
Surface Pro 2 - kposehn
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/10/28/surface-pro-2?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pa-mainsite+%28Penny+Arcade%29
======
DigitalSea
My favourite takeaway from this article is: _The Surface Pro is a work
machine. It is not a tablet for checking your mail and playing angry birds
(although it can do that stuff). This is a computer for getting shit done.
It’s for creating not consuming._ — finally someone gets the Surface. It's not
an iPad competitor, it does more than the intentionally limited iPad can do,
has options for external storage, external monitors, touch covers, XBOX
controllers and more using standard connections like HDMI and USB without
requiring a custom propriety cable a la Thunderbolt or the likes.

The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is. Maybe at the
beginning Microsoft tried marketing itself in too many directions, but they're
finding their feet. The Surface Pro 2 wants to be the iPad of the business and
enterprise market, not a device for checking email and playing Angry Birds.
Sure it also appeals to other needs as well, but going after the business
sector is smart because ultimately that's where the money is. Heck the Surface
isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable.

I am thinking of getting one of these as a laptop replacement for coding on
plane and train trips. You can't code on an iPad, but you could code on a
Surface for sure and run all needed IDE's like Sublime Text and an NGINX
server with PHP and or Node.JS.

~~~
eddieh
_> The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is...Heck the
Surface isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable._

Yet you keep comparing it to the iPad when you should be comparing it to the
MacBook Air which has similar hardware, roughly the same price, the ability to
connect external storage, external displays, has USB 3.0, has an SD card slot
(on the 13" model).

But the MBA has so much more going for it: PCIe based SDD, Intel HD Graphics
5000 (vs 4400 on the SP2), 802.11ac (vs 802.11n on the SP2), Thunderbolt, a
"real" full-sized backlit keyboard, a useable trackpad, the ability to run OS
X or Windows, and the trump card, 9 to 12 hours battery life (reportedly 15
hours with Mavericks).

~~~
contergan
I think it's more fitting to compare the Pro 2 to a 11" macbook air. So the SD
card slot is out.

The better WiFi and graphics capabilities and will make no difference for the
majority of use cases. The HD 5000 will perform better for gaming of course,
but then again you're on OS X... not really too many games available there
compared to Windows.

Thunderbolt is nice, but most people will only use it to hook up an external
monitor, which you can also do with the Pro 2. The keyboard on the MBA is not
full-sized at all and at least the German keyboard layout that Apple provides
is a pain in the ass for programming purposes compared to the Windows based
layout (though not really a problem with the US layout). The trackpad on the
MBA is much better, but the Pro 2 comes with a touch screen and Wacom pen.

Don't forget about the great IPS screen on the Pro 2. The MBA's screen is
getting kind of pathetic for 2013, I really hope they up it to Retina in the
next revision.

Battery Life is in my opinion however still the biggest disadvantage of the
Pro 2.

------
rayiner
The Surface Pro 2 hits two of the biggest weak points of the original design:
battery life and heat/noise. The battery life is underwhelming relative to say
the MBA 11" (which has a smaller battery), but the Surface Pro 2 takes that
from unusably bad to just bad.

That said, I don't think it's "good enough." It's not a cheap machine:
8GB/256GB model reviewed by Gabe retails for $1,299. It's got a small screen
and a keyboard/touchpad combo that, on an Ultrabook, would be considered
absolute trash. I think you have to _really_ love that Wacom pen to justify
the Surface Pro 2, and that makes it a pretty niche product. Of course,
"niche" can be turned into "market-creating" but with continued mis-steps like
underwhelming battery life, it's not clear Microsoft can make the "pen tablet
PC" market happen.

~~~
MAGZine
You compare the battery life, but not the screen to the macbook air? The
screen is higher resolution, has a better coating, and is touch. Other than
that, it's smaller and lighter (around 20%, actually), and comparably priced
($1299 for 256GB/8GB surface, $1299 for 256GB/8GB Air). It also has a micro SD
card slot, to add further provisions.

This isn't a tablet competitor, it's an ultraportable competitor.

e: made a bit more concrete

~~~
Pxtl
It's an everything competitor. It's the tablet/ultrabook answer to the way
smartphones merged PDAs and cellphones.

