I have used many tablet and on personal note I love the Surface RT. However is just me as my needs for tablets as follow:
- Communication - Skype, email and calendar
- Able to do simple Microsoft Office such as Word, Powerpoint, Excel
- Great screen for movies and music (need this as I travel a lots so night or in flight can watch movies)
- Easy to expand the storage (at least must have USB or SD card slot)
- Output option like HDMI, VGA is a good plus
- Keyboard options
- Battery must last at least 8 hours
Before Surface RT, I used iPad (still has one at home), Android tablet (now shrink to Note 2) and Windows such as Fujitsu and HP. Of all I still find that for a working tablet to function properly as a working notebook, if needed, the OS has to be Windows.
For me to get a full fledge Windows 8 tablet will be too expansive and if I get scale down version such as those with Atom CPU will be too under power as I tend to treat the Windows Pro version a notebook rather than tablet. So RT is just a nice mix for me. I evaluated Surface Pro, Thinkpad 2 Helix and Asus Transformer Book, off course Surface RT too. As based on my usage for tablet plus cost, Surface RT is the most cost effective for me.
Now I already got back the ROI of buying the RT as I hardly carry my office notebook home or oversea (unless I need to do serious presentations, excel or ERP). I have tried Surface in my last couple of travels (work or holiday) and RT able to perform all the tasks I required to do be it work or personal.
However, Windows RT is not Windows 8 and might be a beast for someone to get used to it as the learning curve is very high. Firstly, Windows RT is a very scale down version of Windows 8 which is good as requires less power to operates. Most of the office stuffs might need a workaround ways to have the tasks perform perfectly (that is the same as iPad too) but as I have little technical know-how, so it is easier for me to tweak the RT to perform like Windows Pro.
Back to Surface RT
I got mine when it first launched in Singapore. Mine is Surface RT with 32GB memory and the Touch Keyboard. I also added 2 MicroSD 64GB to my set and now the total memory is 160GB which is still cheaper than to buy a 64GB version and add the SD cards. As said, I tweaked my RT to set one of the 64GB as internal memory. So overall the performance is better than I expected. Another plus point is of RT is that the set comes with Office RT (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and I do not need to pay extra to get Microsoft Office.
Performance of RT
1. Imitate full fledge Windows
I used 2 apps to perform this task. The apps are Teamviewer and Splashtop. With either app, I can use office software such as ERP, Lotus Notes, etc. With the apps, I can leave my office notebook in office and all the company data is safe should I lost my tablet.
2. Personal tasks
I able to access all my emails (personal or business) in one device and I also able to backup my photos when travelling. Watching movies with Surface RT is great as the screen is fantastic plus the sound is good too. For sound, I normally use an external speaker or headphone.
3. Overall
My only dislike of Surface is the power charging, the set uses 24W which means that I cannot charge it using any Battery/Power bank as the currently battery/USB charge max output is 21W. So I always need to bring the charger for charging. Everything else is great as per the advertisement.
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