[Anjohl]

I bought a Surface RT during Black Friday sales for $200, and after tax and buying a keyboard cover I was out $250. The device is wonderful. Beautiful interface, 10.6 screen, full USB, full Windows interface, but like the Playbook, limited apps. Key apps like Netflix are there, plus the browser will work too.

The processor can be a little sluggish at times, but overall the device is wonderful for those wanting a great productivity device that is also fun. I have used mine for ebay listing, and it handled file exploration for photos and such fantastically.

Now, my original intent was to replace an aging Netbook with the Surface, and maybe the playbook as well. At worst, I would combine two devices into one, at worst, I have a much better netbook that can act as a tablet too. The netbook is long gone, used to finance the surface purchase. The playbook is sticking around. I used it this past saturday and today for the first time in months, and I still really like it. I use mine primarily as a comic reader via comixology, and for that purpose alone, it is worth more to me than the paltry price it would fetch on the secondary market.

So in summation, I recommend the Surface, and my Playbook still rules!

[bitek]

Issue is that Windows RT will be gone next year. Microsoft will unify Windows 8 and Windows Mobile into one. I have bad taste after windows phones with 7.5 os. You are right. This is another playbook with no apps and support in the future

Posted via CB10

[Anjohl]

This attitude always make me laugh. Why would I care about future devices or updates being released? The release of the same or similar devices to mine in the future do not impact the usefulness of mine. After MS stops "supporting" the Surface RT, mine will STILL run flawless MS Office, will STILL allow me to quickly connect/disconnect the magnetic keyboard, will still watch youtube videos, will still be the largest screen on a mainstream tablet, and will still have only cost me $250.

I don't care about brands, I care about products. I do not own stock in MS, I own a MS product. Why do people always conflate the two?!

And about apps, the vast majority are just web sites recompiled to a standalone app. I have yet to find a task Surface cannot do, except itunes, which is Apples fault, not MS's, and work aroundable, if desired.

[bloodyrek]

No

Microsoft Surface = Microsoft Surface

Playbook II = Doesn't exist yet.

[bitek]

This attitude always make me laugh. Why would I care about future devices or updates being released? The release of the same or similar devices to mine in the future do not impact the usefulness of mine. After MS stops "supporting" the Surface RT, mine will STILL run flawless MS Office, will STILL allow me to quickly connect/disconnect the magnetic keyboard, will still watch youtube videos, will still be the largest screen on a mainstream tablet, and will still have only cost me $250.

I don't care about brands, I care about products. I do not own stock in MS, I own a MS product. Why do people always conflate the two?!

And about apps, the vast majority are just web sites recompiled to a standalone app. I have yet to find a task Surface cannot do, except itunes, which is Apples fault, not MS's, and work aroundable, if desired.

Hardware without software is worthless. What is the point of paying $200 for device which will have no support in near future. Would be better to get surface Pro then?

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

[badiyee]

If I look at it, I can't really equate the MS Surface RT as the PlayBook 2.

It is like something that's "there" but not "there" at the same time. Like a Shroedinger's cat. IT is if you see what IT is, but it is also not what it is.

My gripe about RT is that if, it could have an unlocked boot (that secure thing that MSFT installed so as to make sure people were not dualbooting or even replacing the windows surface OS with Android OS) so that I could tinker, and somehow put in together a frankenstein hybrid of Android OS, Ubuntu and Windows (I have my own use case, believe me).


Secondly, was the so called app-gap. i wished there were clear, definite alternatives to internet explorer though. (maybe there is some today, not sure, but I checked at july, and the sales rep says "it comes with IE, nothing else fits". But otherwise, I will be more than happy just for the MS Office.

[kbz1960]

No, the surface has support and a good company behind it. Light on apps for now but they do have more of the "wanted" apps.

[John Hernandez4]

To tell you the truth, you can't compare microsoft's products to blackberry's products. One is a worldwide powerful brand and company, the other one in oxygen support, literally dying. Even if the RT died and no future products are made, you will still have support, patches and even upgrades for more longer than what blackberry did to the playbook.

[beman39]

Issue is that Windows RT will be gone next year. Microsoft will unify Windows 8 and Windows Mobile into one. I have bad taste after windows phones with 7.5 os. You are right. This is another playbook with no apps and support in the future

Posted via CB10

OMG you have no idea what your talking about, please people don't listen to this poster.... RT will be around even when MS unifies it's OS, what they will do is unifiy the windows phone to RT and have a symbiotic unification with windows desktop/laptop and all other devices like xbox 1.... and as for the app selection there is over 150,000 apps which you have a FULL IE11 so some apps are not required! then you have apps that you don't need for file exploration and manipulation because the RT handles that already, which you require on apple/android devices because there is no file system application built into those devices... yes crapple/android has more apps in their stores because they have been around longer than MS (which has only been around almost 2 yrs) BUT they have serious redundancy with their apps meaning they have 500 fart apps or 500 flashlight apps and 500 conversion apps which kinda makes it a PITA. just an FYI btw, the MS app store is the fastest growing app store of all the OS and has more apps at this time than apple /android did at the same time of it's infancy....

[MartyRC]

Yeah, I agree with the others who say it is not the new playbook.

Microsoft will continue to support the Surface and they have the financial capabilities to do so.

[fschmeck]

I've had the opportunity to acquire a surface rt tablet and use it for the last month, and while at first it was great, some things have become so frustrating that my Playbook is still my "go to" device for general browsing and content consumption. This is an Asus Vivobook, but spec wise the same as a Surface RT (Tegra 3):

What I like:
- boot time is much faster
- Love the Start screen.
- Can't beat Word and Excel built in
- the browser supports more sites
- more modern apps, and more coming all the time
- some nice news apps (news 360, etc are more modern than PB versions)

What I dislike:
- miss swiping to wake up. Can't quite figure out how you wake up the RT; sometimes you hit the power button, others you have to hold it for 8 seconds because it powered off completely?
- auto complete on keyboard is not as good as the PB for me at least
- The full screen apps are good, but many still need a KB and mouse.
- inconsistent interface pretty much seems to fall apart when you go in desktop mode
- Office is great, but totally not "tablet friendly". Next to unusable with your fingers only.
- Coming from a PB, there are not enough gesture based controls. I use the Origami browser, and once I got used to doing everything with gestures it is hard to go back.
- Battery life is not good.
- yes there are lots of apps, but almost no quality control. The amount of terrible apps that barely function, yet use official logos leading you to believe they are official is amazing. Of course, PlayBook apps have their issues but maybe it does not seem as bad because there are fewer options.

Maybe the newer RTs solve some of these issues, but until I have a chance to play with them I'm going to continue using the PB as my primary device.