Yes, unlike the iPad you can access the filesystem OOTB.
>run desktop apps,
No, you can't. Office and (I think) Notepad and Paint are the only desktop apps you can run on the Surface with Windows RT.
>The other thing I came away with was that Microsoft is open and Apple is closed. Why can't I plug a microSD card into any Apple product? Why can't I plug in a USB device? You can plug your camera into the Surface (it's a host) and download pictures to your local machine.
You can't use an SD card as additional storage, but you can import pictures from a camera over USB or directly from an SD card, using the $30 camera connection kit. The USB port on the camera connection kit can be used for other purposes as well, for example MIDI keyboards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Pwa3SbFFE
Not the same as having a USB port included, but the iPad is more capable than you make it out to be.
At least the Surface has a USB port which means I can plug almost any music peripheral into it, unlike the iPad where I have to spend extra for a 'camera connection kit' like there aren't any other devices in the world that employ USB.
People buy the Surface to run the desktop Windows apps though - which is something Apple can't offer. If we were talking Surface RT exclusively it'd be different...
I bought a Surface for three reasons mainly. First, it supports Flash, and when I tested tablets out in the showroom, I was able to watch online lectures on the Surface and not on the iPad. Second, it gives access to the file system, so I can organize my large collection of scientific pdfs on disk the way I want to. Third, it has a USB port. I was rather astounded that the iPad did not, and perhaps Apple has changed this, but that alone was a showstopper for me.
What it all adds up to is that Apple created their usual walled garden for the iPad, and in this instance the walls eliminated much of the value of the product, even for such elementary uses as reading scientific pdf's, and watching scientific lectures online.
I will say that the Surface also had some restrictions on Flash originally, which I quickly discovered when I got it home, leading to a rather testy email from myself to Steve Ballmer. This was very quickly answered by the head of the appropriate department, and they have changed their Flash site approval model in IE to be much more open.
It does support files on external storage devices now with the USB-C port. It also supports SMB shares, which is great since I keep most of my stuff on a NAS and can access it over my VPN.
Developer tools are an obvious weak point, but FWIW I sold my Surface to buy an iPad Pro a few years ago and I'm happier with this. Considering an upgrade from 2016 model (9.7" with lightning) to the new ones.
It wouldn't work as my only computer, but I have a much beefier desktop for gaming and whatever workloads the iPad isn't suited for. That list of workloads is getting smaller and smaller though.
We demo'd a surface at work, and these were my takeaways:
1) The UI is incredibly confusing. It, again, feels like it's just a windows machine with some goofy /thing/ bolted to the top of it. It reminds me of windows media center.
2) At least the one we got was really heavy. Heavier than a macbook air, which is a "real" computer.
3) We all-too-frequently seemed to get dumped back into a standard windows desktop with a startbutton and everything...which would be great, if it functioned that way. All I wanted to do was create a PPTP connection on the thing, but absolutely couldn't figure out how to make that happen.
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I am fairly far from an apple fan, but the reason that the iPad has been so successful is that apple designed it from the beginning to be a new device with new UI paradigms.
Android did the same.
Microsoft, at least from the experience I got with surface, absolutely did not, which is sad, because they're easily poised to be able to dominate tablets.
The "holy shit" dream scenario that I have, and I think it's shared by a lot of tablet users, is a tablet as a detachable auxiliary monitor that I can dock applications into.
If I drag, for example, a browser window over to my surface monitor, that surface monitor should be able to get picked up and go with me, and then I should be able to dock that back into my desktop and go back to working there.
Well sure, except 1) I don't need to because iOS doesn't waste as much space; and 2) That's a whole separate partition with a separate set of data to manage/lose, and a new USB drive to have sticking out of your Surface all the time, unplugging and putting away when you pack it up and pulling it out and plugging it in when you're looking to do work.
Personally, I wouldn't want a 'tablet' with a USB drive sticking out two inches all the time.
Microsoft experimented with bold ideas with their surface series. They have fantastic displays (3:2, 4K, multi touch), keyboards, and touchpads. But they have the same issues as Apple’s devices, you cannot open the machine and change components, and the I/O are a bit limited (USB 3, SD, USB-C, propriety port for charging).
