Microsoft Surface Pro and Windows 8: My Updated Thoughts
Microsoft Surface Pro and Windows 8: My Updated Thoughts
2013-09-17
what's up everyone John render from
TechnoBuffalo here we are at the dawn of
the surface pro 2 and Windows 8.1 make
its commercial release I thought it was
time to revisit the original combo of
the surface pro and Windows 8 and I got
a lot more to say about it it's go and
get started surface surface RT and
Windows 8 were overall not very good I
thought it was crazy hard to learn the
live tiles I thought worked on a phone
but didn't necessarily translate to a
computer and I didn't understand how
everything worked where to swipe were to
not swipe how to make things work just
seemed like a total convoluted mess to
me however I reserve the right to change
my mind and as a journalist I feel I've
got the right to change my mind when I
use a product for a longer period of
time usually we use products for one to
tweak some review and then it goes in
sits in a drawer not so with the surface
pro so let me give you a bit of a back
story about six weeks ago was a weekend
there's a Saturday afternoon I was
sitting at home and I had to do some
updates on TechnoBuffalo and to fire on
my MacBook Pro totus having some issues
and wouldn't turn on so I went to the
only other computer I have in my house
the surface pro I had not used since
probably about a year ago and I forced
myself to learn how to use it that's
where I started to see the beauty and
the elegance of Windows 8 it took me
crazy amount of time probably about 10
days to really go through it force
myself had it used for myself to use it
and learn if I really started to enjoy
what it does so that an update my review
it's not really a surface pro review or
Windows 8 review more of an update of
the combo and you can extrapolate what
works for Windows 8 devices in general
and what's unique just to the surface
pro it's gonna get started so the first
big issue I had was I had no idea what
all the gestures did or how they worked
my big one was in Internet Explorer well
now when I fired been an explorer I know
how to use it so I didn't know where the
favorites were gonna go when you go
ahead and open up a browser the
favorites pin themselves all way over to
the right if you swipe on over you can
see them I've got a demo account here so
you can't see all the other sites I've
used that was our the first thing that I
didn't know I discovered that it became
very easy also I had preconceived
notions about Internet Explorer like
probably a lot of you - I didn't want to
use Internet Explorer but the more I
used it at least on the modern UI side
the more I enjoyed it's a pretty elegant
browser and it worked very well the tabs
didn't make
see how the tabs work now I clearly
realize you swipe down all your tabs are
there you can select the one that you
want or move over select it deselect it
close it whatever you want all your
options are right there I could Fred
convoluted how to go and change settings
now it's very easy go ahead into
settings you can jump into my change PC
settings you can access everything that
you want right there I also had issues
here with how the touch cover worked and
that sort of still maintain it's not
very accurate if I go ahead hit the
letters they don't always translate very
well I got to go back and edit delete
but I do think they're the combination
of the touch cover and a surface pro is
a really nice combination
I find myself sitting on the lap and
typing on this and typing out a ton of
email so if I'm actually to be
relatively elegant a couple of things
that really like this is where I found
the most useful thing about the surface
pro is running two apps side by side
take you back to my story so technical
office was having issues and I on one
window had to make edits to the side the
other window I had to check email now to
keep going back and forth having
conversations with editor-in-chief Shawn
Ani and I couldn't do all that in one
window so I remembered hey wait a minute
Windows 8 lets me do that if you swipe
in and go ahead and view what you just
did last you can swipe it again and go
back out and get a full list where
you're looking at let's say I want to go
to the store I could go ahead and browse
the store up my PC settings here if you
know what I want to make that one window
I can open that right there I want to go
back and say you know what maybe I want
to do an explorer and have that open and
go ahead open that if I want to go back
have to at the same time say about the
surface or the store right there it go
and have that running side-by-side to
what I'm doing they're both run very
independently I was actually pretty cool
to see it if you just have one open for
example if you want to close that one
out if you drag your finger all the way
down you can go ahead and pick where it
opens on the side you can open up
another application there's all these
sort of little things that took a really
long time to learn than I liked desktop
as well something that I really enjoyed
I liked that I could access the desktop
and still have like you can see right
here my modern apps open running
side-by-side that was really useful i
started using outlook on the desktop
side still loving having be able to have
the modern browser up that was very nice
and a really nice touch and I wanted to
give Microsoft credit I felt that it was
due to update the review the battery
life has been actually really awesome on
the surface pro I don't do that much on
it I unfortunately only bought the
smaller versions I think
gonna use it all that often turns out I
wish I had more storage how love to keep
getting Starcraft on here all my games
load up all my emails sort of use this
and almost my dedicated computer I do
most of my editing for TechnoBuffalo and
final cuts not gonna replace my office
iMac but I can really really see myself
only using this at home all those
commercials are people talking about
using the surface instead of an iPad I
get now I like that I can watch flash a
video on here not to worry about opening
up an app to watch to youtube I can go
right to YouTube on here and it just
works the finger sensitivity is Austin
multi-touch works really well the
surface pro is a really solid device
screen resolution is gorgeous
not recommending picking up a Windows RT
so you don't get all sort of the
awesomeness the screen resolution blows
at least as of right now but Windows 8
and 10 K Windows 8.1 is a really nice
combination so I thought I was only fair
to give Microsoft credit say you know
what you guys did a better job than I
thought I did and thirds only fair the
audience if I changed my mind to show
those impressions so what'd you guys
think any given Windows 8 a fair shot
then you got to give it a good 10 days
of really dedicated you used to learn
how to use it and it's a huge learning
curve for someone who's willing to give
it that time you really enjoy it if
you're coming from Windows XP and just
want to start using a computer you're
gonna have a really hard time
understanding what the heck is going on
here but after you know my six weeks I'm
gonna continue using the surface pro and
I'm really excited with surface pro 2
and we guys love to hear your thoughts
see them when they're coming so write
down below until then I'm John render
from TechnoBuffalo I'll see you the next
video what's up everyone its Ashlee
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