Two month review

[barbaram]

I?ve had this device for over two months now.
Up until last week I loved it for surfing the net. Well, that?s changed now. There was an update last week that somehow made the back button disappear, the place where you type in a search term went away and so did favorites. It did allow you to go to your frequently used sites. Only because I like to check out the Bing pictures every day did I have a search engine. It was fixed within hours but?

I don?t do gaming like some people. I?m happy with MS solitaire and mahjong and these are all right on the SP2, but sometimes you go to the game and it starts up and reverts to the main menu. I read that this is known to MS and a fix is in the works, but?

I find the battery life to be good, about 6 hours using the video recorder and One Note on the split screen. It is heavy, but the day a bunch of turkeys came into my yard (birds not neighbors) it was light enough to grab and run around after them taking pics. Honestly, I don?t really imagine myself holding this up in the air for any amount of time.

The screen kind of fades and brightens a lot. Again this is supposed to be on MS fix list, but it persists.

But the thing that gives me a constant headache is using this dog for anything other than entertainment. I bought this to use in a class. With the help of some on this forum, I was able to get the video and One Note to work together on the snap screen. This works OK but the purpose of buying this device and Office 365 was the promise that all would work seamlessly. You can get video to copy to One Note (not the free One Note which does not accept video according to MS, I?m talking about the One Note in office 365) but you have to change the file type. This isn?t that big a deal, but really??? Its MS?s big time machine and One Note is a huge thing for MS, why doesn?t the video record in the right file type? Of course One Note (in Office 365) actually has a video record button itself. But that only records the camera facing me. Honestly, I?d rather record the professor.

Nothing will save to One Note. Rather, noting will save to the One Note in Office 365. You can save links to the free One Note and only links, not the content. To get anything to save in One Note you have to save it to the computer then print to One Note. Is this what they call seamless? I need web pages and emails stored in class notes, (and not links because this is a horticulture class, we are not always in range of wireless) this is so clunky I want to scream. The One Note/Surface combo is something MS is supposed to be so proud of. It is a failure. Period.

E-mail!!! When the machine was new and I turned it on it said something like?we know you don?t want any social updates so we aren?t sending them to you. If you decide you want them do something or another. In my excitement to see what was on the machine, I just went ahead. It had to be obvious how to get my emails back, right? Hah. It took days to get what MS was calling sort of but not quite junk and what I call my calendar for the following week, back in my mailbox.

Even worse is some days I get a ?We can?t contact Hotmail right now? message when I try to check email. My phone can get my email, why can?t my Surface? It?s not the wireless, I?m not in the field. If I can?t be sure of getting my email what use is this thing?

Another problem is the crappy help system MS has devised for this thing. Each screen has its own help. If you think the help should be on screen one but MS has decided it makes sense for help to be on screen 8 you are screwed. Why don?t they have one central help? And while we?re at it, why don?t they have an index so if you thing something is called ?A? you can still find it even though MS calls it ?R? The way it works now is inane. There is a main page help, but really it?s just a brag page, like Wow we can do this. Well, I already got the darn thing; you don?t have to sell me on it. Tell me in detail how to use it. I haven?t been so frustrated by a computer since the DOS days.

The type cover is fine but the mouse pad thing simply doesn?t work. You know all those ads with people snapping down the key board and starting to work. Hah!!! How do you think they would look if you were told the truth. Snap down the keyboard, attach the mouse then start to work This is a huge fail

The pen works fine, the holder is a joke. The slightest touch will disconnect it. Another fail

I so looked forward to getting this. I love my Windows Lumina 925 and thought this would be even better. But, I can?t recommend this to anyone. Maybe in a few years this will work, but it doesn?t now. I?ve read on this site among others that it?s hard to make a hybrid. Well, I?ll go along with weight part of that, but the rest, no. They have all the programs on this but it?s as though no one thought to actually try them out on the device. There are probably other students who need a computer for classes and can use their phones for real light weight things, this would be perfect if it worked. It doesn?t work.

 

[Laura Knotek]

How about trying the Evernote app for Windows 8? Evernote Touch app for Windows in the Windows Store

Evernote allows one to save complete webpages.

 

[Dave Bhullar]

Well I use OneNote for the same things but I think its not that frustrating/clunky. You don't have to download anything first to save it to OneNote, you can just press the print button (just like you would if you wanted to actually print a document,you can do this from the charms bar too) and then select send to OneNote, it saves the whole document and not just the link. There are other ways too, if you just want something like a screenshot you can use 'Send to OneNote' app to select an area on your screen and send it to OneNote. If you're using IE, then you can send a lot of stuff like pictures etc. to OneNote just by right clicking on it and selecting send to OneNote (saving webpages this way can be a bit clunky though so I'd just right click anywhere on the webpage in IE, select print and then choose send to OneNote, this works in a much better way for full webpages). To record a video from the rear camera, all you need to do is change the setting, click the record video button and then click the recording tab on top, go to audio and video settings then change the video recording device to rear camera. Pretty much everything you said can be done in OneNote. You just need to play around with it, just familiarize yourself with it, its a great app if you ask me.