And like those early smartphones, it's got some growing to do. But the market
it's trying to carve out strikes me as a real one with real demand. I'm
surprised we're not seeing more doctors and other specialists-on-the-go
wielding them.

~~~
pulmo
I don't know why Microsoft is doing this to themselves. Instead if being the
best in one market they try to create a new one which competes with the tablet
and ultrabook market. But their product can be never as good as a tablet or
ultrabook. I just don't think that there are many people who are willing to
accept that trade-off.

~~~
Pxtl
There are professionals on the go who want to carry _one_ device, not two, and
have both the use-case for a tablet and a notebook. You can't use a notebook
standing up, and you can't run real Windows software on a tablet.

I'm surprised every single doctor in a hospital doesn't own one of these yet,
for example.

~~~
Elhana
I guess you mean why every doctor doesn't own 2-3 of these, because battery
won't last a day...

~~~
mkr-hn
That's what the power cover is for.

~~~
Teckla
_That 's what the power cover is for._

And now it's too heavy to carry around all day every day.

------
noonespecial
Its always frustrating to watch MS build solid devices with real use cases and
then seemingly throw it away trying to market them like apple gadgets.

Its like watching Charlie Brown try to kick the football.

~~~
kyro
Fully agreed. Microsoft has shown that boring business is big business and
it's continued to generate great revenues for them. They should be marketing
this towards business professionals, engineers, digital artists, etc. This
isn't a device you lay on the couch with to read; it's meant to be something
an analyst can take with him on a business trip. Time and time again I'm
seeing Surface ads at bus stops that do not make any sense, like "click in",
"thinner, faster", all with very artsy images clearly geared towards the young
and hip demographic (even then, the ads poorly convey just how hip the product
is).

They need to be more concrete and directed in their marketing. IMO, they
should be running series of ads targeted to very specific professions.

~~~
etler
The ad I've seen for it on Hulu focuses entirely on a variety of industry
professionals using it for work, so I think they're starting to get the right
idea.

~~~
tanzam75
Microsoft brought in a new ad agency for the Surface 2. If they did the Hulu
ad, then this was a change for the better.

------
WhiteDawn
Not going to lie, posts like these make me really want one for myself. I've
toyed with using a tablet and keyboard combo and doing all my work as a
networked thin-client but it is nowhere near the experience of working on a
laptop.

Having a tablet form factor with the hardware to run everything locally and a
physical keyboard is exactly what I am looking for. Sure there is the MacBook
air which is an awesome device and has its advantages over the Surface 2, but
to use it you need to be in a "deployed" state even if it is just on your lap.
With a surface you can quickly check up on email or just relax and then deploy
when necessary or convenient.

I think the only thing that still would bug me is the touchpad, I haven't used
the new keyboard cover but I'm almost certain the touchpad experience is no
where close to a MacBook, correct me if I'm wrong because I'd love to hear it.
I feel carrying around a bluetooth/usb mouse with it everywhere is going to be
required to get a comfortable production experience which would be a nuisance.

~~~
btgeekboy
The touchpad is bad. On the Touch cover, it's that leather-like material that
rubs up against the screen normally. On the Type cover, that part's fixed, but
the whole thing is roughly the size of two US Quarters put together. The
Surface really isn't big enough to have a properly-sized keyboard and touchpad
attached.

~~~
pbsurf
Agreed. Microsoft ought to release a version of the type cover with a pointing
stick (aka Trackpoint).

~~~
WhiteDawn
I agree, more space for the keyboard. Using a Trackpoint on a T400 was
suboptimal, but very much improved from a standard windows touchpad and I
would be happy settling with one on a Surface.

------
codeulike
Here's another use case for it: Contractor. I've got a Surface Pro 1, got it
secondhand for £600. It runs Visual Studio very well. I'm also running
IntelliJ IDEA for Android development. Its light so easy to take when I visit
clients. Through the single USB3 port I can connect a USB hub and run VGA,
ethernet, mouse and keyboard, so when I'm at a client site I dock into the
screens/keyboards they have on site. When I'm at home I dock into my own
setup. When I'm in-between I can use the touch cover to get stuff done on the
train. The 96GB or so that I have on the SSD is fine for everything I need.
Its not like I'm storing DVDs or music on this thing. When I'm in meetings the
stylus and one-note is awesome. As for the Surface Pro 2, obviously faster and
better battery sounds good. Also the two-stage kickstand would definitely
help.

