To truly test the capabilities of Microsoft’s newest tablet, the Surface Pro, I decided to embark on a little experiment. For one week, I used nothing but my 128 GB Surface Pro with Type Cover to accomplish all of my work. How well did it manage at the hands of a "power user?" I'll tell you.

I should preface my experiences by letting you know that I am not married to one operating system. I own an iPad 3, which failed to impress me. I own an iPhone 4. I own a Nexus 7, which, for a consuming device, is more than worth the price. I own a 64 GB Kobo Arc, which I plan to review in the not-too-distant future. I run Linux on my servers – CentOS to be exact. My primary computer – nicknamed The Beast – is an Asus G75VW-DS72 17.3-inch laptop, which, among other things, has an Intel Core i7-3610QM processor 2.3GHz, 16 GB SO-DIMM RAM, 750 GB 7200rpm hard drive plus 256 GB solid state drive, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M with 3 GB RAM.

When I was deciding whether or not to purchase the Surface Pro, the most important questions in my mind were: “Will I be able to use the Surface Pro as both a consuming device, and a productivity device? Will it allow me to leave the house, without a lot of careful planning, and still manage to get a full-day’s work accomplished? Will I be able to travel and attend appearances, without having to lug around the near nine-pound beast, and be able to still work? Can I play my PC games on it? Will it also serve as a ‘mindless’ entertainment device?”

As someone who puts in, at minimum, a 12-hour work day, I need a truly portable device that can do it all.

Yes, I was aware that the Surface Pro has a full version of Windows 8 Pro. In theory, I should be able to accomplish everything I need to accomplish on it. I've been running Windows 8 Pro on The Beast since it was first released, so I was already well familiar with the new OS, and quite enjoying my experiences.

But, the Surface Pro lives in this bizarre area of technology. It is a tablet, but it isn't. It is an Ultrabook™, but it isn't. Some like to compare it to a MacBook Air, but it isn't, as the Surface Pro’s specifications are slightly better. In my opinion, after using it solely for one week, it is the best of a both worlds: A compact consuming device – what we've come to expect from tablets – and a fully functional PC. I see a lot of people wanting to compare it to the iPad, which I disagree with. They are two entirely different animals.

So, how well did Precious – the nickname I gave my Surface Pro – handle itself, as I threw everything I could possibly imagine at its CPU? Like a champ!

In this post, I’ll talk about my experiences with the following: User interface; sound and video; storage; battery life; portability; productivity; gaming; entertainment; connecting to my home network and Microsoft account; desktop programs versus Windows 8 apps; Type Cover; the power supply; the pen; the camera; and the bottom line.

User Interface

After using the touchpad on The Beast for the Windows 8 gestures, I had assumed that by the time Precious arrived, I’d be an old pro when it came to using them. Boy, was I wrong.

There was a little bit of a learning curve, as I had to retrain my wrists in order to effectively and quickly swipe between Windows 8 apps and my desktop, swipe to close apps, bring up the Charms Menu, and a couple other features found within the ten-point multi-touch interface. However, once my brain and muscle memory made the necessary adjustments, it was clear sailing.

The interface is smooth. Now that I've figured out all of the different motions, it takes no time to swipe between all of my different programs, change preferences for the live tiles, resize tiles in the Start Menu, call up my full program list, open and close desktop programs and Windows 8 apps, and everything else that I am supposed to be enjoying about the Windows 8 Pro experience when using a touch interface.

The graphics run without incident. There are no hang-ups or lurches as I quickly swipe through everything that I have open. This experience has been phenomenal.

But how has this experience been in relation to specific apps and programs? I have more to say about that later.

Sound and Video

I am connected to a set of earbuds throughout my entire day. When I’m not in meetings, I’m listening to music in preparation for my radio shows. When I’m not listening to music for my radio shows, I’m editing audio. When I’m not editing audio, I’m watching video. As I’m constantly being bombarded by sound, it's important that it be an adequate experience.

And, it is. While the sound quality on Precious isn't as good as it is on The Beast, it does hold up against my iPad, Nexus 7, and Kobo Arc.

