8/13/2019 Microsoft Surface review

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REVIEWSHardware

When Microsoftdropped the bombshell

that it was launchingits own tablet, the company notonly risked alienating its PC

partners, but detonating itscredibility if it failed to show

them how to do so properly.There’s no doubt that theMicrosoft Surface is a serious

tablet, but is it good enough totempt people away from their

iPads, their Android tablets, oreven their laptops? Or is it astopgap until the fully fledged

Windows 8 versions of the Surfacetablet arrive to complement thisARM-based version?

and with the satisfying clunk of anexpensive car door.

However, the stand is set at afixed position, leaving no means of

adjusting the angle of the screen asis possible with a conventionallaptop. That left the taller

members of the PC Pro teamawkwardly hunched over the

Surface as they attempted to workwith the device at a desk; althoughour more modestly sized

colleagues had no complaint.That slightly too upright angle

would be a much bigger problemif the 10.6in screen wasn’t sosparkling. Viewing angles

are excellent – although perhaps alittle too good for snoopers in an

adjacent train seat.A maximum screen brightness

of 400cd/m2 is comparable to thatof the iPad, and while the Surfacehas a measured contrast ratio of

3,333:1, it’s due to the presence ofdynamic contrast. Flick between

dark and bright pages, and it’spossible to detect the backlight

❱❱ PRICE 32GB, £332 (£399 incVAT); 32GB with Touch Cover,

£399 (£479 inc VAT); 64GB with

Touch Cover, £466 (£559 inc VAT)❱❱ SUPPLIER www.microsoft.com

 KEY SPECS 1.4GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 T30 CPU • 2GBRAM • 32/64GB storage • microSDXC slot • 10.6in1,366 x 768 IPS display • dual-band 802.11abgnWi-Fi • Bluetooth 4 • 2 x 0.9mp webcams • Windows RT • 1yr C&R warranty • 275 x 9.5 x172mm (WDH) • 682g

raising and lowering brightness tocompensate. Still, the IPS panel

guarantees the palette of brightcolours that make up the

Windows 8 Start screen zingoff the display, and photos andvideo deliver sumptuous levels

of saturation.The 1,366 x 768 resolution

isn’t going to give Apple’sengineering department causeto shamefacedly return to the

drawing board, but when you’resitting a foot or so away from the

Surface screen it doesn’t lack detailor sharpness.

The tablet feels delightful to

hold in the hand too. There’smuch marketing waffle around

the so-called VaporMg materialthat forms the casing, but it feelsrobust and smooth to the touch.

The charcoal-black design iscommendably understated, withonly a subtle Windows logo

adorning the rear.At 682g (without a keyboard),

it’s only a shade heavier than thethird-generation iPad, and evenwith a keyboard case attached,

it’s much lighter than mostultraportable laptops. At no

point does the Surface becomeuncomfortably warm, either.

Connectivity and portsConnectivity and expandabilityare other strong suits for theSurface. On the right-hand side

of the tablet, you’ll find amicro-HDMI port, for which

Microsoft has created a pair ofoptional adapters (£35 each) for

running external displays viaHDMI or VGA. Unlike iPads or

Android tablets, Windows RTallows you to extend your desktop

to a secondary display rather thanmerely 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 canbe used to plug in all manner ofperipherals, including external

hard disks, mice, digital camerasand even printers – a full list ofcompatible devices can be

found at www.pcpro.co.uk/links/220surfacelist.

We plugged in all manner ofdevices, both new and old, andthe only one we struggled to get

working was an ageing Fujitsuscanner, 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 supportallows you to use wireless versions

at your desktop. Elsewhere on thewireless front, there’s dual-band2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi.

One curious omission,however, is a SIM card slot. For

a device that’s so geared towardsworking on the move, it’s bizarrethat Microsoft didn’t see fit to at

least offer a 3G/4G option.

Secreted beneath that flip-outstand is also a microSDXC slot,which is capable of adding another

64GB of removable storage tothe Surface. That might well be a

necessity if you opt for the 32GBversion, which has only 16GB offree space, with almost half the

stated storage consumed byWindows, the Office apps and therecovery partition. The 64GB

version of the Surface offers 46GBof free space.

Working withWindows RTSo there’s little to complain about

on the hardware side, but whatabout the software? Surface runsWindows RT, the ARM-optimised

version of Windows 8, and thatnecessarily involves a few

awkward compromises.The most obvious of these isthat almost all desktop software

is prohibited. Even though thetraditional Windows desktop

remains a part of the build – it’savailable through a Start menu tilejust as it is in the x86 versions of

Windows 8 – the only software

permitted to run here is thepreinstalled Office suite andInternet Explorer. Even if

traditional software vendors wereprepared to recompile their

software for ARM, it would makeno difference; Microsoft has pulledup the drawbridge.

