Which Microsoft RT Device?

[Patrick]

Been looking at a few options:

1. Microsoft Surface - $499 + $120ish for a keyboard = $620 but you cannot buy one. 3 week backorder. Lost an ebay auction for one with the inexpensive keyboard that went for $700. Figured tax v. no tax would make it a wash
2. ASUS Vivo Tab RT - $599 but includes a real keyboard dock with an extra battery. No slim keyboard option.
3. Dell XPS 10 - $499 + $180 for the keyboard dock + tax. Snapdragon CPU which is different. Estimated ship 12/11/2012... Yikes! No slim keyboard option.
4. Acer W510-1666 - Not sure I want to go Atom and Win 8. 11/06/2012

Any other options? I know realistically I would be at the Microsoft store today getting the Surface if I could. Thinking the ASUS may be another interesting option but feeling like the Surface is going to be the best 3rd party accessory support.

Would love to hear opinions. I will certainly keep everyone posted with what I do. Likely Haswell Surface Pro (or so I can hope )

 

[odditory]

RT is wait-and-see for me, I think RT is going to take longer to get off the ground than Microsoft would hope. I'm curious what the return rate is going to be among impulse buyers that didn't do their homework to know it won't run windows apps and they'll be stuck with Metro's slim pickings.

Unless you're getting it purely "just because" for review & evaluation purposes then I'd either go Nexus 10 ($399 for the most insane spec sheet that amount of money can buy) or x86 based Surface tablet - which ofcourse will probably be twice the price but you're getting a real PC.

The one exception for RT for me would be if going into it with the intent of it being a thin client, for purposes of RDP/remote-ing a lot where you can leverage the keyboard while also staying extremely mobile.

Personally I'm going to wait for gen2 RT devices to re-evaluate, with the hope that Metro app offerings gets fleshed out a bit more during that interim.

 

[Patrick]

Well... the big driver is that Power Pivot works on Office 13 for RT. That is pretty cool! You can actually get the Atom based Windows 8 systems for a decent amount ($650)

I totally agree on the Nexus 10 though and will probably end up with that also. I have an app for iOS called Air Play. Would be awesome to do that with the Nexus 10. Same resolution as my ZR30w in a much smaller space? Would make a great HD monitor for my Canon when I do review pictures.

 

[Patrick]

Oh... just found the Surface in-stock locally... now to see if I can get one. [UPDATE]

Update: Got one! Played a bit in the store. Felt a bit slow, but pretty usable. That line I put in my articles on desktop processors that most people don't need a $200 CPU to run Microsoft Word is certainly true.

Also of note - if you have a store nearby, the Palo Alto store had stock. I was able to call ahead. No need to wait 3 weeks for online order or pay ebay's $100+ markup.

 

[Jeggs101]

How do you like the Surface? Did you get a keyboard? If so which one?

 

[Patrick]

I got the 32GB one with a Cayenne keyboard. I like it. Certainly not perfect.

 

[odditory]

I gotta say that pricing is a little rough for a tab that can't run x86 apps and has almost no worthwhile Metro apps to speak of. Curious how well it works under RemoteFX backed to a Server 2012 VDI/VM. But even if it works perfectly as a thin client its at least $100 more than it needs to be.

 

[Patrick]

Yea, $500 with the keyboard would have been much better. Remote desktop works great, but have not tried RemoteFX yet.

 

[Jeggs101]

My challenge to you: Hype or no?