the illustration says it all...as does the hefty weight and price tag.What is so innovative about the Surface?
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It's basically an OK laptop and not a very good tablet. iPad Air, MBA and rMBP all have better battery life. Most people I know don't do real work on a 10" screen. Office hasn't really been optimized for touch. Surface is hardly ever marketed with out the kickstand in use and touch or type cover attached yet I think most who have used it would agree a real laptop has better keyboard and trackpad, screen has better viewing angles and it works much better when actually using it in your lap. Surface works best on a flat surface. There's nothing that really makes Surface a great tablet. It's thicker and heavier than other tablets. Microsoft never shows it in portrait mode. It's not an ideal product for curling up in bed and reading a book or watching a movie on. It's not the kind of product you'd slip in your purse/handbag/backpack when your out and about. With the Air, I can slip it in my handbag and not even feel that it's there.
Microsoft knew trying to copy the iPad and Android tablets was a non starter. So they came up with this "no compromises" idea. The only problem is, there are compromises. You don't end up with a great laptop and a great tablet, you end up with both being mediocre.
The other thing is I think consumers have spoken and see tablets as primarily consumption devices and are perfectly fine with that. Using myself as an example, I work with Office all day at my job. The last thing I want to do when I come home is use office on my tablet. Plus I can't imagine trying to use Excel on a 10" touch screen anyway. And my Fortune 50 company is never going to give us Surfaces when they get deals with Dell and HP on cheap laptops (and we haven't completely migrated to Windows 7 yet, my PC is still running Windows XP). So who exactly is the Surface for?
And....you have personal experience with the Surface? Or are you basing your comments on how YOU would use it?
I've played with the Surface extensively and it certainly has its place. If I hadn't gotten an 2013 MBA and wasn't so put off by Windows 8, it would certainly be a contender.
Yet, the iPad is trying to be a device of productivity as Apple has created almost all of its productivity Apps for it, including iWork. The bevy of third party keyboard/stand accessories speaks volumes about the shortfalls of the device when it comes to the use of these Apps. Out of the box, things like Pages are effectively useless without third party accessories (keyboard/stand)
...Im basing it on the fact that I do use Surface for work as I write software that has to work across all platforms.
BestBuy didn't have ANY LTE versions to sell last week as they did not receive any shipments of the cellular models until well after launch day.
I tend to believe that you are naive.
I don't think that's the answer he was hoping for.
Haven't read through the thread but the title was enough to warrant a reply.
Of course Apple will tell you that, they are hardly going to tell you they are struggling to shift units (which won't be the case anyway).
PR at the easiest level.
While I agree with a lot of what you say, the stand is such a weak argument as finding a case with a stand, or folding cover is such a trivial task. and one thing the Surface's kickstand doesn't do is allow you to lay it flat with a slight incline. Due to its design, its far more unstable on your lap compared to something like the smart cover.
So I guess you could say that things like Office are effectively useless at productivity on the Surface without accessories like the type cover and a mouse.
Given the craziness people are seeing at stores, I wonder what are the chances of finding a $479 16gb Air with $100 gift card at Target on Black Friday?
Plan on waiting hrs ahead, the micro center deal is better IMO
The iPad is a great consumption device consumption device but the surface is terrible at consumption and terrible doing "real work". I've tried repeatedly to use a Surface for work.
No its not. Surface is not better than a laptop and its not better than a tablet. Its a typical jack of all master of none type scenario. Its not anything you'd want to use past the initial hype of being suckered into buying one. You end up going back to your laptop and tablet as separate devices any way. Its as expensive as a laptop yet doesnt offer as much or more functionality than a laptop or offer additional mobility a tablet is expected to provide. Lol.
I built my resume with pages and did my finances with numbers and made a presentation with keynote all on my ipad. So it hasnt been useless for me. Sorry but office software is no longer the only consideration and saving for some edge cases the ipad works just fine as a productivity device and in many instances it functions better as a productivity device in particular because you can be productive in more places and in more cases.
I've tried the new surface on my lap and it's still wobbly side to side. The smart over has two angles, 75 deg and 25 deg.
The Surface is not terrible at consumption. I love it for this. This is your opinion and not a fact. Right now the reviews are trending toward my opinion. You are entitled to yours but it is yours, not everyone else's.
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Your opinion, and opinionated you are. We get it, you don't like it. Other people do like it even though you don't. And it is not more expensive than an iPad Air. The Pro? Yes, more expensive. But the RT is $50 less than a 16 GB iPad Air and comes with Office for free.
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Sorry, but no, you will not change reality. Reality is anything of even modest complexity you need much more robust and powerful tools than an iPad, particularly an iPad sans any productivity accessories. Doing a 2 page document is a joke. And even doing a Resume have fun with that. Slow multi-touch input and stripped down features. You're geeking out... and I've been there.
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Do not even try to argue about this. It's a fact that the Surface 2 with multi-angle stand is sturdier than the iPad with smart cover. I'll fly you into our office and video both devices in different situations as you use them, testing it. If it's demonstrated that the Surface 2 is sturdier, you pay for your trip and we'll send you packing eating crow.
Office does come for free with Surface RT accept for the fact that it cant run native Office. Additionally of the 32gigs you get 17gigs worth of OS. Its 32gigs in theory but in practice you only get 15gigs of strage. Its not even equivalent to the iPad with a non retina screen as it offers no benefit of increased mobility over a similarly priced laptop. The free office software you cant even use on your Surface RT. The keyboard case is barely passable as a case and barely useable as a keyboard as it doesnt work half of the time. I have an easier time typing on an iPad with the virtual keyboard than the Surface keyboard case. They shouldve priced the Surface $300 because thats all its worth.
MSFT the definition of bloatware. It doesnt benefit them to simplify things thats why they havent.
Online usage metrics so far make it pretty clear that they're not only selling quite well but people are actively using them.
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With my phone being the Note II I then thought well with a phone this large already an iPad Mini isn't really going to bring that much of a new experience and thus I picked up an Air that same day.
Give this man a beer! You are prudent! I own a note 3 and I have the same dilemma so I went with the AIR as well but only after having bought a mini retina and seeing how gimped it's color gamut was, i returned it.
Actually, the note 3 is so good, I am wondering if I even need the iPad air when outside. Truth is the AIR has the better quality screen and screen size is perfect to indulge content on. Right now, I'm actually thinking of just returning the AIR and going with just my note 3 and a rMBP 13 instead. Biggest reason now with the AIR is the fact it is 64bit and has a mere 1GB ram - I get more safari low memory crashes than ever before with my previous iPads. My note 3 even with 2.38GB remaining RAM out of the 3GB, i never get any crashes period. So i am thinking of waiting at least for 2014 apple will in fact release a much more potent A processor that will do the iPad justice along with more RAM. Right now, the AIR does stutter and games run well but not good enough where there is no dropping frames.
They are just cheap; one A7 processor to run all 3 ipads/iphone. A7 is decent but the RAM is severely lacking.
Online usage numbers are inflated because Safari keeps reloading tabs when ever you switch to another tab or app and back.
Online usage numbers are inflated because Safari keeps reloading tabs when ever you switch to another tab or app and back.
Retina displays are not for everyone, just for those of us that notice the vast improvement over the much lower resolution original.How is the mini a "much better product"? It's the same product but 1.8" smaller and .25 lbs lighter. Almost the same thing, and no more than a personal preference as to which is better.