When using the external speakers, the Surface Pro leaves a lot to be desired. The sound is cheap and empty. I do not recommend making use of them unless you've lost your earbuds or headphones.

On the other hand, the video leaves nothing to be desired.

It is crisp, clean, and beautiful. Like The Beast, it has a full 1920x1080 HD display. Even though the size of Precious’ monitor is drastically smaller than The Beast’s, I much prefer watching video on the Surface Pro.

Storage

I need a lot of storage. Between The Beast, external hard drives, and servers, I have 7 TB of storage. Just over half of that is used. I deal with a lot of media through the course of my day. I also own a whole bunch of music, which is necessary for my radio job, with an added bonus of entertainment. I own a lot of video games, which is also a work necessity, plus leisure activity. And, I own a lot of television shows and movies, which is both for work and for pleasure.

Alone, my e-mail accounts – I have to manage 19 of them – use 10 GB of storage.

This is one of the many reasons why my other tablets are simply not capable of being productivity devices. Without access to external storage, they would fill up in no time. Cloud storage is also not an option, as, if I’m going to be able to accomplish my job, these files need to run directly from my device.

When my Precious arrived, it had just over 89 GB of usable storage. After installing all of the necessary e-mails, programs and Windows 8 apps, it has 62.2 GB of free disk space. Thankfully, the Surface Pro supports external storage without having to spend money on extra connectors.

I have purchased a 64 GB microSD card to act as a second hard drive. Through the USB 3.0 port, I have attached my USB 3.0 hub, and have one of my 2 TB external hard drives attached. I also have access to The Beast’s storage and my other external hard drives via my home network, and my server’s storage via FTP. Plus, a whole bunch of cloud storage, via way too many different cloud accounts.

Having easy access to all types of external storage is one of the selling points of the Surface Pro. I never have to worry about running out of disk space, or cloud storage space. I can pick and choose which storage method works best for me and the need of a specific task.

Aside from being able to access external hard drives and make use of microSD, my favorite thing about the storage options is that I am able to access, edit, and save files that are located on The Beast.

Outside of installing programs, e-mail, and the temporary downloading and storage of media sent to me with press releases, nothing is being saved on Precious’ internal storage. It will probably be a long time before I run out of internal storage and have to play, "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo. Which program stays and which one goes?"

Battery Life

If there is one thing left to be desired on the Surface Pro, it is the battery life. It truly sucks. You are supposed to get something like 4.5 hours out of the battery. I’m not sure what people are doing to be able to squeeze that much out of it, but I have not managed that mythical number.

As an experiment, I decided to unplug to power in order to see how long it would last on battery. Then, I began what, for me, is a slow day’s work.

I started to edit an approximately one hour and 45 minute podcast, had Outlook running, was updating Geeky Pleasures as I waited for Audacity to do its thing, had Skype running, had TweetDeck running, had Google Chrome running, had Notepad open, and a couple of other things. Two and a half hours later, I needed to reattach to power supply. The podcast was not yet completely edited.

What this means is that I will only be able to manage a limited amount of work when I’m away from a power source. Normally, this will not be an issue. There are very few circumstances when I’m not near an outlet. Even when I’m flying, I can plug my devices into the seat in front of me. But, it does mean that if I think I’ll have be in a situation where I am going to be without access to a power outlet for more than two hours, I will have to plan accordingly. I will not be able to just pick up and go.

Portability

When you market a device as a tablet, it is extremely important that it is portable. The Surface Pro is certainly portable. In fact, I can fit it, with the Type Cover attached, in the pocket in my trench coat from SeV that is meant for the iPad. While it isn't the lightest of tablets, and you may experience some strain after holding it with your hands for a period of time, it is super easy to carry around, and will fit into your over-sized pockets, small backpacks, diaper bag, etc.

Contrary to myth, you can also use it on your lap with the Type Cover attached, unlike The Beast, which is a pain to use when on my lap.

