Chris Alexander
23rd July, 2013
When we turned up in the US we bought a Surface Pro for work. The idea being that it’s a decent sized (and actually reasonably powerful) Windows machine we can carry around and do demos with.
Microsoft have stepped up their offering recently and the Microsoft Store in SF was actually reasonably impressive. Not such great service as we got at Apple down the road, but it wasn’t poor.
The Surface Pro was $899 and we got the keyboard cover rather than the touch one. The touch one is ghastly to type on (although it’s a nice idea) and the keyboard is actually pretty good for its size on the version we got. The cover was $129 and it came to nearly $1200 by the time you’ve added tax and so on.
The box itself is a nice design, black and white outside with blue writing on the inner sleeve.
Everything’s wrapped up pretty nicely inside the box, which flips open from the side.
The surface itself is pretty sleek, if chunky at the back.
There is a built-in kickstand. On the top half, there are fan vents all the way around the sides and top edge, which can get a little toasty.
The screen is pretty good quality, and it doesn’t take long to boot. The “welcome” video is irritating every time you add a user, and it takes an eternity to shut down. It also happens to go to sleep far too frequently. However it does last quite a while on battery, so there are upsides to that if you’re patient enough.
The Surface has a magnetic contact point on its side for connecting the charger. The pen cleverly has a similar extrusion on it so that you can clip it on the side when you’re out and about, so you don’t lose it.
One of the things I like about Windows 8 is you can customise the colours of the whole thing. I’d rather have more choices, but it’s a good start. Here’s the Start menu in nearly-import.io pink.
And here is some lovely looking website: