Microsoft to bring the Surface RT his first "computer" on the market. It has a 10.6-inch tablet with Windows operating system and RT with heart Nvidia SoC (System-on-Chip) which we use in many recent Android tablets rooms. We have tested the Surface RT.
The Surface RT is the first Windows tablet with an ARM processor that we tested. In appearance and size, he seems very similar to the recently tested by us Acer Iconia Tab W510, but the tablet has a full Intel x86 processor and runs the full version of Windows 8.
The Surface RT RT uses Windows ("Run") as the operating system, the version of Windows 8 that is suitable for ARM processors, and no existing Windows x86 programs. We run only known Windows apps that you can download or buy the Windows Store. Some apps are already installed. It is also the RT version of Office 2013, more about that later.
In some countries, including the U.S.A. Microsoft released its own x86-based Windows 8 tablet. This Surface RT Pro tablet will ever come to us on the market, but that will be a lot more expensive than the ordinary Surface RT that we tested. When the Surface Pro in Belgium and the Netherlands on the market, is unknown. Microsoft is facing supply problems. You'll be on the Pro-tablet your existing Windows programs can run, unlike the ordinary Surface RT.
Design
The Surface RT is 1.5 to 2 cm wider than the typical Android or Apple tablet. This applies to all Windows 8/RT-tablets. The advantage is that you can more easily with ten fingers on the screen keyboard typing. The disadvantage is that the tablet slightly less well in the hand.
With a weight of 689 grams (Microsoft says "less than 676 grams", but according to our weighting is even slightly more than 689 g) is the Surface RT also quite heavy compared to other tablets like the Apple iPad 3 (652 grams) , the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (583 grams) or the Acer Iconia Tab W510 (574 grams). The tablet Microsoft is indeed almost a half inch thicker than Acer (9.3 cm compared to 8.95 cm).
The Surface RT has a full USB port, a mini HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio jack to the right and left edge of the screen down. There are also two magnetic connections: right for the external power supply for the optional keyboard and bottom covers, more about that later. The practical magnetic power we also know Apple laptops, it's the first time we encounter them in a tablet.
The super bright LED IPS screen provides a wide viewing angle, has a good contrast and shows slightly faded colors. The screen resolution of 1366 x 769 pixels, in combination with a screen diagonal of 10.6 inches a pixel density of 148 ppi, similar to most regular Android tablets, but slightly less than the (sharper looking) 155 ppi of the Acer Iconia Tab W510 and much less than the (sharper) 264 ppi of the Apple iPad 3.
The screen automatically rotates in the direction of view and respond to five touch points.There are two control buttons: on / off top and audio on the left. Below the screen there is a touch sensitive "Windows key" that allows you to the main menu of Windows RT calls. The small stereo speakers in the edges processed. This tablet also has two microphones: one beside the webcam on the front and the other next to the camera on the back.
Particular, the flip cover on the back, which can be used as a standard for the tablet to put down on a work surface. The screen tilts than about 10 degrees backwards.
You can expand the storage with a microSD card, but you will then be in the memory slot should priegelen that right under the flap hidden.
Technical characteristics
The Surface RT uses an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core SoC with a processor speed of 1.3 GHz and 2GB RAM. This is the same chipset used in previously tested by us Android tablets like the Toshiba AT300 or the Asus Transformer Pad TF300T.
Just like those Android tablets, you can use the Surface RT with different memory configurations buy. We tested the 32GB version, which costs 479 euro, but there is also a version with 64GB to 579 euros. The 32GB version has 16GB free space for user files and additional apps. With the 64GB version is 45GB free space.
You can that space up to 128GB if you expand a microSD memory card in the slot under the flap on the back insert.
The Surface RT thus offers a little more space than the Acer Iconia Tab W510 in a similar configuration. The 32GB version of the W510 only has 10GB free space, while in the 64GB version is only 30GB. Put differently, nor unexpected: Windows RT has a compact code base than Windows 8.
