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Do you own a Surface device

  • Yes I own a Surface Pro or Surfacebook - it’s great

    Votes: 165 51.2%
  • Yes I own a Surface laptop - it’s great

    Votes: 36 11.2%
  • No - i’m not a fan

    Votes: 69 21.4%
  • Not anymore I had a bad experience

    Votes: 52 16.1%

  • Total voters
    322
How is the battery life, I had this in the checkout screen then I noticed a video said 2.5 hours battery, some were reaching 5 hours tops. That worried me, other than that it seems to be an amazing device.
Samsung has been updating the firmware and the battery life is much improved... For me it sits at about six hours with the screen turned up brightly. I don't really bother with power management because I don't need it. Having said that, I don't think it can get much better than six to eight hours, with the high res screen (incredibly gorgeous!). For my desires photography and art, the screen matters more to me than the battery life. The build quality on it matches the Windows Galaxy Flex and it is the best Chrome book on the market as far as productivity is concerned. I can't believe how much I love it, but if you want to go all day, you will need to have a extra charger or battery pack.
 
I haven't made up my mind yet on the Duo. I do like it, but I have bought so much tech in these last months. I just received the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook (Ruby Red) after I wouldn't ever see myself with a Chrome book... Samsung got me. But it is a great device. ChomeOS has come a long way, and I set up Linux and some development tools on it. It is the bomb! In addition the Android productivity apps look great. It has a nice desktop, and a real file system, unlike iPad pro. But this is my third purchase in the last few months, Surface Book, Galaxy Book Flex, and Galaxy Chrome book, and now here comes the Duo... Kill me now!
My suggestion is: enjoy the things you bought and give the duo one year to mature, both the hardware and the software. :) In my case, I'll give it two years. Then I'll decide between it and Samsung. It's so refreshing to have choice.
 
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My suggestion is: enjoy the things you bought and give the duo one year to mature, both the hardware and the software. :) In my case, I'll give it two years. Then I'll decide between it and Samsung. It's so refreshing to have choice.
That is my thinking on the Duo as well. I really enjoy the Surface devices I have owned, but a version 1 Duo is a bit to raw for me. When Microsoft says in a statement about the first gen Duo...

"The role of any first-generation design is to focus on fundamental scenarios that solve customer challenges. Surface Duo is purpose-built for mobile productivity and giving people new ways to complete complex tasks while away from their computer. With this core priority complete, we will listen to customer feedback and apply that lens to future iterations of the product."

You know that if is still a product in transition and the next version or two will likely see some significant changes toward what the consumers really want from the device.
 
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Well these Surface Headphones are the first Surface product that I’ll be keeping. They are a great set of headphones. As a product they don’t have the Apple “polish“ and there are a couple of niggles with them (battery life is never the 20 hours quoted and the touch control on the headphones are not as responsive as they should be) but overall I really enjoy the dial on each ear cup for turning up/down the volume and the noise cancelling.

These Surface headphones do a real decent job of blocking out external noise, with noise cancelling on i can’t hear other people’s voices.

It will be interesting to see what Apple does with their rumoured Airpods Studio over the ear headphones. But for now I’m very content with these Surface Headphones 2.
 
Hello my friends. Have you noticed that Windows Apps are getting round corners in their UI elements? I really like this new design direction! =)

PS: menus have shadows in the actual GUI but, for some reason, not in the screenshots. A small bug I guess ;)
1598545263960.png
 
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Hello my friends. Have you noticed that Windows Apps are getting round corners in their UI elements? I really like this new design direction! =)

PS: menus have shadows in the actual GUI but, for some reason, not in the screenshots. A small bug I guess ;)
View attachment 948022

Is that a new version of Windows? it looks a lot cleaner and I like the colours and background :)
 
Is that a new version of Windows? it looks a lot cleaner and I like the colours and background :)
Hi Dave,
Nope, this is good ol' version 2004 (20H1). I am in the release preview channel (basically: it's the stable version of Windows, but Microsoft Apps from the store get updates a couple of weeks before the release channel).
It seems that things are transitioning but this looks very nice and promising. :)
Updated apps include Photos, Your Phone, ToDo, and Sticky Notes. Calendar should come soon and the touch keyboard has been updated in the dev channel (will probably come with the next major version of Windows in 2021).
 
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I hope they'll finally stick to a design. Every app right now follows a somewhat similar design aesthetics , but is different in the end. MS really needs a Material overhaul, not this fragmented UI spaghetti we have right now using Windows.

That said, i like the Fluent Design language a lot, I hope that's how Windows looks in the near future.
 
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I hope they'll finally stick to a design. Every app right now follows a somewhat similar design aesthetics , but is different in the end. MS really needs a Material overhaul, not this fragmented UI spaghetti we have right now using Windows.

That said, i like the Fluent Design language a lot, I hope that's how Windows looks in the near future.
I agree. This might be it! (or not... :D) Fingers crossed.
PS: Cortana updated too.
 
you'll make me go into the preview channel again now. Damnit :D
Hahah!
Well..if you like a coherent experience, I have to say that, at the moment, fragmentation is even higher in the Preview Channel. Sometimes styles are mixed even within the same app, but I hope that in a few months we will be in a much better place and I like seeing the system evolving in front of my eyes, without sacrificing stability.
This new design, where well implemented, is really nice.
 
It's probably because MS just changed so much in over the last decade. First they wanted to change everything with Windows 8. That didn't work out, of course. It was a terrible idea to use a tablet OS for desktop PCs.
Now they are updating their own applications over time, but it often feels like the development team didn't really know how to use Fluent exactly. Let's just hope they will find a way to fix that in the future.