While Internet Explorer isperfectly happy to let youdownload installers for desktop

applications such as GoogleChrome, attempts to click on the

EXE file are met with a warningthat “this app can’t run on yourPC” and an invitation to visit the

Windows Store.The very presence of the

desktop in Windows RT almostfeels like you’re being taunted withwhat you’re missing out on. Why

Microsoft didn’t remove thedesktop altogether and simply

allow users to run full-screeninstances of the Office apps fromthe Start screen is bewildering. It

has all the hallmarks of a bodge:a compromise to resolve the

conflicting priorities of theWindows and Office teams.

It’s also worth noting that the

version of Office bundled with

A unique, superbly designed tablet that’s ideal for mobile professionals,

but it has too many compromises to make it a must-have

Microsoft Surfacewith Windows RT

  You can’t complain about the slenderness of the Surface. It’s 9.5mm thick and reasonably light considering the screen size

REVIEWS   Hardware

The Surface hardwareMicrosoft made it clear right

from the outset that the Surfacewas intended to set an example

to PC manufacturers, and it’simmediately apparent that thistablet isn’t just a piece of

boilerplate hardware.Two features make the Surface

stand out from the uniform slabsof glass we’ve witnessed over thepast couple of years: the kickstand

and the detachable keyboards (seeTouch and Type Covers, p99, for

more on the latter).The mechanics of the kickstand

are beautifully simple. The bottom

half of the back of the tabletcasing flicks out to create a standfor the tablet, turning the device

into a pseudo-laptop when usedwith one of the keyboards. When

you’re finished with the stand, itflips back into place, perfectlyflush with the back of the tablet,

Resolution isn’t high, but thequality of the IPS display morethan compensates for this, with rich colours that reallypop off the screen

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Real World analysisMore Surface reaction on p70 and p84

8/13/2019 Microsoft Surface review

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REVIEWS   Hardware

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REVIEWSHardware

Windows RT is Home & Student– which means it isn’t licensed

for business use (Jon Honeyballand Simon Jones cover theselimitations in greater depth on

p70 and p84), and that there’sno Outlook included in the deal.

Try to share a document fromWord via email and you’represented with an abrupt

warning message informing youthat there’s no email program

installed, despite the presence ofthe Mail app in Windows 8. TheShare charm provides no relief

either, as nothing can be sharedfrom the desktop.

That said, the presence ofalmost fully featured Office appsis a considerable bonus – no other

tablet has a complement of appsthat can compete with Word,

PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.We say almost fully featured

because a few notable features

such as macros and, bizarrely, fullSkyDrive integration are absent.

Plus, when you try to push Officehard – fiddling with complexspreadsheets or adding high-

resolution photos to heavilyformatted Word documents –

performance plummets, sometimescausing Office to dither like a

contestant answering the finalquestion on Who Wants To Be

A Millionaire?

It’s also worth noting thatWindows RT also offers separate

user accounts, meaning that youdon’t have to risk giving the kidsthe opportunity to wipe your data

when they want to play a game inthe back seat of the car.

PerformanceThis brings us to the overallperformance of the Surface RT.

On paper, the figures are mightilyimpressive: the score of 1,042msrecorded in the SunSpider browser

benchmark is as fast as any tabletthat’s ever passed through our lab.

Unfortunately, our Real WorldBenchmarks won’t run onWindows RT.

However, other performanceindicators suggest the Tegra 3

processor inside the Surfacedoesn’t cope as well withWindows as even previous-

generation Intel processors. OurSamsung 700T tablet, equipped

with a Sandy Bridge 1.6GHzCore i5-2467M and 4GB of

RAM, rebooted and returned tothe password screen in 31 seconds;

the 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3with 2GB of RAM here took 47seconds. When our Samsung tablet

lands on the Start screen, it’s readyto get going without delay; theSurface RT stumbles through the

first 30 seconds or so, like anageing Windows XP installation

in need of a refresh.App performance is patchytoo. Running two Windows 8

apps side by side often causesperformance to stutter, while

moderately demanding 3Dgames such as Pinball FX2 areoccasionally juddery. Even

streaming tunes over Xbox Musiccan cause the Surface RT to

wobble. These performancehiccups might not be so apparentto users who haven’t experienced

Windows 8 on an x86 device, andthey certainly aren’t showstoppers,

but we wonder if the performancetrade-offs are too great, especiallywhen you bring battery life into

the equation.The Surface RT lasted a shade

over nine hours in our loopingvideo test – a respectable, if notstellar, score for a tablet.

The third-generation iPadlasted 12hrs 32mins, although a

fairer comparison can perhaps bedrawn with the Tegra 3-equippedAsus Eee Pad Transformer Prime,

which lasted 10hrs 8mins on itsown, and 18hrs 5mins with the

extra battery slice in itsdetachable keyboard. Alas,the Surface keyboards

aren’t equipped withan extra battery.

