Chapter 1

Which Microsoft Surface Do You Need?

In This Chapter

Choosing between a Microsoft Surface and other tablets

Selecting the right Microsoft Surface

Understanding the difference between the regular and pro Surface models

Identifying the different Surface models

Understanding your Surface’s storage space

Many people stay tied to a desktop PC at work. They sit in front of a deskbound workhorse that lets them create documents, spreadsheets, and whatever other humdrum files their boss requires that day.

When it’s time to relax, however, many of those same people reach for a tablet. Lightweight and portable, tablets make it easy to watch videos, listen to music, browse the web, and check e-mail.

But what if you had a tablet that did it all? You could create files when work called but consume files during your leisure.

That’s the promise of a Microsoft Surface tablet. Its finger-friendly Start screen lets you switch between videos, music, e-books, e-mail, and the web. And, come Monday morning, you can switch to the Windows desktop, fire up Outlook, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and get to work.

This chapter explains Microsoft’s four models of Surface tablets: The two older models, Surface RT and Surface Pro, and the two new models, Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. I describe them each in detail, highlighting their features, their strengths, and their weaknesses.

Why Buy a Microsoft Surface?

Most computer manufacturers create computers, including Windows tablets, as cheaply as possible. By coming up with the lowest price tag, they hope to undercut their competitors. Instead of taking the same road to the bottom, Microsoft created its line of Surface tablets as a showpiece, designed to show off Windows tablets at their finest.

To do that, Microsoft designed the Surface in-house with a large budget and engineering team, a luxury not available to most computer manufacturers.

Competitors cut costs by wrapping their tablets in cheap plastic. Microsoft Surface models, by contrast, come sheathed in a magnesium alloy. The rugged but lightweight casing gives the tablet a solid feel.

The Surface includes a built-in kickstand, shown in Figure 1-1. An optional attachable keyboard doubles as a cover when not in use.

Why not just buy an iPad? Well, they’re attractive tablets that excel at what they do, but they’re limited. Without a built-in USB port, iPads don’t let you transfer files easily between your tablet and desktop PC. Every Surface tablet, by contrast, includes a full-sized USB port, making it easy to swap files through flash drives or even portable hard drives.

When iPad owners need to work, they usually reach for their laptop. Surface owners simply flip their keyboard into place, load the familiar Windows desktop, and head for the mainstays of Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote.

When you’re ready to hit the road again, flip back the keyboard and run, taking all of your files with you.

Your Surface strips computing down to its essentials, creating a lightweight and mobile workstation that lets you add on accessories when necessary:

• Fingers: Your fingertips may be the only accessory you need. Touchscreens simplify many mobile computing tasks. It’s easy to scroll through large documents with a flick of your finger, for example. Plus, touchscreens often seem more natural, especially when paging through digital books, maneuvering through maps, or resizing digital photos.
• Keyboard: A pop-up touchscreen keyboard works well for light typing. For heavier work, the optional keyboards add about a half-pound of weight and double as screen covers.
• Monitor: When you plug a monitor into your tablet’s video port, you’ve created a two-monitor workstation. You can view your notes on your tablet but compose your document on the second, larger monitor. (I explain how to manage two monitors in Chapter 6.) Or, you can extend your Windows desktop across both monitors, doubling its size.

Understanding the Unique Features of a Surface

Microsoft Surface tablets introduce several features not found in other tablets:

• Kickstand: Place a tablet on the desk, and its screen faces the ceiling, not you. To solve the problem, each Surface includes a built-in kickstand that lets your tablet sit upright like a laptop’s screen. The kickstand on the newest models, the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, adjusts to provide two viewing angles, handy for typing in different situations.
• Keyboard cover: Most tablets don’t include a case or a keyboard. You can buy them as accessories, but they’re two more items to carry around. The Surface, by contrast, offers a keyboard that doubles as a cover. When you’re done working, flip up the keyboard, and it becomes a cover to protect the screen.
• USB port/memory card slot: These items come built into every Surface tablet, but you won’t find them on any iPad. Ask any iPad owners how they move information to and from their iPad. Most of them get an uncomfortable expression on their faces while explaining their workarounds.
• Windows desktop: Nearly everybody has grown fairly used to the Windows desktop, a staple around offices for two decades. All Surfaces include the Windows desktop, but with one caveat: You can’t install traditional desktop programs on the Surface RT or Surface 2.
• Microsoft Office: The Surface RT and Surface 2 include a copy of Office Home and Student 2013 RT. That gives you Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, ready to create your own documents or touch up those that arrive in e-mail. (Microsoft Office isn’t included on a Surface Pro or Surface Pro 2, but you can purchase and install it yourself if you want.)

Deciding between the Microsoft Surface Tablets

Microsoft has sold four types of Surface tablets that look and behave very similarly. (A fifth Surface, available sometime in 2014, will have cellular Internet access.) All of them share many features:

• The tile-filled Start screen introduced in Windows 8
• The Windows desktop
• Downloadable apps from the Windows Store
• A USB port and memory card slot for adding storage
• The ability to create different accounts for different users

Yet the tablets differ in subtle ways that let them each serve different niches.

The following sections explain how the models differ so that you can figure out which Surface meets your needs.

Not sure which Surface you’re looking at? Look for this chapter’s “Identifying a Surface Model” section. It explains how to tell each model apart simply by flipping it over and reading the wording hidden on the back cover.

Note: I describe the first two Surface models, the Surface RT and Surface Pro, in the adjacent sidebar, “Upgrading first-generation Surfaces to Windows 8.1.”

Surface 2

The Surface 2 works best during your leisure time, letting you watch movies, listen to music, browse the web, and connect with your friends.

Should you need to work, open the Desktop app. There, the built-in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote apps should carry you through until you can get back to the office.

The minimalist Surface 2 doesn’t run Windows 8.1 but an operating system called Windows RT 8.1. In plain English, that means that the Surface 2 can’t run traditional Windows desktop programs. Like the iPad, it’s limited to apps, small programs downloaded from the Windows Store.

Although it...