~~~
LaSombra
Which VGA and Ethernet adaptors do you use?

~~~
codeulike
I did get the mini display port to work with a generic mac adapter - this one:
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002WUVAVE](http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002WUVAVE)

But actually as I was plugging a USB hub in anyway, it was easier to just use
a cheap USB to VGA adapter. Similarly, there are loads of cheap USB to
Ethernet adapters around. You can get away with USB2 devices, they dont need
to be USB3 standard. Basically, its a windows laptop so pretty much any USB
thing will work with it.

I notice that people make 'usb docking stations' (a docking station that
connects via one usb port) but they all have separate power supply. I think
there's a gap in the market for an unpowered all-in-one usb docking station,
because such things can clearly be made to work.

------
hrabago
I develop iOS apps on the side using a Mac, but for my day job I use Windows.
Because of this, I've never felt the need to buy an iPad (except Gen 1 due to
the novelty), nor try to justify getting one for work. However, I've always
wanted to get a Surface Pro since the day I learned it can run full Windows
apps, and the Surface Pro 2 just makes this desire stronger.

I just feel that this tablet is more practical and more functional for me.

Like I said, I do have an iPad - a Gen 1 that we got for casual use, and for
testing the lone iPad app that I created. It saw a lot more use in its first
year than all the years since, and we (wife and I) never got the urge to
upgrade. However, we upgrade one or both iPhones each year. I just don't see
the iPad as approaching the potential practicality for me the way a Surface
Pro does.

------
RyanZAG
He was a huge fan of the Surface 1 when most other people were calling it
terrible, so this is not in any way surprising and not an indication that
Surface 2 is likely to do any better than Surface 1.

~~~
smacktoward
The problem is that while Surface is an amazing device for people like him,
there are _very very few people like him_ to sell them to. "A mobile drawing
machine I can also play games on" is just not a mass-market demand.

~~~
ahelwer
I was a Microsoft intern last summer. They gave all the interns a Surface Pro
at the end of the internship. As a student, I've used my Surface to dodge any
use of paper this semester. OneNote + Wacom stylus is a great combo.

~~~
mahyarm
Friend of mine got a similar experience with a galaxy note 8.0, for much
cheaper. Add a keyboard case and you can write papers on it too. Runs faster
than her netbook or her iPhone.

~~~
dragontamer
Galaxy Note 8 does not run Matlab, Mathematica, AutoCad, Visual Studio, LaTeX,
Linux, Virtual Machines, or any of the stuff that I used throughout my college
life.

Being a student is _more_ than just taking notes in class. First and foremost,
I need to be able to do my homework... and for an Engineer, that also means
being able to use high-powered mathematical programs.

~~~
comex
Nitpick: It certainly does run Linux.

~~~
rat87
I think he means running linux using a vm. Possibly with vagrant for
dev/testing purposes. As far a I now there isn't a general purpose vm for
android/arm.(There are some javascript x86 emulators with linux and probably
something else but I don't know how easy it is to use for developmnt). android
by default doesn't have even a minimal linux cmdline toolset although you can
install it.

------
rickyc091
Having used the Surface Pro 2 for less than a week, I'm in a love / hate
relationship with it. I've been using Macs for the last seven years and as I'm
on a Mac as I'm typing up this comment.

The good. \- I love being able to have this device sit flat on my lap similar
to a tablet. \- Having a touchscreen on a full fledge PC is pretty darn
useful.

The Bad. \- My qualms are mainly with the Windows 8.1 more than anything. \-
It seems by default Chrome opens as a tablet app. I downloaded a software,
clicked the installer and nothing happens... turns out I had to hit the
windows button and get back into desktop mode to give the installer
administrative access to install. \- Chrome app (desktop mode) in high res DPI
is not compatible with touch. Hell, I'm finding a lot of apps aren't. \- How I
haven't missed the registry... uninstalling an app, doesn't really mean its
uninstalled, there's still reminisce of the app lying around. \- If you
connect your device to skydrive, you have to use the same password you use
online to login. WTF? The best part, there's a character limit restriction on
the password so you can't even have a complicated one, but why would you? You
wouldn't remember it. (Yes there is a pin option to unlock the device, but at
times you have to put in your full password). \- The UI is not intuitive at
all. I gave the device to my friend who primarily uses Windows and he had a
hard time with the metro UI. \- I rarely find myself using the tablet mode. I
almost wish I could disable it... apps by default actually open in the tablet
mode... Double click an image, hey it swaps over to the tablet mode. Great...
\- This sucker attracts fingerprints like no other.... my MBA still looks
pristine after 1.5 years... where as I've already gotten three or four light
scratches on the Surface by merely placing the device on my table...

Despite all the shortcomings, I have to say, I'm still loving the Surface. Now
if only Apple would put OS X into the iPad form factor and I'd be sold.

