**A Mixed Experience with Windows RT: A Review**

As I continued to explore and utilize the Surface RT, I couldn't help but feel that Microsoft's attempt at creating a Windows experience on a touch-based device was hindered by several key aspects. One of the most jarring aspects of the Surface RT is the desktop integration. While it's touted as a "desktop" experience, it feels like a hack – even though it's sitting on top of the desktop, the user interface and functionality are not quite right.

Furthermore, I found that Office on Windows RT was not a good experience for me. The lack of features over finish is evident, but I wanted a good experience in Office, which unfortunately, was not met. Being forced to switch to the desktop app is a hassle, and it doesn't feel like a seamless or polished transition. On the other hand, if you're someone who prioritizes features over finish, you may love Surface RT.

In terms of animations and transitions, I thought they were okay – nothing too jarring, but also not particularly exciting. There were some drop frames, which can be distracting at times. However, these issues didn't detract from my overall experience to the point where I would say it's a horrible device on its own merits.

One area where the Surface RT did disappoint me was in its desktop performance. The system felt sluggish and unresponsive at times, which made me wonder why this feature even exists. In contrast, multitasking was questionable, with occasional performance degradation when running multiple apps in the background. This is not an issue I've experienced on other devices, but it's something to keep in mind.

As someone who has become accustomed to a seamless user experience, particularly on iOS and Android devices, Windows RT felt clunky by comparison. The way that Microsoft attempts to balance the UI with performance considerations doesn't quite gel for me, resulting in a less-than-stellar overall experience.

**Conclusion: Is Surface RT Worth the Investment?**

Ultimately, whether or not the Surface RT is worth investing in depends on your individual needs and preferences. If you're someone who values features over finish, you may find that this device meets your expectations. However, for me, it was a hard sell at $4.99.

My experience with the Surface RT has been a mixed bag, and I'm eager to explore alternative options that might better meet my needs. In particular, I'm interested in experiencing a full Windows 8 environment, which I believe could offer more polish and refinement than what's currently available on the Surface RT. The device itself is solid, with a good processor, battery life, and trackpad – features that are essential for me.

That being said, I do recognize that other users have had positive experiences with the Surface RT, and it may not be a bad choice for those who prioritize these specific features over others. My advice would be to approach this device with caution, considering your own needs and preferences before making a purchase decision.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthank you for watching liking commenting sharing and subscribing right now hello world I'm Chris Perillo and this is your geek out for today I wanted to give you my review of the surface with Windows RT now that I've been using it for a little while but before I dive into that I I want to explain to you that my experiences with this device may not mirror yours or anybody else's but this has been my experience and this is my review of the tablet so uh I've done my best to carve out a a handful of criteria that I use to come to my ultimate judgment on this device but before I even get to that part I I wanted to read a few quotes from other reviews from around the web and these quotes I felt matched my experiences which I will explain and I will dive as deep as I possibly can in this video to give you a comprehensive view into what's going on in my head when I was using this device wired said this is a great device it is a new thing in a new space and likely to conf confuse many of Microsoft's longtime customers TechCrunch should you buy the Surface RT no Gizmodo should you buy it no the surface with an obligatory touch cover is $600 that's a lot of money especially given that it's no laptop replacement no matter how it looks or what Microsoft says it's a Tablet Plus priced alongside the iPad and in most ways inferior and I would also add in there now the uh Nexus 10 which wasn't out when this review was posted the New York Times in time maybe the Windows RT apps will come maybe the snags will get fixed maybe people will solve this superimposed puzzle of Windows RT and Windows 8 until then the surface is a brilliantly conceived machine whose Hardware will take your breath away but whose software will take away your patience The Verge it does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market and and it often makes that job harder not easier instead of being a no compromise device it often feels like a more compromis one the whole thing is honestly perplexing if this device is not as good as or better than the best tablet and not a complete alternative to a laptop who is this for what is it supposed to be BuzzFeed for a device that's supposed to feel more like an appliance with seamless and beautiful software there are a number of weird moments that scream computer like black and white nightmares bursting into rainbow dreams in general the desktop environment feels like a trick a Cloe surface is supposed to be so much more than just Microsoft's iPad alternative the other tablet it may very well be one day it has everything it needs to be that