Hardware
None of this might make sense until you touch one yourself, but it's our job to at least help you understand: the Surface really is as rigid and lightweight as Microsoft's executive team promised us it would be. The magnesium casing makes it wholly inflexible, and we mean that in the best possible way. As thin and light as it is (9.3mm / 1.5 pounds, to be exact), there isn't a hint of give in the whole chassis. Were it not for fear of scratching that 10-inch, full HD display, we wouldn't have too many qualms about accidentally dropping it: the magnesium is as smooth and scratch-resistant as it is sturdy. Heck, even after dozens of tech writers picked it up, we didn't notice any fingerprints.
The kickstand, too, is as thin as they say (3mm thick on the RT model). It folds out in a controlled, reassuring motion; we're not worried about this snapping off. It also seems like it'll take a little more than a breath of air to make the whole thing knock over. Our first thought was that the stand looks like the fold-out back to a frame, but unlike a frame, which might fall face-down on your shelf, the tablet stayed put, even after rigorous handling from all the press here.
Display
After seeing so many 1366 x 768 Windows 8 tablets at Computex, we were all too pleased to lay eyes on a 1080p panel. It is indeed crisp, but you know what's even more impressive? The viewing angles. Try following along with a demo, standing off to the side while someone else has his turn taking photos from dead-center. Turns out, it's no so hard. Factor in that kickstand and you've got the ingredients for some easy movie watching between friends.
Performance
As for performance, we'll be honest: tech press were treated to about two minutes at each of several stations, some of which demoed design, and not so much the power that lies inside that thin frame. (Microsoft has only said that the ARM chip is made by NVIDIA. No one ever said it's a Tegra 3 SoC, but that is naturally our best bet.) Still, in our brief hands-on the optically bonded screen was incredibly responsive to our various taps and swipes. Fast, slick and very, very promising. Now if only we could see the Core i5-powered Pro model in action. As for pen input, it's very possible, including PDF mark-ups and all, but we didn't get to see that demoed today. Sorry, Charlies.
Touch Cover and Type Cover keyboards
Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a working demo of the keyboards. As in, we weren't permitted to type sample sentences and feel what it's like to hammer out characters on a flat keyboard, or on keys that have just 1.5mm of travel. Still, they were on display in the demo area and we did get to, you know, put our fingers on them. Starting with the flat one (that'd be the Touch Cover), the keys have a slightly scratchy surface that seems like it would make one's fingers feel just a bit more anchored. Still, we're curious about the learning curve for a keyboard that's so... what's the opposite of "tactile"?
Interestingly, with the Type Cover, the cushier of the two keyboards, it's still difficult at first blush to tell one key from another if you're not looking down at them. Each manufacturer has a different way of conserving space when building a set of keys for a 10-inch device, and it's clear that Microsoft decided using a chiclet layout would have been inefficient: the keys are packed fairly tightly, with the flat keycaps almost blending into one another. Based on remarks by Steve Ballmer and others during the presentation, it sounds like a lot of thought went into the two keyboards, so we wouldn't be surprised if a large focus group of touch typists were able to prove Redmond's engineers right. But having played with both, we don't imagine this being like settling in with a new laptop, or even a Transformer-style keyboard dock. You might have to re-learn how to type (or at least teach your brain to fuhgeddaboutit and trust your fingers to land where they're supposed to.)
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/h...or-windows-rt/
2012-06-18, 08:24 PM
being just software video emulation on the VM.
Linear Mode
