Microsoft Surface

lexmarq

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how much ?

50 SGD

Can you elaborate on the typing effectiveness of the touch cover?

I find that on the touch cover, it tends to miss a lot of my keys (i.e. not sensitive enough) as you have to hit the keys at a certain strength for it to be registered. And of course, I do find myself pressing the adjacent alphabets quite often (maybe my typing suck, but I consider myself a decent typer). Could barely hit above 40-50 wpm on a typing speed test, but could hit 97 wpm with my typecover.

If you are intending to type occasionally, I think touchcover is okay. But if you are intending to type often, say excel or word, I would recommend the type cover. It is not much heavier nor thicker than the type cover, other the fact that only black is available for the type cover.
 
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murtabakx

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I find that on the touch cover, it tends to miss a lot of my keys (i.e. not sensitive enough) as you have to hit the keys at a certain strength for it to be registered. And of course, I do find myself pressing the adjacent alphabets quite often (maybe my typing suck, but I consider myself a decent typer). Could barely hit above 40-50 wpm on a typing speed test, but could hit 97 wpm with my typecover.

If you are intending to type occasionally, I think touchcover is okay. But if you are intending to type often, say excel or word, I would recommend the type cover. It is not much heavier nor thicker than the type cover, other the fact that only black is available for the type cover.

Hey lexmarq,

I currently have an acer w700 folio and I just posted in the w700 thread my short experience with the typing (in short: frustrating and not comparable with an ordinary laptop, although still manageable if I slow way down).

I was wondering how you would compare the type cover with an ordinary laptop keyboard and the w700 folio (if u tried it). Key things are responsiveness/sensitivity/accuracy, comfort.

Also, do you know if the type cover can be bought separately and fitted on a acer w700?

Thank you. :)
 

lexmarq

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My last laptop was more than 4 years ago, so I don't really have a benchmark to compare with. But what I would say is that, the type cover while alot better than the touch cover, will never beat a bigger physical keyboard in terms of accuracy and sensitivity.

I guess it's portability vs comfort. The small size of these portable keyboard will always make typing not as comfortable, but that's why I always leave the heavy typing to my desktop. Every keyboard needs some time to get used to I guess.

Oh, and the type cover works specifically with surface only. You may want to consider the Microsoft mobile wedge keyboard though.

wmkwafercoverslatesidev1-1343229917.jpg


This is the wedge keyboard. The cover for the keyboard can double up as a stand for the tablet. You can go challenger shops to try out it out. (i.e. the spacing between the keys, the size etc)
 
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balzebub

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any users of the RT tablet share his or her experience? Is the office suite included with RT good enough for word, excel and powerpoint. No outlook right?
 

lexmarq

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any users of the RT tablet share his or her experience? Is the office suite included with RT good enough for word, excel and powerpoint. No outlook right?

The office suite in windows RT is basically the home and student edition. It is almost the same as the word, excel, PowerPoint in the professional edition (i know that macros isn't available in the excel in student and home edition).

Performance issue, as long as you don't open very complicated spreadsheet, you should be fine. I am able to type full report for my school assignment on it.

And yes, no outlook included.
 

balzebub

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The office suite in windows RT is basically the home and student edition. It is almost the same as the word, excel, PowerPoint in the professional edition (i know that macros isn't available in the excel in student and home edition).

Performance issue, as long as you don't open very complicated spreadsheet, you should be fine. I am able to type full report for my school assignment on it.

And yes, no outlook included.

Hmm that means i need to get a table that runs full win 8 for outlook if i want to use it for work.
 

cloud77

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I was the 101st in q, was sad at first but they told me 101 onwards will still get the powerbank so i stayed at the q. then lo and behold after 30 mins of waiting, a staff approached me and was told that it was my lucky night. apparently someone left the q so i became the 100th! that made my evening!!! :s12: they even shook my hand and congratulated me (that was too much though hehe) :s13:

got the 64GB option + cyan cover. i noticed most buyers bought the 32GB (which was not surprising!)

you are very lucky then, the 100 bucks voucher can be used to buy the cyan cover. I got the 64GB RT and Cyan cover too. The cover is more like protection rather than using it for typing as I am quite used to the virtual keyboard, just like ipad.
 

murtabakx

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My last laptop was more than 4 years ago, so I don't really have a benchmark to compare with. But what I would say is that, the type cover while alot better than the touch cover, will never beat a bigger physical keyboard in terms of accuracy and sensitivity.

I guess it's portability vs comfort. The small size of these portable keyboard will always make typing not as comfortable, but that's why I always leave the heavy typing to my desktop. Every keyboard needs some time to get used to I guess.

Oh, and the type cover works specifically with surface only. You may want to consider the Microsoft mobile wedge keyboard though.

wmkwafercoverslatesidev1-1343229917.jpg


This is the wedge keyboard. The cover for the keyboard can double up as a stand for the tablet. You can go challenger shops to try out it out. (i.e. the spacing between the keys, the size etc)

Hey lexmarq,

Thanks for the reply.

The wedge does look more similar to a conventional keyboard in terms of the key-depth; but sadly it looks a lot more space-consuming than a typical tablet cover (with keyboard). This would affect portability.

