Microsoft Surface is here

by Volker Weber

Well, this took a while. Microsoft Surface joins the Lenovo Yoga 11 at vowe's magic flying circus. Both are running Windows RT. That is what I want, for two reasons: battery life and legacy support. Windows 8 machines run only about half the time without a charge, when compared to similar Windows RT machines. That's true for both Microsoft Surface and Lenovo Yoga. They only run software written to the WRT stack. Which means they can't run software that depends on Win32. That's a good thing if you want to avoid the wonderful world of Windows malware.

A few first impressions. It is much smaller than the Yoga. It can even hide inside.

It's incredibly well built. On par, if not better than Apple.

In all its perfection, it misses the human touch. Marko Ahtisarri, who heads Design at Nokia, likes to describe the Lumia design as "human", "never feels cold". The Lumias are reduced to the max, but they still feel friendly and warm. Surface does not. It's harsh and cold.

That is not going to keep me from playing with it. I have an affection for cold and hard tools.

Comments

I'm fairly interested on your comparison of the Yoga 11 against the Surface RT. I've looked at the Yoga 13 & now also have the Surface RT.
But I think the Yoga 11 vs Surface RT is a better comparison to see which formfactor works best.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a Microsoft guy who brought with him a Surface Pro. I must say because it is thicker than the RT that "harsh and cold" as you mention it becomes more visible (in my opinion). But it surely performed well for such a small device.

Frank van Rijt, 2013-02-28

My iPhone 4S also feels friendly and warm after using it for a while via 3G. :-)

Karsten Lehmann, 2013-02-28

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