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PA: "highly recommend" Surface Pro as portable digi-art solution; "great" hardware

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Anton Sugar

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Really long blog "review" of Surface Pro by Gabe, focusing largely on its use as a mobile digital art device and gaming device:

I was aware of the Surface Pro but I wasn’t especially interested in it until I heard it came with a stylus and supported pressure sensitivity. I love gadgets and drawing so it only makes sense that I’ve always been curious about gadgets you can draw on. Since the old Windows tablet computers I’ve been looking for a good way to draw digitally on the go. I gave the iPad a shot but I don’t like drawing with the “eraser tip” capacitive touch styluses. When I read that the Surface Pro uses Wacom tech I was interested. I went down to our local MS store to try one on the day they launched. The demo machine only had one drawing app on it called Fresh Paint which seems like it’s mostly for kids but it was enough to see that the pen felt good and the pressure sensitivity was solid. I came home and mentioned on Twitter that I was interested in the Surface Pro as a drawing platform and I was contacted by MS and offered a machine to test out (I love my job). A few days later I had a brand new 128gb Surface Pro to play with.
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On sketching/art:

Sketching with the Stylus in Sketchbook was awesome. There was no brush lag at all and the pressure sensitivity worked perfectly. The stylus itself felt exactly like drawing on my Cintiq except that the Surface screen is smooth whereas the Cintiq screen has a bit of texture to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCKWn1zjejE

This is me sketching on the Surface after I first got it. It might look like there is brush lag but I’m actually just drawing so lightly that you can’t see it. I can tell you there is zero lag when drawing.
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As a mobile solution for a digital artist I’d say the Surface Pro is a winner. Now obviously if you need Photoshop you will probably want to wait until they get their driver issues worked out. If you’re a Sketchbook user (or you could be) then this thing is ready to go right now. I had some people on Twitter asking if the Surface Pro makes sense as an alternative to a Cintiq at home or the office. That one is harder for me to answer. I personally really like my Cintiq 24HD and I would not use the Surface pro at the office instead of it. With that said, if I had about a grand to spend and I was looking at a Cintiq, I’d say the Surface Pro is a much better purchase than the 12WX Cintiq. The 64gb Surface Pro and the 12” Cintiq are about the same price but with the Surface, not only are you getting a fantastic drawing tablet that you can take with you wherever you go, it’s also a fucking computer! So when you’re done drawing you can load up your Steam library. Which is exactly what I did next.
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Magnification settings still result in some problems while trying to pick colors:

I checked and sure enough by default the Surface is set to 150% magnification. When I dropped that down to 125% I saw why. The screen is sharp as hell and it looks beautiful but the text is so tiny it’s hard to navigate. I left it at 125% and just like he had suggested my color picker was working again! I finished the strip at 125% magnification with no trouble but then I had to switch it back to 150% when I was finished.
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The final product is pretty simple (you will see it tomorrow if you’re reading this on Sunday) and the coloring is nothing special, but I have to say for my first effort with not only new hardware but new software, I was very happy with the result.
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On gaming (read the rest at the link, he tries Portal 2, BLOPS 2, Civ 5, XCOM, and LoL):

In general I’d say it’s a decent little gaming machine. You can find videos of people playing WOW on it and even Skyrim. You’re not going to play stuff like Guild Wars 2 or Skyrim on their max settings but you can play them and I have to say that’s pretty impressive for such a small device.
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Lots of good stuff in here--many of his complaints mirror the common ones ("who is the audience", heat/battery life, kickstand doesn't work as well on lap, storage). I'm still undecided on it, but it was cool to see his perspective on it as an artist:

I guess the way to figure that out is to ask what of my other gadgets the Surface would replace? So for this trip up to the mountains I would have taken my iPad but I took the Surface instead. Not only was it a perfectly good replacement, but I was able to draw a comic strip and play some League of Legends. That’s stuff I couldn’t have done on my iPad. Honestly making a strip isn’t something I could have done even if I had brought my laptop unless I also hauled my Intuos out there with me and again the Surface fit in my wife’s purse.
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Good work MS on this enhanced WOM marketing. Will be interesting to see if MS does more with influential users like this again and then takes the feedback back to the designers.
 
Subitai said:
Good work MS on this enhanced WOM marketing. Will be interesting to see if MS does more with influential users like this again and then takes the feedback back to the designers.
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Yeah, it seems to be one of its "hidden" great features, unfortunately. Have any of MS's marketing vids highlighted this functionality?
 
Yeah I love using mine with sketchbook. Excellent tablet for for digital artists*


* as soon as they send out a driver fix for pressure sensitivity in certain programs
 
SO torn on whether or not to wait for a gen 2 version or go ahead and get this. If they announced when they plan to have pen pressure support in Photoshop I'd probably be on board.
 
