I was initially intrigued by the Surface Pro, but was ultimately disappointed by it. I found it to be a jack of all trades, but master of none when it comes to form factor. It just isn’t enough of a laptop for those who still need that more than the tablet form factor. Trying to use it in my lap or on a small lap desk with either keyboard was a really poor experience.

I’m bound to Windows in my business, so even though the Surface wasn’t going to work out, I know I was going to have to head into the Windows 8 world eventually. I ended up settling on the Lenovo Yoga 13, and I have been very happy with it. It is much more laptop than tablet, but considering how lacking the library of touch apps currently is, and the fact that I spend most of my time in the traditional laptop configuration and in the Desktop, it is a great fit. It’s just nice to have the tablet features and touch screen there when I need them.

Different devices for different needs, I guess. It is good that there are lots of devices and form factors to choose from, and Windows 8 is doing a lot to add to the market. It just feels like MS missed the mark for the mainstream right now with the Surface and Surface Pro. Touch in Windows 8 just isn’t far enough along yet to support moving the market to touch as the primary interface. The day is coming, but it just isn’t here yet.

You sir are the perfect candidate for the surface pro. I run small business and this thing has been an absolute blessing. I love the form factor and how powerful it is. I sold my iPad and bagged up my laptop and put it away. I run everything off of this thing and I love it. you could also get a monitor and a mini display port cable and use this as a desktop computer too. Its awesome for propping it up at coffee shops and restaurants and you don’t look silly with a big ol’ laptop hanging off of the table. cant wait for the surface pro 2 as this is only going to get better and better. PS> get the type cover, its amazing I can type so fast on it.

yea me either, I actually enoy using the Pro in portrait mode. its so long and it makes reading on the web awesme because so muchtext fits on one screen without scrolling. plus windows does a great job of wrapping the words.

About battery life, MS themselves said they could have added a bigger battery but chose not to because they wanted the device to remain under the 2 pound mark. I get plenty of life in between charges. I do however know how to use a windows PC and control all the services that run in the background. installing something as adobe can diminish batt. life because of bckgd processes so something watch out for. Not to mention, this is a laptop and not a tablet so the battery life is quite good when you think of it like that. gets WAAAAAAY more than my regular full size laptop.

For me the portrait annoyance is mainly when I’m looking to read an e-book. Landscape is too wide for my preference in reading but the portrait shape doesnt work well either.

Assuming you can get enough battery life when on the road, the Surface Pro should be enough, especially since the included WACOM stylus is as good as a mouse for applications or web sites which are not optimised for touch. The WACOM stylus supports “hover” (you literally hover above the screen rather than touch it) and “right-click” actions, just like the mouse.

BTW, it’s possible to get 7 hrs battery life from the Surface Pro by tweaking one of the processor settings, assuming you don’t need to use it for any highly intensive processing work such as video editing, 3D games, or image rendering etc.