but right now it's just another tablet and not one you should buy today now this is uh the final review I'm going to read from and the reason why I'm going to put most emphasis on this last review is from got to be mobile and the reason why is because the author is a Microsoft tablet PC MVP with a greater degree of experience and insight into how these devices should be working Microsoft failed in marrying the software to that Hardware to create a successful outof the-box mobile experience that its competitors have conditioned us to in its absence from the playing field instead it has created a dual headed beast that at best is frustratingly confusing but at worst seems to be at war with itself so now let me go ahead and give you uh a breakdown of uh the different points that I Ed to arrive at my uh conclusion my fullon review of the different parts of the surface with Windows RT experience the hardware build quality is good it is solid it is one of the best tablets I have held ever no doubt about it if I had to point out any flaw it's that when I would hand it to somebody else they would try to pull down this lip on the bottom of the surface to K pull out the kickstand and the only way to pull it out effectively is on the left side that's the only place where Microsoft is put a notch even though it was confusing to a lot of people uh by using this Notch just saying that was the only the only flaw that I saw and that was a minor flaw the audio or the speaker it was passable very frequently it would clip like if too much audio was happening at one time it sounded really bad the actual screen quality in terms of the image I thought was excellent uh it may not have a super high resolution but I don't think many people are necessarily going to see the difference between a super high resolution and the resolution that the surface with Windows it or it RT is sporting it was great uh in terms of the uh storage yes there's a a USB slot uh but I I plugged in few USB devices and I'll get to that in a second uh actually had a problem with the Windows Phone plugging it in it wasn't supported on the surface with Windows RT um yes you can expand your capacity by using uh this slot but uh it's a 32 gig version what I found out was I only have 17 gigs to play with the rest of it goes to the OS and default software so you're not buying a 32 gig version if you think you're buying 32 gigs to play with you're buying a 16 gig or right around there that's that's just flat fact uh so that I thought was a bit a bit disingenuous and and granted they're not the only company to do it it just happens to be that half of the space they promise is gone and I think that's that's overboard the battery life I thought was more than okay I thought it was ample um you know I didn't have an issue with it I never thought it was it was draining too quickly when I was doing something so I would say the battery definitely gets a pass the modern UI navig ation and I'm talking about this experience has been one of the best Touch tablet experiences I've ever had no doubt about it uh I I I love live tiles if I had anything negative to say about live tiles though um it's that sometimes I'm looking for a tile and I can't find it because the tiles change frequently and and then I have to look again and so it kind of it plays a mind trick on you that being said I do like the modern UI experience the artist formerly known as Metro now the desktop UI navigation on the other hand well as the other author said it's a Cloe uh it's seems to me like a hack I'm taken out of the the experience of the service with Windows RT when I have to see the window redraw itself as I resize it now I know a lot of you Windows users are okay with this I'm not I I I think that's hacky I think it's sloppy and I don't believe that this particular experience was optimized for my finger and that's all I have to navigate the service with Windows RT in this current configuration uh the screen keyboard this is something that honestly it didn't surprise me but uh I was very happy with it and I I I you know was typing away and I I really enjoyed using the onscreen keyboard it's been one of the better onscreen keyboards I have used on a tablet so uh you know you can even by the way I what I was going to do is pull up the fact that you can even swipe in graffiti you know with your finger stylus or what have you that was kind of neat I I love that but then again I was a classic uh pocket PC user so I I I liked using graffiti uh the auto correct was questionable uh I found that Microsoft would often autocorrect incorrectly which became more of a frustration than it did a help that may change in time but at this point I I would definitely uh not recommend using or or relying on their Auto auto correct the store app selection there are a lot of reviewers saying that there's not a lot here dude I mean I'm not going to say get over it but the apps will come I don't think that's a negative although tapping a button three times to go back and seeing it change its state okay hang on okay well just pretend you can see all the apps there I'm trying I'm trying to go back it's not it's not working just G to close it by uh the apps will come the maps uh now this is not as full featured as you might have experienced on Android or iOS at this point but I found that uh the maps as I was zooming in and out even though yes they're maps and they're B maps and Bing Maps is a great uh Service uh it would drop frames which was consistent across the entire device not just in the games uh the pinball FX game that I downloaded from the store from Microsoft also dropped frames and that's