~~~
codeulike
When you double-click an image and it opens that viewer app, that is pretty
annoying. You can switch the default viewer for images to be the windows 7
'image preview' app.

------
aggronn
I've never thought about the surface's gaming ability outside of the touch
games. Being able to plug in an xbox controller and play any compatible game
that came out before like 3-4 years ago is amazing.

~~~
AdamTReineke
My Surface Pro (1st gen) runs StarCraft 2 on medium settings pretty well. I'd
love to get a Pro 2 and try SC2 on that.

------
phaus
If Microsoft was smart, they'd put this guy on TV to talk about the Surface
instead of showing that incredibly awkward dance video.

~~~
chokolad
That awkward dance video is no longer being shown on TV if I am not mistaken.
Here is a new Surface ad [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OqzxB-
cSW8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OqzxB-cSW8)

~~~
phaus
That's much better, but still terrible. Its a perfectly forgettable
commercial, although I appreciate that they made an attempt to relate to
scarf-wearing male fashion designers, an oft neglected demographic.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _Its a perfectly forgettable commercial_ //

I don't think it is. I'm no fan-boy either - I use Kubuntu and the only MS
think I have is a mouse (the only part of my system that doesn't work, needs
replugging half the time to be recognised on startup, only half the time
though).

The "your favourite apps, next to your favourite apps" didn't make sense to me
without checking back - so they allow a fullscreen app next to a phone-mode
app. Seems ... interesting.

------
gambiting
"The pro 2 comes with 200gb of Skydrive space so I went ahead and created an
account. Now I’ve got my phone set up so that every time I take a picture it
sends a copy to Skydrive."

Just make sure you don't take any naughty pics or you might get your Live
account banned.

~~~
rlu
"So basically, it's OK to store nude images on a private SkyDrive folder, with
the exception of any that are clearly about the exploitation of children.
Another person during the AMA asked if it was fine to store a family album of
pictures that had images of the person and his siblings swimming nude as a
kid. The SkyDrive team said, "yes. def allowed.""

[http://www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-skydrive-reddit-ama-
in...](http://www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-skydrive-reddit-ama-info-on-
storing-nude-images-file-size-limits-and-more)

~~~
tveita
So you're going to trust a Reddit post over the official ToS?
[http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/code-of-
cond...](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/code-of-conduct)

"You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, distribute or facilitate
distribution of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data,
information or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that: \-
depicts nudity of any sort including full or partial human nudity or nudity in
non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga."

And over past experience? [http://www.neowin.net/news/man-says-microsoft-
blocked-him-be...](http://www.neowin.net/news/man-says-microsoft-blocked-him-
because-of-private-skydrive-folder)

------
wisty
The Surface doesn't have to make money. It would be nice, but I doubt
Microsoft _really_ needs it to sell well.

I think they really want to pioneer a mobile form factor which works with
Windows. They need to have people inside the tent telling their UI people what
to do. No-one else is going to take the risk, because it's there's a big
danger that other vendors will copy them once they've done the hard yards, and
they don't want to risk Microsoft screwing up the interface for Windows 9.

Eventually, MS will get there - they'll have a great x86 tablet, which can run
Windows and Office. Then the OEMs will copy it, and sell it at a lower price
point, keeping Wintel (and the Windows App store) competitive with iOS and
Android.

