Surface Dial - Love it or hate it?

[James Falconer]

Wanted to grab some feedback from the community here.

Do you love or hate the new Surface Dial? Or are you going to wait to try one in store before you form a final opinion? Is the pricing right? Would you get one?

Sound off in the thread below!

 

[xandros9]

It looks to be one of the coolest human interface devices I'll never seriously use. But that's because I'm not the target market. Nor do I own a Surface.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It looks to be one of the coolest human interface devices I'll never seriously use. But that's because I'm not the target market. Nor do I own a Surface.

Likewise.

 

[sinime]

Love it!

Just wish I had a Surface Studio to use it with.

I'm a little curious how well it works on a desk without a compatible device to place it on screen?

 

[HeyCori]

I'm definitely intrigued. It seems like the sort of device I would use even though I don't own a Surface.

And why do I see a Windows Central Surface Dial giveaway happening in the future? :wink:

I'll save you the trouble. You can just give it to me.

 

[James Falconer]

Love it!

Just wish I had a Surface Studio to use it with.

I'm a little curious how well it works on a desk without a compatible device to place it on screen?

Yeah totally agree. 1 - wish I had a Surface Studio and 2 - very much wonder how it'll work with compatible devices on the desk. I suspect it'll still be very useful, but would take some getting used to.

 

[locowd]

I have 2 of these. One that I bought at launch and another one arriving tomorrow with my Surface Studio! So far it is pretty cool. I am not a artist or anything, but I can see that it has potential. Right now my main use for it is while reading...I sit in my favorite chair, and start reading some PDF books and I have the dial on the side table and use it to scroll. Very useful, I never touch the screen nor click, and my arm is completely at rest while using it.

 

[kerimk]

I think we can use surface dial in games too. I don't know, maybe a hidden objects game might be fun with surface dial

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

I demo'd it and it was cool but I'm not completely won over by it. I honestly think it's a cool scroll wheel for when you're not using your mouse in hand. With that said I think it would make for a dope set of mouse features. Imagine being able to click/long click the scroll wheel on your mouse for a quick pull up menu just like the dial. Then imagine to scroll your mouse wheel to scroll through your on screen settings like the dial. I think that would be really cool.

 

[Jakoh]

I have 2 of these. One that I bought at launch and another one arriving tomorrow with my Surface Studio! So far it is pretty cool. I am not a artist or anything, but I can see that it has potential. Right now my main use for it is while reading...I sit in my favorite chair, and start reading some PDF books and I have the dial on the side table and use it to scroll. Very useful, I never touch the screen nor click, and my arm is completely at rest while using it.

What about your other arm?:wink:
I can also imagine it being useful with the AR device they have.

 

[David Hollifield]

I just received my Surface Dial (running the latest Windows 10 on a PC) and was hoping I could replace my Powermate with it. The actual Dial is wonderful. It has a nice feel and scrolling is buttery smooth -- when it works. Unfortunately, the way it works seems kind of hinky.

I'm basically using the Dial for scrolling around pages using my left hand while my mouse is in my right. The Powermate will scroll any window the mouse hovers over. The Dial doesn't seem to work that way. Frankly, I'm not real sure how the Dial determines what window to scroll. For example, when I open a File Explorer it will sometimes allow me to scroll the active pane. Sometimes it only gives me a volume option and I end up inadvertently turning up/down my speaker volume. Not cool. In Visual Studio 2015, it will only scroll the first open text editor window no matter what window/pane is active. In Chrome/Edge it works very well and as it should. What window gets scrolled is a random choice.

Is everyone else seeing the same thing?

My Surface Dial wish list includes:

1) Being able to change the default scroll direction when turning the Dial clockwise/anti-clockwise.
2) Make it more obvious that adjusting the Mouse Roll options also affect the Dial behavior (took me a while to figure that one out)
3) Have the Dial respect the "Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them" option

If those three things worked, this Dial would be extremely helpful. Right now it's kind of a toy that I use then switch back to the Powermate to get work done.