When Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 and Windows 8RT, they touted that the new operating systems were designed for both tablets and PC. According to Microsoft, users will find that Tablet running these two operating systems will provide users with a no-compromised experience. To show the way on how this can be done, they created the Microsoft Surface
This was a clear dig at iOS, which is found on Apple’s iPad Tablet. This comment resulted in Tim Cook defending Apple’s approached in making Post- PC devices. According to Tim, some things just cannot not be converged. As he eloquently put it, you can try to converge a fridge with a toaster but the end result would not be great.
This has not deterred Microsoft from their course of convergence. The Company is about to release their Surface running Windows 8 RT to the public soon. The Surface aims to provide a PC experience on a Post-PC device.
So, let’s have a read to see whether Microsoft has been able to pull of their convergence strategy with their Surace Tablet.
The Verge – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote] Maybe I say this too often, but I wanted to love this device. Actually, I wanted to love the Surface when I first saw it, before I even got my hands on the review unit. It made Windows 8 make sense in a way other products had not, and I could see a world where this kind of device was the only one I carried with me. Once I did get the review unit, I wanted to love it even more. And truth be told, there is a lot here to love. Plenty — but not enough for me right now.
The promise of the Surface was that it could deliver a best-in-class tablet experience, but then transform into the PC you needed when heavier lifting was required. Instead of putting down my tablet and picking up my laptop, I would just snap on my keyboard and get my work done. But that’s not what the Surface offers, at least not in my experience. It does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market, and it often makes that job harder, not easier. Instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.
There may be a time in the future when all the bugs have been fixed, the third-party app support has arrived, and some very smart engineers in Redmond have ironed out the physical kinks in this type of product which prevent it from being all that it can be. But that time isn’t right now — and unfortunately for Microsoft, the clock is ticking.[/quote]
Gizmodo – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote] But it’s Windows on Surface RT that’s the greatest letdown of all, the lethal letdown, because it’s not Windows 8, but Windows RT. You can’t tell the difference by looking at them, but you certainly will once you use it. Windows RT is underpowered (everything opens and syncs slightly too slowly), under-functional (you cannot install a single app that’s not available through the Windows RT app store, which offers a paltry selection), and under-planned (the built-in apps can’t feel like Lite versions of something better). You’d be right to note that many of those limitations apply to the iPad as well, but no one could mistake iOS for OS X the way RT apes Windows 8. And even if it’s a plight common to tablets, Microsoft—for better or worse—has hyped Surface RT as being so much more.
In the end though, this is nothing more than Microsoft’s tablet. And a buggy, at times broken one, at that, whose “ecosystem” feels more like a tundra. There’s no Twitter or Facebook app, and the most popular 3rd party client breaks often.
Should you buy it?
No. The Surface, with an obligatory Touch Cover, is $600. That’s a lot of money. Especially given that it’s no laptop replacement, no matter how it looks or what Microsoft says. It’s a tablet-plus, priced right alongside the iPad and in most ways inferior. [/quote]
TIME – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote] Many of the Windows RT apps I tried make smart use of the Windows 8-style interface. Compared to the 275,000 iPad-optimized apps in Apple’s store, though, there simply isn’t much there. If Surface’s earliest adopters are pleased with their purchase a year from now, it’ll be because the Windows Store’s offerings got beefier fast; if they’re nonplussed, it’ll be because the selection remained too meager.
All of which leads to one question: Who should consider buying a Surface with Windows RT? Not anyone who wants the most fully fleshed-out tablet experience right now — for that, the iPad still has no rival.[/quote]
Anandtech – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote]I don’t believe Surface is perfect, but it’s a platform I can believe in. What I’m most excited about is to see what happens after a second or third rev of the design. I would have liked to have seen faster hardware inside (I’d love to see an Atom based version). There are also some rough edges that could use smoothing out (e.g. the power connector and HDMI output come to mind) and Windows RT likely needs another round of updates (app launch times are far too long, more apps needed) but overall the device is easily in recommendable territory. The biggest issue I have with recommending Surface today is that you know the next iteration of the device is likely going to be appreciably better, with faster/more efficient hardware and perhaps even a better chassis.
If you’re ok being an early adopter, and ok dealing with the fact that mobile devices are still being significantly revved every year, Surface is worth your consideration. If you’ve wanted a tablet that could begin to bridge the content consumption and productivity divide, Surface is it. [/quote]
Engadget – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote]…the Surface is a slate upon which you can get some serious work done, and do so comfortably. You can’t always say that of the competition.
It’s in the other half of the equation, that of the content consumption and entertainment, where the Surface is currently lacking. It needs a bigger pile of apps and games to make up for that and, while we’re sure they’re coming, we don’t know when. If those apps arrive soon, then early adopters will feel vindicated. If, however, the Windows RT market is slow to mature, not truly getting hot for another six months or so, holding off will prove to have been the smarter option.
So, if gaming and music and movies and reading are what you’re looking to enjoy, then we might advise sitting this one out for a few months just to make sure that all your bases will indeed be covered. If, however, you’re looking for an impeccably engineered tablet upon which you can do some serious work, a device that doesn’t look, feel or act like a toy, then you should get yourself a Surface with Windows RT.[/quote]
PCWorld – Microsoft Surface Review
[quote] Surface RT definitely covers the bases on the industrial-design front. When you set up your workstation at the local café—kickstand kicked, Type Cover snapped—your hardware will strike a pose unlike any other in the tablet space. And in many important ways, Surface RT has successfully redefined what a tablet can be. Its touch gestures rock (once you surmount the learning curve), and its built-in productivity features eclipse anything that the iPad or the Android competition offers.
But Surface RT may not be the best new Windows device to purchase in the short term, and Windows RT definitely isn’t the version of Windows you want to invest in…..
Is Surface RT a total nonstarter? No, it’s definitely packed with utility, and that’s why it earns 3.5 stars. In business-travel situations where I need only to write articles and respond to email, I can see throwing Surface RT and the Type Cover into my backpack, and leaving my Ultrabook (and iPad) at home.
But is this tablet a full-fledged “thing”? No, not yet. It’s supposed to answer a host of problems, but instead it poses too many questions of its own. [/quote]