painfully apparent when you compare it to a game that might be running on an Android device uh and or an iOS device but I can just see the dropped frames it's not smooth smooth is just not smooth and I want it to be smooth I want it to be a good experience and and it wasn't a good experience is what I would like to have had the modern UI desktop browser this Internet Explorer in the modern experience I love it Dean I hope you're listening I love Internet Explorer in the modern experience I thought it was intuitive it did everything I wanted to do apart from some issues with flash but that's not really under Microsoft's total control Internet Explorer on this experience was uh Beyond passible it was as good as it could possibly get at this point in time that being said Internet Explorer on the Windows RT side ah okay I why why why is this here so we can install toolbars I this is like a law what moment for me and the internet explorers don't talk to one another this is probably a security issue oh and speaking of security issues um if I can't download and install programs or applications or whatever uh from anywhere but the App Store why is Windows Defender on Surface with Windows RT it doesn't make sense okay maybe I can get back now yay okay I finally got back okay now I can move on uh let's see here what else and I'm I'm sorry I'm going off a laundry list of criteria I wanted make sure I cover everything uh high quality YouTube streaming uh well at this point in time was abysmal uh default app launch time was relatively slow for SSD I was a little shocked that when I pulled it out of the box it had to set everything up like you saw it during the uh live unboxing is like setting everything up just wait a minute I'm like dude like why are you setting things up it should have been set up before I got here like even changing preferences shouldn't have t changed that much uh office apps uh navigation and performance I thought was uh keep wanting to flip back to the desktop by using that Windows key wait what happened to the start menu at the bottom there now it's there apparently if you have too many I just the inconsistencies that I find in Windows 8 and RT are just baffling but that's for a different review for a different time in a different video sorry uh even after installing all the updates for uh the office applications no it this this was a clug it wasn't passable uh I I could EAS use online desktop on the iPad and have a better experience uh why they shipped this with the window uh surface with Windows RT is beyond me uh this is a mess uh an absolute catastrophe uh now you may believe differently if you are the type of person who wants features over finish you're probably the type of person who's going to love surface with Windows RT however I want a good experience in office on Windows RT is not a good experience today uh being pushed to the desktop is a hack uh even though this is really the hack because this is sitting on top of the desktop even though the desktop looks like it's an app it's just I don't understand Microsoft's logic uh but office other than features so see up down uh depends on the type of person you are the animations and transitions I thought were okay uh nothing terribly jarring yes there were some drop frames but nothing that would you know make me say oh this is a horrible device at least in and of itself that particular particular uh feature the desktop integration I thought was abysmal I don't know why it's there the desktop performance was passable but pretty close to why law what why is this here I don't get it in in Windows RT uh multitasking this is something that people have asked uh you know I was having issues during the live unboxing and they said you're running too many apps I'm like okay wait so I'm running too many apps that it's allowing me to run and it has a problem with background performance so that's what the problem was uh I would say multi asking is questionable there is sometimes a performance degradation uh and I'm not used to that honestly in a tablet experience at least you know I got to tell you iOS has spoiled me uh with the way that it uh pushes uh the UI as the U uh um it gives uh performance preference to the app that is running in the foreground and the experience is better when when you take that route Microsoft kind of took that route with asynchronous IO operations on Windows RT but I don't think they they quite have it polished yet multitasking is there but performance is not uh overall performance it was okay it was passible overall cohesion uh overall execution overall experience 75% of the time I I I was going huh 25% of the time I was happy now the bottom line is this a value depends on the type of person you are but I am going to be returning this in a few days after I have a chance to run it up uh against a couple of other devices namely the new iPad that's going to be shipping since they're both at the same price point $4.99 $4.99 that's really where the similarities uh end it's not a value for $4.99 it just it isn't now that being said me returning this the thing that I bought with my own money I'm very interested in looking into a full Windows 8 experience and it is possible that the Surface Pro may give me everything that I had been looking for to make sense of the for ass monkey that has been Windows 8 and Windows RT they just mashed two uxs together and I was just trying to figure it out seems the Lynch pin has been the trackpad not just a touchscreen but a keyboard a trackpad a good processor good battery life a solid hardware and I think they may have something there but a Surface Pro isn't going to be 