The vision of the surface (unlike the ipad) is that it is both a tablet, and a PC.
You can mount it on a wall, put a bluetooth keyboard and mouse under it, and you are at a PC.
You can clip in the little clippy keyboard, and it's a laptop.
I don't have a problem with ipads. Ipads are a specialist device for consuming content, and apple make laptops for doing other stuff on. You're supposed to have both.
I have a problem with Tablet/PCs, like the surface, because they are trying to be both, and failing. It's like asking for a lorry that's also a sports car - you're gonna get something, and it's gonna be really really bad.
The surface is just a "standard" computer in a different form factor. It has both the utility of a standard computer and the complexity that comes with it.
I would love an OS X tablet, and I'm looking into making a Hackintosh one (it can be done). But it's not going to be an iPad, just like an iPad in a laptop case isn't a laptop.
I have been wanting to give another tablet a try after getting rid of my iPad. I liked the iPad hardware but the device was too hobbled in regards to file management (IMO).
A couple of days ago, I played with a Surface 2 at my local Staples and was pretty impressed by it and its type cover. The touch interface, which isn't particularly nice on a desktop computer, was pretty cool on a tablet. I also liked that is has a micro-SD slot for storage expansion.
Perhaps the only thing I don't care for it that Microsoft is only allowing Metro apps for ARM into their app store. That seems a bit one-sided considering that they are bundling non-Metro Office apps with the device.
Sure, but with USB 3.0 getting similar speeds to the internal SSD (according to Anandtech) I can add another 64gb to my surface pro for 30 bucks! Try doing that on an iPad.
The entire point of the Surface Pro is that it is a computer, and doesn't need additional ones to use. Besides, iOS devices haven't needed to plug in to update since (I believe) iOS 5.
I'm not sure you've used a Surface device, either. In fact, I'm pretty sure you haven't.
A $100 keyboard case turns the iPad into as much of a computer as most people need. What do you think people are doing these days that requires a "computer"?
If you're like most people, you'll check your email, visit your social networks, flick through your favorite apps, maybe some games, and then you'll watch movies or listen to music.
I don't see what Surface adds to help anyone in that department. It might get the Office crowd all jazzed up in theory but if I crunched spreadsheets all day, I sure as hell wouldn't be doing it on some crappy ARM Surface device.
The iPad only runs tablet apps, the Surface runs anything that works on Windows 10.
I came real close to ditching my Mac + Wacom combo for a Surface + external keyboard for my art work a couple years ago, but there was a constant lag problem somewhere between my stylus motions and Illustrator that made it unusable, even after a month of regular attempts to find the one magic setting somewhere deep in the ten different control panels related to Windows' stylus drivers.
But the Surface Pro is still more of a PC than a tablet. The Surface RT would be more like the iPad.
The Surface Pro has a Core i5 Intel chip, half the battery life, a couple of fans, is heavier, thicker and gets hot. It has a powered USB 3.0 and can drive a 2560x1440p monitor and has a Micro-SD slot, a full Wacom digitizer and a pressure sensitive pen. Not to mention a full user navigable filesystem Even the latest iPad has none of these features (or disadvantages).
It is more like a convertible truck/car hybrid though and Microsoft still calls it a PC.
Yes, unlike the iPad you can access the filesystem OOTB.
>run desktop apps,
No, you can't. Office and (I think) Notepad and Paint are the only desktop apps you can run on the Surface with Windows RT.
>The other thing I came away with was that Microsoft is open and Apple is closed. Why can't I plug a microSD card into any Apple product? Why can't I plug in a USB device? You can plug your camera into the Surface (it's a host) and download pictures to your local machine.
You can't use an SD card as additional storage, but you can import pictures from a camera over USB or directly from an SD card, using the $30 camera connection kit. The USB port on the camera connection kit can be used for other purposes as well, for example MIDI keyboards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Pwa3SbFFE
Not the same as having a USB port included, but the iPad is more capable than you make it out to be.
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