Windows Surface RT Review: Potential vs Present

Posted by BryonLewis on October 25, 2012 09:56 pm 0

Windows Surface RT Review: Potential vs Present


Just looking at this nice juicy steak all of the non-vegetarians should be salivating. I’m envisioning the cooked steak on a pristine white plate, all tender and juicy. That’s my same initial reaction when talking about Windows 8 Pro/RT and the Microsoft Surface. I can see the potential of the Operating System(s), ecosystem and hardware. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I my phone, game console, tablet, laptop and desktop all had a similarly designed interface and ran similar apps. Its so close to that seemingly unreachable destination (flying cars) of the persistent desktop which has been promised for too long. The ability to access the same data from the cloud with an interface that is nearly identical on multiple devices.


In some strange twist of space-time Microsoft seems to be the ones actually innovating within mobile operating systems. Android and iOS both have touted their touch/multi-touch support for years; but the implementation is lacking. Both have very few interactions that actually require innovative touch input. Both have scrolling and pinch to zoom. Apple has the 4 finger close and swipe and Android has the swipe to dismiss notifications and applications. The main interface is still powered by a set of buttons on Android (home, back, multi-task, settings), or in iOS a single button (home, double press multitask) with software buttons for settings and other actions. It’s kind of sad that Windows RT with the largest screen size allows the most space for developers by eliminating the need for share and settings buttons on the main application screen by utilizing touch gestures.

Innovation in software is to be expected by Microsoft after all they have been primarily a software company for 30 years. What was unexpected was the hardware/design innovations. The idea that you could have a thin keyboard dock that can fold onto the back of the device is a dream we’ve probably all had. That or that weird infra-red keyboard thing we have all seen online and want to try but know it is going to be horrible to use without any tactile feedback. The kickstand had been done on phones before but adding it to a full size tablet without the need for an external case was also a new concept.

The hardware and software innovations are both great ideas and features by themselves but they only make up a portion of the product. The steak could look gigantic and juicy in the raw format at the store but if you season it with dirt and cook it in a microwave it’s going to taste like ass.



Microsoft deciding to include the desktop with a few applications is essentially cooking a steak in the microwave. They know that RT devices will never run legacy Windows programs and have no intention of allowing others to develop RT Desktop applications. Why would they include a Desktop mode? Would it have been better if they delayed Microsoft Office 2013 RT until they had a working Metro (not calling it Windows 8 Style ever) style interface?

This leads me to the dirt seasoning: the third party apps. This is a tough one to talk about. I am quite torn with the fact that most people use a relatively small number of applications and most of the applications are the same between individuals. The quality of the apps far outweighs some crazy number (275,000) of apps when determining the quality of an ecosystem. I don’t know what Microsoft should have done to entice developers and business to create apps on their platform. I’m sure that if someone knew what needs to be done Microsoft, Google, and RIM would be ripping the individual apart with offers of cash, women (or men) and blow. I trust Josh’s review and statement that there is a lack of quality apps for the surface. While this would be a topic of another post a quality browsing experience should be able to supplement a weak ecosystem.


My first read through Josh’s review of the Surface RT and looking at the score, I felt like he had crapped on my steak. Looking through his points and removing my anticipation of how these features should integrate I started seeing the real device. It’s edible but just not what I built up in my stomach/head. All these individual features have great potential but the glue is still weak. 7.0 is not a bad score at all. I think the score might actually be elevated slightly because I Josh sees the potential too. He wants to love the device but in it’s current state it doesn’t live up to the dream. I still have high hopes for RT and the Windows ecosystem as a whole, but for now I’m going to send my plate back to the chef and wait a few months.