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Why Did You Buy Your Surface Pro and How Do You Use It?

bladeguy5

New Member
just got one yesterday to replace the Toshiba satellite U925T Convertible i had. im really enjoying it so far i rarely used the slider keyboard on my U925T so it was always a little to bulky when using it as a tablet the surface outperforms that ultrabook as it had 13***768 resolution, no digitizer, Poor battery life, etc this will also be replacing my IPAD and Ipad mini
 

demandarin

Active Member
Bought it mainly for Inking feature, but I rarely use it now. It was meant to be a laptop replacement for an old laptop. Definately gets the job done. I'm a developer, so it's good to be able to develop in different environments using Hyper-V. I may even get into IOS development and install Mountain Lion in a VM and developer from there, but for now, it's mainly Windows .NET Development and PHP Web Development. I know most would complain about screen real estate in developing, but that's what the mini display port is for.

One other thing I never thought about when buying it, is that it's now my portable gaming machine. I used to use my modded XBox as an old arcade machine to play old videogames, but now I just use the Surface, I can hook it up to any tv, plug in a controller, Instant gaming system.

if youre inking heavily, install the new waocom drivers from waocom site. this adds way more features and functionality to the pen than Microsoft own custom drivers. gives you a whole new pen control panel where you can fine tune it how you like. also adds the ability for your surface to register pressure. unlike MS regular drivers.

just a f.y.i. if you didn't know already and want to beef up pen capabilities and accuracy.
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
just got one yesterday to replace the Toshiba satellite U925T Convertible i had. im really enjoying it so far i rarely used the slider keyboard on my U925T so it was always a little to bulky when using it as a tablet the surface outperforms that ultrabook as it had 13***768 resolution, no digitizer, Poor battery life, etc this will also be replacing my IPAD and Ipad mini

Interesting that it'll be replacing an iPad Mini... not heard of that happening yet! Kinda different products really. I would guess that would be the purpose of the up-and-coming (hopefully) Surface Mini.
 

mlknez

Member
if youre inking heavily, install the new waocom drivers from waocom site. this adds way more features and functionality to the pen than Microsoft own custom drivers. gives you a whole new pen control panel where you can fine tune it how you like. also adds the ability for your surface to register pressure. unlike MS regular drivers.

just a f.y.i. if you didn't know already and want to beef up pen capabilities and accuracy.

Which driver?
 

scadarick

Member
well i guess it was to keep me from spending so much time in my home office, got a monster asus home built desktop running a dell ultra ips monitor, as well as a mac with a 27 inch thunderbolt. i have done some tweaking on my mac and my win 8 pro, but i do like being able to do things on ms tablet a lot more than you can on an iPad, got 3 of those and a galaxy tab 2. i think the surface pro has a future, but they really need to fix the wifi speed, got 68 megs ds when i first got home with it, but after all the updates i had to download took that speed away. yes i have tried it on 3 different routers, still the same problem, it has its moments though and it works, but most of the time it seems that 5 megs is all you can get most of the time, sitting right next to an asus rt-ac66u router with updated firmware, even have the rt-66u 3 in 1 router in my bedroom , but running it as an extender...my apple tv runs great, my 60 inch aquos smart tv also runs fast, even my ipad can get 24 to 38 megs ds, out performing SP 128 by a mile. I am going to hang on to it for a little while longer, got a 2 year insurance package so returning it will be easy...I just want to give the techs long enough to come up with either a hardware patch or a new firmware release. to be honest though, i think its a good cross tablet, but i still use my latest iPad for Netflix and so on. ok its on to more important topics.
 

demandarin

Active Member
I think its just picky at times. Reading your post made me check my speeds on Comcast network. First time I got 12mbps download. Second time I ran it I got 37Mbps download speeds. I never have any issues streaming or anything. Plus also dependent on what frequency you running. Whether standard or 5Ghz.
 

scadarick

Member
I think its just picky at times. Reading your post made me check my speeds on Comcast network. First time I got 12mbps download. Second time I ran it I got 37Mbps download speeds. I never have any issues streaming or anything. Plus also dependent on what frequency you running. Whether standard or 5Ghz.

I think it's more than picky. I know my speed on all my equipment and the sp 128 should be running at 68 Meg's down, tested 2 other sp tablets with updates to test out my router and both got around 67 to 70 Meg's down, so that tells me it's not my router. I have been using my ea2500 Cisco 300 USB wifi adapter and it gets 68 to 69 every time. But the down side is no open USB port to use. I had a talk with a ms tech and he said that they are aware of the problem but no solution yet. I think I may return it and see if I get lucky and get one without the flaw. Many others are getting limited connections most of the time, but me...I see the entire hood I live in. You know I could live with the dongle but that's not right, it should work. My brother came down from Dallas last week with his SP and RT builds and he got 68 Meg's every time. It just seems that some have this bug and some don't , pretty much like Microsoft anyway. I can say this...it does circles around my ipad 4th gen. I am waiting to hear from a tech rep soon, let you know what he has to say. If nothing comes from it, I am off to replace it....not that hard to redo anyway....see ya guys, have a great Labor Day weekend....peace!
 

demandarin

Active Member
Hope it gets taken care of. I'd probably do like you said and just exchange it since you have the warranty. Smart move on 2 year warranty. I wanted it but the surface pro 128gb plus type cover was already so much cash for me.
 

scadarick

Member
I have been doing some tweaking on my router, the rt-ac66u asus, with the ea66u in extender mode. Today after setting up my 14" inch 9db antennas, replacing those small antennas and have seen around 56 Meg's which is getting closer. Not sure if its the driver pack from 8.1 windows preview. I tried those Marvell drivers but they seem to be the same, has the same date, but I have made more ground than before. I got time and to me, if I can't fix it, then I don't think others can either, this stuff has been my life since 1200 baud modems and dos, then win 3.1 ....to today's os. Been around the block a few times to let this bet me. Besides got a warenty on this tablet, normally don't, but after spending 1385.00 for everything SP related...I thought it was best....new ms stuff requires you to make that kind of decision these days, already been through 4 , iPads and a galaxy tab 2 10.1 android tablet....gave it to my folks though...just not powerful enough for my needs.
Follow up to come....have a great Labor Day Guys......be lazy!
 

bladeguy5

New Member
Interesting that it'll be replacing an iPad Mini... not heard of that happening yet! Kinda different products really. I would guess that would be the purpose of the up-and-coming (hopefully) Surface Mini.

well for me being 6'5 300 pounds the size of the surface pro when in tablet mode is really not an issue for me when it comes to the weight difference I like being able to snap on the type cover and run the same full fledge windows programs that I use on my desktop for me its kind of the best of both worlds really the only complaint I had was the 4 hour battery life but after doing the steps listed in this guys review at http://www.allthatnerdystuff.com/2013/02/25/how-to-optimize-microsoft-surface-pro-battery-life/ ive been able to sqeeze a minimum of 6 hours of just checking email, surfing the web (youtube), streaming movies from my NAs etc. so now I have no complaints. It would be nice if they came out with a type keyboard that has a battery in it that can charge the tablet at the same time.
 
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