Was invited recently with some other content developers to an official Microsoft hosted review and demo of the company's new Surface Pro tablet. It *is* impressive. Solid state hard drive, full USB and HDMI functionality, Windows 8 desktop OS (thus fully MS Office) capable, and Flash friendly. Ultra thin keyboard/cover, very modern surface-style charging connection, and very impressive multimedia power and seamlessness. Not to mention fast, crisp, and pretty. Gotta hand it to them, a nice piece, though only the OS and hard drive really stand out among the android tablets available. So I was the first with my hand up when the presenter was through with her well-executed opening spiel, after which we each in the group got an hour one-on-one with the device. "Battery life?" was all I said. She grimaced. Between two and a half and four hours, depending on what you run, of course. Ouch!
Other negatives? It's pretty heavy. It's very thick. The initial navigation screen is Windows phone, which to me is ugly and disfunctional, but that's a nit. I could live with it, probably. It seems to me however that this tablet isn't meant to reach the same folks as does the iPad. Are iPad users bemoaning the loss of Windows? Of MS Word? Not hardly.
In addition to all this, I long ago developed a philosophy about MS products and operating systems, after too much of my adult life spent struggling with various versions of Windows from 3.1 forward, including the Windows 7 we all are using today. In my view, like McDonald's, Gates and company have succeeded somehow in taking over the world, market share wise, with a patently inferior product, and one that only sheer worldwide saturation and determined perception-crafting could possibly have catapulted to its present glory. I mean, is there such a thing as common sense, or is salt and fat and if-all-else-fails-reboot, really good things? As a Mac devotee once said to me, "Why would anyone let themselves be yanked around like that?". Why indeed.
The deal breaker for me is the battery life. The game ends there. Which is why I say the target for this tablet has to be different than that for the iPad. But for those whose marriage with all things Microsoft has been a good one, and who don't therefore cringe at the thought of not only dealing with Windows at the office but also carrying it around with...good for you. Go for it.
