Will update make an Surface RT an ipad killer?

[anon(5347957)]

I'll admit the performance of apps like fruit ninja and jetpack joyride are very poor on the surface and it shouldn't be since the surface is faster than the ipad yet the ipad mini my brother owns runs these apps at a smoother frame rate

See thats the problem i mentioning, it has a fast cpu. so is it right to say that developers are the ones to blame for laggy apps? (not hating on any developers). will a blue update make the surface smoother?

 

[supadryz]

Hi all,

Ok I have had a Ipad 2 for the last 2 years since release. Now I am thinking about getting an RT then selling my Ipad.

Just a little advise on following.

Give me some Pro's & Con's of changing over to an RT. from Ipad.

 

[Coreldan]

I've had one since it's been available in Europe and I'm still not disappointed in the slightest. It has gotten better with every update too, slowly ironing the kinks out. Ofc when doing some pretty heavy multitasking you can see it has limited resources, but I'm really happy with my purchase and would buy it all over again too.

 

[nasellok]

Let me start off by saying, I also have iPad2 - and I hardly ever use it anymore. The only thing i use it for is the occasional game for me or my 3 year old son, and for the Time Warner Cable live TV app. That being said - it really depends on what you use your iPad for? If you use it as an e-reader / toy, and only play games on it - then stick with the iPad. If you plan to do work - MS office stuff, remote desktop, etc. its a no brainer - RT wins hands down as best thin client tablet device. The USB port, keyboard cover with trackpad, mouse support, printer compatibility, etc.....how can you go wrong. It gets 8-10 hours of battery life, and has full flash enabled web browser. People that complain about the apps....cmon man - on your laptop, do you use a Facebook app, or a twitter app, or any app besides your programs that you run - no, you go to the Facebook website. Spotify runs in the webplayer, etc. It is a mini laptop, and you can get full functionality if you know how to utilize remote desktop. I have my laptop at home set with the same desktop background, and same modern apps....so when I go to remote use, it really looks as if I haven't changed a thing, except enabled desktop apps.

The only things I want on my Surface RT that I currently have on my Ipad:
Productivity Apps:
Photoshop Touch (I use remote desktop to use the full Photoshop CS 6, so this is a stretch)
- there are suitable windows 8 apps that can replace this, so its a stretch to say its missing.
AutoCAD WS (I use remote desktop to use the full AutoCAD 2012, so this is a stretch) Basic ability to open a CAD drawing without being "online" which for me is seldom if ever the case.

Social Apps:
None - all social apps are better in their native experience from the web browser - pin shortcut to your start menu - done.

Games:
Real Racing, or any good car racing game
Sports games like TW, or Madden, FIFA, etc.
(anotherwords - EA, get your $hit together, and release some windows 8 games).

Flipboard.........News Bento is good, but not as good.


In summary - if your a tablet gamer, iPad wins hands down, for everything else, Surface RT destroys both iPad and Android tablets.

 

[gilezzz]

err.. I have a Lenovo Yoga 11 and it is awesome. Modest opinion: better than Surface!

 

[HeyCori]

I have several problems with the Surface RT, some I assume you all have noticed. Problems like apps slow to open, inconsistent performance across core apps (yeah I'm looking at you Xbox Music) and apps crashing. But when it comes to performance there's a pretty noticeable drop off once you get past the Surface RT (not counting x86 devices), iPads, and Nexus devices. I was using a Nook HD today and the lag was terrible. Unfortunately, the newer Nook HD+ suffers from similar problems. You can really see the Nook HD+'s sluggish performance when web browsing. The Kindle Fire HD/8.9 also suffers from lag and sluggish performance, though its performance is miles better than the Nook line. Multitasking on a Kindle/Nook causes extreme slowdown. And speaking of multitasking, the much touted multitasking features of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 leaves a lot to be desired. The pop out video feature burns through so much CPU power that it bogs down the entire system. Same for having too many windows/apps open. Expect the screen to become highly unresponsive until you close more apps.

But then I can switch over to the Surface RT, dock a video while outputting to a 1080p monitor and typing this exact post while also having several tabs open in IE. Surprise surprise, the Surface RT is handling it all. There simply aren't too many tablets on the market that can do that. While the Tegra 3 has its shortcomings, Microsoft has done a pretty darn good job optimizing the Surface RT for it. You can get better performance from the other Windows RT tablets, but again, that's still a very small selection of tablets to choose from.

 

[prlundberg]

The only things I want on my Surface RT that I currently have on my Ipad:
Productivity Apps:
Photoshop Touch (I use remote desktop to use the full Photoshop CS 6, so this is a stretch)
- there are suitable windows 8 apps that can replace this, so its a stretch to say its missing.
AutoCAD WS (I use remote desktop to use the full AutoCAD 2012, so this is a stretch) Basic ability to open a CAD drawing without being "online" which for me is seldom if ever the case.

Social Apps:
None - all social apps are better in their native experience from the web browser - pin shortcut to your start menu - done.

