the best tablet – Tech with T

Well – it’s officially been a month since we’ve purchased the Microsoft Surface Pro 3; and I must say I’m more than excited about the new form factor and build quality. Not only am I happy about the new size and features of the Surface Pro 3, but the family is too; especially the little ones – Chloe and Ava.

To get started with our review we’ve put together a homemade re-make of the original Surface Pro 3 promo video – Surface style! Take a look below at our promo efforts…

My lovely daughters Chloe and Ava suited up in their Surface lab jackets with Windows t-shirts and was ready for action; of course we had a lot of out-takes and false starts due to missed queues and a case of the giggles, but all and all we had a good time.

For those of you that pre-ordered or purchased your SP3 a month ago, then you can relate to the experience and perks of an all in one tablet / PC solution; and for those of you switching from a mac book pro to the SP3, then you guys are just in pure heaven right now.

Of course if your still longing for the SP3 or just holding out for the i7 model due in August; you are still in for an awesome treat. To start this review lets look at the specs listed below along with some visuals and hands-on video for confirmations.

Surface Pro 3 Specifications:

The beautiful 12″ inch screen is a welcome slate of glass enforced with a gorilla type 2 toughness, and the resolution is so clear you wonder why they need retina on that other “i” device at all… Anyway on to the dimensions as you can see the 11.5″ by 7.93″ by 0.36″ is wide enough to perform just about any and all task of laptops and tablets on the market today.

The battery life was flawless on my Surface RT2 and with the SP3 I get to enjoy that same all day feeling, but with a major boost in power provided by the 4th generation Intel Core i5 processor. To provide you with a quick overview of the following features check out the video below to witness some of the great task you can complete with the Surface Pro3.

Now I must say the video above was awesome in detailing some of the key features of the SP3, as well as highlighting the five features referenced above; but that’s not all to the SP3. OneNote is accompanied by an interactive pen and from experience I strongly recommend that you test out the pen features when you get a chance.

When physically holding it in your hands the pen truly feels like your writing on pure notebook paper; the metal bodied pen is really responsive when writing with One Note as well as with other equivalent apps that utilize the pen input. It feels like a quality ball point with endless ink and it comes with a three button option to choose from; my overall favorite is the purple button located at the top of the pen, you can literary power on the SP3 with just one click. Take a look at the pen in detail here.

I have to agree the Surface Pro 3 is the tablet that can and for me “will” replace your laptop. Panos Panay quoted on stage during the SP3 keynote that “over 90% of people today have both a tablet and a laptop in their bags”. I don’t know about you but carrying two devices to accomplish one common task sounds like you need the Surface in your life.

For Windows users you can see clearly why the SP3 is the right choice when buying your next PC or tablet; and to be far to the users of those other devices like the ipad, droid pads; and of course the heavy mac book pro; I’ve included a video by You Tuber “Jerry Lan” who happens to be a hardcore mac user. I must say I was highly impressed by Jerry’s honesty as a mac user when comparing the top 10 advantages between the SP3 and the mac book pro. Take a look at why mac users are switching to the Surface Pro 3 as their one device for everything.

You can officially say goodbye to the ” Post PC Era “, because the birth of the Surface line has eliminated that term for good. All these great features packed into one device makes the Surface Pro 3 the ideal tablet, ideal PC and of course the ideal laptop. Lets look at a few more features before we finish this review on the Surface Pro 3; next up we take a look at storage availability.

When it comes to storage you have options with the SP3 that you just can’t fully experience right now with the i-devices; for starters you get the base level i3 processor with 64GB, the i5 processor with a 128GB up to a 256GB option and for the wrap up you have the i7 processor debuting with 256GB and a max of 512GB. By chance if you need additional storage options with either of these configurations, the SP3 comes equipped with a micro SD slot on all models that will support up to 64GB of added SD space.

Even though there’s one USB slot, the SP3 will support hub units up to 25 plus connections; and to top it off there is the almighty SP3 docking station, that will transform your SP3 into a full work-horse workstation. As an added bonus to all devices for additional storage on top of storage Microsoft provides 15GB of FREE ” One Drive” cloud storage to all service subscribers.

To concluded my blog post for today I leave you with one more of my favorite SP3 videos; it’s non other than Panos Panay the Vice President of the Microsoft Surface product line. – Please Enjoy!