~~~
codeulike
Yeah its a good point. The Surface is like a flagship to show how Windows 8
hardware is supposed to be done properly.

~~~
madoublet
To me, it looks like Microsoft is setting up Lumia to be the consumer brand
and Surface to be the professional, pro-sumer brand.

------
hubtree
My wife has the first generation and loves it. She uses it in place of her
dead mb. She is finishing her masters degree, so a lot of paper writing and
research. To compare it to an ipad or android tablet does a huge disservice to
the device.

~~~
r00fus
> To compare it to an ipad or android tablet does a huge disservice to the
> device.

Microsoft deserves the blame. Why they saddled such a powerful device with the
same brand as the failed SurfaceRT and undesirable Windows8/Metro is a mystery
to me.

Actually it's not a mystery. It's pure hubris. They thought they could brute-
force the market by sheer will.

~~~
gotrecruit
>They thought they could brute-force the market by sheer will.

Not saying i agree entirely with this comment, but they haven't been proven
that they can't "brute-force the market by sheer will" as long as they're
still in the game. Some would say that's how they won the first OS wars.

------
sirkneeland
I've noticed complaints about the price, but isn't it a good idea for MSFT to
avoid completely alienating their OEM partners by leaving room for them to
compete with lower cost models?

If MSFT were more aggressive in pricing the Surface units then those
Chromebook "experiments" (dare I say "hobbies"?) the big OEMs are running
might also get more aggressive..

------
pmelendez
"It’s for creating not consuming."

This is exactly the problem with my Ipad 2. It is just the opposite.

------
brusch
I am testing a Samsung 700t (pretty much the same form factor) and it's
horrible. The keyboard is nice, but the big problem is that it's very
unstable. It's always dropping back. Especially if you are trying to use the
touch screen. I had to tape the pen into it's closure otherwise it fell off
the whole time.

When I've tried to update the device to Windows 8.1 the WLAN driver refused to
work and I had to update it from another computer.

Using it as a tablet is okay, but it's very heavy and big.

I hope the Surface Pro is better - but the Samsung is really underwhelming.
I'd rather buy a small desktop or a tablet.

------
etler
I'd like to take a step back and recognize that the computer landscape is
really good right now. We have 3 major pc options that all provide a very good
baseline experience, and fill different niches effectively. It's at the point
where if someone asks me for a computer recommendation and they don't have any
needs besides the most basic, I wont make them a recommendation because
whatever you buy will satisfy your basic needs.

------
Acen
Microsoft is weird.

I'm part of a company which sells hardware/software/other assorted technology
solutions to businesses. That's what we do. We are the technology providers
for literally 80% of the businesses in the town we are in.

There is no way we can buy a lot of say 10 Surface Pros and resell them
without going through one of the three retail stores (and adding another block
of GST + general markup).

Because of that, we can't on sell them to business, users with money won't use
them and they'll get barely anywhere.

IPads were originally marketed as fun devices for on-the-go "things", so
people were happy to go and buy one for themselves to use personally. Kind of
expanded to the point where so many people had them that app developers had
the market to go towards businesses. - If the Surface Pro 2 is intended for
business at all, it needs to let the people that sell to businesses get their
hands on them.

/2c

------
bane
I'm absolutely in the market for the Surface Pro 2 at $400-500 (keyboard/case
included). I'd have to really think about it at $500-700. I'm totally not
interested at the current price point -- it's about 2x what I'd consider
paying for it.

For obvious reasons, the RT/non-pro/whatever they're calling the bastard ARM
version, is of zero interest to me at any price point.

It would be a high-end netbook replacement for me (of which I get tremendous
usage out of), not a desktop replacement. For the kind of money the SP2 is at,
I can get an excellent desktop or a really nice laptop. The touch-screen and
stylus support would be a cool enabler, but not so much a differentiation that
I'd be willing to part with more than $50-75 premium over a normal tablet.

------
jeroen94704
Anyone know if there is a triple monitor (3 external displays, not 2 external
+ 1 on-board display) solution for the Surface pro? From what I read it
doesn't work with the Club3D MST hub, even though it does have a mini
displayport connector. And the port replicator solutions I have seen are all
limited to 2 external displays.

That, and the slightly slow CPU (for development work) are what is keeping me
from getting one. Other than that, it is a very interesting and attractive
device as an alternative to a high(ish)-end laptop.

------
pedalpete
I'm at my desk 80% of the time, plugged into my 27" monitor, with an external
keyboard and mouse, the Surface 2 Pro would be just fine, basically no
difference compared to using my Lenovo 12.5" or MB Air 11" (though the Lenovo
was significantly cheaper at $700).

On the go would be the biggest difference, and though I like the idea of the
Surface 2 Pro, Microsoft has yet to convince me that it would be a better
device than either of my current machines.

