I consider myself something of a hardcore techie and I am very happy with my Surface Pro. Although I have high-spec workstations both at home and the office, the Surface Pro is a terrific form factor for carrying to work and back every day as a pedestrian commuter. It's great to have with me in case I have to do some work away from my workstations.

As a thick tablet, the Pro is stunningly fast compared to other tablets. With the keyboard, it's up to any task I'd throw at an ultrabook. The touchscreen is totally natural and fitting for such a small device. It's great to be able to just click UI buttons with your finger on the screen, even in the "laptop" orientation. The battery life is more than enough for my use-case.

I don't use the stylus much—I wish it had slightly better precision.

What achievements must I unlock to earn the hardcore techie badge? Maybe I'm still a few shy.

Windows 8. Touchscreen. It's not altogether unappealing, but I feel like its main selling points are aimed at the casual user who doesn't own a desktop or laptop already (or just have a work laptop).

I don't particularly care for Windows 8/touchscreens either, but:

Windows 8: Though I have very limited experience with this, it seems like it was born to run on a tablet.

Touchscreen: I think touchscreens in general are inefficient and clumsy, but... pretty much every device these days has a screen as a primary/secondary method in input. I don't see how this sets the Surface apart from any other modern mobile device. Perhaps you mean that the Surface's touchscreen, in particular, isn't very good?