Monday, December 14, 2015

Surface 3, sans Type Cover

Okay, Microsoft Surface 3 Type Cover, let's try getting rid of you for a while and seeing how things go. I know I love my physical keyboards, but I have never really found a keyboard cover that I loved. For now, it is just going to be the base unit and my leather case.

Yes, that one. It has room for the keyboard, but I am going keyboardless for a couple weeks to see how things go. My first impression?

I have my tablet back again.

My magnetic keyboard thing has been stuck on my Surface 3 ever since I got the thing, and the clingy nature of the keyboard cover is a great thing to have when you want to type out a thousand words or so for an article. But I have keyboards and machines better suited for this task.

Why not get rid of the leather over and just use the keyboard as the case? There is something natural to me about things I can flip open and use, like a book. I don't like ripping the magnetic cover off, using the tablet unprotected, and then clumsily snapping the thing back on like some sort of transformer toy. I don't like it, I don't like magnets for clasps, and it just doesn't feel natural for me. It's slick, but book covers typically aren't magnetic, and I am some sort of book purist I suppose.

I want a case that I can fold over, play around with a tablet without a clingy keyboard dongle, and then close up when I am done. I like the cover I got for my new Fire HD 10, and I like the simple "flip open" operation where it is just me and my tablet under a cover.

Yes, I know a big part of the point with snap-on keyboards is that laptop-like experience, but a magnetic cover is a poor laptop experience in every way that a laptop shines, especially if I am in a waiting room or smaller place and only have a lap for a top. If I were to do the Surface, plus case, plus cover as a laptop it would be a balancing act for three wiggly pieces and a painful way to sit for a couple hours in that one way things wouldn't slide apart to hell.

A laptop just does the whole mobile productivity computing thing better, sorry tablets.

At least for me.

Without the keyboard, things change. It is just me and my tablet, and I am happy again. The device wants to play and show me things, and I am not a slave to a mechanical keyboard anymore. This being Windows, it has its issues with touch, but things have gotten better with November's Windows 10 patch. The Android style "slide the programs off the task manager screen" way of closing apps is back, and I am happier not having to hunt for an tiny "X" in the corner of a postage stamp with a finger. Thank you, and tablet mode has just gotten a little more bearable for me to the point where I have my Surface 3 back in tablet mode.

Can it compete with the Fire HD 10? For entertainment, I don't feel so. The Fire is in a league of its own, and you are more buying it as an "Amazon entertainment device" than you are as a tablet. The Surface 3 is still about three times as heavy with either cover, keyboard or leather, so heavy it hurts my wrist to pick it up by it's edge. Even without the cover the Surface is about 1.5 pounds, compared to a pound for the Fire HD 10, yet it feels like a lot of difference in weight. I am in the market for a really light Surface 3 cover either way, but all of them I have been seeing are ones that integrate with the kickstand or keyboard and all I want is something simple and light.

It just feels strange to be enjoying the machine without the keyboard, like the keyboard cover is some floppy magnetic dongle that is clumsy and best left forgotten. With a folding cover, I don't need to store a hundred dollar keyboard anywhere if I want to get rid of it, I just flip back a lid.

Still, the heavy and thick nature of the Surface 3 makes the device feel like it's a chore to use. I love lightweight. I love easy. I love simple.

I wonder if this whole chase of the perfect tablet keyboard is somehow distracting and really counterproductive. Give me a way to connect a full-sized keyboard to the thing and give me a tablet cover that doubles as a stand, and I am good - and probably more productive.

For the road, give me a laptop or a Chromebook. If it is so cheap I don't shed a tear if it gets lost or stolen, all the better.

I like the Windows compatibility on the Surface 3, mind you, but there are times when the thing is booting up or updating I just want to scream. The instant-on and instant-library of the Fire HD 10 is nice, and by the time the Surface boots up and I am done logging in, I have likely changed my mind on what I wanted to see. With the Fire, there is an advantage to having my stuff instantly in front of me and organized. With Windows, I have to log into another layer of another program and search for things, and then back out again.

It is sort of an unfair battle between a lesser capable device meant to entertain, and a more capable work-focused device that entertains as an afterthought.

I have this feeling the future battle in mobile is not in file or even app management, but in content management under a consistent experience. Windows feels stuck in the past, where even the new update screen tells you "your files are where you put them." As long as they are there, in the cloud or somewhere safe I don't really care where they are. iOS and Android feel decidedly app-centric, like "these are your apps and this is where you put them." Again, it still feels like an older way of thinking about things, only you are worrying about apps and not files anymore.

The new Fire OS concentrates on your stuff, and also stuff you could have. Yes, it is like opening the doors to a store in your home, but I love having all my stuff out there in the front. I am not worrying about files and where I put them, nor am I worrying about apps and what opens them.

These are my books, this is my music, and these are my movies. I don't need to open any app or program up to see them. I can have apps and games, and they are there too.

But content is king.

The OS should serve the content, not the other way around.

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