Go to your nearest Microsoft, Best Buy, or Staples and see the Surface RT for yourself. Pictures do no do it justice, and it will help sustain you during this excruciating wait for the Surface Pro.
I made the trip today just to keep reminding myself why I am waiting. Last night I got a notice from Amazon telling me the HP Envy X2 was available for shipment and delivery on Tuesday (1/8). It was SOOOOOO inviting, with an all aluminum construction, keyboard dock with real keys, HDMI, USB 2, and a full size SD Card slot. But it is Atom, 1366x768, no USB 3, etc. etc. etc.
Playing with the Surface RT, and realizing the Pro will only be .2" thicker and 0.4 lb heavier, I was armed with a little more willpower to wait for the real deal. In fact, if the Surface RT were Atom, I'd probably curb my power desires for the even lighter and more power sipping RT size version... Think about that Mr. Ballmer....
Many writers diss the Surface Pro as too expensive for what you get. I say B*!!$#%&. The Envy X2 comes in at $849, and for $280 more your Surface Pro is smaller, lighter, Core i5 Ivy Bridge, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD, 1920x1080, display port, and USB 3.0. Not even close.
January 29 can't get here a minute too soon - sure hope Microsoft starts pre-orders next week...
Been reading your blog for a couple of months :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in a similar situation looking for a solution. Got an old elitebook...great, reliable laptop except that its not that mobile. Looking for a solution that is mostly very portable and light, has a full windows 8 environment so I can compile code on it etc and if it is a laptop, must convert to a tablet.
Also looking for a graphics engine that can do a bit. I like the Intel integrated HD4000 approach and where it is heading. Its nothing compared to my gaming rig but good for a little laptop. Haswell looks great with it low consumption and supposedly double the performance over the HD4000. Anyhow, so I read and ponder where to go and what to wait for.
One question which will make me look like a complete idiot but anyhow...what is this digitizer you keep talking about?
Thanks.
First of all, thanks for reading and commenting. An active digitizer is a pen for both mouse-like control over small elements, and handwritten input into the computer. All modern touch screens are capacitive, and can support what are known as "capacitive digitizers" - the ones with rather large #8 crayon size rubber tips, or slightly smaller sponge-like material. They are blunt force instruments good for making onscreen selections and broad brush drawing, but not good for "inking" (pen on paper note taking, like OneNote) nor multi-pressure drawing.
ReplyDeleteActive digitizers use either induction coils (Wacom) or battery powered pens (N-Trig and Atmel) to pick up a precise, fine point image, so you can write notes, annotate pages, draw fine lines, or make onscreen selections. Personally, I use the Wacom with my Samsung Series 7 Slate to take client, call, and research notes in OneNote. In fact, OneNote is still Microsoft's best kept secret - you can take tons of handwritten notes and you don't have to convert them to text - they are fully searchable in an indexed database.
There are so many choices today, compared to when most of us broke into the Tablet PC era, where EVERYTHING was at or over $2,000 and frankly not even as good as some of the low end Android stuff today. I can understand your need to ponder (and wonder). For myself, I wouldn't buy a tablet form factor device without an active digitizer. That said, there are many good looking touch screen ultrabooks arriving weekly that may be a solution as well. As you can tell from this blog, I'm dedicated to the Surface Pro for size, function, design, fit, finish, and features. I'm sure something else will catch my eye and favor within the next 6 months, but from my perspective, it is the top of the food chain today.
As for Haswell, I think that will be a late third quarter 2013 development. I'd check out TabletPCReview.com, if you haven't already, for great lively discussions of all of this and more.