WiFi 802.11ab/g/n is built, as well as Bluetooth 4.0. As with the Iconia W510 lacks unfortunately a GPS chip. A digital compass is certainly present, along with an accelerometer and a gyroscope.
This pitch-black tablet has two cameras front and rear, but that only offer a resolution of 1 megapixel and are therefore particularly suitable for video chatting.
Touch and Type Covers
Optionally you a Touch (€ 199.99) or Type Cover (€ 129.99) for the Surface RT buying. Optional is a big word: if you really want to get out all the stops for this tablet (read: if you are going to use Office RT intensive) then one of these covers necessary. As the name implies, it covers not only protect the screen of your tablet, but they also contain full qwerty and azerty keyboards.
The slightly cheaper TouchCover is a bit thinner and lighter than the Type Cover, but the built-in keyboard has no moving buttons, so you can type less quickly than the cover type.Are you planning a lot of text typing with this tablet, we recommend the type of cover.
The TouchCover adds 204 grams to the weight and 3mm to the thickness of the tablet. The Type Cover adds 215 grams and 6mm to it. Both covers clicks magnetically stuck to the bottom of the tablet. This mechanism works very smoothly. The magnetic connection is also firm.
The toetsenlay-out is identical in both. Both covers have a touch-sensitive surface that you can control the Windows mouse.
RT Windows
RT Windows works exactly the same as Windows 8. There's even a classic Windows desktop on this tablet, just like with Windows 8, but the big difference is that you do not have Windows x86 software on this ARM-based tablet can run. So you're totally dependent on the apps in the Windows Store, which fortunately become more crowded, but currently it contains a lot less apps than the app stores from Apple (iOS) and Google (Android). Nevertheless, there are apps for every day, both for which you have to pay as free.
However, keep in mind that many popular programs, such as alternative web browsers (Chrome, Firefox) are not currently available for Windows RT. In terms of browser you are therefore obliged to use built-in Internet Explorer 10. Among others, the Flash support of IE10 late still to be desired ...
What you get free with this tablet, is an ARM version of Microsoft's office software Office 2013. This "Office Home and Student 2013 RT" consists of the components Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Note that Outlook is not in it.
You can change your existing Office documents on this tablet open, edit and save, without loss of information, or the layout of your document changes. We have tried this with small and large files and found no problems fixed. For Office users, this is obviously a big plus.
Performance
The Microsoft Surface RT tablet runs no classic Windows programs and you can therefore no existing Windows benchmarks run. Even Microsoft's own Windows Experience Index is not available for this tablet. It is therefore very difficult to compare such performance with the Acer Iconia Tab W510. We dare however that the Acer Iconia Tab W510 is slightly faster than the Microsoft Surface RT. This is evident both from our subjective experiences, as a cross-platform benchmark as the Futuremark Peacekeeper web test, in which the Surface RT scores 347 points, while the Iconia Tab W510 in this test takes 406 points. Apple's iPad 3 cites in this benchmark also 500 points.
The Surface RT starts in 21 seconds (compared to 10 seconds for the Iconia Tab W510). From sleep mode, the tablet is within the second wake.
In the Peacekeeper test battery keeps the Surface from RT to 442 minutes (just over 7 hours). The Iconia Tab W510 brings in that test a battery life of 733 minutes, but that was in conjunction with the battery dock. The Apple iPad 3 scores 549 minutes. The Asus Transformer Pad TF300T (Android as an operating system, but the same chipset as the Surface RT) scores only 311 minutes. The autonomy of the Surface RT is certainly reasonable.
Conclusion
The Microsoft Surface RT is a good, solid, but too expensive Windows tablet. For little more money you can buy for example the Acer Iconia Tab W510 that are lighter, faster and more complete, greater autonomy and you furthermore all Windows programs can run and not just Windows apps like this Surface RT RT. There are also some unevenness in the operating system, though we can objectively determine this difficult. But during the test period of about two weeks responded the Surface RT twice no more input and we had to restart the device. We got no error and thus have to guess the cause of these crashes. The fixed crashes occurred coincidentally or not is always on when changing the keyboard covers.
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