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WINDOW SURFACE - A NEW GENERATION TABLET
The super-thin keyboard cover and the satisfying-sounding hinge are all well and good, but what's the Surface tablet actually like to use?
At this stage Microsoft is being very cagey and no-one has had much time using Surface RT yet, but from our experience of trying it out, Microsoft has done exactly what it set out to do.
This is a Windows tablet designed first and foremost to run Windows – and especially the Metro Start screen and Metro-style apps with touch controls – and it does it very well.
Surface Pro is an Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge tablet; it's fast enough for demanding programs like Adobe Lightroom and the touchpad on the keyboard cover means you get the precision of a mouse for fiddly interfaces.
But Surface RT is an ARM tablet, running Microsoft's first version of Windows for RT and the company's first real tablet-friendly operating system.
The good news is that Windows RT feels just like Windows 8 – and it works well on a touchscreen.
The icons of the Start screen and the screens of apps like News scroll smoothly as you swipe across the screen (what Microsoft calls fast and fluid).
Semantic zoom is equally fast and smooth; you can get through a lot of movies in the preview Netflix app to find the one you want and tap to start playing it full screen.
Snapping two applications side by side, so you can read Mail and enjoy photos or Web sites in the 4:3 aspect ratio looks great (apart from widescreen windows) and is also smooth and fast; drag an application from the side and drop it on the side of the screen where you want to see it.
Swiping up from the edge of the Surface tablet's bezel to see the app bar in Metro applications or swiping in from the side of the screen to get the Charm bar is fluid too - you don't have to swipe slowly the way you do on older touchscreen PCs.
Surface RT runs any Metro application, so that's anything in the Windows Store at this point, plus the Windows desktop – but only for desktop IE and the Office applications.
For working with the desktop, touch is fine for dragging windows around and scrolling through documents and Web pages, but if you're working in Excel or one of the other Office 2013 RT Home and Student programs included with Surface RT you'll probably want the touchpad (you probably want the keyboard anyway of course).
Microsoft Surface tablet - portrait mode
Turn Surface RT sideways and it flips the screen instantly and smoothly, although it's not too sensitive – so it doesn't flip back and forth if you angle the screen a little to show it someone.
There's no gratuitous animation as it rotates; you just get the same Start screen or app interface, only in portrait layout.
That works well for the Start screen, because the tiles just rearrange themselves into taller, narrower groups. And documents and Web pages all work well because you can see a full page on screen at once.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Surface RT and Windows RT is how unremarkable they feel.
This is Windows 8 and (some of) the Windows desktop.
If you're at all familiar with Windows 8, Surface RT feels like a nice, fast Windows 8 PC that just happens to have an ARM processor.
We need to try it with more apps and different peripherals to see how far that feeling goes, but so far, using Surface RT is using Windows 8 – with all its strengths and foibles.
Surface Pro has some extras above and beyond the Intel processor and the ability to run all your Windows programs.
The Ivy Bridge Core i5 still needs cooling, so there's a groove around the edge; it's 4mm thicker and 227g heavier and the screen resolution is what Microsoft cryptically calls ClearType Full HD.
It's got DisplayPort instead of HDMI and as well as the two keyboard covers it also comes with an active pen.
This clips onto the side using the same magnets as the power cable, so it doesn't get in the way of the keyboard connections.
In your hands though, Surface Pro looks and feels very much the same – and the Touch Cover and Type Cover fit both interchangeably.
Early verdict
It's a surprise that Microsoft created its own tablet, but it's done a more than decent job of it; far more creative and polished than many Android tablets.
Microsoft has to get the price right – the current thinking is comparable withiPad and 10-inch Android tablets for Surface RT rather than with the 7-inch Kindle Fire – and battery life has to be good.
Surface doesn't feel like an iPad in your hands; it feels like a well-designed Windows tablet crammed with clever touches that make it practical.
But this is the first hurdle in a number to come in the tablet race – sure, the design and construction of the Microsoft Surface tablet is great and in a blind test would fare well against the best the tablet world has to offer.
The next stage is convincing the world that Windows 8 is a comparable tablet OS to iOS and Android, and making it competitive on cost too.
But the first move is a good one – giving choice, an excellent array of hardware and a well-designed tablet range to those that are still unsure whether the current crop of slates can match their needs.
It also sends a message to Microsoft's hardware partners: this is the standard for Windows 8 tablets should adhere to, unless you're going to get seriously competitive on price.