500 bucks so an iPad killer an Android killer Microsoft still playing in a different galaxy um and some people have had great experiences with it I'm not trying to take away from that I'm not saying you had a bad experience you had a good one hey good for you my experience on the other hand has been um I'm going to keep looking I'm going to keep looking I'm hoping that oems or the Surface Pro will end up being a very compelling experience uh and so I'm going to continue to move forward to try to find the best Windows RT experience that does have compromises in the right place uh as well as the best Windows 8 experience something that can just work for me and so I will be keeping you posted this is not a Slam against Microsoft you heard me say many positive things in this review and many positive things even in the live unboxing uh but I would say this is not a value for $4.99 do not waste your money I'm not the only person to say this uh many people have said just the opposite you don't know you know what their experiences are uh necessarily and we don't know what your experiences are going to be uh could be completely different so just remember that uh I I've spent a lot of time diving into this comparing to other experiences I have because that's all I have uh and I will keep you posted I'm uh very much looking forward to finding the best Windows 8 experience out there if you know something I should be looking at please let me know I am doing this as best I can for you agree or disagree I hope you appreciate my effortthank you for watching liking commenting sharing and subscribing right now hello world I'm Chris Perillo and this is your geek out for today I wanted to give you my review of the surface with Windows RT now that I've been using it for a little while but before I dive into that I I want to explain to you that my experiences with this device may not mirror yours or anybody else's but this has been my experience and this is my review of the tablet so uh I've done my best to carve out a a handful of criteria that I use to come to my ultimate judgment on this device but before I even get to that part I I wanted to read a few quotes from other reviews from around the web and these quotes I felt matched my experiences which I will explain and I will dive as deep as I possibly can in this video to give you a comprehensive view into what's going on in my head when I was using this device wired said this is a great device it is a new thing in a new space and likely to conf confuse many of Microsoft's longtime customers TechCrunch should you buy the Surface RT no Gizmodo should you buy it no the surface with an obligatory touch cover is $600 that's a lot of money especially given that it's no laptop replacement no matter how it looks or what Microsoft says it's a Tablet Plus priced alongside the iPad and in most ways inferior and I would also add in there now the uh Nexus 10 which wasn't out when this review was posted the New York Times in time maybe the Windows RT apps will come maybe the snags will get fixed maybe people will solve this superimposed puzzle of Windows RT and Windows 8 until then the surface is a brilliantly conceived machine whose Hardware will take your breath away but whose software will take away your patience The Verge it does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market and and it often makes that job harder not easier instead of being a no compromise device it often feels like a more compromis one the whole thing is honestly perplexing if this device is not as good as or better than the best tablet and not a complete alternative to a laptop who is this for what is it supposed to be BuzzFeed for a device that's supposed to feel more like an appliance with seamless and beautiful software there are a number of weird moments that scream computer like black and white nightmares bursting into rainbow dreams in general the desktop environment feels like a trick a Cloe surface is supposed to be so much more than just Microsoft's iPad alternative the other tablet it may very well be one day it has everything it needs to be that but right now it's just another tablet and not one you should buy today now this is uh the final review I'm going to read from and the reason why I'm going to put most emphasis on this last review is from got to be mobile and the reason why is because the author is a Microsoft tablet PC MVP with a greater degree of experience and insight into how these devices should be working Microsoft failed in marrying the software to that Hardware to create a successful outof the-box mobile experience that its competitors have conditioned us to in its absence from the playing field instead it has created a dual headed beast that at best is frustratingly confusing but at worst seems to be at war with itself so now let me go ahead and give you uh a breakdown of uh the different points that I Ed to arrive at my uh conclusion my fullon review of the different parts of the surface with Windows RT experience the hardware build quality is good it is solid it is one of the best tablets I have held ever no doubt about it if I had to point out any flaw it's that when I would hand it to somebody else they would try to pull down this lip on the bottom of the surface to K pull out the kickstand and the only way to pull it out effectively is on the left side that's the only place where Microsoft is put a notch even though it was confusing to a lot of people uh by using this Notch just saying that was the only the only flaw that I saw and that was a minor flaw the audio or the speaker it was passable very frequently it would clip like if too much