Interesting Review on Microsoft Surface Tablet RT


Recommended Posts

I find chris annoying. His 'review' was pathetic and opinion of the surface thereafter, misleading. He never gave it a chance or used it for what it can do. Windows RT, Office, preinstalled apps, and the recovery partition taking up half of the capacity is crappy and maybe a shocker at first but when you think about it, it is to be expected. You can remove the recovery partition and put it on a usb to free up some space.

this is just one video out of many out there that shows what surface can do that no other tablet can.

I find chris annoying. His 'review' was pathetic and opinion of the surface thereafter, misleading. He never gave it a chance or used it for what it can do. Windows RT, Office, preinstalled apps, and the recovery partition taking up half of the capacity is crappy and maybe a shocker at first but when you think about it, it is to be expected. You can remove the recovery partition and put it on a usb to free up some space.

this is just one video out of many out there that shows what surface can do that no other tablet can.

Nice.

this is just one video out of many out there that shows what surface can do that no other tablet can.

No other tablet can do that? Ahhh... You can use a PS3 gamepad with an Android tablet and output the result using HDMI out to your projector & receiver...

No other tablet can do that? Ahhh... You can use a PS3 gamepad with an Android tablet and output the result using HDMI out to your projector & receiver...

Very, very true.

No other tablet can do that? Ahhh... You can use a PS3 gamepad with an Android tablet and output the result using HDMI out to your projector & receiver...

hmmm true true but the surface can extend your monitor not just clone it. so uhhh while he was playing riptide on the projector he could have had a movie running on the surface... or whatever he wanted.

  • 4 weeks later...

I must have missed Part Two where he itemizes how its clearly inferior to the iPad at that price point (or why he banters the $600 cost when he didn't even buy the cover). More reasons I don't trust anything he has to say. His stated bias for an appliance is clear going in - finish over features.

He also turned what I think are strengths into weaknesses (external storage, USB support (and the Desktop mode to explore it), HDMI - All things that scream 'computer' I guess. He still never was clear on why he's 'meh' 75% of the time.

-Harping on window 'redraw' - really?

-Storage is a non-issue for me, though I guess I can see how some may be confused. (How big is iOS/Android's footprint for comparision?)

-Comparing running Office locally to OnlIve Desktop w/iPad > clear case of bias when to me its clearly the inferior solution (along with no official RDP app). Another strength described as a weakness. (The desktop is fine with a stylus or the touchpad cover, neither of which he used)

The only points I agree on are its two headed nature and the inclusion of Defender on RT.

I just can't believe anybody likes listening to this guy, doesn't matter if you agree with him or not.

His personality is horrible and he is so full of himself. He gets on my nerves about 2 minutes into the video.

Why would he try the Surface, not get the touch cover and then complain Office isn't great.

He wanted to make it sound unbiased, but his contempt for MS shines through the whole way if you ask me.

Only point I agree with is that there should be no desktop on WinRT, but I guess they were not ready with everything to make this possible

  • Like 2

I just can't believe anybody likes listening to this guy, doesn't matter if you agree with him or not.

His personality is horrible and he is so full of himself. He gets on my nerves about 2 minutes into the video.

Why would he try the Surface, not get the touch cover and then complain Office isn't great.

He wanted to make it sound unbiased, but his contempt for MS shines through the whole way if you ask me.

Only point I agree with is that there should be no desktop on WinRT, but I guess they were not ready with everything to make this possible

I agree, The Metro/Modern or whatever it's called this month UI has a version of OneNote for it which leads me to believe that Microsoft may be getting a version of Office 2013 RT and the utilities the use the desktop ready and will remove the desktop in a future update.

I firmly believe that Pirillo is just a whiny Apple douchebag.

Personally think it's a good review. He comes across as honest, impartial, and believable. He gives credit to the product where it's due, and slates it where it doesn't. Good stuff.

First of all, it's full blown Windows. What did they expect? Second, I've been saying for a while now, they should have stripped out the legacy baggage. There's no reason Win RT needs to include all the legacy baggage Windows still carries.

Which is precisely why Microsoft should have developed Windows for tablets separately. As keeps being said, this product bastardisation is a compromise that helps nobody. You simply cannot trim Windows down to give it the same installation footprint as iOS and Android without breaking compatibility with practically every non Metro app on the market. The disk footprint of the RT bits would be extremely small too, possibly even smaller than iOS and Android.

Personally think it's a good review. He comes across as honest, impartial, and believable. He gives credit to the product where it's due, and slates it where it doesn't. Good stuff.