I am a petite person. Therefore, I have a petite lap. I’m able to use the Surface Pro with Type Cover attached, in a variety of positions, including seated, reclined with my knees slightly bent, and laying down with my head slightly raised, both with my legs straight and slightly bent, with the device resting on my stomach. If I can accomplish this, I do not know how someone who has more lap surface area to work with cannot.

Productivity

It is in this area that my Surface Pro gained the nickname Precious. As soon as I got it out of the box, and whipped through the initial set-up and installed the necessary programs, I put it through its paces. Within the first couple of hours, I updated my websites, edited audio, did server maintenance, and used FTP, all without a single issue.

I've edited pictures using Gimp 2 without issue. I have not yet had an excuse to edit video or use InDesign or Scribus. But, I’m assuming Precious will handle those programs about as well as it has handled editing audio in Audacity.

I also ran my radio show using my Surface Pro – I use Sam Broadcaster to do my shows – while monitoring chat, running TweetDeck, and surfing the Internet. At any given moment in time, I have a minimum of 11 programs running. The fan is hardly noticeable.

Does it keep up with The Beast? Absolutely not. An i5 with only 4 GB RAM has no hope of keeping up with an i7 and 16 GB RAM. While some tasks take much longer – editing an audio using a four-step process of noise removal, equalization, dynamic range compression, and exporting as an mp3 takes between two and four hours, compared to 20 to 30 minutes on my laptop – it can handle it. At most, it used 54% of the CPU, and it averages 78% use of the RAM. When I’m done work and am using it at a leisure device, the RAM usage drops down to around 50%.

Every now and then there is a little bit of lag. It has only happened once when using Microsoft Word 2013. It is a little bit of a continuing problem when switching between, or closing tabs in Google Chrome.

While The Beast will continue to be my computer used for heavy lifting, such as editing audio and video, Precious is threatening to become my primary machine for things such as updating my websites, e-mail management, and the device I use to watch television and movies when I’m wanting to make a separation between work and leisure time.

It is comforting knowing that when I travel, I certainly do not need to bring my laptop with me. The Surface Pro with one external hard drive, and my professional recording microphone is all the hardware I’ll need.

Gaming

Yes, you can run your Steam games on the Surface Pro. As long as the game does not require more than 4 GB RAM and a processor better than the i5, you are golden. But, how do the PC games work with the touch interface?

That really depends on the game. I've only had a chance to play two of my PC games on the Surface Pro. They are Torchlight II and Civilization V.

Without a doubt, unless an RPG was developed to be optimized with a touch interface, you are going to have a miserable time playing it in that way. It is possible to use your pen as the mouse, plus the left and right-click on the Type Cover’s touchpad, but it is a truly horrible experience, requiring more patience than I am capable. Thankfully, because of the USB 3.0 port, I am able to plug in my gaming mouse, and away I go.

However, games like Civilization V are excellent when using the touch interface.

With both games, I had no issues with a stuttering screen or lag. I also had other programs running in the background, including TweetDeck, which is a RAM hog. Also, I kept open Windows Explorer, Outlook, Skype, VLC, and Task Manager. However, I did close Google Chrome.

Adjusting the screen resolution for the games was a little bit of a pain. Because of the automatic size with which they open, my pen was not lining up with the settings buttons correctly. So, I had to move the pen around the screen until I found the proper touch/click area that corresponded with the button in question. For some, this may be the stuff of pulling out your hair.

Obviously, The Beast will remain my primary gaming rig. After all, that is technically what it is, even if it is also a great multimedia machine. But, again, it is nice to know that when I travel, I’ll still be able to play my Steam games.

Entertainment

Aside from being able to handle media players, streaming video – directly from a network’s website and Netflix – there is a good entertainment value to the Surface Pro. Yes, the Windows Store still needs a good infusion of apps. However, I've been able to find a number of fun “mindless” apps from which to choose.

While I haven’t had a lot of time to use Precious as a consuming device, I am enjoying playing games such as Taptiles, Simon 8, and painting with Fresh Paint. It is also a bonus that my E-Reader apps, primarily Kindle and Kobo, are available in the Windows Store. They use less memory than their desktop counterparts, and are optimized for touch.

