My impressions of the PRO after almost two weeks as a desktop replacement at work
After over 10 years at my current job (I'm a developer), a little tablet has finally replaced my desktop PC as my primary "workstation"
Here are my
impressions of the PRO so far.
Cons, Pros and Wishes for PRO 2:
1) Battery life - it is indeed short, but for my use case, it's really not a big issue. I have the PRO plugged in most of time and when I do have meetings and I
need to unplug the PRO, the meetings seldom lasts more than 1 hour anyway. As long as I can watch two streaming movies at night, I'm a happy camper.
Wish: Haswell CPU for version 2. If Intel delivers on their claimed much lower power consumption, then PRO2 will have a much better battery life.
2) The 1080p resolution is a PITA when in desktop mode as everything appears too tiny for my fading eyes. There is a reason MS shipped these things with desktop
scaling bumped up to 150%!!
Wish: I would throw $$$ at MS for a 13 incher PRO!
In My Dream: Metro becomes a complete desktop replacement with no compromises so we won't have to deal with this desktop scaling issues anymore.
3) It needs another display output and another USB 3 port. I know you can get a USB 3 dock (I recommend the Pluggable USB 3 dock that you can get off Amazon) and
power another external display that way, but using a USB 3 dock to power a monitor taxes the PRO's CPU (you will notice the fan come on and the pro becomes
warmer than normal).
Wish: Dual HDMI ports on the next PRO and two USB 3 ports or at least make a proper docking solution for the PRO
4) The power connector is indeed a pita to get plugged in correctly. After almost two weeks, I still can't get the power connector to "click in" correctly on
first try
Wish: MS, why can't you get the power connector to "click in" as easily as the keyboard?
5) Monitor is great but not properly calibrated. I happen to also be a professional wedding photographer (BinaryFlips Photography - Orlando Weddings Photography, New York, Naples, Tampa, Sarasota, Miami and Destination Weddings) and right off the bat, I calibrated
my PRO's monitor and I was shocked at the difference after calibration. In short, the monitor went from awesome to awesomer.
Wish: MS should calibrate these from the factory. This is supposed to be a premium product right?
6) Kickstand is a brilliant idea. It took a software company to come up with this? I'm looking at you OEMs.
7) Stylus is not a gimmick and has proved very useful. So useful in fact that from now on, it is a must have requirement for my next tablet purchase.
Wish: Proper storage solution for the stylus like the one on Lenovo's thinkpad tablet 2.
8) It is eye catching. Looks does not add any functionality but this thing in my opinion is the coolest looking tablet ever.
Wish: As good looking as the PRO, I'm still dreaming for a tablet that looks like Zune HD
I am absolutely happy with the PRO. I have not missed my work desktop PC at all and have not ran into a scenario at work yet that I needed a
deskop PC. As for my weekend job as a photographer, I am planning on upgrading my desktop PC at home to a Haswell based desktop PC later this year but after using
the PRO, I am seriously having second thoughts about getting a new desktop PC. I can now envision using a single tablet to do apps development at my primary job
and photo editing for my weekend job. The Haswell CPUs will come packing with a much more powerful integrated graphics processor and faster memory and hard drive
controllers so the next PRO could definitely be a kicka... machine!! Version 1 is not perfect by any means, but there is no denying in my opinion that this computing
platform is the future.
After over 10 years at my current job (I'm a developer), a little tablet has finally replaced my desktop PC as my primary "workstation"
Here are my impressions of the PRO so far.
Cons, Pros and Wishes for PRO 2:
1) Battery life - it is indeed short, but for my use case, it's really not a big issue. I have the PRO plugged in most of time and when I do have meetings and I
need to unplug the PRO, the meetings seldom lasts more than 1 hour anyway. As long as I can watch two streaming movies at night, I'm a happy camper.
Wish: Haswell CPU for version 2. If Intel delivers on their claimed much lower power consumption, then PRO2 will have a much better battery life.
2) The 1080p resolution is a PITA when in desktop mode as everything appears too tiny for my fading eyes. There is a reason MS shipped these things with desktop
scaling bumped up to 150%!!
Wish: I would throw $$$ at MS for a 13 incher PRO!
In My Dream: Metro becomes a complete desktop replacement with no compromises so we won't have to deal with this desktop scaling issues anymore.
3) It needs another display output and another USB 3 port. I know you can get a USB 3 dock (I recommend the Pluggable USB 3 dock that you can get off Amazon) and
power another external display that way, but using a USB 3 dock to power a monitor taxes the PRO's CPU (you will notice the fan come on and the pro becomes
warmer than normal).
Wish: Dual HDMI ports on the next PRO and two USB 3 ports or at least make a proper docking solution for the PRO
4) The power connector is indeed a pita to get plugged in correctly. After almost two weeks, I still can't get the power connector to "click in" correctly on
first try
Wish: MS, why can't you get the power connector to "click in" as easily as the keyboard?
5) Monitor is great but not properly calibrated. I happen to also be a professional wedding photographer (BinaryFlips Photography - Orlando Weddings Photography, New York, Naples, Tampa, Sarasota, Miami and Destination Weddings) and right off the bat, I calibrated
my PRO's monitor and I was shocked at the difference after calibration. In short, the monitor went from awesome to awesomer.
Wish: MS should calibrate these from the factory. This is supposed to be a premium product right?
6) Kickstand is a brilliant idea. It took a software company to come up with this? I'm looking at you OEMs.
7) Stylus is not a gimmick and has proved very useful. So useful in fact that from now on, it is a must have requirement for my next tablet purchase.
Wish: Proper storage solution for the stylus like the one on Lenovo's thinkpad tablet 2.
8) It is eye catching. Looks does not add any functionality but this thing in my opinion is the coolest looking tablet ever.
Wish: As good looking as the PRO, I'm still dreaming for a tablet that looks like Zune HD
I am absolutely happy with the PRO. I have not missed my work desktop PC at all and have not ran into a scenario at work yet that I needed a
deskop PC. As for my weekend job as a photographer, I am planning on upgrading my desktop PC at home to a Haswell based desktop PC later this year but after using
the PRO, I am seriously having second thoughts about getting a new desktop PC. I can now envision using a single tablet to do apps development at my primary job
and photo editing for my weekend job. The Haswell CPUs will come packing with a much more powerful integrated graphics processor and faster memory and hard drive
controllers so the next PRO could definitely be a kicka... machine!! Version 1 is not perfect by any means, but there is no denying in my opinion that this computing
platform is the future.