How would you compare the type-cover to the wedge?

Thanks again.
 

lexmarq

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Hey lexmarq,

Thanks for the reply.

The wedge does look more similar to a conventional keyboard in terms of the key-depth; but sadly it looks a lot more space-consuming than a typical tablet cover (with keyboard). This would affect portability.

How would you compare the type-cover to the wedge?

Thanks again.

I did play with the wedge keyboard for a short while before. The pressing of the keys on the wedge keyboard definitely feel more "solid" than that of the surface type cover. The thing is, the surface type cover is only compatible with surface whereas the wedge keyboard is compatible with all windows 8/RT tablet that has Bluetooth.

The reason I chose the type cover is because, like you said, portability, and that it will just work when you click in. The wedge keyboard does require the use of battery though.


But since you are using the acer w700 (I believe), the type cover won't work for you. Regarding the portability, if you get the wedge keyboard + a sleeve, you should be able to replace the folio case for your w700. The sleeve would protect the tablet and the wedge keyboard, which should be able to fit into the sleeve, would double serve as a keyboard and tablet stand.
 
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murtabakx

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I did play with the wedge keyboard for a short while before. The pressing of the keys on the wedge keyboard definitely feel more "solid" than that of the surface type cover. The thing is, the surface type cover is only compatible with surface whereas the wedge keyboard is compatible with all windows 8/RT tablet that has Bluetooth.

The reason I chose the type cover is because, like you said, portability, and that it will just work when you click in. The wedge keyboard does require the use of battery though.


But since you are using the acer w700 (I believe), the type cover won't work for you. Regarding the portability, if you get the wedge keyboard + a sleeve, you should be able to replace the folio case for your w700. The sleeve would protect the tablet and the wedge keyboard, which should be able to fit into the sleeve, would double serve as a keyboard and tablet stand.

Hey lexmarq,

Cool cool, thanks for the tips (yep I use acer w700).; I'll have to personally get a feel of this wedge keyboard. :)
 

keitaro123

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Hi All,

I am currently thinking of getting the surface RT tablet for day to day use for work related purposes.

Any users here use this for work? Basically, i would need to use alot of MS office, just want to know how this compare to a true MS office on a desktop.

Is it safe to say that this actually acts like a laptop in certain ways? like able to use multi window, multi task and such. But unable to install programs.

As for the programs , i understand that there might be ways to work around them, the jailbreaks. Can anyone advise on the jailbreak also?

Overall, i just want to know how can this compare to a very normal laptop that we use for work related purpose.

Thanks for any replies.

Cheers
 

limyw62

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pro

going to china this weekend. worthwhile to get the surface pro there? already launched last week
 

daniel_83

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I read very bad opinions about Surface RT online

Seems like the future of RT is bleak
 

bchew28

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Personally I am quite happy with my Surface RT. I think whether you find the Surface RT useful will depend on your needs and if you have an existing tablet.
 

masotime

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Microsoft should have gone with a Qualcomm chip I think, rather than with nVidia's Tegra 3. Display-wise a 1080p screen like the Pro would have been good, along with support for a stylus.

I find the stylus an awkward device to clip onto the Surface Pro.... instead of doing it in the same style as the keyboard, a slot like how the Galaxy Note does it would have been a better approach I think.

For a pure tablet I still think the iPad gives the best experience, visually and form factor wise. You lose the customizability of an Android device, but that's rather subjective and for most people I think customizability is less critical.

This, of course, excludes the 7-8" market, where things are fuzzier and Apple's iPad mini doesn't really dominate as much as the full sized iPad.
 

lexmarq

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Hi All,

I am currently thinking of getting the surface RT tablet for day to day use for work related purposes.

Any users here use this for work? Basically, i would need to use alot of MS office, just want to know how this compare to a true MS office on a desktop.

Is it safe to say that this actually acts like a laptop in certain ways? like able to use multi window, multi task and such. But unable to install programs.

As for the programs , i understand that there might be ways to work around them, the jailbreaks. Can anyone advise on the jailbreak also?

Overall, i just want to know how can this compare to a very normal laptop that we use for work related purpose.

Thanks for any replies.

Cheers

The office included in RT is almost the same as those installed on a desktop. However, do note that due to the use of the tegra 3 processor, performance will not be as excellent compared to that of a i5 i7 desktop.

Opening and editing very big and complicated docs, there may be some issue of unresponsiveness, but otherwise, the tablet should be able to handle the average documents.

That said, due to the small screen size of the tablet, you may not be as productive compared to a 13.1" or 14" laptop.



p.s. I have owned the surface rt for around 4 months already and I really do love it. It does serve as a good companion device to my win8 desktop, but definitely not as a replacement for a workstation.
 

Red_Cheesepie

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Hey ppl, not sure if any one of you guys experience this. My Surface RT is showing the start screen with 4 rows of tiles, mimicking the full HD start screen on Surface Pro. Then awhile later, no more. why is this so? I think the 4 rows looks good! haha

Edit: Is a technical glitch with the touch cover, but still it is cool! haha no permanent solution to keep it 4 rows , just sharing haha
 
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