Connecting to my Home Network and Microsoft Account

Being able to connect the Surface Pro to my home network is a huge bonus. It means that I do not have to disconnect and reconnect my external hard drives in order to access the copious amounts of data stored within them. It means that I can access and edit all of the content within The Beast’s hard drives without having to transfer files.

Adding Precious to the home network was extremely painless. All it required was requesting to join the HomeGroup via the HomeGroup icon in the Control Panel, and entering the password found within my laptop’s HomeGroup settings.

Now, the interesting, yet bizarre, side-effect to this is that because both my laptop and the Surface Pro are attached to the same Microsoft account, when I added Precious to the home network, my laptop took on its desktop setting. Suddenly, The Beast had a new desktop background image. When I changed the image back on the laptop, the desktop background image also changed on the Surface Pro.

There is one serious flaw in Microsoft’s attempt to keep everything unified with one ID. Some things are very difficult to unify, when they shouldn't be.

The biggest example of this is unifying your mail and calendar attached to your account formally known as Hotmail, and getting the Microsoft Office version of Outlook 2013 to sync with that account. It took a lot of hair pulling and swearing at Precious, and digging around the Internet to finally get all of that working.

Desktop Programs versus Windows 8 Apps

The Windows 8 apps that you install via the Windows Store are perfectly suited to a touch interface. On the other hand, desktop programs are a hit and miss experience.

Some developers are doing it right, and have updated their desktop programs to be touch-friendly. Example of programs that have been updated to work with a touch interface, and function in the same way you’d expect from a mobile app, yet run on your desktop include: Firefox, Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft Office 2013, uTorrent, Mozilla Thunderbird, Audacity, Gimp 2, Skype and SkyDrive. I am sure there are more, but those are the programs I either installed, or that were already installed on the Surface Pro, that are classified as a Windows App even though they run on the desktop.

I really enjoy being able to navigate compatible programs using a touch interface. Especially using Microsoft Office 2013 and having the ability to pinch and zoom on the text, scroll through a document with the touch of a finger, highlight text with my fingertip, and more.

Then, we have Google who has severely disappointed me with Google Chrome, which is my primary browser. The desktop version is far from touch-friendly, and I have to navigate it using my pen. Instead of developing Chrome to work on the desktop the same as it would on a mobile – like with Internet Explorer and Firefox – Google added a special setting. Found within the control menu is an option to “Relaunch Chrome in Windows 8 mode.” When you click it, it kicks the user off of the desktop and throws them into the Windows app interface. To exit that mode, you go back into the control menu and select, “Relaunch Chrome on the Desktop.”

I can’t think of anything more useless, especially for people like me who need to have a browser running on their desktop, while they simultaneously do other work. If you were using your Surface tablet only as a consuming device, like the Surface RT, then it would make sense. But, this mode doesn't even work on the Surface RT.

It is also a sad affair that TweetDeck is not touch-friendly.

My only hope is that as touch monitors start to become the norm, it will be standard for software developers to create touch-friendly desktop programs. Sometimes, I don’t mind having to switch back and forth between touch and having to use my pen in order to use a desktop program. Other times, it is a complete pain and slows down my workflow.

Type Cover

The Type Cover is phenomenal! On The Beast, on a good day, I type 110 words per minute. On a bad day, I fall down to 80 words per minute.

I have not lost my typing speed switching to the Type Cover.

Sure, the keys are spaces closer together, but they are also slightly larger than the ones on my laptop. As a result, they both feel like basically the same keyboard.

Is it necessary that you purchase either the Type or Touch Cover when purchasing a Pro? No more necessary than it would if you were using another tablet. It really depends on your use, and how often you plan to type.

When you close the screen of the Surface Pro against the Type Cover for more than a couple of seconds, it puts the device to sleep. However, there is no magnetic lock. Rotating the cover so that it is behind the Surface Pro disables it.

The on-screen keyboard works like a charm. It has an added bonus when you are using the pen, which I’ll get to to in a moment.

