Soldato
I did plan to write a short review of the Surface but as it turns out I found myself with a lot to say – some of which I’ve not read in other reviews. I know some people are still on the fence about it so maybe this review could help out.
I plan to spend some more time with the software side of things, and that will form part two of the review. But hardware is hardware and two days is enough really to get forming some opinions.
So here we go. Excuse the dust on some of the pictures. Dark electronics and laundry day don't mix.
Hardware
Materials & Build Quality
The fit and finish on the Surface is superb. If there is a mark or blemish on mine then I haven’t found it yet. It is rigid and there is no flex or play in it at all. You could probably bat tennis balls with this thing all day and it would be fine. I can’t find a single dodgy seam or gob of glue anywhere. You pay for premium and you get premium.
The VaporMg material is very smooth and, to be honest, makes a nice change from aluminium. It feels slightly more grippy than the iPad.
The Windows key on the bezel is a capacitive button that gives a short, sharp vibration when pressed. I’m finding I don’t really use it that often, preferring to swipe in from the right edge. The volume rocker is sturdy and the ports accommodate their various devices and accessories nicely (no forcing in USB sticks that I’ve experienced on a few cheaper devices for example)
The screen is edge to edge Gorilla glass and there are thankfully no dead pixels on my Surface. I’ll talk more about the screen next.
The Screen
I’m an amateur photographer so naturally I should be more discerning than most when it comes to image quality and I’m happy to say that the Surface has a very good screen. Is it the best in its class? No. You should all know by now that this is the minimum resolution for full Metro-style Windows compatibility - and minimum is perhaps a good word to describe it. I’ll leave it at that.
The good news is that pixels aren’t everything. The contrast is punchy and the viewing angles are superb. The colours are also very accurate – I compared images side by side with my calibrated Dell IPS monitor and there was little between them.
If you are a stickler for pixels then you are not going to be blown away by the screen. Otherwise, if you can adjust your expectations and appreciate its other qualities I can see most people being more than happy with it.
The Touch Cover
My first impressions were, “ok, this is weird” and, “wow, this little track pad is great”. And to some extent, this is still true. It apparently takes 4 or 5 days to get comfortable with the Touch Cover and I think that is a reasonable statement.
If the keyboard is a big deal to you however, then just go straight for the Type cover. As nice and surprisingly good as the Touch cover is, if you want speed and accuracy you need proper keys. That said if you just need to knuckle down on a document every now and again then save your money and get a full sized USB keyboard. It works a charm. Hooray for Windows (and a USB port).
So what about the whole “click in” thing? It works great. If you hold the Surface and the cover in line with each other most of the time you’ll get a sort of two-stage attachment – the first being magnetic, and then as you fold the device toward you it will fidget and the mechanical connection will snap into place. You’re really best off holding the cover somewhat perpendicular to the Surface, and then it will snap straight into place 99% of the time. And yes you can dangle the Surface on the strength of the magnets.
My only niggling worry is that since the magnets are quite strong (you do have to want to pull it apart) I hope the covers don’t experience any significant wear. Unless you’re ambidextrous you’re almost certainly going to be pulling it from the same corner every time. Only time will tell how the material stands up.
The Kickstand
Microsoft went to great lengths to communicate the fabulous sound and “visceral feeling” of the kickstand. It should open and close like an executive car door – to paraphrase some spiel I heard.
It doesn’t. The kickstand is way too thin to generate any sort of resounding “thunk” as you open and close it. If you rattle your fingernails against an empty soup can – that’s the sort of tactile feel you get. It is not a big deal but Panos Panay waxed so lyrical about it I couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed. This is the reality: it folds away with a nice flippity click rather than a thunkity clunk.
Due to the razor slim profile of the kickstand it isn’t very comfortable to balance on your lap if you’re wearing shorts. This isn’t much of a problem though, since you won’t be using the Touch Cover in this position (trust me on that) you just fold it back underneath the Surface and let the bottom edge of the kickstand rest on that. It works surprisingly well and I already miss not being able to do this with the iPad.
I should perhaps point out that although I’ve been a bit negative about it – the kickstand is fine. Actually it’s more than fine – it’s good. There must be some sort of spring mechanism in there because at the extremities of travel it does confidently snap into place. The angle is good too. For a fixed position they really had to get it right, and I think they have. It’s a good feature.
For reference, that is a 10 pence piece stacked against the stand in the picture above. It's super thin.
That power connector thingy
At first, I thought it was ok. But it’s not. It’s rubbish. No, it’s not unusable, but it is way more fickle than it should be. You’re never quite confident of the connection which means having a quick peek at your lock screen to assure yourself that it’s charging. It does have a dim little light on the top of the connector but it’s next to useless unless you’re in the dark.