In the above video Panos Panay’s ending question was – “You want to create products that people love“…. Well ladies and gentlemen I have only two words for that question. “ I DO “.

“Until next time – Stay Powered by Windows”
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By: Toran Lacy | @TWindows_

The reviews are in…. but are they really?

I state the following, simply because over the past week questionable reviews from certain editorial columnists and senior journalist, have released an onslaught of cautious and almost bias like behavior toward the Windows 8 / Surface RT launch.

You see unlike most bloggers, tech editors, or product reviewers I tend to show my cards up front about who I lean towards as my chosen (OS); so throughout the course of my blogs and article post you will see clearly that my preference will always be Windows.

As I read the articles and watched my share of unboxing’s; I couldn’t help but throw a flag on the play while reading the majority of their review posts. For the average consumer of tech device, reviews and ratings like those would definitely detour consideration for any product.

It appears as though there is an un-spoken rule amongst the journalist who submitted a less than fair review for Windows 8 and Surface RT. But again on a brighter note despite the early reviews the real truth on Windows 8 & RT have literarily “Surfaced”.

While I sit here typing my blog post; I’m extremely happy to be doing it on my very own Surface RT tablet. This device was built by Microsoft and has already captured the hearts of millions of users.

Whether your a fan of Microsoft or of the opposing competitors, the Surface RT tablet has so much more to offer the average consumer than just the current BYOD type tablets on the market today.

A common issue I see with tablet devices such as the kindle, nook, ipad, and nexus is that they are all built with compromises or lack of required features. Features like a usb port, mini HDMI, and extra storage slots for expandable data. These key features allow the device to function like a PC or the ability to be productive with the worlds standard (OS) and full Microsoft Office.

Also to add just the ability to plug and play on the same device without costly app’s or add-ons that mimic the likes of a laptop or PC. Granted we have netbooks, ultra books, and PC tablets that have entered the hybrid arena, but to be completely honest about it they don’t match up to the build style of the Surface RT.

Windows 8 on all devices old and new has proven to be the best experience to date; the new OS launch by Microsoft was presented on stage during the original build, and recent key note. As you will see in the video below, the Windows 8 team will run through several form factors running Windows 8.

The take away for me was truly amazing just to see how this software could adapt to various processor speeds, chipsets and the advantages of a 1 second resume rate from sleep mode.

My advice to you as the consumer is to first review Windows 8 for yourself; give it a good run through with the old faithful mouse and keyboard. Take some time to familiarize the new features and key controls for the new start menu. The new Windows 8 was built as a no compromise OS, specifically because you still have the best of both worlds.

The desktop is one of the most common features that we know as a center point for Windows; this tried and true interface was tremendously brought to life by Windows 7. With Windows 8 we will continue to enjoy the fruits of the Windows desktop and explorer.

With the new touch enhancements for Windows 8 we get to keep the native software applications for the desktop, as well as benefit from the new app centered environment from Windows Store.

I’ve compiled a few reviews below and quick tips that I would like to share with you, and I hope they help in your decision making process.

Technology editor Joanna Stern of ABC News, recently posted a few hands on video reviews for Windows 8. She covers several form factors in her review and provides some basic how to’s while working with the new touch enhancements as well as the desktop.

If you found Joanna’s 3 minute video review informative, and helpful she has covered Windows 8 and Surface RT in-depth, you can see additional video feeds on the ABC video library page under tech reviews.

Next up I’ve listed video reviews on plug and play devices you can use with Windows 8 and Surface RT, along with a brief un-boxing for the Surface tablet. The following videos below were uploaded by you tube user Austin Ducann, he has several other video for reviews listed on his channel if you’re interested.

For the final review I save the best for last; just recently I had the pleasure to come across a 33 minute video review by Lisa Gade of Mobile Tech Review. I know you may be thinking 33 minutes for a review is a little overkill; but I have to tell you Lisa covered the Surface RT really well.

Just take some time to view her post and video review, I’m sure you will have a better understanding about the new Windows 8, and Surface RT features and enhancements.

In conclusion to my blog post I hope the next time you’re on the web reading a review, or just surfing the social sites, that you’ll be doing it on a Surface RT tablet or maybe one of the many new form factors built for Window 8.

“Until next time – Stay Powered by Windows”
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By: Toran Lacy | @TWindows_