something better than XBox music to manage our collections with; I don't want to be forced to use a cloud service at all. I, like many others, am quite capable of managing my own collection and I want MY music MY way. This, however, is not a fault of the device itself, which is beautiful to look at and joy to use...but steer clear of the desktop if you don't have a keyboard; the 1080 HD screen makes touch really difficult.