Just unboxed a surface rt
Community Forums/General Help/Just unboxed a surface rt
| ||
| EDIT:: OOPS SORRY!!, PLEASE MOVE TO GD :) We got given a surface to play with. :) Interesting little machine got it set up and will keep u informed. So far, have got a couple of good impressions and a few complaints. So far: The good: -Nice build, it feels nice quality albeit a tad heavy (about 1.5x-2x the weight of my Asus transformer without it's "extra-battery keyboard") -the screen is responsive and clear. -The mag-snap keyboard is quite brilliant and is responsive enough to type quickly on. -Windows 8 odd interface is quite good on it. -Is a good size for this kind of device. -Has a fold out stand which is much more reliable and stable than the mag-fold cover on the ipad, and the non-existant one on my transformer (without the keyboard on that is). -Sound seems ok, not as loud as i would like, but it is clear. -I like the fact it has a desktop as well as metro (or whatever it is called). It seems you get "proper" multitasking within "desktop" mode as opposed to the sleeping-app style with metro. This could be useful if you want battery vs performance use, eg: if you want to listen to a youtube music channel while using word. The bad: -weight (already mentioned) but it is by no means a brick. (think between iPad2 & iPad3 weight) -apps are very slow to load when you first load them, much slower than on iOS or android. -no English language available on setup (wtf??) ok it is a scandinavian model with SE,DE,NO & FI but seriously??! It means I have to use my second language Swedish to work with it. This is the worst thing i have found yet. -top of the keyboard/cover is kind of covered in "fuzzy-felt" stuff which i can imagine will get really dirty and stained quick, and would be difficult to clean. -i found the mag-snap power lead difficult to get in at first for some reason. -really needs google maps (not impressed with bing maps much, although it does not seem to be a train wreck like apple maps). -When undocked the keyboard is not automatic when you click in a text field (you need to press a button for it) which gets a little tiresome. (EDIT: actually it works in metro, but not in windows mode, however the display does not adjust so you can see what you are typing !! LOL!. I installed the "google" app which is an RT light version of chrome and thankfully they have the address bar at the top :D. |
| ||
| Damn it appears that the language settings thing is crazy. I eventually got help from MS to install an ENGLISH language pack (which should really be on all of them due to it being the most widely spoken language), at a whopping 180 meg! How can there possibly be 180meg of text!!! I still had to fight my way through the setup in Swedish though. God job i did not buy one in china or japan :D Completely ridiculous (android and ios let you choose from the moment you turn it on! what gives!!). |
| ||
| I eventually got help from MS to install an ENGLISH language pack (which should really be on all of them due to it being the most widely spoken language), unless it's Chinese and then Spanishhttp://www2.ignatius.edu/FACULTY/TURNER/languages.htm From a non english spoker point of view, it sometimes look like English native speakers usualy forget all other languages behind the "English is the king". That said, I'm curious on what do you feel about the availability of software on the RT version. I'm using a Windows 8 Pro based tablet and I love it, but taking into account the inminent new intel crover trail processors, is there any reason to stick with RT? |
| ||
| Software seems pretty thin. To be honest i would not have bought one, but we only got it to investigate porting to it, so it is not really -my- machine. I much prefer my android tablet so far for "tablety stuff" but that said cannot really see RT being more useful than android... not in the near future anyway. (unlike the pro version.. but on that side of things the battery sucks in comparison so i guess it depends what you want to do on a tablet. For me it is all about just watching reading browsing and light use, remote control of PCs etc..., with as much battery time as possible) That said, despite it's flaws i prefer it to my iPad in all ways except battery time (ipad is good at that) and availability of apps. I think if MS iron out the flappy flaws i mention above and get more useful software, it could be a handy device. |
| ||
| Microsoft will have a lot of trouble getting more useful software on handheld ARM devices (aside form their own stuff) since they have done so much to push developers away. They're offering so much now, and desperately pushing promotions to try to appeal to a lot of devs but I feel a large amount of damage is already done, and in the face of Android's success and the "establishment" of iPads and such, combined with an overall plateau of new device sales, iot will be a while before they (MS) can really make a mark. to install an ENGLISH language pack (which should really be on all of them due to it being the most widely spoken language) a whopping 180 meg! [/quote] You pretty much "answered your own question" - For a lot of small handheld devices suc as telephones, memory is crucial, so they have tried to limit the number of languages. English is NOT the most widely spoken language in the world, although I would agree that for the North and West, it's certainly popular enough to warrant I'd feel. It's not just the text displayed on install, but the entire "rescue" and "Accessibility" setup too. The Narrator part certainly take s a good few Megabytes. BOOTMGR.exe alone is 70+MB |
| ||
| Still...... 180 meg??? The only thing i can think of why it should be so big is..... no sorry i cannot think of an acceptable reason, unless it is including T2S templates, audio and images... which for a language skin should be included separately imo. For a lot of small handheld devices suc as telephones, memory is crucial, so they have tried to limit the number of languages. On the contrary, my old HTC desire which i have since given to my kid, had pretty much every largely spoken language available on the planet from the moment i turned it on... Ok android vs windows there is a bit of a difference in text bulk but not to the tune of 180 meg. (180 meg as far as text goes is HUGE! even when talking UTF-16! You can fit a whole novel on a floppy disk or two...) |
| ||
| I think it's so big because it's most likely not just language text files, but actually localized system DLL's and other binaries that contain a lot more stuff than just the language info. |
| ||
| yeah, probably.. I think the technical term is bloat :D |
| ||
| They are probably using the standard Windows language packs which they have offered for Windows versions since 1995. As Xlsior says there are not just text files in there, lots of libraries are fully localised so developers can work with them in local language, I think bloat is being rather unfair. Personally I think Windows RT is stillborn, it will never develop enough market share to be a worthy or useful or OS and without market share there is little incentive for developers to spend time and effort releasing apps for it and having all the haslle of supporting them. Certainly at the moment RT is just not good enough in terms of performance improovements (Battery life, Device support etc.) to justifiy it's existence compared to Android or IOS. There have already been hints that MS may "drop the dead donkey". Darkheart |
| ||
| Personally I think Windows RT is stillborn, it will never develop enough market share to be a worthy or useful or OS and without market share there is little incentive for developers to spend time and effort I quite agree, and Microsoft have missed the boat by so much there's no chance of catching up (not in a vviable way) |
| ||
| That's their modus operandi, though: Wait for someone else to create a break-through product, wait for them to capture the market, and two years later introduce a MS equivalent that's almost as good and at a higher pricepoint. Zune, windows phones, rinse & repeat. |
| ||
| Actually the RT surface is cheaper than the iPad and high end android tablets. But yeah agree with the rest. :D Also if it had more apps i can honestly say it would beat the crap out of the ipad in terms of usefulness. I think RT surface could appeal highly to authors due to it having office, especially with the alternative plastic real key- keyboard cover... (but then the android office on the transformer which is mostly compatable with MSO would probably do them too... On the other hand MS do have the brand that people know so might win them on that score). I guess time will tell. By the way since i started writing this, I can confirm the battery when using "metro" apps only is as good as the iPad and Asus. |
   |