 

[pdaps]

This is what I was thinking about this Machine. Yeah I bought a 256 GB The Surface Pro is Unique right now And the (500GB Surface Pro 3) is My Next.

I'm Very much happy with my Surface.

 

[MBytes]

I’ve had this device for over two months now.
Up until last week I loved it for surfing the net. Well, that’s changed now. There was an update last week that somehow made the back button disappear, the place where you type in a search term went away and so did favorites. It did allow you to go to your frequently used sites. Only because I like to check out the Bing pictures every day did I have a search engine. It was fixed within hours but…

I need to see a screen shot. I have no idea what you are talking about. :/

I don’t do gaming like some people. I’m happy with MS solitaire and mahjong and these are all right on the SP2, but sometimes you go to the game and it starts up and reverts to the main menu. I read that this is known to MS and a fix is in the works, but…

You mean that the Windows 8 App crashes and returns to the Start Screen. This is because the app is doing something that the Intel integrated graphics does not like. Most likely an Intel integrated graphics driver bug. This is nothing new for Intel. It's the downside of using one over Nvidia or AMD offering. We will never see some until the consumer demands that Nvidia or AMD graphic solution is a must for every day computing, and that Intel integrated solution will simply not cut it, with it's awful drivers, and poor performance. Nothing stops Intel of using Nvidia architecture licenses (yes they offer this) to implement a themselves, if they really wanted, an Nvidia GPU architecture in the CPU. That would be awesome.. but that costs money, and until people are content with the quality and limitation of Intel integrated graphic solution, don't expect any changes. OEMs don't care, as if you are happy, why invest money on something? Intel solution is free.

The screen kind of fades and brightens a lot. Again this is supposed to be on MS fix list, but it persists.

I see many people complain about this... I don't get it.. it's the ambient light sensor kicking in. And i think it works perfectly. I want it fast like this.
You can disable it in PC Settings if you don't like it.

But the thing that gives me a constant headache is using this dog for anything other than entertainment. I bought this to use in a class. With the help of some on this forum, I was able to get the video and One Note to work together on the snap screen. This works OK but the purpose of buying this device and Office 365 was the promise that all would work seamlessly. You can get video to copy to One Note (not the free One Note which does not accept video according to MS, I’m talking about the One Note in office 365) but you have to change the file type. This isn’t that big a deal, but really??? Its MS’s big time machine and One Note is a huge thing for MS, why doesn’t the video record in the right file type? Of course One Note (in Office 365) actually has a video record button itself. But that only records the camera facing me. Honestly, I’d rather record the professor.

As a OneNote user, and student. I don't do what you are doing. But I do know that Windows 8 Apps, are currently living in a different world than desktop apps, so they can't integrate. This is because of the big fad that people had years ago, on how sandboxing is the way of the future, and how Windows is crap because it doesn't sandbox everything. Well, that is what they got.. sandbox. You can't integrate things. Microsoft will need to open things up, and I hope they do.

Nothing will save to One Note. Rather, noting will save to the One Note in Office 365. You can save links to the free One Note and only links, not the content. To get anything to save in One Note you have to save it to the computer then print to One Note. Is this what they call seamless? I need web pages and emails stored in class notes, (and not links because this is a horticulture class, we are not always in range of wireless) this is so clunky I want to scream. The One Note/Surface combo is something MS is supposed to be so proud of. It is a failure. Period.

In OneNote, on the ribbon bar, look under the insert tab. You have Audio and Video recording. Pressing theses will allow you insert them in your notes.

E-mail!!! When the machine was new and I turned it on it said something like…we know you don’t want any social updates so we aren’t sending them to you. If you decide you want them do something or another. In my excitement to see what was on the machine, I just went ahead. It had to be obvious how to get my emails back, right? Hah. It took days to get what MS was calling sort of but not quite junk and what I call my calendar for the following week, back in my mailbox.

I don't understand you. Mail and Calendar works fine for me on all my systems. If you want advance features, just use Outlook. You have it.

Another problem is the crappy help system MS has devised for this thing. Each screen has its own help. If you think the help should be on screen one but MS has decided it makes sense for help to be on screen 8 you are screwed. Why don’t they have one central help?

