Review: Microsoft Surface RT Tablet

Microsoft's foray into the tablet market through the Surface has proved to come in a lot handier than we thought it would

By Adrian Collins

We'll admit of the bat that the tablet craze had slightly passed us by before we got our hands on the Surface, and in fact it turned out to actually come in quite handy more than we thought it would.

Mainly, the tablet has been great for watching Netflix and playing music through the Xbox Music app (which has a surprisingly huge library, and we struggled to find an artist that wasn't in there). The sound quality is also great, and it worked with our Turtle Beach gaming headset, so we had some quality sound on the go.

When your headset isn't plugged in, the speakers are on the side rather than on the back, so you don't get a muffled quality if you're lying it down flat. That said, those speakers aren't very loud, even when they're pumped up to 100. When your headphones are in, on the other hand, it's pretty darn powerful, and we barely pushed it past the 20 mark on the volume.

However, with Word 2013 and a full Office suite, we actually managed to use it to get some proper work done, wrote the odd article and you might have spotted us using it when interviewing the lovely Olga Kurlyenko.

The main difference between this and other tablets is going to be in the fact that it runs off Windows 8, which is definitely designed for touch screen.

That makes a noticeable difference when using it as opposed to other tablets on the market, and gives you the option of getting some quite productive work done on the move without having to lug around a full laptop. The Surface weighs less than 1.5lbs, so it's a pretty negligible weight to thrown in a bag on your way out the door, and the click on keyboard comes in really useful. Our only complaint was that we didn't get the very cool blue one like in the picture, but you can get a whole range of colours to personalise your tablet.

The internet is always going to be a main feature of any tablet, and the new Internet Explorer is fully touch enabled. However, it's not without its kinks, and sometimes drop-down menus can be a bit of a lucky dip in terms of actually working properly.

Two main drawbacks on this machine need to be mentioned though. Firstly, both models come with software pre-loaded, and that takes up a fair whack of space. You lose about half of your 32GB and will only get 45GB from the 64GB model.

Added to that is the fact that you're running Windows 8 RT, which isn't the full version, meaning some programs won't install. The one that held us back the most in this regard is VLC player.

Normally the guys at VLC are quite good about getting their product out there, but for the moment, they don't have an app in the Windows Store and the program can't be installed on the tablet as a '.exe', so if you've got '.mkv' video files, you'll have to spend on an app to get them working. Here's a gratuitous shot of us watching one of our new favourite shows, The League so you can get an idea of the picture quality. Yes we took this in the kitchen, and yes, that is the cooker in the reflection.

On the positive side, Windows have taken an approach to the Store that bridges the gap between the completely open Android and the completely closed Apple. Basically, you can trust pretty much all the apps in the store, and can be pretty confident in them when you're handing over your cash, which isn't always the case in Android.

All the popular apps are in there, including our favourites like Netflix, Dropbox, 8tracks etc. , and they're continuously adding to the store, and the word from the guys at VLC is there will be one soon, so just hang tight.

With all that said, the one thing that may hold you back from grabbing the Surface will of course be the price tag, and starting at around €480, it's not the cheapest option in the tablet market by any stretch.

However, if you're looking for something that could genuinely replace your laptop and need to get work done on the go, this may well be the best option. Not only did JOE's mum love using it for Skype (a testament to it being easy to use), but it's a great machine for watching media that can also keep you working when you've got some downtime.