I/O devices

Keyboards

 

The virtual keyboard is similar to the iPad’s.  The physical keyboard is surprisingly usable (I have the black keyboard model, which offers some key action, as opposed to the thinner touch only model).

 

Despite the small action, the black keyboard (which also functions as a protective case) is very close to full size keyboard, which means touch typing is much easier than on the virtual keyboard.  The only real issue was that using cursor keys is a pain, as they have squashed the up and down keys into the space of one key.  This means for fast data entry (such as exam mark processing) a full size external keyboard is better (and also more ergonomic).  On the plus side the trackpad that comes as part of the keyboard is of surprisingly good quality, which means you can get away without plugging in a mouse and still navigate easily.

I tested the Surface with my apple bluetooth keyboard, which tended to work well most of the time, although occasionally a keypress would result in multiple letters coming through.

 

I typically use an external keyboard via my Targus USB 3 docking station.  This works perfectly.

 Stylus

 

I was very impressed with the stylus, it worked well with no problems and allowed for writing at the same resolution I use on paper (plus the rubber mode on the other end was very handy).  It supports pressure sensitivity too (if the app does).  It was very nice how when the stylus was close to the screen it cut off the touch input so you could lean your hand against the screen.  Best stylus input I’ve ever seen and just what I was looking for on that front. I’m not sure how robust the included stylus would be over long term use.  If it dies I'll look for other compatible options, although I would want one with the eraser on the end.

The hand-writing recognition built into windows 8 was extremely good (no problems reading my writing whatsoever, although I don’t rely heavily on cursive letters).  You could easily use handwriting as a viable input mode with this device (and it was nice how you could configure the virtual keyboard to default to handwriting input mode, meaning hand-writing could be used to input text into any application whatsoever).

 

Touch Screen

Easy to use, although unlike the iPad not all applications are optimised for touch, which was a real pain when you didn’t have the keyboard docked.  Definitely worth using apps that are touch optimised when possible (e.g. IE was far easy to use than chrome, since it has been optimised for touch).  Interestingly when I used splashtop to set up my ipad as a second display, I could happily use touch on that as well to control the cursor position.  When using an external 24” monitor I found I was still using touch sometimes, particularly to navigate around through some of the windows 8 stuff (e.g. closing a charm app can be done quickly by swiping a finger from the top to the bottom of the screen), so you want to set up the surface so it can be easily accessed. 

 

Mouse

 

I hooked up a wired mouse with no problems.  For lecturing I just plug a usb mouse straight into the usb port and when in my office I run the mouse through the Targus docking station.   When travelling a bluetooth mouse could be a good option, so that you don’t tie up the one usb port.  Alternatively a small portable USB hub would allow you to plug in a mouse and a few other things.