"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 Surface Pro, which is Microsoft's 10
inch, Windows 8 Professional tablet computer.
Now it might be a bit late making a Surface Pro video, considering the new Intel processors
are just around the corner, but actually the Surface Pro only just recently came out in
Australia, so I just wanted to make a video to give some of my impressions of the device."
"So, I've been using the Surface Pro daily for about two weeks now, and I actually got
it to replace an 11 inch Macbook Air, a Nexus 7 tablet, and a medium sized Wacom digitizer
drawing tablet.
So this video is just going to go through how the Surface Pro compares in terms of pros
and cons versus all the devices that it's meant to be replacing.
"
"So how does the Surface Pro compare to a lightweight laptop?
Well, this is my trusty, mid-2010, 11 inch Macbook Air, and I really like this machine,
I've used it for basic internet browsing, for taking notes during lectures, and it's
been really great.
It's survived through all kinds of things, survived being dropped, survived having a
cup of water poured on it, all sorts of things, but it has been getting a bit long in the
tooth.
So, here's what I like about the Surface Pro compared to the Macbook Air."
"As a Mac user who's come from six and a half years of using a Macintosh, and Mac OSX, I
actually really like Windows 8 as a touch-based operating system.
Now, thankfully I didn't have to go through that whole transition period from Windows
as a desktop, mouse and keyboard operating system, to Windows 8 with the whole Modern
interface and the touchscreen, I've just been using it as a touchscreen interface, and in
that respect I think it's really great.
"
"I love being able to just reach out and zoom in and out of webpages when I want to read
them a bit more closely, I love being able to multitask with just gestures and flicks,
and with the included stylus that comes with the Surface Pro, I really like just being
able to swap between the touchscreen and the stylus and the keyboard and the trackpad,
and you know, really mixing it up with those interfaces and input methods, so that I can
do whatever works best, and in that respect, it's better than Mac OSX, because you don't
have to juggle windows, you don't have to make sure the windows don't steal focus from
each other.
So that's what I really like about Windows 8 as a touchscreen interface for small screens."
"So, in terms of battery life, I get about the same between the Surface Pro and the Macbook
Air, although of course with the new processors for the Macbook Air that equation changes
quite significantly."
"So here's what I don't like about the Surface Pro compared to a laptop like the Macbook
Air.
"
"Firstly, I got the type cover for the Surface Pro, and although it works, and it's OK, and
it's a passable keyboard, it's not nearly as nice to type on as the 11 inch Macbook
AIr's keyboard, or I guess any other laptop keyboard, just because there's not much travel
in the keys, they're a little spongey, and because the type cover is not a kind of rigid
element of the whole body of the Surface Pro, unless you're typing on a flat surface like
a desk or anything like that, the type cover can get quite flakey in how it picks up key
presses, so it's not fantastic to be using it in a casual kind of position, compared
to the 11 inch Macbook Air where you can kind of use the keyboard lying up or sitting down
or anything like that, and the keyboard is much nicer that way.
"
"The other thing about the Surface Pro is that the kickstand is not variable in angle,
it only goes out one angle.
It can be quite hard to find a good position sometimes with the Surface Pro unless, again,
you're sitting on a flat desk."
"The other thing is that although it's relatively light, all the weight distribution on the
Surface Pro is in the screen rather than divided between the screen and the keyboard, so it's
very difficult again to use on any situation where it's not sitting on a desk because it
kind of tips forward, or backwards just because the screen is relatively heavy compared to
this surface here."
"So as a laptop, although you can get away with it, I don't recommend the Surface Pro
if you're going to do a lot of typing, it's just not well suited to that kind of thing."
"So how does the Surface Pro compare to a tablet computer?
Well, you can probably guess my answer, because you can see that I've wiped my Android tablet,
and I'm preparing to sell it to a friend.
I actually got this Nexus 7 as a replacement for my 11 inch Macbook Air, when I poured
a cup of water on it and I thought it was never going to come back, but after a few
months I managed to bring it back - the Macbook Air - from the dead, so since then I've never
actually really used the Nexus 7."
