A unique, superbly designed tablet
that's ideal for mobile professionals, but it has too many compromises to make
it a must-have
When Microsoft dropped the bombshell that
it was launching its own tablet, the company not only risked alienating its PC
partners, but also risked detonating its own credibility if it failed to show
them it could do such a launch properly.
There's no doubt that the Microsoft Surface
is a serious tablet, but is it good enough to tempt people away from their
Pads, their Android tablets, or even their laptops? Or is it a stopgap until
the fully-fledged Windows 8 versions of the Surface tablet arrive to complement
this ARM-based version?
The Surface Hardware
Microsoft made it clear right from the
outset that the Surface was intended to set an example to PC manufacturers, and
it's immediately apparent that this tablet isn't just a piece of boilerplate
hardware.
A
unique, superbly designed tablet that's ideal for mobile professionals, but it
has too many compromises to make it a must-have
Two features make the Surface stand out
from the uniform slabs of glass we've witnessed over the past couple of years:
the kickstand and the detachable keyboards.
The mechanics of the kickstand are beautifully
simple. The bottom half of the back of the tablet casing flicks out to create a
stand for the tablet, turning the device into a pseudo laptop when used with
one of the keyboards. When you're finished with the stand, it flips back into
place, perfectly flush with the back of the tablet, and with the satisfying
clunk of an expensive car door.
However, the stand is set at a fixed
position, leaving no means of adjusting the angle of the screen as is possible
with a conventional laptop. That left the taller members of the PC&TA team
awkwardly hunched over the Surface as they attempted to work with the device at
a desk; although our more modestly sized colleagues had no complaint.
That slightly-too-upright angle would be a
much bigger problem if the 10.6in screen wasn't so sparkling. Viewing angles
are excellent although perhaps a little too good for snoopers in an adjacent
train seat.
A maximum screen brightness of 400cd/m2 is
comparable to that of the iPad, and while the Surface has a measured contrast
ratio of 3333:1, it's due to the presence of dynamic contrast. Flick between
dark and bright pages, and it's possible to detect the backlight raising and
lowering brightness to compensate. Still, the IPS panel guarantees that the
palette of bright colours that make up the Windows 8 Start screen zing off the
display, and that photos and video deliver sumptuous levels of saturation.
That
slightly-too-upright angle would be a much bigger problem if the 10.6in screen
wasn't so sparkling.
The 1366 x 768 resolution isn't going to
give Apple's engineering department cause to shamefacedly return to the drawing
board, but when you're sitting a foot or so away from the Surface screen it
doesn't lack detail or sharpness.
The tablet feels delightful to hold in the
hand, too. There's much marketing waffle around the so called VaporMg material
that forms the casing, but it feels robust and smooth to the touch. The
charcoal-black design is commendably understated, with only a subtle Windows
logo adorning the rear.
At 6828 (without a keyboard), it's only a
shade heavier than the third- generation Pad, and even with a keyboard case
attached, it's much lighter than most ultraportable laptops. And at no point
does the Surface become uncomfortably
Connectivity And Ports
Connectivity and expandability are other
strong suits for the Surface. On the right-hand side of the tablet you'll find
a micro-HDMI port, for which Microsoft has created a pair of optional adapters
(S45 each) for running external displays via HDMI or VGA. Unlike iPads or
Android tablets, Windows RT allows you to extend your desktop to a secondary
display rather than merely mirroring the tablet screen, which is a huge bonus
when it comes to getting down to work.
Beneath the micro-HDMI there's a USB 2
port, which can be used to plug in all manner of peripherals, including
external hard disks, mice, digital cameras and even printers a full list of
compatible devices can be found at http://tinyurl.com/boacm84.
We plugged in all manner of devices, both
new and old, and the only one we struggled to get working was an ageing Fujitsu
scanner and that has driver issues with Windows 7 too.
If you don't want to waste a USB port on an
external mouse or keyboard, the Bluetooth 4 support allows you to use wireless
versions at your desktop. Elsewhere on the wireless front, there's dual-band
2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi.
One curious omission, however, is a SIM
card slot. For a device that's so geared towards working on the move, it's
bizarre that Microsoft didn't see fit to at least offer a 3G/4G option.
Secreted beneath that flip-out stand is
also a microSDXC slot, which is capable of adding another 64GB of removable
storage to the Surface. That might well be a necessity if you opt for the 32GB
version, which has only 16GB of free space, with almost half the stated storage
consumed by Windows, the Office apps and the recovery partition. The 64GB
version of the Surface offers 46GB of free space.
Working With Windows RT
So there's little to complain about on the
hardware side, but what about the software?
Surface runs Windows RT, the ARM-optimised
version of Windows 8, and that necessarily involves a few awkward compromises.
The most obvious of these is that almost
all desktop software is prohibited. Even though the traditional Windows desktop
remains a part of the build - it's available through a Start menu tile just as
it is in the x86 versions of Windows 8 - the only software permitted to run
here is the preinstalled Office suite and Internet Explorer. Even if
traditional software vendors were prepared to recompile their software for ARM,
it would make no difference; Microsoft has pulled up the drawbridge.
While Internet Explorer is perfectly happy
to let you download installers for desktop applications such as Google Chrome,
attempts to click on the EXE file are met with a warning that "this app
can't run on your PC" and an invitation to visit the Windows Store.
The very presence of the desktop in Windows
RT almost feels like you're being taunted with what you're missing out on. Why
Microsoft didn't remove the desktop altogether and simply allow users to run
full-screen instances of the Office apps from the Start screen is bewildering.
It has all the hallmarks of a budge: a compromise to resolve the conflicting
priorities of the Windows and Office teams.
Office on Windows RT almost identical to Office 2013
It's also worth noting that the version of
Office bundled with Windows RT is Home & Student which means it isn't
licensed for business use, and that there's no Outlook included in the deal.
Try to share a document from Word via email and you're presented with an abrupt
warning message informing you that there's no email program installed, despite
the presence of the Mail app in Windows 8. The Share charm provides no relief
either, as nothing can be shared from the desktop.
That said, the presence of almost fully featured
Office apps is a considerable bonus - no other tablet has a complement of apps
that can compete with Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.
We say almost fully-featured because a few
notable features such as macros and, bizarrely, full SkyDrive integration are
absent. Plus, when you try to push Office hard fiddling with complex
spreadsheets or adding high-resolution photos to heavily formatted Word
document performance plummets, sometimes causing Office to dither like a
contestant answering the final question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
It's worth noting that Windows RT also
offers separate user accounts, meaning that you don't have to risk giving the
kids the opportunity to wipe your data when they want to play a game in the
back seat of the car.
