- Apr 24, 2012
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This might be lengthy, but only because each picture i post has a good amount of opinion to back it up. Just to let you know my main computer is running rtm 9200 with a mouse & keyboard setup. until Saturday i never really spent that much time using a device actually designed for windows 8 other than about 6 mins with a Samsung series 7 tablet running rtm 9200 at the Microsoft store in Santa Clara. so here goes nothing but my overall thoughts after trying windows 8 for 2 hours straight at best buy. This will be in sequential order
so here is the empty display at my local bestbuy. One thing i was really impressed with was the typography used in the demo area. Almost like the apple store in a way but much much better design and layout wise. The demonstration pictures for windows 8 were very simple. almost too simple in my opinion. I did like how it went starting from the left is the phone, then to the right side is your tablet and desktop experiences. i probably spent a good 7 minuets just admiring this area.
I took a picture from the side before i went to the laptop department of the store. I also shortly observed the back of the demo area. Funny how tech companies will almost always use hipsters or yuppies to show what kind of people would use their products. It is clearly evident here also. There are some cheezy marketing slogans here and there like "your pc, Your way". But that did not really kill it for me as a devout Microsoft fan. Because they are trying to tap into Apple's market share.
Now here is where things get interesting. spending 15 mins using the lenovo ideapad yoga. First thing that caught my eye's was well... How boxy this hybrid is. But that's lenovo for you right there. Build quality felt solid. Now the patented hinge does its job. however since the was an alarm on the back i could not put it into full tablet mode. But i did manage to put it into stand mode. one thing i notice is the the screen had a really.. i mean really hard time trying to rotate the os when put in a different position. Once in stand mode i instead got a portrait view of the screen. That really bothered me. Another one of my pet peeve's is the trackpad. For a tablet of this price i would have expected better from lenovo. gesture recognition worked only 60% of the time. the other 40% it does not hit the mark. In other words it just goofs up more than it really should. Now the screen on this beast is excellent. It looked much sharper than the 2 acer flat screen displays i am currently using for my main pc at home. The keyboard is great once you get a feel for it. Its a lenovo keyboard, would you expect any less? Live Tiles truly come alive on a good screen. App transitions so far have seemed very redundant adding unnecessary seconds to your workflow but at the same time they make app loading a little more tolerable which is something i truly am starting to just now appreciate. One thing that quickly started to annoy me more than anything else is how difficult it is to close metro apps on a touchscreen. I see people do it all the time on YouTube. Trying the exactly same thing as them on the devices here i did not succeed at all
Only rarely did it start to happen when i did split screen multitasking in metro apps. And this was with all the touch screen computers at the bestbuy near me. Other than those complaints i have, The ideapad yoga is a pretty beastly piece of kit. And value wise between a macbook pro and this computer, there is no comparison that can or could be made. To the right of me were some generic laptops running widows 8. as i recall none of them did actually have a touchscreen. These devices were the ones were the ones where i saw gesture supports true potential.
So now its onto the all in one's that have a touchscreen. This particular one was none other than the HP ENVY 20. Now for $1000. This thing looks and feels very tacky. Even the screen quality is not very great in person either. Taking some pictures with the built in webcam its not to impressive and i believe my nexus 7 does a much better job. once again closing apps via the touch screen did not work to no avail. I tried playing some casual games on it and immediately saw its potential. Its a great family pc. And HP is good with doing that kind of stuff. By now it was kinda cool to start seeing the new windows stickers on the keyboards. To the left of that was a well spec,d, non touch screen ASUS PC. The screen looked miles better than on the HP next to it. I just started to realize that i prefer using windows 8 with mouse & keyboard over touch. But maybe i just was not used to it. It felt so unnatural to use a PC this way. I feel like i can get stuff done much faster with a mouse & keyboard setup.
Now the last thing is a store clerk had observed me walking around the empty display from earlier. when i was about to leave i saw the HP ENVY 20 taking up a space on the display. So i thought to myself. Why not try this computer in a less claustrophobic & well lit area this time. Now i started to see windows 8's "true colors" Metro UI is amazing on a big screen! it really is. I started to feel like i was living in the Microsoft vision of the future video. But digging deeper into windows 8, the excitement quickly burnt off. Why is a large size desktop not the default option on a touch screen pc. The default small mode was unusable at best. I quickly made the necessary changes in control panel, none of the clerks seemed to bug me about it. they actually just walked past me as if they could feel how i felt about windows 8. After 7 mins extra toying around and running into the obnoxious app closing bug. i grabbed my loose items and walked back home.
To be completely honest i needed this experience to justify my investment in the new ecosystem. Windows 8 on my desktop pc has A killer desktop. The best on any version of windows released period. But opinions are just that. opinions. The start screen. Its just really nice when you can see your latest emails, news, sports, facebook, and weather updates at a glance without having to waiste time opening an app. This is where i see the true potential of me using windows 8 on my desktop pc for the next 3 years. Is it perfect? God no.. It needs some serious work still and i am not trolling about this. i love window's phone and the metro ui! i never really used the start screen on 7 to begin with and detested its asymmetrical layout. windows 8 is a welcome addition to the Microsoft product lineup. However just don't expect consumers, not to give any thought into making an upgrade. They will. Its a huge move from any previous implementation of the windows os but the writing is on the wall that windows 8 is defiantly a rushed revolution to one, if not, Microsoft's best selling product. I am glad to get this illusion of perfection off my chest. now time for a deep breath and lets talk about this in the comments bellow.
so here is the empty display at my local bestbuy. One thing i was really impressed with was the typography used in the demo area. Almost like the apple store in a way but much much better design and layout wise. The demonstration pictures for windows 8 were very simple. almost too simple in my opinion. I did like how it went starting from the left is the phone, then to the right side is your tablet and desktop experiences. i probably spent a good 7 minuets just admiring this area.