Considering the amount of time they spent poring over the details of this product it’s a little bit bizarre. Although to be fair, that in itself should tell you about the standard of the rest of the device. The power connector is by far the outlier and will almost certainly be revised in the next version.
In my opinion they need to take a look at Apple’s MagSafe connector and also their battery indicator lights on the side of their MacBooks. A similar implementation would be great on the next Surface.
The Cameras
I won’t spend much time on the cameras except to say that these are video cameras. I did consider posting some samples, but decided against it. This is not a still camera. How ridiculous do iPad users look holding their gadget aloft snapping photos? Now image a Touch or Type cover flapping away underneath like some high tech tackle. It’s insane so I’m not even going to encourage it.
The Speakers
Spectacularly average. I don’t think they are quite as good as the iPad3 speakers (for comparison) but there really isn’t much between them. They serve a purpose. If you are listening to music or watching a film you’re going to use an external source or headphones anyway. I have a cheap pair of Sennheiser cans and they sound awesome – and freakin’ loud. I don’t know if the scale is somewhat off but at just 20% volume it is loud enough and subjectively equivalent to 50-60% volume on the iPad.
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So, as stated I'm going to leave it a few days to spend some more time with the software and finish off the review. I've had inconsistent experiences so we'll see what happens.
Cheers
Update #1 03.11.12
Battery Life
The battery life on the Surface RT is great. If you want objective tests then you can find them on sites like Anandtech who have far more sophisticated setups and processes than I do. I can give you my subjective analysis though – which is that it easily passes the threshold at which you don’t really have to worry about it.
As a typical example, I took the Surface off charge yesterday afternoon at maybe 75%. I then did a few video tests which included watching most of the James Bond Top Gear episode and then after that left it downloading a HD film off the Xbox marketplace. A little while later I watched the movie (1 hours 30 minutes) and then left the device alone in the evening and overnight. This morning I opened it up, checked the news etc. and I had 37% charge remaining. If you’re worried about Windows being a big drain on the battery, don’t be. It isn’t.
On top of that, the Surface charges very quickly. From 0 to 50% in about an hour, which, if you’re coming from glacially slow iPad3 like I am, is just fantastic.
A couple of posters have suggested in the comments that the power cable is too short. This may be true for some but for me, and I suspect for most people, it won’t be an issue. My initial reaction when I unboxed it was completely indifferent. It didn’t strike me as being anything out of the ordinary. I compared it with the iPad equivalent and the Surface cable is in fact longer. Additionally, since it charges so quickly I think the instances in which you’re tethered to the wall while the Surface is in use will be few and far between. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I plan to spend some more time with the software side of things, and that will form part two of the review. But hardware is hardware and two days is enough really to get forming some opinions.
So here we go. Excuse the dust on some of the pictures. Dark electronics and laundry day don't mix.
Hardware
Materials & Build Quality
The fit and finish on the Surface is superb. If there is a mark or blemish on mine then I haven’t found it yet. It is rigid and there is no flex or play in it at all. You could probably bat tennis balls with this thing all day and it would be fine. I can’t find a single dodgy seam or gob of glue anywhere. You pay for premium and you get premium.
The VaporMg material is very smooth and, to be honest, makes a nice change from aluminium. It feels slightly more grippy than the iPad.
The Windows key on the bezel is a capacitive button that gives a short, sharp vibration when pressed. I’m finding I don’t really use it that often, preferring to swipe in from the right edge. The volume rocker is sturdy and the ports accommodate their various devices and accessories nicely (no forcing in USB sticks that I’ve experienced on a few cheaper devices for example)
The screen is edge to edge Gorilla glass and there are thankfully no dead pixels on my Surface. I’ll talk more about the screen next.
The Screen
I’m an amateur photographer so naturally I should be more discerning than most when it comes to image quality and I’m happy to say that the Surface has a very good screen. Is it the best in its class? No. You should all know by now that this is the minimum resolution for full Metro-style Windows compatibility - and minimum is perhaps a good word to describe it. I’ll leave it at that.
The good news is that pixels aren’t everything. The contrast is punchy and the viewing angles are superb. The colours are also very accurate – I compared images side by side with my calibrated Dell IPS monitor and there was little between them.
If you are a stickler for pixels then you are not going to be blown away by the screen. Otherwise, if you can adjust your expectations and appreciate its other qualities I can see most people being more than happy with it.
The Touch Cover
My first impressions were, “ok, this is weird” and, “wow, this little track pad is great”. And to some extent, this is still true. It apparently takes 4 or 5 days to get comfortable with the Touch Cover and I think that is a reasonable statement.
If the keyboard is a big deal to you however, then just go straight for the Type cover. As nice and surprisingly good as the Touch cover is, if you want speed and accuracy you need proper keys. That said if you just need to knuckle down on a document every now and again then save your money and get a full sized USB keyboard. It works a charm. Hooray for Windows (and a USB port).
