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Surface Pro 2 is incredible

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baydude said:
Is the Type Cover worth getting over the Touch Cover?

What's the difference between Type 1 and 2?
Click to expand...

I have the touch 1, type 1, and type 2. The type 2 is definitely the best of the bunch. In addition to the backlighting, the type 2 is thinner and more rigid than type 1. Although I generally despise marketing buzzwords like "lapability" (which, ironically enough, my SP2 keeps trying to autocorrect into another word), it really does work a lot better in your lap.

If you already had one of the others, I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending the money to upgrade - but if you're buying one for the first time? Go with the type 2.

Touch isn't completely without advantages - it's thinner, spill/damage resistant, and doesn't feel weird when you have it wrapped around the back in tablet mode - some people claim they get used to it and like it better than the type keyboard eventually. Personally, I'm not one of those people.
 
runawayprisoner said:
Buy the Wacom Bamboo Feel stylus, and then use the soft (felt) nib.

Sample...

iAAw0TD7UFSwj.png


For those who are wondering: yes, that's my friggin' handwriting and all. I wrote most of that in portrait as well. 16:9 or not, this thing has been SOLID for handwriting and sketching.
Click to expand...

Damn yo uhave the handwriting of a woman! So clean, so precise....
 
runawayprisoner said:
Buy the Wacom Bamboo Feel stylus, and then use the soft (felt) nib.

Sample...

iAAw0TD7UFSwj.png


For those who are wondering: yes, that's my friggin' handwriting and all. I wrote most of that in portrait as well. 16:9 or not, this thing has been SOLID for handwriting and sketching.
Click to expand...

Can you post another screenshot form one of your other one note pages there? My friends on facebook don't believe the accuracy of your writing, they think it's advertisement for the Surface!!! They have not seen such clarity in the ipad, so please provide another proof for them!

Thanks,
ELmO
 
007ELmO said:
Can you post another screenshot form one of your other one note pages there? My friends on facebook don't believe the accuracy of your writing, they think it's advertisement for the Surface!!! They have not seen such clarity in the ipad, so please provide another proof for them!

Thanks,
ELmO
Click to expand...

ibuKnCQnwyTCQp.png


That's yesterday's notes. I'm taking today's notes.

But thanks! People have been looking at my notes and considering tablets for themselves around here. I'm involuntarily advertising the Surface for Microsoft.
 
Time to contact Microsoft dude, you are a commercial.

PS - I just wanted today's homework assignment answers
 
Haha, well, homework is in a separate notebook.

Plus all of the answers are online somewhere.

You should be looking for the explanations... but mine are pages long even with those small letters.

Loving the Surface Pro for homework, by the way.
 
runawayprisoner said:
Haha, well, homework is in a separate notebook.

Plus all of the answers are online somewhere.

You should be looking for the explanations... but mine are pages long even with those small letters.

Loving the Surface Pro for homework, by the way.
Click to expand...

From someone a little more "average" in tablet handwriting. Was just testing it out.

Screenshot5_edited_zpsfce09e96.jpg
 
runawayprisoner said:
ibuKnCQnwyTCQp.png


That's yesterday's notes. I'm taking today's notes.

But thanks! People have been looking at my notes and considering tablets for themselves around here. I'm involuntarily advertising the Surface for Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Impressive handwriting, I don't think I can get that fast of a handwriting note taking in class. (well probably come close to that quality at one point, long past)

Wait till those people find out you can have fun on the Surface Pro 2 with Steam and games like Fallout 3/New Vegas (and it runs well, but there is some problems with drivers I noticed in certain situations).
 
ITT: People who either have terrible handwriting, or have never seen a wacom digitizer in action :colbert:


Actually, I get similar reactions whenever people see me use one of my wacom-based devices, minus the nice handwriting part. :biggrin:
 
Well my type cover shipped. Originally ordered a touch cover 2, mostly by accident, but backordered. Sadly the actual tablet keeps getting moved back on its ship date, looking like early December at best .:\
 
I'm currently still locked into the Apple ecosystem after eons of using their products, but after following this thread for a while, I have to say that the Surface Pro 2 is mighty tempting.

My iPad doesn't see much use because iOS is just far, far too limited get any real work done. I am not a big fan of Windows 8, but in the end iOS is still a toy in comparison to a full blown x86 Windows machine.

If MS can manage somehow shrink the next Surface Pro down to ~700g with Broadwell, I'll likely replace the iPad and MBA with that machine.
In fact I'm tempted to throw the two devices up on ebay and get a SP2 for christmas, but I'd regret that decision when the ULV Broadwell parts are out.

Does anybody here regularly watch movies with Plex on the SP2? I’m curious what the battery life is like.
 
