First reviews of the Microsoft Surface

The best comments and reviews of the Microsoft Surface from around the web

Although scheduled for its official release on Friday, the first pre-order customers – and journalists – have been receiving their new Microsoft Surface tablet computers, and the reviews have been mixed.

While the hardware has been widely praised for being well thought-out, the software, including both Windows 8 RT (Windows running on ARM-based microprocessors for the first time) and the apps in the Windows app store, has had a more critical reception.

Mathew Honan, writing for Wired magazine, tried testing it to destruction. How usable is the keyboard, he asked. Does it click on and off as easily as the adverts indicate? How strong is the kickstand?

The answer to all these questions is generally positive. While the Touch Cover keyboard takes some getting used to, there is certainly no lack of responsiveness in use – but the reviewer noted a lot of wrist and hand pain in the first three days as he sought to get used to the new keyboard. A Type Cover, which features actual keys, is a lot easier to get used to and is only a few pounds more expensive. It doesn't, however, make for a very good cover.

The hardware rundown, in many respects, is ordinary for the price. While the 1.3 gigahertz Nvidia Tegra 3 T30 is fast enough, it will no doubt be left standing by Apple's new A6x-based fourth-generation iPad. While Apple acquired PA Semiconductor in 2008 to soup-up its ARM-based designs, Microsoft has to go off-the-shelf for its microprocessors, but the Nvidia chip is a popular choice.

The Surface also features just 2GB of non-upgradeable RAM memory and either a 32GB or 64GB sold-state device (SSD) for storage – of which just 20GB or 52GB are usable. While it has front and rear high-definition cameras, they "are junk", according to Honan. They may be HD, but they are extremely slow.

There are a number of other disappointments, too, according to The New York Times' David Pogue.

"The battery life is advertised as eight to 10 hours, less than the iPad. There's no cellular version; it's Wi-Fi only. The screen is very sharp (1,366 by 768 pixels), but it doesn't approach the iPad's Retina screen clarity (2,048 by 1,536 pixels)."

Back to front

Visually, the front of the Surface is edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass, while the rest of the device is injection-moulded magnesium alloy. The result is a "stiff and robust (and enjoyably flammable)" tablet computer that is also relatively lightweight, reports Peter Bright in Arstechnica.

Like all tablet computers, the Surface has a paucity of expansion ports. It offers just a mini-HDMI, a full-size USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack (which you'll want to use because the speaker is somewhat quiet), a microSDXC slot (behind the kickstand), and a peculiar-looking magnetic power connector.

"I've taken an instant dislike to the power connector. The magnets are so strong that the Surface aggressively grabs the connector, snatching it away from my grasp. It doesn't, however, seat the connector properly within its receptacle, so the system can't actually charge. I have to jiggle the thing and reseat it every time," wrote Bright. Nor can it be charged via a USB connected to a PC either.

First reviews of the Microsoft Surface

The best comments and reviews of the Microsoft Surface from around the web

Wired' s Honan confirmed what many people have long suspected – that the device in many ways falls between two stools: "It is, in some ways, better than an iPad. In some ways, worse. It's brilliant, and yet it can be puzzling as well. Confoundingly so at times. It's a tablet of both compromises and confusion. It is a true hybrid – neither fully a desktop nor mobile device. That's reflected in all sorts of ways. It is Wi-Fi only, but won't run traditional Windows applications. It has a full-featured keyboard and runs Microsoft Office – but it's certainly meant to be touched and swiped and tapped," he wrote.

Pogue in the New York Times described the hardware as "amazing... Now the heartbreak: software... it requires all new apps. They're available exclusively from the online Windows App Store, and there aren't many to choose from".

The fact that it does not run existing Windows applications means that early users will be dependent on whatever they can download from the Windows App Store – and only the Windows App Store.

At the moment, it's decidedly bare, not least because app developers have hardly had time to write any new applications. Indeed, reviewers also noted a distinct lack of decent apps for the tablet.

"A handful of third-party apps worked really well and showed the promise of Microsoft's platform, like the new versions of Skype and Hulu Plus – both of which cleverly take advantage of the unique user interface concepts in Windows 8 and RT. But other third-party efforts were surprisingly amateur," wrote Joshua Topolsky in The Verge.

The apps that it does offer appear to have been rushed out, noted Matt Buchanan on Buzzfeed.

"A lot of the built-in tablet apps feel not just basic, but anemic – a stark contrast to Windows RT's powerful multi-tasking and sharing interface (just watch me fly through apps in that GIF)," he writes.

He adds: "The mail app is a stripped-down affair, far less useful than a true desktop email client, all the while running far slower than a mobile email app should in 2012. The People app, which tries to pull off being an address book along with a universal social networking app, fails on both counts – you can't, for instance, post on somebody's Facebook wall, but if you've been messing around in the social networking side of the app, it takes too long to get to somebody's info."

Like many Microsoft first releases, it may be worth waiting to see how the company develops Windows RT and how the App Store fills out. Unlike an Android device, there is only one place to get apps from and, notes GigaOM's Ryan Kim, the Surface Pro will be out shortly, which may offer a better product – if you've the deep pockets to pay for it.

"The bigger questions revolve around the Windows RT software, which is buggy and limited and isn't able to run old, legacy Microsoft applications the way Windows 8 devices can. Surface Pro, which will run Windows 8, will make its debut in a few months and may get a better reception," concluded GigaOM's Ryan Kim.