LAS VEGAS â€" Looking back, it was a little odd that Microsoft chose the Surface RT tablet as its showcase for Windows 8. After all, the device was created to run a version of Windows that runs on ARM-based processors instead of the usual x86 chips that had powered all Windows machines before it.
That inherently limited the Surface RT by preventing it from running legacy Windows apps. Windows 8 had to stand on its own, without the safety net of the classic desktop environment (it still exists on the device, it just can't run much of anything). That could be why the new operating system has apparently struggled to catch on.
That might change with the Surface Pro (starting at $899). This, of course, is the version of the tablet that packs an Intel Core i5 processor instead of the ARM-based Tegra 3. Thanks to that CPU, the Surface Pro can run apps designed for Windows 7 or even older versions of Windows. Photoshop, iTunes, you name it â€" you can do it on this machine.
Why would you want to, instead of, say, an Ultrabook or even a desktop PC? That's a question Microsoft has yet to answer adequately, although the Surface Pro makes a decent case. Microsoft was kind enough to let me check out one of the beefed-up Surfaces here in Vegas. No official release date yet, though the Microsoft has said the Pro will come about three months after the debut of the Surface RT. That would peg its release for late January.
Should you be thinking about getting one? Absolutely â€" as long as you looooove Windows 8. I spent about 45 minutes with Microsoft executives checking out the new Surface, and it's telling that we spent maybe one or two of those in the legacy desktop environment. For all its strengths as a traditional PC, the Surface Pro is at its core a tablet, and Windows 8 is all about tablets.
Chiseled Features
At first glance, the Surface Pro looks almost exactly like the Surface RT. It's the same screen size, the same angles â€" the same keyboard Touch Cover options. They could have called it the Surface Ditto.
But looking at the edge of the device, you start to notice the differences. The Pro is slightly thicker and noticeably heavier. It's got about half a pound on the Surface RT, which actually feels quite heavy when you compare to recent tablets such as the comparably sized Samsung Galaxy Note, or even the 800-pound tablet in the room, the iPad.
One of the first things you notice is the seam that seemingly separates the backside from the edges. It looks a little like the final piece of the tablet wasn't put on properly, but it's really how the tablet cools itself. As a Core-based device, the Surface Pro needs a cooling fan (it has two, actually), and Microsoft wanted heat to expel from the edge, letting you rest it in your lap as long as possible.
That's still kind of a challenge since the Surface Pro, like the Surface RT, isn't a laptop per se, although it plays one on TV. You need to extend a kickstand to get it to rest anywhere, which I better on tabletops than shins (although I have a colleague who swears that propping the Surface on his knees isn't so bad).
Screens and Styli
Once you turn it on, the most appreciable upgrade from the original Surface is the screen: The Surface Pro ups the resolution from 1,366 x 768 to full HD (1,920 x 1,080). The screen looks fantastic, and you can really appreciate the detail in both visual media and simple aspects of the UI, like the colored background.
As beautiful as the Surface Pro's screen is, it's a little ironic that just yesterday Panasonic unveiled a 4K Windows 8 tablet. And there have been plenty of full HD Windows 8 laptops and hybrids. The Surface is really just catching up here.
The Surface Pro includes an interesting extra: a stylus. Including the accessory makes some sense â€" you'll probably be in need of pen-like precision on this device much more often than on the Surface RT. Photoshop alone, for example, often needs you to stay on target.
In my time with the Surface Pro, I got a chance to use the stylus with Fresh Paint, a drawing app. Although the stylus isn't powered, it â€" and the Surface Pro's software â€" were tailored specifically to work with each other. The pen is useless on the Surface RT (or any other tablet).
If that sounds similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note, it is â€" in more ways than one. Microsoft even has its own version of "Air View," where the screen can detect the stylus hovering above it. Once it does, it knows to ignore any errant pen strokes on the screen that could have been caused by errant fingers. There's even a button on the stylus â€" Microsoft is really aping Samsung here.
At least it's good aping, and drawing with the pen is a pleasure. Doodling a face in Fresh Paint, I felt the screen had just the right amount of friction on the pen as I drew facial features. The stylus is pressure sensitive, too.
Beneath the Surface
While the Surface RT was a tablet that brought to the tablet some PC features, Microsoft sees the Surface Pro more as a PC with some tablet features. That makes some sense, given that the Surface Pro is Core-based â€" Microsoft even bypassed Intel's Atom chips to build the full PC experience into this machine.
That machine may be heavy and have limited battery life, but that won't matter so much to the "prosumer" Windows crowd that Microsoft is courting here. Chances are, if you're opting for a Surface Pro, most of the time it's going to rest on your desk, jacked into another monitor and attached to either its Touch Cover or your own keyboard and mouse accessories.
That's because the Surface Pro will be your main PC. It's everything the Surface RT was, plus the productivity part of the equation that was missing. The question is: If you want that productivity, are you prepared to go all in on mobility â€" Windows 8's version of mobility â€" even at the cost of things like a built in keyboard?
Based on what I saw today, the Surface Pro is ready to take you to that future, where the gateway to your digital life is a slab of metal and glass that accompanies you almost everywhere, even though it'll spend most of its time nestled in a web of accessories. It certainly adds a whole new dimension of mobility to what people think of as a "PC." But is that what we want?
What say you? Are you interested in getting the Surface Pro? Tell us why or why not in the comments.
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