Requesting the help will show the help document of the focused program. Windows can't read your mind. So it assumes that you want the help of the program you are using, which is common sense... I mean this is where you need help. If you want to access the help central, you can go on the desktop, with no program focused (so click on the desktop, if you have a focused program), and hit the F1 key. Alternatively, you can do Type on the Start Screen (or do Ctrl+Q > then type: Help), and select "Help and Support".

Please note that the central help does not include help for individual programs that you have installed, but only of Windows.
This is a standard in computing since the early days. Microsoft can't start importing help document of every single Windows programs. They are billions of day, and thousands of programing appear each day on Windows.

And while we’re at it, why don’t they have an index so if you thing something is called “A” you can still find it even though MS calls it “R” The way it works now is inane. There is a main page help, but really it’s just a brag page, like Wow we can do this. Well, I already got the darn thing; you don’t have to sell me on it. Tell me in detail how to use it. I haven’t been so frustrated by a computer since the DOS days.

Help document works as expected on my side. I don't know which help document you are using. But if I hit F1 on the desktop to get the central help, and then type: "Camera", I get all the information I need to use a Camera on my system.

The type cover is fine but the mouse pad thing simply doesn’t work. You know all those ads with people snapping down the key board and starting to work. Hah!!! How do you think they would look if you were told the truth. Snap down the keyboard, attach the mouse then start to work This is a huge fail

Yes I don't know why they made the type cover touch pad worst than the original Type Cover. It was better on the first one.

The pen works fine, the holder is a joke. The slightest touch will disconnect it. Another fail

Another complaint I don't get. Mine holds strongly. I am I don't bump my Surface on corner when I walk... so I don't get it.
To me I think Microsoft pen holder system is OK. I mean the last thing I want is the pen from other tablets where its so small and thin, in a desperate attempt to make it fit in some slide out holder. And those that don't, the system is super thick. Perhaps an elastic look on the keyboard cover might please people?

I so looked forward to getting this. I love my Windows Lumina 925 and thought this would be even better. But, I can’t recommend this to anyone. Maybe in a few years this will work, but it doesn’t now. I’ve read on this site among others that it’s hard to make a hybrid. Well, I’ll go along with weight part of that, but the rest, no. They have all the programs on this but it’s as though no one thought to actually try them out on the device. There are probably other students who need a computer for classes and can use their phones for real light weight things, this would be perfect if it worked. It doesn’t work.

Works fine to me, and I see more and more student (at a very slow paste) getting a Surface RT, Surface 2 or Surface Pro (1 or 2) in class. I don't see them fighting, and they seams to be happy. I am happy with my Surface Pro 2, and would highly recommend it to any one.

 

[anon(5590893)]

Well, the complaint about the pen holder is more than justified. It ALWAYS gets lost. I can't understand why they chose such a terrible solution. If they would have asked my grandma even she would have told them that their design wouldn't work.

 

[TheJoester09]

Yes I don't know why they made the type cover touch pad worst than the original Type Cover. It was better on the first one.

Wow, really? I HATED the touch pad on the original Type Cover! Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it was barely usable. I just got a Type Cover 2 the other day, and to me it's a HUGE improvement. That's a shame that it doesn't work well for you!

 

[Stinomus]

Personally I don't like the TypeCover 2 touchpad and the stylus holder (or lack thereof when charging) is annoying. Also the stock stylus calibration leaves something to be desired.

...but overall I feel it is the best computing device I have ever had, I don't have to carry a laptop and a tablet with me then switch devices or manage expectations (wrt productivity and available applications) between devices or - most of all - worry about syncing data between them. I also have the surface touch mouse which is brilliant and portable but, this being the device that does everything, I can hook it straight up to my normal keyboard, mouse and display and it operates as a desktop PC!

Then there is the most underrated feature: Snap! Being able to have 2 windows side-by-side is the whole reason for the wide display and it's brilliant, it makes many things so much more productive in its tablet form. Even if you could do this on an iPad the 4:3 aspect ratio would kill its usability and the 'floating windows' implementation on the Galaxy Note is clunky by comparison as it is a hacked in feature to Android.

I still have an Macbook and an iPad but they see a LOT less use these days.

 

[MBytes]

For the pen holder... at least it's MILES better than Sony's VAIO Tap 11, where they give you a silly clip that you attach at a special place on the tablet, which blocks the USB and HDMI ports when the holder itself is attached. Removing the flimsy pen holder is hard and can break.
(see at 7m39s.. stupid forum doesn't support links to youtube, it wants to embed everything and doesn't support play @ time feature)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cjpzvyfqyE&t=7m39s

As for the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga (not to be confused with the IdeaPad Yoga 2 which doesn't have the pen as option), the pen is made smaller, thinner, and doesn't have the eraser functionality. Just to have a silo.