Seven months on how do I find the Surface 2? I’m still happy with it. The bugs I had with the screen seem to have gone. I’m guessing since others have commented on the problem it must be a software glitch, not an issue with just my unit, so it could have been fixed through a software update. It only came back once when I put a screen protector back on, but since that’s been gone so has the problem.
I thought I’d post an update on where we’re at with trying to nail this problem. I’ve bandied a few different ideas around in previous posts about what could be causing this, and it’s been great to have comments from Niall and Aleksandar in earlier posts too (review the history if you’re late to the party). As there’s been several theories and counter-arguments thrown around, and certain theories have been disproven while others are still alive, it’s probably helpful to summarise what we know so far:
If you’ve been following my other posts you’ll know I’ve been having problems with the touchscreen on my Microsoft Surface 2 (refresh your memory). Currently I’m onto my second device and the problem has persisted. Microsoft have authorised a second replacement but I’m wanting to do some detective work of my own before I blame the device again; there’s no point replacing a device if the problem relates to something else which will only manifest itself in the third device.
As far as I can tell the only thing which has persisted across both devices (based on when the first one started failing) are the Touch Cover and my user profile. I’ve already noted that disconnecting the cover while faulting doesn’t make the fault go away on this second device; I’m yet to determine if having the touch cover disconnected on an ongoing basis prevents it occurring in the first place. So that will be an ongoing project.
Continue reading Surface 2 screen saga – do you run these apps?
Finally! Got the device exchanged today at City Cross Harvey Norman. Starting afresh with a brand spanking Surface 2 32Gb. I understand it’s an uber attractive device, but hopefully ghosts can keep their fingers off this one and busy themselves with, I don’t know, walking through walls or something useful.
Edit: Dang.
I’m now just over three months on with my Surface 2, and the overall impression is one of satisfaction with a well-made device. It’s proving to be useful in all the areas I expected it to; it hasn’t excelled in areas I knew it wouldn’t (legacy app support) but I’ve been able to do more productive work on it than I expected.
However I’ve had one bug with it which has been with me since day one. I hinted at this back in my original review where I referred to some screen redraw issues, and with the benefit of hindsight I believe this was related to the bug I’m now discussing. I explained this more fully in the follow-up review about a month later. It’s a phantom touch registering in the top left corner of the screen.
Six weeks on…
So I kinda caved in and picked up a Type 2 keyboard cover today. The Touch 2 cover has been working OK but I still felt when I was using it that I was spending a bit too much effort thinking about the typing action itself, rather than the content.
I did a few more speed tests. The Type keyboard is definitely easier to use, but I’m finding I’m getting better at the Touch keyboard. Bear in mind we’re now about six weeks into my use of the Surface 2 with the touch keyboard and I’ve only owned the Type keyboard for a few hours. Originally my typing speed was around the mid 40’s WPM on the touch keyboard. I use typingtest.com again, and for the first two tests I ran with Aesop’s fables text, as I had for all the previous tests. The third test I did the rules of Baseball text just for some variety and also took note of the order in which I did the tests (noted in table 1) to note the effect of familiarity with the text on the results. Here are today’s results:
Continue reading Surface 2 – Touch vs Type keyboards
So I’ve been using the Surface 2 for nearly a month now. Here’s the original review if you missed it. This is what I’ve found in four weeks of use. Continue reading Microsoft Surface 2 – follow-up
