The first-ever tablet from Microsoft, Surface RT, stole most of the headlines when the company released the device last fall, but Microsoft still has another, and arguably superior, tablet coming at the end of January: The Surface Pro.
While Microsoft has still yet to confirm an official release date for Pro, other than saying the device would arrive sometime around Jan. 26, the first reviews pouring in for the tablet believe it's far and above better than Surface RT.
Microsoft Surface tablet features
The Surface Pro has a 10.6-inch Clear type Full HD (1920 x 1080) screen with 16:9 widescreen. That means they are among the biggest tablets in the market. If you are not satisfied with the typical 10.1-inch tablet, you can go for the Surface tablet. Along with the touch keyboards with the device, you can turn the machine to a small notebook.
The Surface tablet comes with five Touch Covers. Different from typical keyboards, the Surface keypads provide a smoother typing experience thanks to their touch-based surface. The 3mm Touch Cover can be connected to your Surface tablet with a single magnetic click, so, now you can type text and send messages quite easily.
The Surface tablets mount both front and rear cameras. The front camera, named life cam by Microsoft, makes the tablet ideal for video chatting through Skype or other services. Using the rear camera, you can capture images and video clips.
Microsoft puts forward better memory options with the Surface tablets. The device comes in a 64GB version for $900, and a 128GB version for $1000. Further, you can expand the memory using external memory sticks thanks to microSD card slot.
The Surface's tablet housing features a revolutionary kickstand. Along with fully functioning keyboard and track-pad, the integrated kickstand helps you place the gadget in both portrait or landscape modes.
The Pro version weighs a little more, has a larger solid-state hard drive, and has a higher resolution screen than the RT. "Because it can run full-blown Windows 8, the Surface Pro is as much a laptop, ready for serious productivity and entertainment duty, as it is a traditional tablet," explains CNET.
Reviews
Gizmodo:
Like many, Gizmodo was hugely let down by the Surface RT, but thinks the Pro makes up for the initial missteps of Microsoft's first tablet.
"To be blunt, Surface Pro makes RT look like a mistake. Surface RT was a mistake-but fortunately for Microsoft (and more importantly, for us), Pro makes up for almost every deficiency of its smaller, cheaper sibling. It has the internal power and the physical flexibility to, for real this time, perhaps carve out a whole new category of computer. It could be the device you put in your bag and on your desk above all others. Almost every conceivable facet is superior this time around," says Gizmodo in its review.
"Where the Surface RT's software was embarrassingly spare, well, that's just a non-issue ... The software importance can't be stated enough. Let's overstate it: this is a real computer, and Surface RT was not."
Gizmodo thought the newest offering from Microsoft got just about everything right that Surface RT got wrong.
"But there must be some tradeoffs, right? Right. But not many. Battery life won't be as good due to power-hungrier components. The Pro requires a (quiet) fan. But the biggest worry was size, and I can assure you that Surface Pro is entirely comfortable. I was afraid it'd be a tank, but it's significantly thinner than my MacBook Air, and at 2 pounds, slightly lighter, too... What are you left with? The same lovely design as the RT version, without the most glaring shortcomings," Gizmodo concluded.
PC World:
Where the Surface RT lacked a true Windows 8 experience, and thus didn't perform like a computer, which is was the device's main selling point, the Surface Pro actually does what it purports to do, according to PC World.
"Most importantly, Surface Pro bids adieu to the nonsense of Windows RT, and delivers Windows 8 Pro instead. And that classy, molded magnesium chassis is now stuffed with a Core i5 processor-you know, just like a real PC," said PC World in its review.
What may have blown PC World away most though, was the Pro's obviously better screen resolution.
"The Pro version of Surface delivers a true HD resolution of 1920x1080. This bump in pixel density helps address one of my main gripes with Surface RT: Its unmistakable lack of visual clarity compared to Apple's Retina display products... Every time I held it I noticed and re-noticed its improved pixel density. It's not anything that leaps forward when Surface is propped on a table in workstation mode, but when you're grasping the device in your hands, tablet-style, the improved resolution is obvious, and in your face," the site said.
PC World also loved the innovation of using the Pro with an external monitor.
"We ran Surface RT with an external display, driving a behemoth, high-res monitor via the Pro's Mini DisplayPort adapter. OK, that was a revelation. When attached to an external monitor, the Surface Pro really does become a full PC-and in this mode, the tablet itself can function as a drawing pad for full-fledged graphics applications, thanks to its included pen," said PC World.
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