Just got shipping confirmation for my Surface Dial!!! :D

[onlysublime]

Woohoo!!! As a frequent user of Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Camera Raw, Premiere Pro), I'm excited about the prospects of the Surface Dial.

Hoping there are other uses on the horizon like gaming (Tempest or Asteroids, anyone?).

 

[Indistinguishable]

Woohoo!!! As a frequent user of Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Camera Raw, Premiere Pro), I'm excited about the prospects of the Surface Dial.

Hoping there are other uses on the horizon like gaming (Tempest or Asteroids, anyone?).

View attachment 131830

Congrats! What device are you going to be using it with?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[DLong4]

My Surface Dial arrives tonight via a big brown truck. It was an impulse buy for my Surface Pro 4, and hope it will have some good uses.

 

[onlysublime]

For my Surface Pro 4. I also assume it will work with my Surface Pro 2 since I believe it's just a Bluetooth device.

 

[onlysublime]

Such a cool device! But they could definitely expand the Surface Dial settings.

I have no idea why Microsoft is wasting so much money on packaging.


The box is friggin huge!!! You can probably fit 9 Surface Dials in the box.


The Surface Dial is tiny and in the corner. The rest of the box is tons of packing material.


Packaging is really high quality like the rest of the Surface line.






The bottom sticker has instructions. You can peel it to reveal a sticky rubbery surface.


The bottom is magnetically attached. You pull it off to show the AAA batteries. You see the Bluetooth pairing button.


After you pair it in the Bluetooth devices settings, you'll see a "Wheel" settings.

Out of the box, it works pretty well. On my dial, I chose to have volume, scroll, zoom, and custom tool. Volume is as you expect. Scroll in a web browser will let you scroll up and down the page. Very smooth!

I have the old Adobe Creative Suite 5. So in Photoshop, for example, the scroll will scroll up and down the page. The zoom will zoom in and out of the artboard at 100% increments.

For the custom tool, it has so much potential but it's so limiting!!!! ARGH!!! It lets you customize a keyboard keystroke. But it doesn't have so many keys so you can't do many keystroke combinations. By default, it's set to CTRL + TAB and SHIFT + CTRL + TAB. So in Photoshop, this lets you flip between different pictures. However, I would love to be able to use the dial to change brush sizes on the fly. With a keyboard, you press either the [ or the ]. However, those keystrokes are not available! So many possible Photoshop keystrokes I would've loved and it seemed like every keystroke I would like was not available. Like the "=" key is not available.

 

[DLong4]

Interesting. My Dial's box came in a large envelope.

 

[Krystianpants]

That's pretty cool. I wonder if you could use it for gaming to pop it into a steering wheel and have it used for racing games.

Have you tried the sketchable app? I think maybe UWP apps have better integration?

 

[onlysublime]

I haven't tried that app. I'm more into Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Premiere Pro.

I would love some games like Tempest and Asteroids to use the Dial!

 

[onlysublime]

There's one more thing that could be improved. Currently, you can only have 1 custom tool (custom keystroke). For the default example, it was CTRL + TAB and SHIFT + CTRL + TAB which in Photoshop is to flip between pictures. If you wanted another set of keystrokes as a custom tool, you cannot. Hopefully this is on their features to implement.

 

[onlysublime]

For those that have a Surface Pro 2 (and I would assume any PC that has Bluetooth capabilities), I have confirmed that it works perfectly fine on the SP2. And luckily, I also have it paired to both my SP4 and SP2 and I don't have to re-pair when switching between machines. However, I have not tried having both machines on at the same time. I would assume some type of failure as I don't believe that Microsoft anticipated that scenario (my Plantronics BT headset lets me pair to 2 separate phones and will route calls appropriately depending on which phone rings).

 

[onlysublime]

A recommendation for those new to the Surface Dial... I carry my Surface Dial in my messenger bag with my Surface Pro 4. Because of books and other things, the Surface Dial is constantly being pressed. So my recommendation is to carry the Dial in its box if you're going to have it in a backpack or bag. The Dial keeps triggering even while sitting in my bag.

 

[unmorphed]

Thanks a lot fit the review. Now I have to buy one. Jeez.

 

[Krystianpants]

So you haven't tried UWP apps just for the sake of trying? Dunno if they are free to trial. I'm just curious if the W32 api is limited and the UWP api has more features.

Good call on the asteroid game hehe. This could have some great usage for different gaming styles. Even combining mouse and dial to get more out of the experience.

 

[onlysublime]

The functionality is the same whether it's UWP or Win32. You hold down until it buzzes to bring up a menu. You scroll left and right to choose an option. And then you click down to select the option. The only difference from app to app is what the options are. The custom feature is the same whether it's UWP or Win32.

Of course, the advantage of future UWP apps is that they know the Dial exists and their programmers will hopefully add functions that use the dial.

And if they flesh out the custom command feature, it could put legacy programs on equal footing with upcoming UWP apps. Seriously, only one custom command? And major limitations on available keystrokes for that one custom command?