I don't think anything you do can reach that audience. The only thing that MIGHT alter their perception is trying it themselves and even then it takes a lot.

But outside of that niche group I think your videos very well demonstrate the issues in a fairly indefensible way. The save issue in particular is the worst as you never treat people's files/work with that much disregard.

Good point. If you post virtually anything online in front of an audience of any size, someone is going to vehemently or ignorantly disagree ("Puppies are cute;" "NO THEY'RE NOT"). I wrote about the problem here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/trolls-comments-and... but have noticed it elsewhere, too, and the larger the size of the audience, the more likely it is to have some number of vocal and ignorant members.

You're right.

However, given that your problems other than the kick stand are rather odd bugs specific to you (haven't seen anyone else have the problems you had with Mail and saving in Word) would you not consider perhaps getting the device replaced over straight up returning it?

As for Word being slow...I agree that is inexcusable. If I were you I probably would have tried getting the free update to the final version from Windows Update to see if the problem has been fixed.

I dunno. I guess I'm looking at it from a glass half full perspective because I like mine and don't experience the problems you do.

I don't think those bugs would be fixed by replacing the device.

Well neither mine nor my friend's experience the problems that he was having.

The issue is that your post is written with the idea of creating controversy (look at the title).

Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but IMHO one day is not enough to properly judge any piece of complex technology. I am writing this on my RT and I am very surprised with your post, specially when the word preview issues are easily fixed with a simple SW update that is coming soon, as Office is already RTM. A technologist would not ditch this beauty after a couple of hours playing with it, my $0.02.

Mmind - hmm, no, I didn't write it to create controversy. All of my blog post titles start with why, what, how, etc, and I wanted to explain why I wasn't posting the original in-depth review that I'd promised my readers after I preordered the Surface RT. I actually walked away from the post without thinking twice.

When you say "the word preview issues are easily fixed with a simple SW update that is coming soon, as Office is already RTM" - how do you know they're fixed in an update that's "coming soon"?

Hi Brent,

I trust the Office team, and they have been very clear to call this a preview (it shows in the top of the document) so I expect some issues. I obviously can not know if your specific problem is already fixed in the RTM version (that released a couple weeks ago) but usually the Office team releases high quality products.

I did not experience your CPU/word problem yet, you asked for a video, and I posted it here:

http://youtu.be/104W1g94tIM

As you can see, I enabled the new task manager, that is really cool and you can see how the Tegra 3 CPU (4 cores) does not even notice the typing, even with tons of spelling mistakes to force a worst case scenario.

It is really a pity you did not have it a bit longer, I have an Ipad 1st gen, a galaxy tab 10.1 1st gen (yes, I had it even before I could install ICS, my lord) and now a 1st gen surface and man, this device is impressing me so far. When I connected my Galaxy nexus to it and it opened the windows explorer so I could use it to transfer my videos to You Tube I realized how huge is having Windows in a Tablet, it is not a PC but boy is powerful, full USB not only client, but server support.

Mmind - thanks for the update, but this doesn't replicate my scenario. Can you have multiple pages of text (at least 2) and then go back up to the first page and start adding text? That's what really nailed mine.

Hi Brent,

I tried to repro a worst case based on your info:

http://youtu.be/V01zgACyAF4

as you can see, 20 pages full of errors, spell and grammar correction enabled, writing in the first page. It clearly shows more CPU usage than the first test, but always below 40% for every core.

Please, note that I am not trying to say that you did not hit a bug or even a faulty device, just that I have not been able to repro it in my limited testing and so far the device is totally impressing me. I am even thinking to write a cool Hackers News app for it :-).

Cheers.

Jorge - thanks! Based on the sounds in the video, you're using a Touch Cover. I wonder if it's related to me using the Type Cover instead?

Yes, I used a touch cover, I do not have a type cover. It may have been multiple things, a defective surface, a bad cover,... impossible to tell, I doubt is a generalized type cover issue as I would assume people would be reporting it all over the place.

I am a really happy camper, today I tested the RDP connection to my main server and works really well, you can get real stuff done using remote desktop. I was sure I would need the Surface Pro and now I am not so sure as I can do heavy lifting with more battery life and lighter device (and I will always need a "real" computer in the home anyway). Surface Pro looks awesome for pen and I am a big fan of ink well done (need to test a capacitive pen with the RT but usually they do not meet my bar). In any case, I will surely keep my unit, I did not feel so happy with a new gadget since the ZX spectrum, my first HP48 (yes, I am that old) or the iphone. I was not sure after reading some of the early reviews but this device is a geek's playground, I will be discovering new tricks for a while, the connection to the XBOX is pretty cool too and seems to work fine for movie navigation but did not play much with it yet.

Hi Brent,

I see that you have updated your post with the update information, that was very honest of you.

Just wanted to let you know that, in fact, I had updated my Surface as soon as I got it just by searching for windows update in settings and clicking it (it was painless in my case), I even did it tethering with my Nexus. So my tests are using an updated device.

BTW, feel free to link to my videos if you think they can complete your post further.

Do you see the same issues with mail and word slowness and saving issues?

I find this situation hilarious. Most of the time you get attacked for being a Microsoft evangelist since you're a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server as well as being an MCM for SQL Server 2008. Now you're being attacked for being a Microsoft hater. That's irony.

Howdy sir! Yeah, making it through yesterday took a really thick skin. The Internet - gotta take the bad with the good.

Brent, could you comment on the performance of the browser, specifically, how it behaves when, from a fairly hefty page, clicking through to another fairly hefty page, and then clicking back to your original page. I read a lot of forums on my iPad 3, and oone thing that drives me up the wall is when clicking back, the 5 second pause for the original page to reload from the server (rather than cached memory) and jump you back down to where you were. This is one of the main annoyances that I was hoping would be better on the surface, so hopefully you can comment on it.

Unfortunately, I already returned it. Your best bet is to get one of the folks who really love their Surfaces to record videos similar to mine. I've heard a lot of anecdotal stories about "It works fine on mine" but I haven't seen anyone post similar videos demoing that it works. I'd want to see it working myself if I was you - I wouldn't take anyone's word at this point.