Rick Broida at cNET is skeptical about Microsoft’s Surface and the entire concept if the hybrid between a tablet and a notebook PC. Broida sees the Surface as a tablet with an oversize screen, ” — too big and heavy to hold comfortably for long periods. When it comes to tablet screens, I think there’s a law of diminishing returns; you gain little by pushing past the 9- or 10-inch form factor.”
“In which case, tell me again why you didn’t just buy a laptop?”
He also seems to think that a Surface and an Apple iPad Pro are the same thing or, as in a Microsoft ad for the Surface, “you’ve got a tablet that can replace your laptop.” Of course Broida MISSES A SIMPLE FACT .. iOS IS NOT A FULL PURPOSE OPERATING SYSTEM. Unlike a Surface, a Mac, or any Windows notebook, the iPad can not run the full versions of any application ..whether that is Adobe’s Photoshop and Acrobat or Microsoft’s own Office. Worse, the limited hard disk storage on an iPad (or its equivalents with the Android operating system) means storage is very small unless you use a web based system. Dropbox is great but it simply is not there when I do not have fast WiFi!
Then too there is the pain in the ass of not having a mouse or a pen to select text and repaste it on an iPAD or android tablet. Again, Mr, Broida needs to show the same sort of respect for the Surface with its pen as fanboys did when Apple pushed its innovations .. include the iPad form factor itself.
Broida is not just an APPLE fanboy. But he does have some anti Microsoft antipathy. For example, he write that the Surface is ” now even more expensive than most laptops.” Really? I suggest that Mr. Broida look again at prices of the older Surfaces .. even my own Surface 3. Or perhaps he just likes to do his work on something heavy? “I spend my days working on a 13.3-inch Asus Ultrabook, a system that travels with me everywhere I go. It’s a powerhouse, with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, an all-day battery and 1,920 x 1,080 display, yet it’s just as thin and lightweight as tablet with a keyboard cover. ”