Windows 8 Tablets: iPad killer? iPad Competitor? Windows Killer?

[chemgear]

Price cuts!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/11/45...let-price-cuts

Microsoft is planning to cut the price of its Surface RT tablets. Sources familiar with Microsoft's Surface plans have revealed to The Verge that the price cut could occur as early as next week, with each model being cut by $150. Microsoft's move to cut prices on its Surface RT tablets follow slow sales, and efforts to sell the devices elsewhere at lower rates

Surface RT 32GB - $349.99
Surface RT 64GB - $449.99
Surface RT 32GB with Touch Cover - $449.99
Surface RT 64GB with Touch Cover - $549.99

[sclitheroe]

I got to set up a Surface RT at work for one of our VIP's, and it's pretty neat - she needed the usual web/mail/calendar/contacts, plus Excel and Remote Desktop - so essentially the RT delivered exactly what she needed.

Everything was going great until she asked how to sort mail by contact rather than by date Had to tell her it's coming (we hope) in RT 8.1, which will include Outlook supposedly.

Overall impression was that they are spiffy units - build quality was nice, the keyboard was decent (we had the clicky one), plugged in a USB mouse and it just worked, etc. I still feel like they are a little bit too large for my needs - a 7-8" device would be great. As a travel laptop replacement device for this user though, it was a great fit.

[Rathji]

For $350, a Windows RT tablet is a very good value.

[Hack&Lube]

I'm still not sold on the RT despite the price cuts. I know there will be some software somewhere down the line that I would be dying to run but it would require x86 architecture and it would drive me crazy.

[Rathji]

It can't be your only device especially, for technical users, but for what most people use a tablet for, it is more than enough. I think of it as a tablet, not a full laptop/PC replacement.

For me, I use it to watch video more often than not, but it is nice to have if I need to make changes to a document or connect to a server. If I need some specific software, I can easily RDP into a PC or the terminal server. I almost never bring my laptop onto a client site anymore because of it.

[ernie]

Still love my Windows 8 laptop. Would love it even more if it was touchscreen. I'm not in the market (yet) for another tablet but when I am a year or so down the road it will get heavy consideration. Fantastic operating system IMO.

[Mike F]

A few months in, I still really like my Surface Pro.

Was laid up for a while after surgery, and being able to connect to my home network and play any video files (mostly .mkv) off my media hard drive using VLC was a sanity saver.

My kingdom for decent battery life, though.

[chemgear]

Nearly a billion dollars, ouch.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/...rface-rt-in-q1

Today, as part of its Q4 earnings report, Microsoft announced that it has incurred a $900 million loss due to its struggling Surface RT tablet. While the company otherwise reported $4.97 billion in earnings from $19.9 billion in revenue, the Surface RT cost the company a significant sum as a result of "inventory adjustments."

[MickMcGeough]

Is the Surface RT really that bad at $349? I'm very tempted to pick one up to replace my token Windows machine (currently collecting dust).

[Rathji]

The main reason you shouldn't is that with Haswell being released, you will be able to get a much better full version Windows tablet that likely has better battery life. It won't be that cheap though.

I use one as my main tablet right now and it handles everything I want it to, since almost every tool I need is available on the Web or through RDP to a desktop/server, depending on where I am.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Is the Surface RT really that bad at $349? I'm very tempted to pick one up to replace my token Windows machine (currently collecting dust).

I don't own one, so I don't have any input, but Paul Thurrott (Windows blogger) has a very clear suggestion.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-rt/s...t-350-time-buy

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I don't own one, so I don't have any input, but Paul Thurrott (Windows blogger) has a very clear suggestion.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-rt/s...t-350-time-buy

Reminds me of the Zune which was also outdated at release.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I don't own one, so I don't have any input, but Paul Thurrott (Windows blogger) has a very clear suggestion.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-rt/s...t-350-time-buy

As soon as he said this, I pretty much disregarded most of what he said:

Immediately, I was struck once again by how horrible the performance is on ARM. Windows RT does everything slowly.

At no point have I ever experienced any slowness of any type on my Surface.

That said, the device does have limitations which I agree with.
- It isn't a top notch laptop, as it won't sit on your lap
- Cheap keyboard is not great, the one with raised keys is apparently much better.
- It is a touch big, which as a tablet sometimes hinders use.
- No Ethernet to USB devices work, except MS adapter
- Can't use x86/64 apps, which can be annoying, but for the majority of users isn't really an issue on a tablet.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by Rathji

- No Ethernet to USB devices work, except MS adapter

Wait - does this include USB drives? One of the uses I had in mind was as a portable media center that I could plug a 1TB external into.

[Rathji]

USB storage drivers all seem to be there, but the specific drivers for the Ethernet to USB adapters I have tried did not exist, and it was not easy to locate one that said it would work. This was at release though, so there is possibly some more options available.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Rathji

- Cheap keyboard is not great, the one with raised keys is apparently much better.

I have the Type keyboard, and it's awesome. Must have for anyone buying a Surface.

[J Diddy]

I officially fell in love with the Surface Pro today. Any word on when a gen 2 model will be released?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Rathji

At no point have I ever experienced any slowness of any type on my Surface.

That said, the device does have limitations which I agree with.
- It isn't a top notch laptop, as it won't sit on your lap
- Cheap keyboard is not great, the one with raised keys is apparently much better.
- It is a touch big, which as a tablet sometimes hinders use.
- No Ethernet to USB devices work, except MS adapter
- Can't use x86/64 apps, which can be annoying, but for the majority of users isn't really an issue on a tablet.

Agreed, and now that a full copy of Office is out, it's a wicked deal. We were chatting about it today and the only thing that stops us from using it for our work machines, really, is that it doesn't include InfoPath, which we use a lot.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Agreed, and now that a full copy of Office is out, it's a wicked deal. We were chatting about it today and the only thing that stops us from using it for our work machines, really, is that it doesn't include InfoPath, which we use a lot.

We should really bug you in another thread, but we need an expose on how MS functions tech-wise internally - do they leverage Office to the nines compared to what you see out in the industry, or is there internal setup the same as any other place, with a mish-mash of PDF forms, email forms, and a smattering of InfoPath? How good is their internal Sharepoint, or is it as clumsy/crummy as most companies deployments? etc, etc.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

We should really bug you in another thread, but we need an expose on how MS functions tech-wise internally - do they leverage Office to the nines compared to what you see out in the industry, or is there internal setup the same as any other place, with a mish-mash of PDF forms, email forms, and a smattering of InfoPath? How good is their internal Sharepoint, or is it as clumsy/crummy as most companies deployments? etc, etc.

We leverage Office a TON and - in my role particularly - InfoPath forms are huge (we use them to track time, opportunities, expenses, and notes for customer engagements). We use shared OneNote files (distributed through SharePoint) to enable 'living' employee handbooks for certain roles. And a lot of our internal tools are based off of Microsoft Dynamics.

We have a lot of SharePoint-powered sites internally, and they do seem to work rather well. With ~100,000 people worldwide, I've only seen a sliver of the internal resources available via SharePoint. All of the "Hey, if you buy product X, you can use feature Y!" stuff, we typically have deployed - at least to some extent - in our own environment.

But yeah, the challenge for me using RT in day-to-day business is simply the inability to use InfoPath and Dynamics. So I use a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch.