Productivity was the main reason why I chose MS Surface 2 as my Tablet over iPad/Galaxy Tab 10.1, and me posting this article from the Surface is the clear indicator that it works as it says. This article is dedicated towards my Initial Impressions as I am a hardcore Android user.
One of the other reasons why I went for this tab was I got a Touch Cover free. It was a limited period offer and looked worth. It seems like a fair deal till now. So here we go..
Hardware:
For $449 the hardware configuration is very good. Performance is nippy and highly responsive. Build quality is superb and looks premium. The touch cover makes the tablet even more close to a light weight Laptop and acts like a protective cover. It has a expandable slot to increase memory up to 64 GB. USB 3.0 port and micro HDMI port which puts this product in a different league.
Performance:
Very good. However I don't know if its hardware or OS sometimes your touch is not recognized that well and you need to repeat your action a couple of times. The responsiveness compared to Android is much better without any lag. iOS responsiveness is better than Windows 8.1
Operating System:
Initial impressions are very good the hardware and software interaction is sublime. But the OS I think still has few visible bugs related to touch recognition. There is a learning curve but once you get used to it becomes second though.
Touch Cover:
Its a very strange piece of hardware. It has no keys to it and you don't get any feedback. The keys are little tiny but well placed. When a key is pressed you get a tok tok sound from your tab. But one problem here is many times the sound feedback is not given and if you are not looking at the screen you tend to retype the words and realize that you repeated those. It becomes a slight pain.
Eco System:
This I think is the biggest point which goes against this device. Lack of Apps especially free Apps. The apps are so limited that all your excitement vanishes and turns into disappointment. Top trending games and Apps from Android Store and Apple Store are missing. Since I come from Android ecosystem I was depressed to see such lack of apps.
Overall:
Its not love at first sight for sure and it feels like you are married to an unknown partner and falling in love slowly. Some people will have the patience to do so and some will simply move on. I am going to continue to use it for another week and keep posting my experiences especially dealing with the inbuilt Office Suite. Overall this tablet is more to do serious work than entertainment and you need to be prepared for that. But clearly for this tablet to succeed its very essential for the Apps to grow. Android and iOS have moved so far ahead that Microsoft will really have to use all the power they have to catch up else Microsoft will surely be the next Nokia and no one will even acquire it.
One of the other reasons why I went for this tab was I got a Touch Cover free. It was a limited period offer and looked worth. It seems like a fair deal till now. So here we go..
Hardware:
For $449 the hardware configuration is very good. Performance is nippy and highly responsive. Build quality is superb and looks premium. The touch cover makes the tablet even more close to a light weight Laptop and acts like a protective cover. It has a expandable slot to increase memory up to 64 GB. USB 3.0 port and micro HDMI port which puts this product in a different league.
Performance:
Very good. However I don't know if its hardware or OS sometimes your touch is not recognized that well and you need to repeat your action a couple of times. The responsiveness compared to Android is much better without any lag. iOS responsiveness is better than Windows 8.1
Operating System:
Initial impressions are very good the hardware and software interaction is sublime. But the OS I think still has few visible bugs related to touch recognition. There is a learning curve but once you get used to it becomes second though.
Touch Cover:
Its a very strange piece of hardware. It has no keys to it and you don't get any feedback. The keys are little tiny but well placed. When a key is pressed you get a tok tok sound from your tab. But one problem here is many times the sound feedback is not given and if you are not looking at the screen you tend to retype the words and realize that you repeated those. It becomes a slight pain.
Eco System:
This I think is the biggest point which goes against this device. Lack of Apps especially free Apps. The apps are so limited that all your excitement vanishes and turns into disappointment. Top trending games and Apps from Android Store and Apple Store are missing. Since I come from Android ecosystem I was depressed to see such lack of apps.
Overall:
Its not love at first sight for sure and it feels like you are married to an unknown partner and falling in love slowly. Some people will have the patience to do so and some will simply move on. I am going to continue to use it for another week and keep posting my experiences especially dealing with the inbuilt Office Suite. Overall this tablet is more to do serious work than entertainment and you need to be prepared for that. But clearly for this tablet to succeed its very essential for the Apps to grow. Android and iOS have moved so far ahead that Microsoft will really have to use all the power they have to catch up else Microsoft will surely be the next Nokia and no one will even acquire it.