GuitarAtomik said:
SO torn on whether or not to wait for a gen 2 version or go ahead and get this. If they announced when they plan to have pen pressure support in Photoshop I'd probably be on board.
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Yeah, they've unfortunately been quiet about this, though I could have sworn that prior to launch, they said it is/will be supported.

I would LOVE to use this for detailed storyboarding/sketching.
 
Anton Sugar said:
Yeah, they've unfortunately been quiet about this, though I could have sworn that prior to launch, they said it is/will be supported.

I would LOVE to use this for detailed storyboarding/sketching.
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There is a twitter message from them saying that they're working on it
 
I have a Mac, but I want this! But I would need to get Creative Suite for Windows then.

Shog, when is that Lenovo wireless display coming?? Did you ever get to use it?

I like my Intuos 5 but want to draw on a screen.
 
Tathanen said:
Haswell! HASWELL!!!!!
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I knooowww. I'm not used to selling old hardware and I'm sort of already planning on spending my next tax return on next-gen systems and Occulus Rift lol. I just know the next version of this thing is going to be so much better, it's just a matter of if I can wait that long.
 
are there any rumors as to when v2 will be out?

Sounds like I could use SketchBook Pro to create layered files on the Surface, and then import those into Photoshop on my Mac.
 
gabe said:
I don’t know if MS expects me to give this thing back or not. I’ve already decided that if they do want it back I’ll be making a trip down to the MS store to pick up another. Of course if they do want it back they’re going to have to pry it out of my wife’s hands. She just hit her very first golden age.
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I'm always conflicted on rich guys getting free stuff. I guess I don't mind it for review purposes, and Mike isn't one to pull punches, but I would like to think he'd send it back before picking up one (or more) on his own.

$45K Oscar swag baskets make me want to puke, though.
 
Right now I'm actually weighing a Surface against a Cintiq 12wx.

It seems like the texture of the cintiq's surface would make all the difference. Drawing on smooth glass doesn't seem like it would be natural (my iPad stylus adds resistance with a rubber tip, something the Surface doesn't have).

I dont know if i should worry about the relative smallness of the cintiq 12wx. I'm used to drawing on standard sized paper so I draw "small" anyway. Only annoyance might be all the extra zooming in and out I'll be doing. The Surface, however, feels way too short vertically when in its normal orientation, and is just stupid in a vertical oreintation.
 
LaserBuddha said:
Right now I'm actually weighing a Surface against a Cintiq 12wx.

It seems like the texture of the cintiq's surface would make all the difference. Drawing on smooth glass doesn't seem like it would be natural (my iPad stylus adds resistance with a rubber tip).

I worry about the relative smallness of the cintiq. I'm used to drawing on standard sized paper so I draw "small" anyway. Only annoyance might be all the extra zooming in and out I'll be doing.
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Isn't there a rumour of a 12wx refresh? I wouldn't buy one until then.
 
Divvy said:
Isn't there a rumour of a 12wx refresh? I wouldn't buy one until then.
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Oh then I'll either wait for that or get a bigger one. I also just remembered how off-putting the resolution of the 12wx is.

As for the Surface, anyone considering it should wait for the Thinkpad Helix to come out first, unless they are sure they won't spend $1500+ for what it offers.
 
Greyface said:
Someone needs to do a review like this directed at students/execs but with OneNote, Evernote & MS Office.
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I would love this. I'm really surprised that MS hasn't taken advantage of the versatility of the Surface in their marketing campaign--they have on a very superficial level, but I feel like I see more ads of people dancing with the Surface than actually using it.

Apple's ads during the Oscars last night, for example, were great: each showed various apps for a specific creative purpose, while MS just showed the dancing on tables ad over and over.
 
LaserBuddha said:
Right now I'm actually weighing a Surface against a Cintiq 12wx.

It seems like the texture of the cintiq's surface would make all the difference. Drawing on smooth glass doesn't seem like it would be natural (my iPad stylus adds resistance with a rubber tip, something the Surface doesn't have)...
Click to expand...
... Have you used a Surface? Perhaps it's best you go get some hands-on time with one first
 
I want a Surface Pro so bad but it's too expensive and has too little memory :(

Will wait for second revision, or maybe third. Hopefully it gets that far.
 
Having a Walcom digitizer is one of the only things I wish my Nexus 10 had.

I don't even think I would use it that much, but I think it's a cool feature, and I'm not a fan of the eraser tip styluses either.
 
i hope this starts a new golden era for pressure sensitivity in tablets. it's one of the features future ipads should implement, it has lots of possible applications outside of art, though that would be my primary interest.
 
I really want to get one of these when they come out in the EU. Anyone know how well it can run something like Star Trek Online?
 
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