Microsoft Surface Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 23, 2012 9:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Surface
- Windows RT
Camera
Surface features two 720p cameras, one on the front and one on the back. Neither camera provides particularly great image quality but they are sufficient for web use.
The camera UI is quick and fairly simple. Tap and hold to lock exposure is supported, and you can tap anywhere on the screen to actually take a photo. Switching between front and rear facing cameras is quick, as is switching between photo and video modes.
The only aspect of Surface’s cameras that takes some getting used to is the 22-degree angled camera assembly on the back. The angled rear facing camera is designed to offset the inline created by the kickstand when deployed, so you can prop Surface up on its kickstand and not have the rear camera pointing at the ground. Unfortunately when handheld it means that you often have to tilt Surface a bit to get the right shot. I guess that’s better than having the rear facing camera pointing at the ground when used the kickstand deployed, but that likely depends on what you’re using Surface’s rear camera for.
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enealDC - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Any takers??MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Early adopter = heartburn.daar - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link
Been using an Thinkpad X41 tablet for ages at work, will probably pick this up to replace it. I mean, this thing does have pen input yes? I didn't see much mention of it in the review. Missing a few benchmarks as well, which is kind of a shame as the Surface is the one of the most interesting computing device put out in the last while.Also would like to ask who makes the actual panel? I recall AT used to note this in reviews in the past but not as of late, I don't think I even saw mention of it in the iphone 5 review.
gardocki - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
No pen input on the Surface RT, just on the Surface for Win 8 Pro, which will likely be about twice the cost and won't be released for another 90 daysgcoupe - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
I don't think this is correct. If you look at the "Help me choose" document published by Microsoft, then they state that "Capacitive pens available for purchase".True, these aren't active pens, with pressure sensitivity, but as far as I'm aware, WinRT will have handwriting recognition.
It would be good to get some confirmation of this though, and a measure of whether it is as good as the handwriting recognition in Windows 8.
This Guy - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
All capacitive touch screens work with capacitive pens. In my experience capacitive pens write like crayons.Running an older tablet with a worse input array I have perceived capacitive hand writting recognition on win 8 as being quicker and more accurate compared to win 7. That said, I still find it painfully slow compared to the on-screen keyboard.
So yes, Surface RT supports capacitive pens, but the experience of capacitive pens is generally so poor on other devices most people don't consider them as pen inputs.
nagi603 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Capacitive pen compared to an active pen is like comparing a baby tricycle and a jet airplane. Not even in the same league. But unless you have tried something remotely like the latter, you won't even know that.Trust me as someone who has actually tried both and has been using a wacom pen for years: throw that capacitive pen out the window!
SleepyFE - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Most interesting computing device?????It's just a small laptop with all it's guts stuck in a poorly cooled space behind the screen.
owned66 - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
ummm .... ?this is windows RT
its using an ARM cpu
SleepyFE - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
I know it runs on ARM, does that not make it a laptop, is a server using ARM not a server?No matter how u spin it, it either a tablet (of which there are many and 99.9% use ARM) or it's a laptop with less power and less headroom (regarding cooling).
Thankfully a week laptop is at least sort of useful, but paying 100$ extra to get the keyboard? No thanks!!