audio was happening at one time it sounded really bad the actual screen quality in terms of the image I thought was excellent uh it may not have a super high resolution but I don't think many people are necessarily going to see the difference between a super high resolution and the resolution that the surface with Windows it or it RT is sporting it was great uh in terms of the uh storage yes there's a a USB slot uh but I I plugged in few USB devices and I'll get to that in a second uh actually had a problem with the Windows Phone plugging it in it wasn't supported on the surface with Windows RT um yes you can expand your capacity by using uh this slot but uh it's a 32 gig version what I found out was I only have 17 gigs to play with the rest of it goes to the OS and default software so you're not buying a 32 gig version if you think you're buying 32 gigs to play with you're buying a 16 gig or right around there that's that's just flat fact uh so that I thought was a bit a bit disingenuous and and granted they're not the only company to do it it just happens to be that half of the space they promise is gone and I think that's that's overboard the battery life I thought was more than okay I thought it was ample um you know I didn't have an issue with it I never thought it was it was draining too quickly when I was doing something so I would say the battery definitely gets a pass the modern UI navig ation and I'm talking about this experience has been one of the best Touch tablet experiences I've ever had no doubt about it uh I I I love live tiles if I had anything negative to say about live tiles though um it's that sometimes I'm looking for a tile and I can't find it because the tiles change frequently and and then I have to look again and so it kind of it plays a mind trick on you that being said I do like the modern UI experience the artist formerly known as Metro now the desktop UI navigation on the other hand well as the other author said it's a Cloe uh it's seems to me like a hack I'm taken out of the the experience of the service with Windows RT when I have to see the window redraw itself as I resize it now I know a lot of you Windows users are okay with this I'm not I I I think that's hacky I think it's sloppy and I don't believe that this particular experience was optimized for my finger and that's all I have to navigate the service with Windows RT in this current configuration uh the screen keyboard this is something that honestly it didn't surprise me but uh I was very happy with it and I I I you know was typing away and I I really enjoyed using the onscreen keyboard it's been one of the better onscreen keyboards I have used on a tablet so uh you know you can even by the way I what I was going to do is pull up the fact that you can even swipe in graffiti you know with your finger stylus or what have you that was kind of neat I I love that but then again I was a classic uh pocket PC user so I I I liked using graffiti uh the auto correct was questionable uh I found that Microsoft would often autocorrect incorrectly which became more of a frustration than it did a help that may change in time but at this point I I would definitely uh not recommend using or or relying on their Auto auto correct the store app selection there are a lot of reviewers saying that there's not a lot here dude I mean I'm not going to say get over it but the apps will come I don't think that's a negative although tapping a button three times to go back and seeing it change its state okay hang on okay well just pretend you can see all the apps there I'm trying I'm trying to go back it's not it's not working just G to close it by uh the apps will come the maps uh now this is not as full featured as you might have experienced on Android or iOS at this point but I found that uh the maps as I was zooming in and out even though yes they're maps and they're B maps and Bing Maps is a great uh Service uh it would drop frames which was consistent across the entire device not just in the games uh the pinball FX game that I downloaded from the store from Microsoft also dropped frames and that's painfully apparent when you compare it to a game that might be running on an Android device uh and or an iOS device but I can just see the dropped frames it's not smooth smooth is just not smooth and I want it to be smooth I want it to be a good experience and and it wasn't a good experience is what I would like to have had the modern UI desktop browser this Internet Explorer in the modern experience I love it Dean I hope you're listening I love Internet Explorer in the modern experience I thought it was intuitive it did everything I wanted to do apart from some issues with flash but that's not really under Microsoft's total control Internet Explorer on this experience was uh Beyond passible it was as good as it could possibly get at this point in time that being said Internet Explorer on the Windows RT side ah okay I why why why is this here so we can install toolbars I this is like a law what moment for me and the internet explorers don't talk to one another this is probably a security issue oh and speaking of security issues um if I can't download and install programs or applications or whatever uh from anywhere but the App Store why is Windows Defender on Surface with Windows RT it doesn't make sense okay maybe I can get back now yay okay I finally got back okay now I can move on uh let's see here what else and I'm I'm sorry I'm going off a laundry list of criteria I wanted make sure I cover everything uh high quality YouTube streaming uh well at this point in time was abysmal uh default app launch time was relatively