I took a picture from the side before i went to the laptop department of the store. I also shortly observed the back of the demo area. Funny how tech companies will almost always use hipsters or yuppies to show what kind of people would use their products. It is clearly evident here also. There are some cheezy marketing slogans here and there like "your pc, Your way". But that did not really kill it for me as a devout Microsoft fan. Because they are trying to tap into Apple's market share.
Now here is where things get interesting. spending 15 mins using the lenovo ideapad yoga. First thing that caught my eye's was well... How boxy this hybrid is. But that's lenovo for you right there. Build quality felt solid. Now the patented hinge does its job. however since the was an alarm on the back i could not put it into full tablet mode. But i did manage to put it into stand mode. one thing i notice is the the screen had a really.. i mean really hard time trying to rotate the os when put in a different position. Once in stand mode i instead got a portrait view of the screen. That really bothered me. Another one of my pet peeve's is the trackpad. For a tablet of this price i would have expected better from lenovo. gesture recognition worked only 60% of the time. the other 40% it does not hit the mark. In other words it just goofs up more than it really should. Now the screen on this beast is excellent. It looked much sharper than the 2 acer flat screen displays i am currently using for my main pc at home. The keyboard is great once you get a feel for it. Its a lenovo keyboard, would you expect any less? Live Tiles truly come alive on a good screen. App transitions so far have seemed very redundant adding unnecessary seconds to your workflow but at the same time they make app loading a little more tolerable which is something i truly am starting to just now appreciate. One thing that quickly started to annoy me more than anything else is how difficult it is to close metro apps on a touchscreen. I see people do it all the time on YouTube. Trying the exactly same thing as them on the devices here i did not succeed at all
Only rarely did it start to happen when i did split screen multitasking in metro apps. And this was with all the touch screen computers at the bestbuy near me. Other than those complaints i have, The ideapad yoga is a pretty beastly piece of kit. And value wise between a macbook pro and this computer, there is no comparison that can or could be made. To the right of me were some generic laptops running widows 8. as i recall none of them did actually have a touchscreen. These devices were the ones were the ones where i saw gesture supports true potential.
So now its onto the all in one's that have a touchscreen. This particular one was none other than the HP ENVY 20. Now for $1000. This thing looks and feels very tacky. Even the screen quality is not very great in person either. Taking some pictures with the built in webcam its not to impressive and i believe my nexus 7 does a much better job. once again closing apps via the touch screen did not work to no avail. I tried playing some casual games on it and immediately saw its potential. Its a great family pc. And HP is good with doing that kind of stuff. By now it was kinda cool to start seeing the new windows stickers on the keyboards. To the left of that was a well spec,d, non touch screen ASUS PC. The screen looked miles better than on the HP next to it. I just started to realize that i prefer using windows 8 with mouse & keyboard over touch. But maybe i just was not used to it. It felt so unnatural to use a PC this way. I feel like i can get stuff done much faster with a mouse & keyboard setup.
Now the last thing is a store clerk had observed me walking around the empty display from earlier. when i was about to leave i saw the HP ENVY 20 taking up a space on the display. So i thought to myself. Why not try this computer in a less claustrophobic & well lit area this time. Now i started to see windows 8's "true colors" Metro UI is amazing on a big screen! it really is. I started to feel like i was living in the Microsoft vision of the future video. But digging deeper into windows 8, the excitement quickly burnt off. Why is a large size desktop not the default option on a touch screen pc. The default small mode was unusable at best. I quickly made the necessary changes in control panel, none of the clerks seemed to bug me about it. they actually just walked past me as if they could feel how i felt about windows 8. After 7 mins extra toying around and running into the obnoxious app closing bug. i grabbed my loose items and walked back home.
To be completely honest i needed this experience to justify my investment in the new ecosystem. Windows 8 on my desktop pc has A killer desktop. The best on any version of windows released period. But opinions are just that. opinions. The start screen. Its just really nice when you can see your latest emails, news, sports, facebook, and weather updates at a glance without having to waiste time opening an app. This is where i see the true potential of me using windows 8 on my desktop pc for the next 3 years. Is it perfect? God no.. It needs some serious work still and i am not trolling about this. i love window's phone and the metro ui! i never really used the start screen on 7 to begin with and detested its asymmetrical layout. windows 8 is a welcome addition to the Microsoft product lineup. However just don't expect consumers, not to give any thought into making an upgrade. They will. Its a huge move from any previous implementation of the windows os but the writing is on the wall that windows 8 is defiantly a rushed revolution to one, if not, Microsoft's best selling product. I am glad to get this illusion of perfection off my chest. now time for a deep breath and lets talk about this in the comments bellow.
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