Tigel said:
I'm currently still locked into the Apple ecosystem after eons of using their products, but after following this thread for a while, I have to say that the Surface Pro 2 is mighty tempting.

My iPad doesn't see much use because iOS is just far, far too limited get any real work done. I am not a big fan of Windows 8, but in the end iOS is still a toy in comparison to a full blown x86 Windows machine.

If MS can manage somehow shrink the next Surface Pro down to ~700g with Broadwell, I'll likely replace the iPad and MBA with that machine.
In fact I'm tempted to throw the two devices up on ebay and get a SP2 for christmas, but I'd regret that decision when the ULV Broadwell parts are out.

Does anybody here regularly watch movies with Plex on the SP2? I’m curious what the battery life is like.
Click to expand...

6 hour ish with plex
 
Tigel said:
I'm currently still locked into the Apple ecosystem after eons of using their products, but after following this thread for a while, I have to say that the Surface Pro 2 is mighty tempting.

My iPad doesn't see much use because iOS is just far, far too limited get any real work done. I am not a big fan of Windows 8, but in the end iOS is still a toy in comparison to a full blown x86 Windows machine.

If MS can manage somehow shrink the next Surface Pro down to ~700g with Broadwell, I'll likely replace the iPad and MBA with that machine.
In fact I'm tempted to throw the two devices up on ebay and get a SP2 for christmas, but I'd regret that decision when the ULV Broadwell parts are out.

Does anybody here regularly watch movies with Plex on the SP2? I’m curious what the battery life is like.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at the Dell Venue 11 Pro? It's pretty light and thin with the quad-core Atom. You lose out on the Wacom digitizer though, but I don't know if that's important to you.
 
Does anyone know what the graphics (specifically gaming related) performance advantage the Pro 2 has over the Pro 1? The price difference between the two is rather big now.

Also anyone have experience gaming on this and want to comment on the settings/fps for games (or similar) like Civ 5, LoL, HOMM 6, X-Com, Mass Effect.

I'm trying to weigh the trade offs in the gaming front with going with a Surface Pro 1/2 versus something like the Acer 482pg (or a more conventional laptop basically). I have a desktop as well so it isn't critical that it can play all games (eg. Skyrim loaded with mods, or Metro, and etc.). The benefit would be you gain the size/tablet form factor and the wacom digitizer for graphics work with the Surface Pro.

Also how is the external speakers?
 
arandomguy said:
Does anyone know what the graphics (specifically gaming related) performance advantage the Pro 2 has over the Pro 1? The price difference between the two is rather big now.

Also anyone have experience gaming on this and want to comment on the settings/fps for games (or similar) like Civ 5, LoL, HOMM 6, X-Com, Mass Effect.

I'm trying to weigh the trade offs in the gaming front with going with a Surface Pro 1/2 versus something like the Acer 482pg (or a more conventional laptop basically). I have a desktop as well so it isn't critical that it can play all games (eg. Skyrim loaded with mods, or Metro, and etc.). The benefit would be you gain the size/tablet form factor and the wacom digitizer for graphics work with the Surface Pro.

Also how is the external speakers?
Click to expand...

The difference in gaming between a 4GB RAM version of the Surface Pro 1 and the 8GB RAM configuration of the Surface Pro 2 is night and day. Borderlands 2 in the Surface Pro 1 I have experienced at under 20FPS.

Under my current Surface Pro 2, I am looking at 27FPS to 30FPS.

Settings have effects off except depth of field and at 720p resolution windowed. Definitely with the Surface Pro 2, it is in the playable range for me.

Other games I have thrown at my device include Fallout New Vegas and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. Of which I was comfortable in continuing playing Fallout and Blood Dragon. Unplugged and plugged (of course, unplugged will give me 2-2.5 of gameplay)

So, if your heart is set on some gaming, be sure to grab the 8GB RAM models of the Surface Pro 2. The iGPU Intel HD4400 will like it more alongside the game itself.

Civilization 5 would shine on the Surface Pro and Pro 2. A friend of mine has put it through the paces with Civilization 5. It works and is optimized for touch.

This video shows what Borderlands 2 looks like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_vModCYqI
 
Last edited:
There is not much difference in gaming performance between intel 3rd and intel 4th generation in the ulv space. This is because they are tdp limited and they can't really increase the clock speed of the graphics, thus they choose to do more calculation units at lower clock speed to achive better battery life and marginal better gpu performance.

See here to get an idea. While they are not comparing the surfaces per say they are comparing an i7 3rd gen vs an i7 4th gen ulv with the acer s7 and the acer s7 revision.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7047/the-haswell-ultrabook-review-core-i74500u-tested/7
 
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