Really!!! Are you sure you were watching the same video as everyone else?

You must be willing to overlook the major flaws in his review, such as, slating Office 2013 RT when he bought Surface without a touch cover or the fact that he only used it for a week and didn't even bother to update Office from the preview to the final release, how about the fact that he complained about the screen redraw issues constantly when I seriously doubt he even got the latest updates for it. He then makes a monumental f*ck up in another video by trying to compare a first gen Surface to a fourth gen iPad.

He purposely made Surface look bad to suit himself, how is that "honest, impartial and believable"?

More to the point, have you ever used a Microsoft Surface?

First of all, it's full blown Windows. What did they expect? Second, I've been saying for a while now, they should have stripped out the legacy baggage. There's no reason Win RT needs to include all the legacy baggage Windows still carries.

I seem to recall that was the original plan. Seems like Office 2013 didn't have metro apps built for it yet, so if I had to guess that is why a lot of legacy stuff got tacked onto Win RT. Could be completely wrong about that though.

If that is an honest and impartial review then you should find it equally believable that I'm the King of England.

Per the Office thing, one thing that will really get under my skin (in light of the WP7 fiasco) is if they don't give early adopters a free or heavily discounted upgrade path to the RT edition if it appears along side the iOS release. That is a good question though, if they didn't need Office as a launch feature, would they have needed the Desktop and all the compromises (both ways) that it entailed?

If that is an honest and impartial review then you should find it equally believable that I'm the King of England.

Per the Office thing, one thing that will really get under my skin (in light of the WP7 fiasco) is if they don't give early adopters a free or heavily discounted upgrade path to the RT edition if it appears along side the iOS release. That is a good question though, if they didn't need Office as a launch feature, would they have needed the Desktop and all the compromises (both ways) that it entailed?

The RT edition of Office has already been released and it's free to download the update that turns it from the preview into the final release.

His voice is so weasely, he shouldn't be recording his voice. I can't bring myself to believe anything he says because of how uncomfortable his voice is to my ears.

Also a lot of anti Microsoft bullswag in there too. If he had the touch cover anything on the desktop would be OK to use.

The RT edition of Office has already been released and it's free to download the update that turns it from the preview into the final release.

True, but I'm referring to the more simplistic (and feature light) mobile version like on my WP7 (and I assume iOS's).

