Why Windows 8/RT Tablets are Dead-on-Arrival

Posted by That'sCool on August 17, 2012 06:31 pm 34

Windows RT (Surface) is not a good purchase for the average consumer as it has very few applications, as well as no backwards compatibility with phones or other devices. The desktop mode, while present, is limited to only Microsoft applications in Apple-like draconian fashion. Windows RT is only sold preloaded on Microsoft approved hardware. It's just as closed a platform as iOS, but without the benefits that come with the well-established iOS plaform. How can we be sure we will not see another Windows Phone 7/8 incompatibility fiasco next year with Windows RT? The hardware very much depicts depicts last year's tablet, with a 1366*768 display, which sells for about $400 on competing tablets. Overall, Windows RT has few applications and unless Microsoft plans to compete on cost, the Surface has few advantages over competing iOS and Android tablets.

Windows 8 x86 tablets (Surface Pro) are bad for the average consumer because they compromise on both being a laptop and being a tablet. For a tablet, Surface Pro has low battery life compared to its ARM peers. Weight, not thickness, is key when one is holding a tablet, and the Surface Pro weighs 1.99 pounds. That's unprecedented for a 10.1 inch consumer tablet. For example, Samsung's 10.1 inch tablets are about 1.2 pounds, while the iPad 2 is somewhere in the 1.3 range. Together. sub-par battery life and weight make for a bad tablet.

The small screen size of the Surface Pro makes the desktop experience like working on a netbook, even if it is high resolution. Who wants to replace their laptop with a 10.1 inch screen? Consumers have preferred the 15.6" size in the US, and about 14" in Asia.

The Surface Pro, when docked to an external monitor, makes for a lacking desktop. The hardware simply isn't powerful enough for the heavy multitasking and intensive workloads that desktop users are used to handling with ease, even when gaming is excluded.

Overall, the Surface Pro tries to be everything, but technology has not progressed to the point where such a feat is possible.