Microsoft Surface Review Follow-up: Questions Answered

A few days ago we ran our review on the Microsoft Surface and found the tablet to be an impressive, characteristic rich device.  The review generated a healthy number of comments, many of which had questions from our readers.  Questions ranged from customization curiosities to how well the Surface handled games.

In this follow up post, we hope to shed some more lite on the Surface and answer many of our reader'south questions.

Beginning upwardly, aeronaught asks,

Hey I was wondering if yous can modify the background on the home screen (the pic backside the tiles) to annihilation you want? I've been wondering that for a while at present. Every pic I've seen merely has the bones colors with a slight blueprint on it.

While yous can add together your own images for the lock screen, the background paradigm for the Start Screen is limited to a series of pre-loaded patterns from Microsoft. Yous can still customize your desktop wallpapers. Just tap and concur the screen while in the desktop (basically the equivalent to a correct mouse click) and choose the personalize option.

I don't recall the disability to employ a custom wallpaper on the Get-go Screen is a loss.  The Start Screen focus is with the tiles (Live and non) that a custom moving-picture show for the wallpaper would probably get lost.  The Lock Screen is the best identify to highlight your photos and other custom artwork.

In that location were a number of curiosities on the on-screen keyboard. FuzzyLogician commented,

I wish you had stated more about the on-screen keyboard? It deserves more attending than ane sentence. How well does it really work? How well does the on-screen split up (thumb focused) keyboard work? How well does information technology work in portrait mode vs. horizontal mode? How well does it part in the desktop environs vs. metro?

Equally we mentioned in the review, the on-screen keyboard performs as squeamish, if not slightly ameliorate, than whatever other on-screen keyboard. Patently, information technology works best in landscape orientation because you lot get more elbow room with the keys.

The neat matter about the on-screen keyboard is the options you lot have. There is the standard keyboard mode, the thumb style that divides the keys in half and places them to the corners of the screen, and the writing pad entry (for the lack of a better term) where you write the words to be transcribed to the document. Each keyboard style has tap keys and a numeric keypad.  The writing pad is not available with every application and has its ain help central to illustrate some of the editing shortcuts.

I'm non too great on the pollex fashion and the downside to the writing pad entry is that it takes a few seconds for the Surface to interpret what you write. Information technology'south a neat option just slow.

It'southward not always practical to use the TouchCover keyboard and I accept no reservations nigh pulling up the on-screen keyboard.  All three options (full, thumbs, writing pad) perform effectively and which is best is really a subjective measure.

With regards to responsiveness of apps, dreamerbala asks,

Adept review. Tin can you also shed some light on how responsive the Desktop apps are ? i.e., Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I saw a YouTube video where they were laggy every bit hell.

I didn't experience any lagginess in using any of the Role apps. I was able to pull up existing documents with no trouble and creating new docs went well as well.  There was a slight pause when you lot kickoff open one of the Office apps when you transition from your Start Screen to the Desktop environment but aught to pull you hair out over.

Yous volition as well experience a slight delay when opening Word and PowerPoint while the apps load a decent choice of templates.  But once again, these delays weren't long or anything to drive you basics over.

With respect to the Surface'south gaming capabilities, TheDutchGuy commented,

Nice review, but having just read the rather negative review at eurogamer I'grand rather concerned about the gaming operation of the surface. Any information on how well games perform on the surface.

In playing several games that have been carried over from the Windows Phone platform, I establish the Surface to be a very capable gaming device.Fruit Ninja was a little slow to load but in one case loaded, ran smoothly. Playing information technology on the Surface's larger screen was really fun and takes the game to a new level.

Wordament loaded smoothly and dainty to have a little elbow room in creating the words. Radiant also ran shine every bit did Angry Birds Space. All in all, gaming performance with the Surface was similar to what you would notice on the Windows Phone but with a larger screen.  I can encounter the Surface taking gaming a bit farther than what we've experienced on our Windows Phones due to the larger screen.  Developers will have more real estate for on-screen controls and more detailed graphics.

The Surface may non ascension to the level of your Xbox Console but it will do nicely for gaming within its own correct.

Lastly, finding remo21 asked,

Yous stated it won't be replacing your laptop. Listen elaborating on why not?

While I run into the Surface existence a very capable device for piece of work and play, a laptop still has more capabilities. From a larger screen size that comes in handy for everything from multi-tasking to photograph editing to larger storage and connectivity options.I have a disk drive for movies, multiple USB ports and a larger hard drive.

I notice the Surface handy to surf the web, check my email, send emails, piece of work on Word Documents, review documents, play games and other odds and ends.  Just I too practice a lot of photography work and for that, my laptop is the device of choice.  Mainly for the larger screen and programs that aren't even so available for the Surface.

Consider it this way, at i point our desktop computers were the work horses whilt the laptop was the option for portability. Where the laptops have evolved to where they are simply as capable as most desktops, I tin can see the Surface sliding into the ultra-portable option.  Capable within its own right only nonetheless not every bit much muster as its large brother.

The more I use the Microsoft Surface, the more than information technology grows on me.  It's a feature rich, cartel I say fun device to use.  Nosotros'll take more on the Surface with reviews on apps and games as well as a few tips and tricks on down the road.  It will exist interesting to run across how the Surface Pro compares once it becomes available.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-surface-review-follow

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