Windows 8.1 on tablets (1 Viewer)

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
Has anyone here tried using this?

After buying the Asus Transformer TA100 (http://www.asus.com/sg/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_Transformer_Book_T100TA/) I'm starting to get my head around Windows 8.1 as well as the touch screen interface. So far I've had a very "Meh" experience compare to dedicated tablets and whilst it's great to be able to run my legacy x86 applications (e.g. my security camera software) it hasn't been without it's hitches (e.g. UAC must be disabled for it to work, random crashes/restarts of an otherwise clean Windows installation). I have also come to appreciate the non-touch optimised interface of Windows when not using Metro which can be a real pain; and heck, even some games on the Microsoft Store/Xbox Store fail because they rely on similar gestures to what's used to pull out charms (e.g. Asphalt Overdrive and the swipe will activate the charms pane!). Even the web browser which is built for Metro (i.e. the IE one) feels very limiting/awkward to use as it's not intuitive. A minor frustration is my Xbox Live account on my 360 uses a different email to my "professional" Microsoft account which I use for Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, etc.... and there's no way to merge the two together as both have billing information and active subscriptions in them. What a pain!

In terms of what's good, the Atom quad-core CPU is surprisingly brisk at multitasking, and the very widescreen view can be awkward to hold but great to read on. I did enjoy being able to login using picture touch, and the automatic orientation changes when I rotate the tablet.

All in all, after a few days of use, I can see the pain and challenges Microsoft has with trying to merge a legacy platform with a tablet one. If I had to choose between this and the iPad Air with a keyboard combination, I'd go iPad 9 times out of 10.
 

esaitchkay

Active Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
220
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
I bought a Surface Pro 3 (i3)for Uni - I've been using it for the past few weeks (mostly the Office 365 suite).
Excel lags a bit when I use shortcuts, but apart from that, Windows 8.1 on tablet has been a better experience than on desktop.

Haven't tried gaming, but I do think that the touch optimised Metro is pretty good.

However, they're going to be releasing Windows 10 in the sometime near future for free.
http://www.techradar.com/au/news/so...-release-date-price-news-and-features-1029245
http://www.techradar.com/au/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-10-1267364/review

Cortana seems interesting.
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
Haha in all honesty everytime I walk past a Surface Pro 3 on display here in SG (they're everywhere), it makes me wonder if I should've just not cheaped out and spent the $500 more to get the i3 Surface Pro over my atom powered Asus Transformer. Only thing is that would've made it a very expensive PC for my purposes.

Lately I'm finding using my iPad Air 2 with twomonusb to be the most useful thing. I was about to order a Lenovo LT1423P external USB touch screen monitor with stylus which is what I used back in Sydney (it wasn't mine- I just used it for work) and I realised I missed being able to flick/scroll documents or mark up using the stylus... but then after spending $10 on this app, it does the first bit (great for my wrists and being able to have a third screen) but doesn't have a stylus which I can live with at a fraction of the price (the monitor would've been closer to $600 shipped to Singapore).
 

esaitchkay

Active Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
220
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
I don't find myself using the touch screen too much!

Wow I hadn't seen of an app like twomonusb - really interesting.
Surely you can buy a blue tooth stylus for the i{ad

Personally, I find the SP3 stylus useless, but I guess it's because I don't really have a need to write on documents.
It is quite precise, though.
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
I don't find myself using the touch screen too much!

Wow I hadn't seen of an app like twomonusb - really interesting.
Surely you can buy a blue tooth stylus for the i{ad

Personally, I find the SP3 stylus useless, but I guess it's because I don't really have a need to write on documents.
It is quite precise, though.
I've got a few branded and unbranded stylii but they aren't that precise compared to say the more expensive ones in the >$200 range. I don't really need it that much though so I'm fine without.
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
After using this tablet for a few weeks and finding a few issues (maybe because it was cheaply made and can't stay on properly?) I regret not just buying either a Surface Pro 3 (which would've only cost about $1000 relative to my $550) or a cheaper Android tablet. Sigh. At least I can play UT though with a KB+mouse again!
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
For the guys who have Surface Pro 3s, which model did you get? I'm looking at i3 vs i5 now if I can sell my old MacBook Air or Asus transformer lol.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
Get the i5 with 128 gb ssd minimum, anything with lower storage is useless
I was leaning towards the i5 but I figured I could always just use the expansion slot as I have done previously (I even have a 64gb card from the T100).
 

seremify007

Junior Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
10,052
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2005
Uni Grad
2009
Decided not to get it. As cool as it looks I can't find a use I have for it given my firm won't let us use our own devices unless they are centrally managed (which are iOS and a few android devices) so the features and pen wouldn't be much use :(
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top