Surface RT Now?

[gmaster456]

One can pick up a Surface RT for $189. What's giving me pause is tegra 3.

Primary usage would be MS Office, emails and netflix. Already have plenty of laptops and tablets, and I like the Surface pro. Just not sure if the RT model has enough oomph.

Thoughts?

 

[Raduque]

I bought a 64gb at 299. It has more than enough muscle for Netflix, email and Office. I love it for what it is. Bought it to replace my aging POS TF101. I have a BT mouse and KB, but I think I'm going to buy a Type Cover 2 for it.

Edit: I should say that while I have seen it lag at times in games (Halo: Spartan Elite comes to mind), the OS is always 100% fluid and works quite well at that size screen. The desktop is even somewhat usable with touch.

 

[Roland00Address]

If you must have the 10" form factor and it has to be windows it is great.

If you want the 10" form factor and it does not need office then you can get much better android tablets, and much more apps for just a little more.

If you do not care about the 10" form factor but want office, there are some better 8" windows tablets for roughly the same price.

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The nice thing about the surface is the build quality is great, so if you want a 10" and have very limited needs. (Netflix and typing) it is hard to beat for that price.

 

[desura]

Had one. Sold it.

It is a slow tablet. I personally like RT more than android. The aspect ratio is very awkward for portrait. Best thing is it supports full flash and has an USB port.

Pretty heavy and bulky. Office is nice but not a compelling reason alone to purchase.

 

[bearxor]

If It was under $150, I'd consider.

 

[zokudu]

It'll be worth it when the Gemini Office apps come around. Until then I own a Surface 2 and it irks me a lot. IE is hit or miss with a lot of sites, 3 online homework sites in college didn't work in IE11 making it useless for my use at college. There are some good games but nothing really blew my mind. The office apps are just RT rebuilds of office 2013. They don't feel integrated well and are a pain to use with touch, the track pad blows noodle on the covers so that's a pain too.

It has a lot of drawbacks. I like mine for a reading device, as well as a general screw around kind of thing.

 

[Red Storm]

You already have plenty of laptops and tablets, why would you waste money on yet another device that is old, bulky, slow, and going no where?

 

[ultimatebob]

Isn't Windows RT getting killed off? Microsoft's new CEO said that he wants to go back to a single Windows platform, so he'll likely be killing off RT.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Isn't Windows RT getting killed off? Microsoft's new CEO said that he wants to go back to a single Windows platform, so he'll likely be killing off RT.

Media kinda reported this wrong. There will still be different versions of Windows. You need a Windows that run on ARM, that is what most phones and many tablets are using. There will be one Windows architecture, one Windows Store, but there will still be different Windows for different hardware, like phones, tablets, servers, etc.

Windows Phone and Windows RT are most likely merging into one mobile OS for phones and ARM tablets. So there will still be a Windows for ARM that runs Windows 8 apps, but not x86 apps, like RT.

 

[desura]

Yeah, the lack of Metro native office is really perplexing. It isn't that hard, is it? They already have a metro OneNote...

Office on a whole seems ridiculous to me. Most people probably don't need it. It is massively overpriced for what it delivers.

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah, the lack of Metro native office is really perplexing. It isn't that hard, is it? They already have a metro OneNote...

Office on a whole seems ridiculous to me. Most people probably don't need it. It is massively overpriced for what it delivers.

I haven't had Office installed on my machine in forever. The very rare time where I absolutely need Office... I just use the free online version.

 

[gmaster456]

You already have plenty of laptops and tablets, why would you waste money on yet another device that is old, bulky, slow, and going no where?

Curiosity.

 

[jacktesterson]

I have the Surface 2. Love it. Fast and Metro is great on a tablet. Split screen rules. All the apps I use are there or have a decent alternative. IE 11 on a tablet works very well. So fluid. Web browsing is great.

But the Tegra 3 and lower res screen in the original RT would make me avoid personally

 

[IamDavid]

I've had each Surface version and all can easily handle what you're looking for. I watched hours and hours of Netflix on my original Surface without a hiccup. Office included is an amazing deal.

 

[thescreensavers]

I got the Surface RT for 169

use it all the time, it does get slow on multiple tabs or heavy content pages.

But its perfect for video viewing, netflix hulu what ever

 

[Deeko]

I bequeathed my Surface RT to my wife when I got my SP2. She loves it - she has a reasonably powerful i5-based Sony laptop that she never uses anymore because she prefers the Surface. All she needs is browsing, email, music, and the ability to work from home - and the Citrix Receiver app from the Windows Store works oddly better than it ever did on a standard PC. It's perfect for her use case. Sounds like it would work for you, too - just be aware that its not the snappiest machine.