slow for SSD I was a little shocked that when I pulled it out of the box it had to set everything up like you saw it during the uh live unboxing is like setting everything up just wait a minute I'm like dude like why are you setting things up it should have been set up before I got here like even changing preferences shouldn't have t changed that much uh office apps uh navigation and performance I thought was uh keep wanting to flip back to the desktop by using that Windows key wait what happened to the start menu at the bottom there now it's there apparently if you have too many I just the inconsistencies that I find in Windows 8 and RT are just baffling but that's for a different review for a different time in a different video sorry uh even after installing all the updates for uh the office applications no it this this was a clug it wasn't passable uh I I could EAS use online desktop on the iPad and have a better experience uh why they shipped this with the window uh surface with Windows RT is beyond me uh this is a mess uh an absolute catastrophe uh now you may believe differently if you are the type of person who wants features over finish you're probably the type of person who's going to love surface with Windows RT however I want a good experience in office on Windows RT is not a good experience today uh being pushed to the desktop is a hack uh even though this is really the hack because this is sitting on top of the desktop even though the desktop looks like it's an app it's just I don't understand Microsoft's logic uh but office other than features so see up down uh depends on the type of person you are the animations and transitions I thought were okay uh nothing terribly jarring yes there were some drop frames but nothing that would you know make me say oh this is a horrible device at least in and of itself that particular particular uh feature the desktop integration I thought was abysmal I don't know why it's there the desktop performance was passable but pretty close to why law what why is this here I don't get it in in Windows RT uh multitasking this is something that people have asked uh you know I was having issues during the live unboxing and they said you're running too many apps I'm like okay wait so I'm running too many apps that it's allowing me to run and it has a problem with background performance so that's what the problem was uh I would say multi asking is questionable there is sometimes a performance degradation uh and I'm not used to that honestly in a tablet experience at least you know I got to tell you iOS has spoiled me uh with the way that it uh pushes uh the UI as the U uh um it gives uh performance preference to the app that is running in the foreground and the experience is better when when you take that route Microsoft kind of took that route with asynchronous IO operations on Windows RT but I don't think they they quite have it polished yet multitasking is there but performance is not uh overall performance it was okay it was passible overall cohesion uh overall execution overall experience 75% of the time I I I was going huh 25% of the time I was happy now the bottom line is this a value depends on the type of person you are but I am going to be returning this in a few days after I have a chance to run it up uh against a couple of other devices namely the new iPad that's going to be shipping since they're both at the same price point $4.99 $4.99 that's really where the similarities uh end it's not a value for $4.99 it just it isn't now that being said me returning this the thing that I bought with my own money I'm very interested in looking into a full Windows 8 experience and it is possible that the Surface Pro may give me everything that I had been looking for to make sense of the for ass monkey that has been Windows 8 and Windows RT they just mashed two uxs together and I was just trying to figure it out seems the Lynch pin has been the trackpad not just a touchscreen but a keyboard a trackpad a good processor good battery life a solid hardware and I think they may have something there but a Surface Pro isn't going to be 500 bucks so an iPad killer an Android killer Microsoft still playing in a different galaxy um and some people have had great experiences with it I'm not trying to take away from that I'm not saying you had a bad experience you had a good one hey good for you my experience on the other hand has been um I'm going to keep looking I'm going to keep looking I'm hoping that oems or the Surface Pro will end up being a very compelling experience uh and so I'm going to continue to move forward to try to find the best Windows RT experience that does have compromises in the right place uh as well as the best Windows 8 experience something that can just work for me and so I will be keeping you posted this is not a Slam against Microsoft you heard me say many positive things in this review and many positive things even in the live unboxing uh but I would say this is not a value for $4.99 do not waste your money I'm not the only person to say this uh many people have said just the opposite you don't know you know what their experiences are uh necessarily and we don't know what your experiences are going to be uh could be completely different so just remember that uh I I've spent a lot of time diving into this comparing to other experiences I have because that's all I have uh and I will keep you posted I'm uh very much looking forward to finding the best Windows 8 experience out there if you know something I should be looking at please let me know I am doing this as best I can for you agree or disagree I hope you appreciate my effort\n"