I’ve been using my Microsoft Surface RT now for two months. My iPad has been passed down to my daughter to play Princess games and play interactive coloring books. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good:
Integration with Office 365 is top notch. When I travel I don’t miss having the weight of my laptop in my bag. I also don’t have to take the Surface out of my bag at airport security checks – which helps me breeze through without a problem. The SkyDrive integration helps me get to my documents even when I am out of the office. When I am on the place it’s interesting to watch others pull out their iPads for ‘play’ (music, reading, etc.) and then have a separate laptop for work. I don’t miss those days.
I also use Lync as my voice client – so using the Jabra USB speakerphone allows me to receive and make calls from my Surface no matter where I am.
The Surface RT runs full Microsoft Office for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. It’s great to have the full Office client on a tablet.
The Bad:
There is no integrated cellular WiFi – I really miss this type of connectivity.
The Ugly:
The mail client is just flat out terrible – extremely slow and difficult to use. It is not as responsive to typing as Word on the Surface RT is – which I don’t really understand. I really miss having the full Outlook client on the Surface – but I find that I use my mobile phone for most of my email anyway – so this isn’t a deal breaker.
Bottom Line:
I don’t travel with a laptop anymore…my 4 year old has my iPad…you be the judge.