One of the great things about the Surface Pros is that if you already have a Bluetooth keyboard, you can use that.

There is one negative to the Type Cover. I don’t know who thought of this, but whoever they were, I want to smack them.

The F-keys are completely backwards. In order to use F1, F2, F3, F4, etc., simply by pressing those keys, you have to Fn-F1, Fn-F2, Fn-F3, etc. If you use the F-keys without holding the Fn key, then you mute sound, unmute sound, increase volume, play/pause, search your apps, share, access your devices, go into your settings, Home, End, PgUP, and, finally, PgDn.

One of the steps to start my radio show is to press F1 in order to start my music, after starting my encoder. Now, I have to remember to press Fn while pressing F1. Another really inconvenient example is Fn-F5 to refresh a web page.

The Power Supply

I must make mention of a really handy feature found on the power supply. It has a USB port that will allow you to charge your USB devices.

Already, this has been extremely handy, as all the outlets near my work area are used. I had to give up the outlet I use to charge my tablets in order to plug in Precious. Because the Surface Pro has such terrible battery life, it needs to be plugged in at all times. I cannot simply swap out plugs when it is time to charge my iDevices or my Android devices. Thankfully, I can plug them into the Surface Pro’s power supply.

The end result is being able to charge two devices for the price of one.

The Pen

The pen is awesome!

I cannot begin to tell you everything it can do, but I will try my best to remember all of the highlights.

It works as a mouse, complete with a right-click button, and has the ability to highlight text. I can use it as a pen to sign PDFs. I can write hand-written e-mails in Outlook 2013. I can write hand-written notes in all of the Microsoft Office 2013 programs. If you are an editor, being able to actually use a “red pen of doom” within a text document is all kinds of wonderful. To someone else, the hand-written text will appear as images embedded within the document. The back end of the pen acts as an eraser in programs that are compatible with the pen function. Also, the pen acts like a laser pointer. The Surface Pro will register the pen, and show your a cursor, when it is approximately 1.5 inches away from the screen. This means you can navigate sub-menus, and similar tasks, and only touch the screen when necessary to click on the specific function.

But one of my favorite features of the pen has to do with when you bring up the on-screen keyboard, and switch it to pen mode. I can compose tweets, write e-mail, update my Google+ status, all by writing out the words like I would if I were using a piece of paper. Yes, you read that correctly. Windows is able to translate written word into type word, and will insert it when you touch enter. It even has autocorrect.

This feature makes me want to write all the things, even if my arthritis will hate me for it.

The pen is also pressure sensitive. So, as an example, when you are painting, the intensity of your brush strokes will depend on how much pressure you apply with the pen. The pen also works from all angles, so you do not have to worry how you hold it. And because it is pressure sensitive, there's no concern about accidentally clicking a link because your pen brushed against it.

The palm-cancellation technology also works marvelously. I can write on the Surface Pro's screen in the same way I’d write on a piece of paper, and not worry that my hand is accidentally going to call up another program.

The only drawback to the pen is that I've yet to perfectly master the right-click button instead of using the press-and-release method of bringing up right-click menus. I also wish it was thicker, as a small pen is hard on my hands.

Camera

This is the only thing I have not yet had a chance to test. So, my one week experience is not yet complete.

Bottom Line

Is the Surface Pro right for you?

I cannot answer that question for you. I can say that it is the absolutely right tablet for me. I can use it for relaxation and be productive. For me, it was well worth the cost, especially when I compare it to almost similar products like the MacBook Air. While the MacBook Air does have a better battery life, the rest of the specifications are behind the Surface Pro, and at a slightly higher cost. Also, it is not nearly as portable as the Surface Pro, as I cannot fit a MacBook Air into my pocket.

I can tell you that if your needs are similar to mine, if you need a device that can both entertain and allow you to be productive, then I definitely recommend the Surface Pro. The Surface RT I would recommend as a consumption-only device, once the Windows Store has more selection.

Starting at $899 for the 64 GB model, and $999 for the 128 GB model the Surface Pro is currently only available in Canada and the United States.