Windows StoreWithout access to desktop

software, Surface RT owners aredependent on the apps available

from the Windows Store. We’re alittle nervous about drawing anyfirm conclusions concerning the

quality of the Windows Store, asit’s an immature, evolving beast

with new apps appearing on adaily basis. However, at the timeof writing, there’s no doubt that

the Windows Store falls a longway short of its iOS and Android

rivals in terms of both quantityand quality of applications.

Big names are conspicuous bytheir absence: Twitter, Facebook,(no, the People app isn’t an

outright replacement for dedicatedclients), the BBC iPlayer, most

national newspapers, Lovefilm,Spotify, Photoshop Touch… thelist goes on. At the time of writing,

we were struggling to even find adecent photo-editing app, which

are (almost literally) ten a pennyin the rival stores.

The presence of the full-blown

version of Internet Explorer partlycompensates for this lack of apps.

Services such as iPlayer, Twitterand YouTube can be accessed,sometimes offering more features

than are available via apps on rival

platforms (the “rewind from start”feature in iPlayer, for example).

A smattering of decent apps

are available for Windows RT,such as the art package Fresh Paint

and cloud photo effects studioPhotoFunia. Familiar favouritessuch as Skype, Kindle and TuneIn

Radio also add to the package,but there’s no doubt the Windows

Store is in urgent need ofhigh-quality reinforcements.

Sign of things to come?The Surface RT is an incrediblyhard device to define. Microsoft’sfirst tablet is bold, unique and the

most fully featured device of its

type. No other tablet makes it aseasy to get to work straight out ofthe box; no other tablet has its

broad compatibility with a rangeof peripherals; and no other tablet

has such over-arching ambition.Yet it falls short in several respects.The ARM processor seems to

struggle under the weight ofWindows, the Windows Store is

weaker than either of its two mainrivals, and the boarded-up desktopis frustrating.

The Surface RT falls betweentwo stools. On the one hand, it

isn’t as good a tablet as the iPador the cream of the Androidcrop, and the lack of backwards

compatibility with traditional

Windows desktop software meansthat it can’t be considered as agenuine laptop replacement.

It remains an attractive devicein its own right, but more than

anything, it whets our appetite forthe full Windows 8 version of theSurface; this is due to arrive early

in 2013, and will have a fullyunlocked desktop and all the

benefits of a regular laptop.If you can hold out until the

new year, we think it’s going to be

worth the wait.BARRY COLLINS

There are two types of keyboard for theMicrosoft Surface. The Touch Cover is ahalfway house between a software keyboardand the rubber-keyed wonder of the old 48KSpectrum. There’s no tactile feedback when you touch the keys – instead you’re forcedto keep your eyes glued to the screen, or

turn up the volume and listen for theclicky key sound.

Our first instinct was that typing on theTouch Cover would be a terrible experience,but we were pleasantly surprised. While wedidn’t quite get up to full lick, we found ourregular typing speed wasn’t massivelyhampered, and even the small trackpadsurface beneath the spacebar provedresponsive and accurate.

The Type Cover is our favourite of the two,

though. This has proper, well-spaced keys thatdeliver a decent amount of travel. Withinminutes we were back up to full

laptop typing speed, andcreating plenty of

noise – the keyboardis a touch rattly. Italso has a set ofdedicated functionkeys (F1, F2 and soon). These areaccessible only on theTouch Cover as asecondary option,behind the top row ofWindows 8-specific

control buttons (volume controls, Charmshortcuts and so on). The trackpad is functionaland responsive, but as with the Touch Cover’strackpad, there’s no support for gestures, whichis disappointing.

The Type Cover is a bigger letdown when you attempt to use the Surface on your lap. Itsbase is too flexible, often causing the keys onthe edges of the keyboard to stop responding.

We found the Touch Cover more reliablewith the Surface resting on your lap, which isworth considering if you spend much of yourtime tapping away in airport lounges orcrowded commuter trains.

The price of both keyboards is a little steepfor our liking. The Touch Cover is a £79 add-on for the 32GB Surface, while the Type Coveris £110. The 64GB model (£559 inc VAT)has a Touch Cover, with the Type Cover againadding £110 to the price. Why Microsoft isforcing 64GB owners to pay the full amount forthe Type Cover instead of a small premium isbaffling. A total price of £669 for the 64GBSurface RT and Type Cover – our preferredspecification – is far too high.

Touch and Type Covers

 Under the kickstand is a microSDXC slot

 The Surface’s VaporMG chassis feels smooth and robust

 The kickstand andTouch Cover enable you to get serious work done usingthe Surface

 The Store is in its infancy, and not a match for Android or iOS  RT allows installers to be downloaded, but blocks installation

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