Penny Arcade remains one of the most popular online web comic strips. While the Penny Arcade empire has expanded over the years with its three Penny Arcade Expo events, its downloadable games, its Child's Play charity and more, the online strip's creators (writer Jerry Holkins and artist Mike Krahulik) still find the time to create three installments a week.
On Monday, Krahulik, who also goes by the handle "Gabe", wrote an extensive article on his experiences with the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. He tried one out at his local Microsoft Store and then mentioned on Twitter he was interested in testing it out as a drawing platform. Microsoft then sent him one of the currently scarce 128 GB models (as of this writing, the Microsoft Store website is still out of stock of the 128 GB model).
Krahulik gave the Surface Pro a thumbs up in terms of using the tablet for drawing. He did mention the current driver issues with the Surface pen in Adobe Photoshop but installed Sketchbook Pro and said, "Sketching with the Stylus in Sketchbook was awesome." He even posted a video showing a drawing test on the tablet.
In terms of gaming, Krahulik said that he had no issues playing League of Legends and Portal 2, although he did encounter some issues with playing the more graphically intensive Call of Duty: Black Ops II. His overall statement is that the Surface Pro is a "decent little gaming machine." He added, "You’re not going to play stuff like Guild Wars 2 or Skyrim on their max settings but you can play them and I have to say that’s pretty impressive for such a small device."
Krahulik did feel the Surface Pro has low battery life as well as issues with available storage, which we mentioned in our own review of the tablet. Krahulik also felt the Surface Pro can get a bit too hot at times. Even with those flaws, he says that overall "the Surface Pro is actually a great piece of hardware" and would recommend it for digital artists who are looking for an alternative to a digital drawing product such as the Wacom Cintiq 12WX.
Source: Penny Arcade
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