Jane Unboxes the Microsoft Surface RT Tablet, Accessories

[Reynod]

Nice work Jane.

Happy Halloween to all our US friends !!

 

[amuffin]

[citation][nom]reynod[/nom]Nice work Jane.Happy Halloween to all our US friends !![/citation]
All for the candy. 😉

 

[marikenio]

Wait! What?! There was a tablet there?

 

[neon neophyte]

my only complaint is that the kickstand is required to keep the screen up when attached to a keyboard. would be nice if the keyboard could prop it up somehow like a real laptop

otherwise, very sleek

 

[hp79]

I was expecting one of those sexy girls that Toms hardware used before. hehe.

Right after buying one of these, I stopped by an Apple store because I wanted to see the new MBP13. One of the "Genius" asked me if he can take a peek at the box, so I showed him and he said "MS now copies the boxes of iPad!". I lost my words and just smiled and didn't speak further. It's funny how some of these people think Apple invented everything.

Anyways, I'm on day 3 now with Surface RT, it's very nice. Office 2013 is updated and no longer a preview release. I can type fast without Word lagging on me, and the keyboard feels good too. Battery life, build quality is very good too. Kick stand was something I never imagined would be a benefit, but once I started using it, it is one of the best things to happen to a tablet.
One thing not good is the slow web page load time, especially sites like engadget.com takes a long time to fully load. It's kind of like using a Atom netbook. Probably due to slow Nvidia Tegra processor.
Other than that, it's very responsive overall, the start menu and switching between apps is butter smooth. If the price had been more competitive, I think it would have been the end of Android tablets.

 

[C12Friedman]

Still waiting for mine. Funny I think, it's the only tablet I've even been half interested in

 

[chuckly]

Good video, Jane was nice and i learned about the accessories, wasn't aware of them before.

 

[jacobdrj]

Interesting accent. I can't place it. Almost a quazi Canadian/Scott accent whenever she says 'Cover'...

 

[freggo]

What is it with all these 'unboxing' videos lately. When did that become fashionable?

And if you want to 'unbox' something here, I sure would not unbox the tablet... sorry, had to be said 🙂

 

[ojas]

Hmmm...Anand didn't really like the touch cover.

And Jane, did the VGA adapter come boxed with the Surface? I know they have some "HD Video Connector" which is sold separately...so what's this? Is the HD out port proprietary or mini/micro HDMI?

 

[neon neophyte]

Interesting accent. I can't place it. Almost a quazi Canadian/Scott accent whenever she says 'Cover'...

i dont hear canadian at all. i hear irish/english (england.)

 

[jacobdrj]

[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]What is it with all these 'unboxing' videos lately. When did that become fashionable?And if you want to 'unbox' something here, I sure would not unbox the tablet... sorry, had to be said 🙂[/citation]
I was gonna ask the same question...
But since some companies (such as fruit distributors) made the purchase of high profile gadgets an 'experience', it became fashionable...

 

[amallica]

what is the VGA adapter for? what is the HDMI for?? A new use>?
Why is HDMI so short?

 

[bllue]

[citation][nom]amallica[/nom]what is the VGA adapter for? what is the HDMI for?? A new use>? Why is HDMI so short?[/citation]
VGA you can connect the Surface to projectors or monitors. You can use the HDMI for hdtvs or monitors/projectors that are compatible. On the mainsite they're listed as being as 12.69 (for vga) and 11.27 inches (hdmi)

 

[rebel1280]

Nice review, wasn't aware of the accessories you could buy. From the commercials, i only took that it would make school girls crunk dance -_- (poor use of commercial imho). I'm actually kinda excited about W8 as a tablet but waiting for Pro. Def gonna get the feedback KB for extra battery time Oh and happy Halloween to you Jane and res of TH guy and gals! If your in NY, stay safe!

 

[Guest]

would just like to add to bluue's answer:
The surface RT tablet comes with a micro-hdmi port. the accessories sold (the HDMI adapter and the VGA adapter that were shown) will plug into this micro-hdmi port and give a full sized VGA or HDMI port to connect the normal cable to.

 

[weaselman]

The Idea of the magnetic keyboard dock is a good idea, not sure about the keyboards with no haptic feedback. Think I would stick with the nice black on Jane Docked to the tablet as it looks much better.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]neon neophyte[/nom]my only complaint is that the kickstand is required to keep the screen up when attached to a keyboard. would be nice if the keyboard could prop it up somehow like a real laptopotherwise, very sleek[/citation]
I thought that was interesting as well, but consider how much heavier the tablet is compared to the touch or type cover. I don't think that would be possible without making the covers heavy.

 

[bystander]

[citation][nom]weaselman[/nom]The Idea of the magnetic keyboard dock is a good idea, not sure about the keyboards with no haptic feedback. Think I would stick with the nice black on Jane Docked to the tablet as it looks much better.[/citation]
I'd definitely look at the type cover, which has actual keys.

 

[waikano]

[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom]Interesting accent. I can't place it. Almost a quazi Canadian/Scott accent whenever she says 'Cover'...[/citation]

If memory serves me correctly Jane is Dublin Born Irish... ;-)

 

[neon neophyte]

I thought that was interesting as well, but consider how much heavier the tablet is compared to the touch or type cover. I don't think that would be possible without making the covers heavy.

i see your point, and i agree. even still, i dont like it.
if possibe you could put all weight at the front of the keyboard, it would minimize the amount of weight required.

 

[spookyman]

Jane's my kind of girl. Bet she is a born Guiness girl.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]neon neophyte[/nom]i see your point, and i agree. even still, i dont like it.if possibe you could put all weight at the front of the keyboard, it would minimize the amount of weight required.[/citation][citation][nom]Scar89[/nom]Not a fan of Windows RT, but give me a surface pro with an A-10 APU and I'm sold.A keyboard dock with a hard drive and extra battery+connectivity would be great too.[/citation]The touch and type covers for the Surface are... covers. That's why they remain thin and light, and don't support the tablet itself. They fold over the screen and protect it, and it's easy to carry it around like that with the cover closed. A heavy, hinged keyboard dock won't do that. So it was an intentional design choice.

However, if you prefer the more traditional keyboard dock, you might want to check out Asus' Vivo Tab RT. It does exactly what you're looking for. It's a bit bulkier and doesn't double as a cover... but it DOES have a second battery in the keyboard dock which nearly doubles battery life. Pretty neat.[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]Jane's my kind of girl. Bet she is a born Guiness girl.[/citation]Well, if she prefers stouts, there's also Porterhouse. But I've been told lagers are popular in Ireland nowadays. Actually I think Porterhouse makes lagers too. I'm only a quarter Irish but I do like a good Irish stout. Of course I enjoy certain domestics too, as well as wines and liquor. Gotta diversify your portfolio and all that.

 

[JMcEntegart]

Aw, thanks everyone! You guys are too kind.

 

[army_ant7]

Jane Unboxes.. good start for a title 🙂

When I was looking at the article title I remembered Jane Strips Down StarCraft II Collector's Edition. I remember how some forumers were pointing that out and how they only saw those words. Hehe...

(Don't mean to be offensive Jane. Sorry. Hehe... Great work BTW! I hope you can convince other TH people to do things like these to diversify the media we see in articles even more. I'd like to see Chris, Don, and others in their articles! Hehe...)