How do you like your Surface Pro so far?

[Tempest790]

Me personally, I find the Surface Pro one of the best Windows machine I've got. The flexibility of this thing is almost limitless. I love the Teamviewer app which allows me to remotely access my work desktop, and the high resolution of the Surface Pro screen makes for a lot less scrolling (my work monitor is 1920x1200).

The app market for Windows 8 is still very limited, but being able to load all of my legacy programs more than makes up for that now. I can honestly say, once the app market does catch up, a Surface RT will probably be all I'll need, especially since they already have some hacks out for it to run legacy programs.

If I had to make any improvements, I would like the Surface Pro 2 to use a Bay Field Intel Atom processor when they come out next year. Still being able to run all of your legacy programs and getting much better battery life would be a win-win situation. They definitely need to keep the 1920x1080 screen. I'd also bump the hard drive availability to a 256 GB model too. Aside from that not much to nitpick about.

I've tried using my external monitor with it, and that works great. I have a 64GB Sandisk microSDXC card for extra storage. A 4-port USB compact USB hub. External 1TB hard drive. External mouse. It's amazing the amount of power and flexibility this thing delivers.

I showed it to one of my coworkers and they ran out and bought it the same day (although he had to order the 128GB version since the 64GB was all they had in stock). This thing practically sells itself.

I probably use it 60% tablet and 40% laptop overall.

I definitely have no regrets using this as my laptop replacement.

 

[StarLog]

This thing rocks, So much better then the clunky Dell I have at work.

No regrets, I am still drunk from using it.

 

[camdenlake]

Everyday its gets better. Saves me so much time. I am on the road doing service all the time and having a truly portable laptop is unreal.

Josh

 

[explosive0]

I'm on the fence about it. I got it to use alongside my Lumia 920 for the Ecosystem, but I'm thinking of going back to my iPhone 5. That's a long story for another thread.

 

[TekNinja81]

I just picked up my own 128GB unit on Tuesday, and a Touch cover today after failing to locate an in-stock Type cover.

So far I'm impressed with what the Surface can handle, I'm a gadget geek so I've had quite a few tablets/laptops over the last several years... iPad, HP tablet, Transformer Prime, Nexus 7, Asus VivoBook S400CA etc... but the Surface is the only portable/convertible unit I've owned that can pretty much do everything all of the above can, in one relatively light unit. (It's nothing to toss into a backpack or messenger bag, but it's a bit heavy to hold for extended periods of time as a tablet. I even found the Transformer Prime tablet too heavy after a time...)

I will say I'm not sold on the Touch cover just yet, though I am getting pretty good with it. I will likely either exchange for a Type cover, or at least buy one separately for home use. The Touch is great for the portability, but typing on my lap with it doesn't feel ideal. A bit more flex than I'm comfortable with, which also affects my typing accuracy. (That said, I'm typing this response with said conditions, something I never enjoyed doing with my Nexus 7 for example...)

The one big gripe I have with the Surface at the moment is probably a common one. The kickstand is a great idea, but they really should've made it adjustable to multiple angles. It would be great to be able to put the Surface in a more flat, but forward-facing position for videos for example, and for literal lap-top usage... and using it on my lap or on a lapdesk, it sits a bit too upright at such a close distance.

I'm otherwise quite happy with my investment so far, even if it was money I shouldn't have been spending. Now I just need to sell off some of my other gadgets so I can justify the purchase with my other half... ;P

 

[garyjk]

awesome device

 

[smoledman]

I love the UI, the gestures. The Bing app is nice as is IE. However I've already encountered a problem with the Mail app. I couldn't set up my Gmail with contacts & calendar sync. So basically I can only read/write emails on this app, not view my calendar. I hope Microsoft has updates to their core apps soon.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I love the UI, the gestures. The Bing app is nice as is IE. However I've already encountered a problem with the Mail app. I couldn't set up my Gmail with contacts & calendar sync. So basically I can only read/write emails on this app, not view my calendar. I hope Microsoft has updates to their core apps soon.

That's due to Google dropping Exchange ActiveSync support. Google is continuing support on Windows Phone until July; however, Google stopped supporting Exchange ActiveSync on Windows8/RT at the end of January. Syncing Google services with Windows 8 and Windows RT

 

[smoledman]

This is why Microsoft has to get their act together on Outlook.com. If they made it better then GMail I wouldn't care anymore. Heck where is the new Metro calendar?

 

[eshy]

That's due to Google dropping Exchange ActiveSync support. Google is continuing support on Windows Phone until July; however, Google stopped supporting Exchange ActiveSync on Windows8/RT at the end of January. Syncing Google services with Windows 8 and Windows RT

Google postponed it until July, so that shouldn't be an issue

 

[pdch]

Best tech device I have every purchased. My laptops and other tablets are gathering dust.

@TekNinja, I don't know what area you are in, but the Best Buy near my house (Cedar Hill, TX) has a ton of type covers.

 

[Matt Bauer]

I am absolutely loving mine (128GB model) so far!
I have been using it in class to take notes and the battery life for 5 one hour long courses has been great so far. It plays the original far cry game pretty much maxed out graphics wise, and can also handle diablo 3 pretty well at 720p

 

[smoledman]

I'm absolutely loving it so far. It's giving me a real chance to explore the vastness of Windows 8!

 

[mmcpher]

Just got my 128 yesterday but so far I am very pleased. I had heard whispers and rumors about connectivity issues, a lousy pen and other quibbles, none of which seem to have been included with my SP. No connection issues whatsoever and it speedtests orders of magnitude better than every other wifi device in my house, easily handles 2.4 and 5 GHz, the pen, although a little laggy, is surprisingly good a deciphering my handwriting. And I expect that it and I will get smarter, over time and hopefully some patches or updates. I haven't figured out how to personalize the tiles yet, but as I've said elsewhere before, the SP is the best Windows 8 experience I've encountered. I haven't worked through the SkyDrive and Office 365 integration yet, but that is encouraging also. I like the screen size. Maybe its the sweet middle spot between a 22 inch desktop, a 7 inch Playbook, and my Blackberry handset. It is a little on the heavy side, though, but I haven't used it enough to find alternatives. I like the options of the type keyboard or touchscreen or stylus or even using your finger to write when on pen input.

 

[Matt Bauer]

I do have one small annoyance with the SP actually, and it is with the pen accuracy. it does track very well when the pen is perpendicular to the screen but it is far more natural to me to have the pen at an angle when I am writing and taking notes. when I do this the cursor is way off from where the pen tip is. I have tried calibrating it with the pen at an angle as well as using that 100point calibration trick, neither has helped.

 

[bauerbach]

the pen does track where the tip of the black is... rather than where the blue touches the screen. I assume this is just how the technology works.

Everything else about it is flawless for me.

I pretty much live in desktop mode, save for metro IE. And I am delighted with that. If you offered me the ipad app library, Im not sure I would want anything from it.

 

[smoledman]

The pen is super excellent! I love that I can use it for input in any Microsoft application so far.