So what about the whole “click in” thing? It works great. If you hold the Surface and the cover in line with each other most of the time you’ll get a sort of two-stage attachment – the first being magnetic, and then as you fold the device toward you it will fidget and the mechanical connection will snap into place. You’re really best off holding the cover somewhat perpendicular to the Surface, and then it will snap straight into place 99% of the time. And yes you can dangle the Surface on the strength of the magnets.
My only niggling worry is that since the magnets are quite strong (you do have to want to pull it apart) I hope the covers don’t experience any significant wear. Unless you’re ambidextrous you’re almost certainly going to be pulling it from the same corner every time. Only time will tell how the material stands up.
The Kickstand
Microsoft went to great lengths to communicate the fabulous sound and “visceral feeling” of the kickstand. It should open and close like an executive car door – to paraphrase some spiel I heard.
It doesn’t. The kickstand is way too thin to generate any sort of resounding “thunk” as you open and close it. If you rattle your fingernails against an empty soup can – that’s the sort of tactile feel you get. It is not a big deal but Panos Panay waxed so lyrical about it I couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed. This is the reality: it folds away with a nice flippity click rather than a thunkity clunk.
Due to the razor slim profile of the kickstand it isn’t very comfortable to balance on your lap if you’re wearing shorts. This isn’t much of a problem though, since you won’t be using the Touch Cover in this position (trust me on that) you just fold it back underneath the Surface and let the bottom edge of the kickstand rest on that. It works surprisingly well and I already miss not being able to do this with the iPad.
I should perhaps point out that although I’ve been a bit negative about it – the kickstand is fine. Actually it’s more than fine – it’s good. There must be some sort of spring mechanism in there because at the extremities of travel it does confidently snap into place. The angle is good too. For a fixed position they really had to get it right, and I think they have. It’s a good feature.
For reference, that is a 10 pence piece stacked against the stand in the picture above. It's super thin.
That power connector thingy
At first, I thought it was ok. But it’s not. It’s rubbish. No, it’s not unusable, but it is way more fickle than it should be. You’re never quite confident of the connection which means having a quick peek at your lock screen to assure yourself that it’s charging. It does have a dim little light on the top of the connector but it’s next to useless unless you’re in the dark.
Considering the amount of time they spent poring over the details of this product it’s a little bit bizarre. Although to be fair, that in itself should tell you about the standard of the rest of the device. The power connector is by far the outlier and will almost certainly be revised in the next version.
In my opinion they need to take a look at Apple’s MagSafe connector and also their battery indicator lights on the side of their MacBooks. A similar implementation would be great on the next Surface.
The Cameras
I won’t spend much time on the cameras except to say that these are video cameras. I did consider posting some samples, but decided against it. This is not a still camera. How ridiculous do iPad users look holding their gadget aloft snapping photos? Now image a Touch or Type cover flapping away underneath like some high tech tackle. It’s insane so I’m not even going to encourage it.
The Speakers
Spectacularly average. I don’t think they are quite as good as the iPad3 speakers (for comparison) but there really isn’t much between them. They serve a purpose. If you are listening to music or watching a film you’re going to use an external source or headphones anyway. I have a cheap pair of Sennheiser cans and they sound awesome – and freakin’ loud. I don’t know if the scale is somewhat off but at just 20% volume it is loud enough and subjectively equivalent to 50-60% volume on the iPad.
---
So, as stated I'm going to leave it a few days to spend some more time with the software and finish off the review. I've had inconsistent experiences so we'll see what happens.
Cheers
Update #1 03.11.12
Battery Life
The battery life on the Surface RT is great. If you want objective tests then you can find them on sites like Anandtech who have far more sophisticated setups and processes than I do. I can give you my subjective analysis though – which is that it easily passes the threshold at which you don’t really have to worry about it.
As a typical example, I took the Surface off charge yesterday afternoon at maybe 75%. I then did a few video tests which included watching most of the James Bond Top Gear episode and then after that left it downloading a HD film off the Xbox marketplace. A little while later I watched the movie (1 hours 30 minutes) and then left the device alone in the evening and overnight. This morning I opened it up, checked the news etc. and I had 37% charge remaining. If you’re worried about Windows being a big drain on the battery, don’t be. It isn’t.
On top of that, the Surface charges very quickly. From 0 to 50% in about an hour, which, if you’re coming from glacially slow iPad3 like I am, is just fantastic.
A couple of posters have suggested in the comments that the power cable is too short. This may be true for some but for me, and I suspect for most people, it won’t be an issue. My initial reaction when I unboxed it was completely indifferent. It didn’t strike me as being anything out of the ordinary. I compared it with the iPad equivalent and the Surface cable is in fact longer. Additionally, since it charges so quickly I think the instances in which you’re tethered to the wall while the Surface is in use will be few and far between. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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