"I don't actually think tablets are all that useful for me personally, because you can't
really type very well on them, they're not great for multitasking, so I don't really
like them, I don't really think that you can get a great deal of work done on them, and
anything that you can do on a tablet, you can do on your smartphone.
So, I've never been a big fan of the tablet operating systems, even after using them for
a bit."
"In that respect, I think the Surface Pro absolutely blows, blows away any tablet operating
system.
Just with Windows 8 Professional, you can run desktop applications, you can multitask
with all these panels, and it works much nicer.
Even though it's heavier, and, you know, it's harder to use with one hand, and the battery
life is a little less, I think that this is a great device to use as a tablet computer."
"That said, the Surface Pro obviously costs many many many times the price of just your
casual, internet web browsing tablet, so if you just wanted to do casual web browsing
and content consumption, tablets are probably a better bet than getting a one thousand dollar
machine to, you know, watch movies and browse the web on."
"So, lastly, how does the Surface Pro compare to a dedicated sketching device like the Wacom
Intuos tablet?
Well, this is actually my favorite aspect of the Surface Pro, and this is where I think
anyone who does art, or design really should be looking at the Surface Pro as a really
wonderful tool, I am an art student, and I would have loved to have had a machine like
the Surface Pro during my undergraduate years, it would have been fantastic."
"The best part of this machine is that, with the stylus and the touch screen, you basically
get a cheap Wacom Cintiq tablet, except the whole computer is built into it, and what's
really nice is that you can do sketching just by, you know, directly drawing on the screen
and it becomes almost like a magic sketchbook where you can kind of zoom in and out, and
adjust the paper and erase infinite amount of times, so it's really nice that way."
"One bad thing is that the stylus on the Surface Pro does require some calibration, and the
default calibration routine on the Surface Pro is not very well explained and it's not
very accurate, so I might make another video that just explains how you can accurately
calibrate this stylus."
"The other unfortunate thing is that for programs like Photoshop, these are still Windows 8
desktop applications, and they haven't been optimized for a touchscreen interface, so
on this 1080p screen on the Surface Pro, all the UI elements are absolutely tiny and it's
very hard to actually select anything.
Now, once you blow it up to a big screen like this, it's actually quite usable, but if you're
going to do on-the-go kind of stuff, I haven't really been trying to use Photoshop on the
Surface Pro tablet yet, just because the screen elements are too small.
"
"One thing, one really nice things about the Surface Pro screen is that once you calibrate
it using a hardware calibrator, it's really colour accurate, you can read some of the
measurements on Anandtech [see video description for link], it's a really nice screen and it's
almost as good as a full-sized desktop screen in terms of colour accuracy.
"
"So overall, do I recommend the Surface Pro?
Well, if you're looking to replace a laptop, and you're going to do a lot of typing, then
no, I don't think the Surface Pro is a great option."
"If you're looking for something like a tablet that you can use casually, but you can also
do a great deal of work on, I think the Surface Pro is really nice in that respect, and if
you can think of things that you want to do with this stylus and the digitizer, if you
can think of how this would improve your workflow, absolutely, I think that you should jump on
the Surface Pro, or at least have a play around with it, because, you know, this Wacom digitizer
is what, in my opinion, is what makes the Surface Pro a really kind of magical device."
"If you can't think of any reason why you would need a stylus, then, honestly, I don't
think you should get the Surface Pro, it's simple as that.
For me, I really like using the Surface Pro, it's going to be a keeper for me, I'm going
to sell off the Nexus and the Wacom tablet, but I'm probably going to keep the Macbook
Air, just for those situations where I know I'm going to do a lot of typing."
"That said, this is going to be my go-to computer, I'm going to take it around in a bag with
me all day, it's a really nice machine, and, despite everything that everyone has said
about Windows 8, coming from a Mac user, for six and a half years, I think that it's actually
a pretty good operating system."
"Anyway, thanks for watching this video, I hope it's helped you, if you're kind of curious
about the Surface Pro and you're wondering if it's the right machine for you.
Thanks to everyone who's liked my other videos and subscribed to my channel, I have a Facebook
page now, so you can check me out at facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing , and also I tweet at twitter at @lachlikesathing,
so hit me up and we can have a conversation or, sorry, a conversation about gear.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your week."