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Flameshot 14.0 Final by Razvan Serea Flameshot is a free and open-source, cross-platform tool to take screenshots with many built-in features to save you time. Using Flameshot is as simple as launching, dragging the selection box to cover the area you want to capture, making annotations as needed in on-screen and saving the shot to your computer, all with a very simple and straightforward interface. Flameshot allows users to simply upload their screenshots directly to the cloud in order to easily share it with others. You can upload your image directly to Imgur with a single click and share the URL with others. In-app screenshot editing - You can choose to add an arrow mark, highlight text, blur a section (blur or pixelate an area), add a text, draw something, add a rectangular/circular shaped border, add an incrementing counter number, and add a solid color box with Flameshot's built-in editing tools. Command-line interface (CLI) - Flameshot has several commands you can use in the terminal without launching the GUI via a command line interface. The command line interface lets you script Flameshot and use it as the subject of key binds. Flameshot 14.0 release notes: This release brings major improvements to multi-monitor support, fractional scaling support, new capture workflows, and a long list of bug fixes across all platforms. Changelog: New Multi-Monitor Capture Workflow New monitor selection screen before capture for better multi-monitor and mixed-scaling support. Option to auto-capture the monitor under the cursor (X11 & Windows). Tray menu can directly select a monitor. Linux Improvements XDG Desktop Portal is now the primary screenshot method. Added legacy X11 fallback option for minimal window managers. New D-Bus capture API for scripting and automation. Windows Enhancements Global screenshot hotkeys now supported (not limited to Print Screen). New portable mode stores settings next to the executable. Clipboard now always uses PNG format for better compatibility. CLI & Platform Updates Redesigned flameshot screen command with per-monitor capture support. Added native Nix Flake support. More compact launcher UI and improved update notifications. Major Fixes Multiple Wayland stability fixes, including KDE Plasma crash fixes. Clipboard compatibility improvements for GNOME, Wayland, X11, Windows, and macOS. Fixed D-Bus hangs, capture crashes, and HiDPI region issues. Other Changes Dropped Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) support. Updated translations and build infrastructure. Intel macOS builds are no longer provided. [full release notes] Download: Flameshot 14.0 | 18.1 MB (Open Source) Download: Flameshot Portable | 53.0 MB Links: Flameshot Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 by Razvan Serea Helium is a private, fast, and honest Chromium-based web browser — built for people, with love. It offers the best privacy by default, unbiased ad-blocking, and a clean experience free from bloat and noise. Proudly based on Ungoogled-Chromium, Helium removes Google’s clutter while keeping a fast, efficient development pipeline. With thoughtful touches like native !bangs and split view, Helium is a people-first, fully open-source browser that puts control back in your hands. Privacy, security, and control come first. Ads, trackers, and third-party cookies are blocked automatically, HTTPS is enforced everywhere, and all Chromium extensions work seamlessly — while Google can’t track your activity. Helium’s 13,000+ offline-ready !bangs let you jump straight to sites or AI tools like ChatGPT instantly. Open-source, people-first, and unbiased, Helium delivers a browsing experience that’s fast, secure, and free from noise, ads, and compromises. Helium Browser key features: Performance Fast, efficient, and lightweight — built on Chromium’s optimized engine. Energy-saving and consistent — stays fast over time without slowing down. No bloat — stripped of unnecessary components for maximum speed. Minimalist interface — compact, clean, and distraction-free. Customizable toolbar — hide elements you don’t need. Smooth and stable — no flicker, lag, or animation glitches. Comfort-focused experience — intuitive and unobtrusive. Privacy & Security Best privacy by default — blocks ads, trackers, phishing, and third-party cookies. Unbiased ad-blocking — powered by community filters and uBlock Origin. No telemetry or analytics — zero background web requests on first launch. Strict HTTPS enforcement — warns for insecure sites. Passkeys supported — modern authentication made simple. No built-in password manager or cloud sync — your data stays yours. Extension Compatibility Full Chromium extension support — including MV2 extensions. Anonymized Chrome Web Store requests — Google can’t track extension installs. Extended MV2 support — maintained for as long as possible. Smart Features Native !bangs — browse faster using 13,000+ offline-ready shortcuts. AI integration — use !chatgpt and others directly from the address bar. Offline functionality — bangs work without an Internet connection. Philosophy People-first design — open source, transparent, and community-driven. No ads, no noise, no bias — privacy and honesty over profit. Helium Browser 0.13.4.1 changelog: 0a4f1149 revision: bump to 4 (#1969) 4848de1f helium/core: enable the chromium screenshot feature (#1968) e0dec3f5 onboarding: integrate strings to i18n system (#1948) 417fa5bc i18n: fix newline parsing for onboarding 7a339b39 i18n: add foraged translations for onboarding 4f090cff i18n/generate: add handling for onboarding strings bfe48d58 i18n_apply: manually override parent grd logic for onboarding strings ab214e3c onboarding: bump in deps, wire up grdp afa6a059 helium/core: disable pdf infobar feature (#1965) eba585e7 helium/ui/vertical: fix new tab button alignment and icon size (#1964) 6ecfc9e0 helium/ui/tabs: fix horizontal tab hover background color (#1963) 3db87dc0 helium/ui/tabs: fix new tab button hover/press colors (#1962) 6bbdcc3e helium/ui: improve tab group UI in all layouts (#1961) 53deb314 helium/ui/tabs: enable tab group hover cards e93aece7 helium/ui/vertical: fix tab group appearance, prevent line overlap 629f5495 helium/ui/tabs: restore solid group header colors, enable new colors 961c962e helium/ui/tabs: move horiz tab group underline to bottom, make it thick c96deab6 merge: update to chromium 149.0.7827.155 (#1959) 36db56b4 i18n: update source.gen.json 5ce006ae patches: refresh for chromium 149.0.7827.155 b4c1ea62 merge: update ungoogled-chromium to 149.0.7827.155 4e5e8671 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.155 08a3e7da helium/ui/layout: disable mute on collapsed vertical tabs (#1778) a0a5bbaf helium/core: simplify context menu and prevent huge widths (#1951) c4732aac devutils/i18n: add forage command (#1944) 11d16986 devutils/i18n: add an option to translate using local CLI tools (#1942) d820c3a2 i18n/prompt: tighten translation rules to prevent common errors (#1940) cf827007 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.114 6e3d5164 Update to Chromium 149.0.7827.102 Download: Helium 64-bit | Portable 64-bit |~100.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Helium ARM64 | Portable ARM64 Links: Helium Home Page | macOS | Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      eurospharma62 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      579
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      183
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      75
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      73
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!