Surface Pro Diary Day One - Nice But Buggy...

After several weeks of planning and researching on the internet I finally decided to pull the trigger on buying a Surface Pro 2, with plans to use it as a mobile productivity machine.

As a graphic designer and illustrator, I wanted to find a machine that struck the balance between portability and power. The key feature I was looking for was an 'active digitizer' display, which means the ability to write or draw directly onto the screen with pen pressure sensitivity. 

After considerable research (and my friends and girlfriend can attest to this) my options were narrowed down to the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga, and possibly the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (which is Android not Windows based).

For the sake of being able to fully finish all of my work directly on the device, I ruled out the Galaxy Note 10.1, despite the several hundred pound price gap. If you just wanted a portable device, to sketch on, take notes on, and email, this probably would be the perfect device.

Between the Thinkpad Yoga and the Surface Pro 2, was honestly a very close call, the trade off being portability vs a full form-factor laptop, with a larger display and (and I can't believe this was a point of consideration for me, but...) there is a slot to store the pen within the laptop body... 

Now then, I took the plunge and decided to go for the Surface Pro 2, the clincher being the 2 week delay on the Thinkpad Yoga. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to lose the pen at some point, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

First Sketch on the Surface Pro 2 in Sketchbook Pro 6. Blogger is changing white images to grey for some reason...

Fixed the issue by editting Google Plus settings turning off 'Auto-Enhance' on photos.

ONTO THE DIARY:
My first day has been good, I've managed to install most of the programs that I had on my main work laptop onto the Surface Pro 2, which is a full Windows 8.1 device. So far I've only had chance to test out Sketchbook Pro, in the process of downloading all of my Adobe programs now... 

After some testing of the drawing on Sketchbook Pro, I have to say I'm quite delighted. The pen pressure worked straight out of the box and drawing directly on the screen worked a treat! It's going to take some getting used to, especially the grippyness of the glossy screen on my palm, but drawing directly on the screen was exactly as intuitive as I expected, curves feel more accurate and much less awkward to draw, and the 10.5" screen size, although quite small... Is actually larger than the bamboo tablet I was using previously (student budget when I got that thing and never needed to upgrade).

So overall, off to a great start, I'm noticing a few unexpected niggles here and there... 

• The trackpad is annoyingly small, and there is clearly room on the Type Cover 2, for a larger tracking surface (oh well).
• When I touch the screen instead of using the mouse, the Windows screen keyboard pops up and blocks 50% of the screen... Often the part that I'm actually typing in. It goes away when you start to type on the Type Cover, but it's annoying non-the-less, and I'm looking for a fix. 

EDIT: Found a horrible fix to this here: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToDisableTheOnScreenTouchKeyboardInWindows8.aspx but it means disabling the on-screen keyboard entirely, including when used as a stand-alone tablet... Seriously Microsioft? £109 for a Type Cover 2 and no ability to simply disable the auto pop-up keyboard with it attached? Get your shit together. 

• Scrolling on the trackpad doesn't work 99% of the time... It just slightly nudges the whole window open rather than scrolling the content within the window (eg this blog as I write it).
• Automatic screen brightness... Is more like disco screen mode. Randomly brightens and dims totally on a whim. Annoying, and the fix requires a few driver updates.

That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be more, largely though, I'm very happy with my new Surface, more on Day 2! Attached a tester sketch using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on the Surface.