Microsoft Surface Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 23, 2012 9:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Surface
- Windows RT
Camera
Surface features two 720p cameras, one on the front and one on the back. Neither camera provides particularly great image quality but they are sufficient for web use.
The camera UI is quick and fairly simple. Tap and hold to lock exposure is supported, and you can tap anywhere on the screen to actually take a photo. Switching between front and rear facing cameras is quick, as is switching between photo and video modes.
The only aspect of Surface’s cameras that takes some getting used to is the 22-degree angled camera assembly on the back. The angled rear facing camera is designed to offset the inline created by the kickstand when deployed, so you can prop Surface up on its kickstand and not have the rear camera pointing at the ground. Unfortunately when handheld it means that you often have to tilt Surface a bit to get the right shot. I guess that’s better than having the rear facing camera pointing at the ground when used the kickstand deployed, but that likely depends on what you’re using Surface’s rear camera for.
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Mumrik - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Anand - you often keep an eye on the comments section for your reviews. Please get rid of this nonsense.scorpian007 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Um, I'm an indian and I am not a fan of Apple products at all. I've owned 2 iPhones, an iPod, and a Macbook Air and the only product I was wowed by was the original iPhone. So don't go around generalizing and being a racist idiot.krutou - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link
So you've owned a total of 4 Apple products and you're not a fan. Its not like there aren't any viable alternatives out there.PrajithNair - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Yourfather239,This is yourmother230 (yes, I had 8 before pushing you out)
Not sure if you think these comments help you feel better cos your Indian father walked out on you cos you were an albino. You need to vent elsewhere son. This is a tech site - not KKK central.
Sam_d - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link
No possible sentence could be constructed that could possibly express how downright stupid this comment is. your comment fails every single stage of my mental common sense process so thoroughly that I can’t even fathom the type of twisted logic it would take to come up with it. Congratulations, sir. I have never been more serious than when I say that your comment was so mindblowingly moronic that the mere act of reading it has negatively affected my intelligence as a side-effect. It’s like, in trying to comprehend the crazy thought process that would’ve been required to come up with that coment, new paths were forged through my brain in an attempt to mimic your own – horrible paths that lead to logical fallacies and intellectual dead-ends. My head is actually physically in pain. I’m going to go take some aspirin and try to forget I ever saw this.B3an - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
WTF? Anand clearly likes the Surface and theres nothing bias here or forced. Examples:"As a device, Surface is incredibly well executed"
"The chassis is well built and the integrated kickstand is seriously one of the most useful features to ever meet a tablet. "
"Surface is the most flexible tablet I've ever used"
"The Windows RT experience, in many senses, is clearly ahead of what many competitors offer in the tablet space today. Multitasking, task switching and the ability to have multiple applications active on the screen at once are all big advantages that Microsoft enjoys. For productivity workloads, Surface is without equal in the tablet space."
"I’d say in terms of smoothness of UI, Windows RT on Surface is much more like the iPad (or Windows Phone 7.5) than most Android tablets. Jelly Bean does complicate things as it really fixes a lot of the UI performance issues that hampered Android. Even then I’d say Surface’s UI responsiveness is among the best."
Krysto - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
The difference between biased and objective, is that a biased person would try to make it sound as if Surface works basically as fast as Jelly Bean, as Anand did here, even though it's clear he thinks Jelly Bean works a lot better on Tegra 3 if you read between the lines.An objective person would've admitted JB works better not just with animations, but during using it and opening apps as well.
This Guy - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Reading the review he noted that Surface loading times where far slower but he also noted that multitasking was far better. He backed up his analysis with data.How is this not objective?
The0ne - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Yes, but read the conclusion again.yourfather239 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
So does any other indian pos, Indians love to kiss Apple's butt because it makes them look better than millions of others in their country who live in slums.