Oh, and Microsoft, for the love of god, please fix the ui of ALL parts of windows. Not just some. It's not enough to use a different button in the start menu, if the ui opening is straight out of a time capsule powered by Windows 95
 
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It's probably because MS just changed so much in over the last decade. First they wanted to change everything with Windows 8. That didn't work out, of course. It was a terrible idea to use a tablet OS for desktop PCs.
Now they are updating their own applications over time, but it often feels like the development team didn't really know how to use Fluent exactly. Let's just hope they will find a way to fix that in the future.

Oh, and Microsoft, for the love of god, please fix the ui of ALL parts of windows. Not just some. It's not enough to use a different button in the start menu, if the ui opening is straight out of a time capsule powered by Windows 95
The OS works reasonably well, I think it's much more reliable that Mac OS has been lately.
Personally, I don't care so much if some ancient and marginal utility that I barely touch has an ancient UIs. Say "event viewer". I mean, my OCD part may cringe, but in the grand scheme of things...it's there, it works well, it looks ugly as hell, but I wonder if someone uses it regularly (probably some company).

But other applications, such as File Explorer or Device Manager, or the partition utility, or some of the menus...yes, they need to be updated. And I think it's a matter of time.
Microsoft is slow at design, but development pace, at least design-related aspects, seems to be speeding up. All fingers crossed!
To me, Windows has ALWAYS looked gross. Windows 10, at release, was the first version that looked "tolerable". With the current Fluent flavor, including the app icon set, for the first time, things look actually "good".
If these new changes are applied consistently, I think Windows has the potential to look great, for the first time in its history. Just my personal opinion, of course. In the grand scheme of things, look is not even so important, but we are Apple users (ex, in my case). We care a lot about these things. ;)
 
I always used Windows for my private stuff. Editing photos etc. works just as good as in MacOS, as I use the same software. But, other than with MacOS, I can build my own system that fits my needs. I never wanted to pay the Apple tax for private stuff.
I'm very new to Windows for work though. I developed for 10 years or something on Macs. And for the most part, switching to Windows was never an option. Stuff didn't work, no proper terminal...

That's where Microsoft did most for me. WSL 2 is truly fantastic, and while it has it's problems, I'm amazed what MS achieved already. I'm working with it full time now, and when they add native GUI support for Linux applications, I'm a happy developer :)
 
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I always used Windows for my private stuff. Editing photos etc. works just as good as in MacOS, as I use the same software. But, other than with MacOS, I can build my own system that fits my needs. I never wanted to pay the Apple tax for private stuff.
I'm very new to Windows for work though. I developed for 10 years or something on Macs. And for the most part, switching to Windows was never an option. Stuff didn't work, no proper terminal...

That's where Microsoft did most for me. WSL 2 is truly fantastic, and while it has it's problems, I'm amazed what MS achieved already. I'm working with it full time now, and when they add native GUI support for Linux applications, I'm a happy developer :)

Sounds like Windows has got better with the new update. I wonder if it’s due to the fact that Panos has taken over the Windows software department?

Also a nice windows update and UI redesign sounds good with the Surface Pro probably getting updated in about 2 months (usually October event for Surface devices). It will be interesting to see what they do, especially now that Apple has added a keyboard to the iPad Pro and is kind of moving into the 2 in 1 category.
 
Hi Dave,
Nope, this is good ol' version 2004 (20H1). I am in the release preview channel (basically: it's the stable version of Windows, but Microsoft Apps from the store get updates a couple of weeks before the release channel).
It seems that things are transitioning but this looks very nice and promising. :)
Updated apps include Photos, Your Phone, ToDo, and Sticky Notes. Calendar should come soon and the touch keyboard has been updated in the dev channel (will probably come with the next major version of Windows in 2021).
I've been running 20H2 for a while now and am surprised at how stable it has been. It's just like 1909 where it is just a small enablement package. Took a whole 30 whopping seconds to install lol. You get the new start menu tiles with it to. Just sign up for beta insider and click the stop getting insider builds when it publicly launched.
 

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I've been running 20H2 for a while now and am surprised at how stable it has been. It's just like 1909 where it is just a small enablement package. Took a whole 30 whopping seconds to install lol. You get the new start menu tiles with it to. Just sign up for beta insider and click the stop getting insider builds when it publicly launched.
eheh I have enabled the new menu in 20H1 ;)

1598682707636.png
 
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How did you do that? I assume its a registry tweak?
You are correct, sir. ;)
 
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You are correct, sir. ;)
I long ago was taught a lesson of my own doing to never touch the registry again lol. Still don't to this day.
 
I just don't know what I should do about the Surface Duo. I LOVE my Pixel 4xl that I got two months ago but I am already having that itch that needs to be scratched. I don't really have any real reason to need it but damn if I don't want it. I can just imagine project xcloud on that thing....
 
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I just don't know what I should do about the Surface Duo. I LOVE my Pixel 4xl that I got two months ago but I am already having that itch that needs to be scratched. I don't really have any real reason to need it but damn if I don't want it. I can just imagine project xcloud on that thing....
If money is even remotely a concern...I would say wait!
Give it time to mature...make sure to wait and see if Microsoft sticks to it (They have a habit of dropping things, breaking people's hearts). Make them earn your money and trust!

If money is not even remotely a concern, go on and give us your impressions!
 
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