~~~
cpr
Not picking on the parent at all, but there's something that really puzzles
me.

Why do folks care about a $500 cost difference in the main computing tool that
makes their daily bread?

Seems like it's a matter of a few hours' worth of work for most of us. (Don't
mean to sound arrogant, either.)

~~~
lisnake
I don't know about that, for me it's like half a month of work :) Not
everybody here comes from the first world

------
gcb1
irony times. macbooks are the boring last decade thing that every startup guy
(the new Suit) carries around, it doesnt even have touch screens. on the
nonprofessional front every kitchen had an ipad.

meanwhile creative types buy microsoft hardware and tries to say how it is a
machine for creators and not consumers.

and jobs is not even cold. (bye karma. but i cant resist a bad taste joke)

~~~
saturdaysaint
Should "creative types" really be pluralized? This is one guy. I know a lot of
the best musicians in my area and see a lot of national ones - I almost never
see Windows laptops. Let alone a single Surface.

------
scott_karana
I really wish Apple would come out with something like this.

Imagine partnering with Wacom and making a portable OS X Cintiq...

~~~
adamfeldman
Modbook has been doing this for years. They put a Wacom digitizer on top of a
display installed over the bottom half of a Macbook Pro to make a tablet:
[http://www.modbook.com](http://www.modbook.com)

------
carbocation
Curious: any advantage to using a (greater than first degree) Runge Kutta [1]
in a sim like this instead of Euler's method?

[1] =
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runge%E2%80%93Kutta_methods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runge%E2%80%93Kutta_methods)

------
devx
Windows 8 is still very schizophrenic. Pick one, either the tablet optimized
one, or the desktop. You're going to do a lot of back and forth stuff if you
have both on the same device, like devices like Surface Pro are trying to do.

Also, on a non-tablet device, Windows 8 actually feels like a downgrade
because of the many annoying UI quirks it's throwing at you. You're better off
sticking with Windows 7.

> Full disclosure MS did give me this Surface Pro 2 since I was so vocal about
> my love of the first one.

So the lesson here is that if you like/pretend to like Microsoft's products in
your reviews, they will give you free stuff?

That's not an attack on the author here, but on Microsoft. They find out which
reviewers praised their devices most, and then send them free stuff, so
they're more likely to review positively their future products, too, knowing
that they will probably be "rewarded" afterwards, again.

~~~
jacalata
Yea, so does everyone. John Gruber, to name one, wrote his 5C/5S review on
'reviewer models' of both phones - it's pretty standard, and good reviewers
will call it out. You sound a little unfamiliar with the entire system.

~~~
redler
To be fair, Apple expects the devices sent to reviewers to be returned. I'm
pretty sure Gruber has mentioned this more than once on his site or podcast.

~~~
jacalata
I hadn't heard that, but I probably haven't read everything he writes so would
have missed it easily. I know that larger organisations like the NYT require
reviewers to return/pay for items they review, but from the way they call it
out had assumed that it was not the default practice.

------
jolohaga
The site is so garish and distracting, the article is difficult to read.

------
codex
Sometimes people need to drive. Sometimes they need a boat. Why not combine
two into a boat-car? They both have engines. They both have steering wheels.
It's perfect!

------
wtracy
The line that caught my eye was not even about the Surface:

"Honestly though if I want to play games I’m going to Steam not the MS app
store."