Games:
Real Racing, or any good car racing game
Sports games like TW, or Madden, FIFA, etc.
(anotherwords - EA, get your $hit together, and release some windows 8 games).

Flipboard.........News Bento is good, but not as good.


In summary - if your a tablet gamer, iPad wins hands down, for everything else, Surface RT destroys both iPad and Android tablets.

You make some good points, but I disagree with the web being the best social experience for a few crucial reasons: Notifications, touch friendliness, and seamless OS integration. Plus the Live Tiles are not interactive and are not all that informative to begin with. Not nearly as useful as Widgits. I don't use social media much, but even I find the Surface lacking here.

No notification or status area in Windows 8 is a huge ommission that needs to be addressed in Blue. Scattered tiles with random information displaying is not the same as a true notification center.

 

[TheDarKnight]

My Surface RT never lags even when there are more than one user logged in (it only takes a bit longer to login additional users, after that its really smooth), also when you have a lot of apps running or installing it tends to lag), I mean I usually have 5-10 apps open, and it wont lag unless you have 5 streaming video apps and 5 games at the same time.
as far as the ipad killer, I think its way way better than the ipad, people just don't know because a lot of ipad users are trapped in the apple world and aren't aware of the surface (or any other tablet), some people really think that anything that is not an iphone or an ipad is useless and wont give them what they need. also don't forget all the ports (usb, hdmi, sd card) in the surface that aren't in the ipad.

 

[prlundberg]

My Surface RT never lags even when there are more than one user logged in (it only takes a bit longer to login additional users, after that its really smooth), also when you have a lot of apps running or installing it tends to lag), I mean I usually have 5-10 apps open, and it wont lag unless you have 5 streaming video apps and 5 games at the same time.

Mine lags badly quite often when closing apps or just going back to the start screen, even if it's the only app I had open. It resolves after 5-10 seconds or so. I assume it's a memory thing. It's somewhat random, but seems to happen most often with processor-intensive games.

 

[atlascaa]

Outlook RT!! The surface is a great ipad and laptop killer for people carrying a device for productivity.

Notes
**I have seen no real different in entertainment consumption (movies/shows/youtube).
**Books - The kindle app is great!
**Office...uh duh...just talked to some die hard apple fans and they are still trying to figure out how to get apps like word/excel/powerpoint
**Music - I can use MS or keep using amazon MP3 which is better than iTunes imho
**Legacy Software - Just simply Remote desktop to PC...the experience is just like you were sitting at the desktop

Could go on but you get the point.

 

[inteller]

if you complain about the weight of the Surface, you probably need to lift more.

 

[gilezzz]

I am a Yoga 11 owner so I am not sure this applies to Surface RT too, but my biggest disappointment about Windows RT is the browser, IE. I do experience very long lags whenever I open some websites. This is really annoying, and I don't think it can be justified by the processor's speed.

I think this is really a MAJOR fail, and I tell you why: Windows RT cannot use legacy Windows apps, so you have to rely on the relatively few apps in the app store and.. and ON THE BROWSER! So, given the lack of apps, the browser shoul be the strongest point of Windows RT. Instead it's one of the weakest.

I cannot see why Microsoft didn't put all the effort on the browser, honestly, and i'm quite disappointed. Your experience?

 

[inteller]

it isn't the browser it is the sites. When I encounter a site like that I run it through a standards test site and 9/10 times it fails miserably.

 

[oldpueblo]

For the most part, browsing for me is a delight. I wish the bookmark system worked a little better but grouping bookmarks on the start screen works well too.

 

[supadryz]

Ok Still realing thinking about getting one of these babys. Question which may seem a little think but I really dont know. If I stick a External Hardrive in which has movies/Music on it can I play them through a Surface RT??

 

[nasellok]

Ok Still realing thinking about getting one of these babys. Question which may seem a little think but I really dont know. If I stick a External Hardrive in which has movies/Music on it can I play them through a Surface RT??

Yes, I have 1tb external HD, and you can play movies directly off the hard drive - only thing is, that it will probably use more battery because you are using the device to power the hard drive.

 

[accasey]

Ok Still realing thinking about getting one of these babys. Question which may seem a little think but I really dont know. If I stick a External Hardrive in which has movies/Music on it can I play them through a Surface RT??

I do this quite a lot, and also from network drives. No problems.
I've done it with the default Video app and also Multimedia 8 and Mobile HD. The only problem I can think I had was it wouldn't play the subtitles except when it was playing locally.
But that's probably down to the Apps rather than anything else.

 

[etphoto]

The iPad owners I know are app junkies and will not move to the RT because of the "lack of apps" they claim. Honestly, some of them can't tie their shoes without the assistance of an app.

 

[oldpueblo]

I'll take fully functioning websites over apps any day.

 

[infinidim]

CCleaner is the best app for cleaning up

I agree it is the best cleaning app but I didn't think that it was available for the Surface RT.