Yes, the Surface Pro isn't a great tablet due to the weight and somewhat awkward aspect ratio. But nowadays most electronics offer so much convergence that it isn't practical, especially price wise, for some people to carry two devices when one can serve 80% of their needs. The Surface Pro 2 fixed both of the battery concerns; I would interested in what the third generation Surfaces (which presumably will be slimmed down) or the rumored iPad Pro would offer. Knowing Apple though, I would be wary of the first gen iPad Pro, which I can almost guarantee will come with odd quirks that will be resolved in its refresh. Second time always seems to be where Apple gets it right.
Yes. I'd love my iPad (or any other tablet) to be my only device.
And I love my MacBook Pro and want it to be my only device.
What's stopping that from happening?
Surface 2 is the closest thing to it, it runs a real OS, comes with a MUCH better browser than iPad and works with pretty much every peripheral known to man. I can't believe that Apple is letting MS beat them to the desktop/mobile convergence future after having such a head start with the iPhone and iPad. I love OSX, but at this point ios is a joke compared to Windows 8.1/RT and even Android.
Surface Pro 2 looks pretty sweet...
try using it. Terrible laptop, worse tablet.
I have. It is a very good tablet and even better laptop. It can do all the things I need it to do and it could be my only device, whereas the iPad would have problems updating the firmware on my other gadgets...
terrible/limited app support (Im talking about the touch apps built for Metro).
For regular windows apps, I would much rather use a regular laptop (without the terrible to use 16x9 display ratio). But, thats just my opinion. My surface gets very little use now....it does nothing well.
You realize we're talking Surface Pro 2, not RT, right?
And it runs Quicken for Windowd and the multitude of firmware updaters very, very well. That USB port is the difference between a real useful tablet and a media consumption device...
I don't think Apple will ever embrace the connectivity and compatibility needed to produce a viable desktop replacement tablet. Their idea of desktop replacement is throw all your stuff away and only use Apple stuff and content. That ain't gonna fly.
I have the Surface Pro 1, not the RT model.
Yes it runs quicken well, my real laptop runs it better.
I guess everyone's idea of a production/media consumption device is different. I have no need to run a "multitude of firmware updaters", but I do need to update and markup blueprints (which works great on my iPad Air).
Well, most people have other gadgets. You know, GPSes, Radar Detectors, Jamboxes, and such. Sometimes they need their firmware updated. And you need a USB connection to do that.
Sometimes you get a CD or DVD, and you need an external drive to read it. Not all media comes from iTunes.
I'm not sure how much better a laptop can run Quicken than a Surface Pro. I mean, its just Quicken. The fact that it RUNS is what's important. That and the multitude of other software that doesn't like OS X or iOS, being that they only run on less than 20% of all devices, the other 80% mostly being Windows. So running a full version of Windows with external connectors is, well, MY definition of functional.