Maybe Valve has less to worry about than it thinks?

~~~
tedsanders
I think Valve worries more about MS cutting them out of the loop more than
consumers choosing the MS store over the Valve store.

------
Cybernetic
I have been interested in the Surface Pro and now SP2 for the reason it
appeals to Gabe. I considered buying a Wacom Cintiq for some time now, but
it's difficult to justify its price, nearly the same as the SP2, when it's
useful only when tethered to a computer, and then it's only useful for
painting.

With the Surface Pro 2, which is only ~$100 more than a Wacom Cintiq, you get
a comparable painting experience, and the additional benefits of having an
portable laptop.

I think it comes down to what you intend to use if for and from that, how to
draw your comparisons and justify whether it is right for you or not.

------
steele
I'm migrating from a 2011 Macbook Air to a Surface Pro w/ type cover and am
thusfar enjoying the experience. Battery life and performance for most of my
setup is adequate; battery life is actually better than the air, but to be
fair the air had less memory and often has 3+ JVM procs going. Type cover 2 is
adequate for development, touch cover 2 does not seem click with me. The
biggest shift is really trying to move into Windows for fun-dev (as opposed to
corporate-dev). I miss spaces and still feel a gap between navigating iterm2
against darwin and conemu against powershell. Chocolatey serves the purpose of
homebrew very, very well. The Metro/Modern UI / Desktop schism for multi-
tasking needs a expectations check... basically you are in one or the other
experience, and AFAIK you cannot split-screen a Metro App and Desktop App.

Oh, and calibration of pen in the corners still feel off even after the
130/272 pt calibration task which gets ultimately ignored by wacom feel
drivers.

Edit: Tomb Raider & Saints Row 3 run at playable framerates in low settings
when in battery mode (as opposed to charging mode); this is important if
gaming is an important data point to you. When people have been discussing
gaming performance, I think reviewers have been tethered to an outlet, which
probably is more generous with allocating hardware to games. The one USB slot
and Windows 8 were fine w/ third party xbox 360 controller bluetooth dongles
after installing official drivers. snes8x (the metro app version of snes9x)
makes for a fun plane ride. :) OH, and audio coming out of the surface pro is
surprisingly good for an ultraportable. As a tablet, the weight balance in
portrait mode feels off but web browsing is pretty fantastic in portrait. On
some sites that aggressively optimize for the fold, you might even see some
significant white space at the bottom of a page. Kindle books (mobi) not
purchased from amazon (e.g. O'Reilly, PragProg, etc) aren't supported in the
app. But if you buy ebooks from a great publisher like PragProg you have them
in epub and PDF format. For programming books, epub doesn't seem to work out
well, even in the popular Freda app. Then again, without the bells/whistles,
I've enjoyed the code formatting advantages of reading PDF files. If you're
wetware supports it, the bizarre aspect ratio affords for a great PDF book
reading experience when reading 2 pages per screen in landscape mode.

------
sgray11
sweet

------
elwell
Can someone give the tl;dr;?

~~~
etchalon
Guy who needs a stylus to draw things about video games loves tablet that has
a stylus and can play video games.

------
tlow
This is a paid article... FTA: "MS did give me this Surface Pro 2"

How is this not getting flagged as spam?

~~~
Scaevolus
Do you think Gruber pays for every new iPhone he reviews? It's industry-
standard practice to give devices to reviewers.

~~~
ghshephard
Well, except in the case of Gruber, he _buys_ the iPhones that he keeps. My
guess is that Gabe is going to get to keep that Surface-Pro.

I'm fine with that, as long as the person doing the writeup makes it clear he
was comped gear. The ATP (Marco/Casey/Siracusa) crew recently scored some
synology gear, and I, while I'm sure it impacted their objectivity, it was
still interesting hearing about how they were using it / configuring it.

Anyways - nobody who reads Gruber frequently would suggest he isn't partisan,
and he doesn't pretend otherwise.

------
mrleinad
"I’m not a computer guy. I don’t know about processors and rams or megs."...
and you lost me there.

~~~
chollida1
Really? That's a strange complaint to have.

He admitted he's not a computer guy and then went on to describe why the
surface pro 2 is a perfect device for a regular user like himself.

That in itself is a refreshing change from the typical technical specification
arguments that happen here when new hardware comes out.

I get that its easy to throw out quick one liners but I think you'll find you
get more out of this site if you actually offer something of substance.

------
TylerE
Why is this blantant paid shillitorial on HN?

Edit: Anyone downvoting this obviously missed his previous psot where he talks
about how MS flew to to NYC and wined and dined him.

~~~
netpenthe
if you read his review of the first Surface, he loved that too, minus the
wining and dining

~~~
Grue3
This actually makes this review even less credible.

