Hi, welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing
and see whether or not I like it. Now the thing we're looking at in this video is the new
backlit Touch Cover 2 for Microsoft Surface
and Surface Pro tablets. In this video I'm going to give you some comments about the
design and usability of the new Touch Cover 2
compared to the old Touch Cover 1 and the old
Type Cover. Also in this video I'm gonna show you my performance on some
typing tests
just to give you a general idea of what the accuracy is on the new Touch Cover 2
compared to the old keyboards. Anyway let's have a closer look!
Now I have really mixed feelings about the original Touch Cover and here
it is attached to my Surface Pro. One thing I really like
about the original Touch Cover is that because it's much thinner than the Type
Cover
when you fold it over on the Surface it's much more flush
with the top at the Surface - it feels more like a part of the tablet.
The other nice thing about the Touch Cover is that when you fold it backwards
to use the Surface like a tablet
your fingers aren't pressing down on the keyboard keys - there's just a flat
surface
it feels much more grippy and more secure. The other thing I really like
about the Touch Cover
is that it's actually spill resistant, so you know if you're going around
brushing your teeth by using your Surface you don't have to worry about
water messing up all the keys. Unfortunately
I found the original Touch Cover was just not very accurate for typing
and I found that I really couldn't type on it for very long because all the typos
would annoy me. Now this is the new Touch Cover 2 and I got one of these
because apparently has everything that I like about the original Touch Cover
while at the same time Microsoft claims that they were able to dramatically improve
the
accuracy of the typing performance on the Touch Cover 2
by dramatically increasing the number of sensors throughout the keyboard.
The also added a backlight to the Touch Cover 2 which is a really really
nice addition.
At the same time they've also made the Touch Cover 2
slightly thinner than the original Touch Cover and they've
even made it slightly lighter than the original Touch Cover
and it's not a huge difference but because the Surface Pro is already such
a bulky tablet
every little bit counts. Now before I get into what typing is like on the new
Touch Cover 2
there was one small physical difference that I wanted to point out between the
old Touch Cover and the new Touch Cover. Now on the old Touch
Cover, on the folding mechanism there's actually
a second band right in the middle here between the docking
part and the keyboard which adds a bit of strength and rigidity to the folding
mechanism.
Now they've actually removed that section on the Touch Cover 2 - you see
that that's completely blank
so it's a little less rigid the old Touch Cover design.
Now I only noticed this because I'm a lazy person and I like to use the
Surface Pro lying down a lot
and even though Microsoft probably wouldn't recommend this
when I'm lying down I sometimes use the keyboard just to prop up the weight
of the Surface Pro just a little and this is something that I
really wouldn't encourage you doing on the new Touch Cover
because with the lack of that internal support here
you can actually see that the cover actually folds a lot more along that
area
and it's not not very rigid and I think it would be really damage the Cover
over the long term. Now I'm going to show you some typing tests and then I'm gonna give you my
conclusion about what typing is like on the new Touch Cover 2.
Now I'm just using a free typing test that I found over at
10fastfingers.com. This is not gonna be a scientific test because it's not real
world typing
but I'm going to give you average results over three runs compared to the original
keyboards
and then maybe you can get an idea on what the accuracy improvements are like
on the new Touch Cover 2.
Now again that was not a scientific test in
any way shape or form and in the real world if you're making a whole bunch of
typing errors like
I was you probably slow down and kind of check what you were doing
but what the results seem to suggest is that I'm not really doing
any better on the new Touch Cover 2 than I am on the original Touch Cover
and what the results seem to indicate that maybe I'm actually doing a
little bit worse
on the new Touch Cover 2. I would take that result with a grain of salt.
My general impressions using the Touch Cover 2 over the past few days
is that it feels a bit more accurate, a bit more sensitive than the original
Touch Cover
but unfortunately it's still not nearly as good to type on
as the Type Cover and thats number one because
I don't really get a good sense of where my fingers are on the keys
at all times. The other issue is that I still don't think it works very well
at all when you're trying to use this on any surface that's not just a flat desk.
Another issue I find with the Touch covers is that on because they're
a little inaccurate I find myself
unconsciously typing on the keys harder and because there's no key travel
my fingers actually start getting a bit sore after a bit of typing
so unfortunately I'm not really enjoying typing on the new Touch Cover 2
and I'm gonna have to go to the store and exchange this for
one of the new Type Covers to get that awesome backlight! Anyway please click
the Like button
if this video helped you. I am probably going to make another video comparing the new
Type Cover 2 to the original Type Cover so subscribe to my channel if you
want be notified when that
up. Thanks to everyone who has liked my other videos and subscribed to my channel!
You can talk to me on Twitter
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Anyway enjoy the rest of your week!