Another woeful review

[neo158]

I don't trust any reviews on websites, on TV or in magazines. I base my opinion of a product on my usage of it, granted with Surface that's a little difficult here in the UK. I wrote the majority of my dissertation on my 1st Gen Surface so my opinion is that for productivity the Surface family of tablets are the best on the market.

 

[Neo Nuke]

I've had an ipad 2, ipad with retina display, a Motorola Xoom, surface rt, and ow a surface 2. The surface 2 is the best tablet I have ever owned. My gripes with the first one was load time on apps and lack of customizability with metro backgrounds. All my gripes have practically been solved. This things screams. I'm super entrenched in Microsoft services because they work so flawlessly together. Having the extra 200gb of skydive and the best of Skype makes this tablet amazing. Only having LTE would make this better. Having full adobe flash for streaming overseas soccer games and school web sites is super useful. Microsoft office and the USB, microsd, and HDMI ports make this the one device to take with you. Love it so much more than the surface rt and ipad

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

LaRue... here's the thing. The Surface 2 happens to be a pretty specific tablet. You must ask yourself... what are you going to use your tablet for? If it is playing angry birds and using bubble wrap popping apps... go for an ipad. If you plan on doing email, paper work, and excel stuff. I'd say go for the Surface 2. It's all about your needs. iPad is better at somethings, and the Surface 2 is better at others.

 

[GSOgymrat]

I've had an ipad 2, ipad with retina display, a Motorola Xoom, surface rt, and ow a surface 2. The surface 2 is the best tablet I have ever owned.

I've got an iPad, Nook HD and Surface 2. Surface 2 is by far my favorite. I tend to dismiss a lot of reviewers on this subject because most of them come from iPad and find Surface "confusing" because it is different. Also most reviewers don't really use Surface for any length of time, I am talking weeks not days, and therefore don't see how many things this tablet does and does really well. For example, some reviewers complain about the screen dimensions but don't appreciate that when you split the screen and are composing your Word document on one side, have the book you are referencing on the other and you are typing on an illuminated keyboard, the screen dimensions make sense. They don't see when you are in Facebook and you click on a link the video plays on one side and you continue scrolling your news feed on the other. It all works together. I don't hate Apple and I think iPad is a great device and does what it was designed to do very well... but Surface does more.

 

[anon(8032808)]

The Surface 2 is basically an iPad for $100 cheaper, a better tablet / touch OS, better universal compatibility (e.g USB), and a few less apps. Depends on how much those iPad apps are worth to you.

 

[N_LaRUE]

LaRue... here's the thing. The Surface 2 happens to be a pretty specific tablet. You must ask yourself... what are you going to use your tablet for? If it is playing angry birds and using bubble wrap popping apps... go for an ipad. If you plan on doing email, paper work, and excel stuff. I'd say go for the Surface 2. It's all about your needs. iPad is better at somethings, and the Surface 2 is better at others.

I don't think the Surface 2 should be a 'specific' type of tablet if they plan to sell more of them. That seems rather short sighted on MS's part if that were true. They only reason why iPad has anything over the Surface 2 is due to app availability. Nothing else. That and better marketing from Apple and with all the reviewers loving their 'i' toys its got free marketing and continuous slagging of MS.

Let's be clear here. I'm no MS ****** I've just used their products for a very long time now.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I don't trust any reviews on websites, on TV or in magazines. I base my opinion of a product on my usage of it, granted with Surface that's a little difficult here in the UK. I wrote the majority of my dissertation on my 1st Gen Surface so my opinion is that for productivity the Surface family of tablets are the best on the market.

This is what I was hoping to hear. Real world application. Thank you.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I've had an ipad 2, ipad with retina display, a Motorola Xoom, surface rt, and ow a surface 2. The surface 2 is the best tablet I have ever owned. My gripes with the first one was load time on apps and lack of customizability with metro backgrounds. All my gripes have practically been solved. This things screams. I'm super entrenched in Microsoft services because they work so flawlessly together. Having the extra 200gb of skydive and the best of Skype makes this tablet amazing. Only having LTE would make this better. Having full adobe flash for streaming overseas soccer games and school web sites is super useful. Microsoft office and the USB, microsd, and Hemingway ports make this the one device to take with you. Love it so much more than the surface rt and ipad

LTE would have been nice and I suspect the next gen will probably have it. It's not a priority for me but I would like the option to at least use a USB dongle if I wanted it. Though I can just simply use my WP.

 

[Pete]

I'm not sure that "next gen" when it comes to Windows RT tablets is worth considering at this point, since there might not be a Surface 3 as we know it.

With Microsoft bringing together the three flavours of Windows 8, I've already seen a newspaper report of Windows RT being killed (as a product) sometime next year.

But yes, internet sharing with WP works just fine.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I'm not sure that "next gen" when it comes to Windows RT tablets is worth considering at this point, since there might not be a Surface 3 as we know it.

With Microsoft bringing together the three flavours of Windows 8, I've already seen a newspaper report of Windows RT being killed (as a product) sometime next year.

But yes, internet sharing with WP works just fine.

Was that the Guardian article? I wouldn't put too much into that. Also I thought the process was likely to allow running of WP apps or cross platform apps across all OS then merge. We really don't know do we?

 

[Pete]

Yes, it was the Guardian article - it showed up in my Bing news app this morning.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Take a look at this: What happened to the first generation of Surface? | oion's gallimaufry

I think it is one of the best analysis that I have seen about RT and the Surface devices.

 

[neo158]

I'm not sure that "next gen" when it comes to Windows RT tablets is worth considering at this point, since there might not be a Surface 3 as we know it.

With Microsoft bringing together the three flavours of Windows 8, I've already seen a newspaper report of Windows RT being killed (as a product) sometime next year.

But yes, internet sharing with WP works just fine.

That Guardian article is sensationalist click bait, Microsoft are merging Windows RT and Windows Phone they aren't killing off Windows RT. What this means is that your phone and tablet will be able to run the same software but have an interface that suits the device it's running on.

Microsoft are more likely to kill off the 32-bit version of Windows since nearly all processors are 64-bit these days.

 

[txkimmers]

My S2 completely changed my mind about tablets in general (to the better). I have found the negative press around the Surface 2 so bizarre, I have pretty much written off reviews on any major tech news site completely. All I can think is, if I could do such a 180 on tablets after trying out an S2, how can they not see what a cool device it is? I find it baffling. I hope you go ahead and get the device...remember you will probably know what you think within a day or two of using it, and it it's not for you, just return it. That was my plan and it became clear to me that there was no way I could take mine back.

Just one thing to note..if you need macros or VBA in Excel, don't get the S2. That is one thing lacking in the versions of Office applications that come with the device, and I know a few people who find that to be a dealbreaker for them.

 

[txkimmers]

Take a look at this: What happened to the first generation of Surface? | oion's gallimaufry

I think it is one of the best analysis that I have seen about RT and the Surface devices.

This is great, and LOL at the description of the desktop as "vestigial".