30 Days with Surface Pro

30 Days with Surface Pro: Day 1

I’ve done a few Morgan Spurlock-esque experiments over the last few years where I immerse myself in a new platform or technology for 30 days and blog daily about the experience. I’ve switched from Windows to Linux, from Microsoft Office to Google Docs, and from my iPhone to a Windows Phone smartphone. This month, I am starting a new adventure with Surface Pro.

I have long been a proponent of the tablet as a PC replacement. Actually–to be more precise–I maintain that a tablet is, in fact, a “personal computer” as well, and that it doesn’t “replace” the PC because it’s really just a different form of PC. In the summer of 2011 I did a 30 Days series where I gave up my Windows laptop (to the extent it was possible) and just used an iPad as a PC replacement. I had mixed results, but in the end I still felt that most users could ditch their PC for an iPad.

So, why now? Why the Surface Pro? Why here?

First, as I mentioned above I have always been a champion of the tablet as PC. With Windows 8, though, the entire debate shifts. I don’t have to argue about whether or not a tablet like an iPad can replace my Windows desktop or laptop PC, because I can have one device that fills both roles. The answer to the question “PC or tablet” can now be “Yes, please.”

There’s a reason I’m not using a Surface RT. I have a Surface RT, and I think it is a solid tablet, but because it runs Windows RT rather than the full Windows 8 Pro, it also has other limitations that make it closer to an iPad or Android tablet than a Windows PC. The purpose of this 30 Days experiment is to see how well a Windows Pro tablet–specifically a Surface Pro–can function as both a PC and a tablet.

I am using the Surface Pro, as opposed to a Samsung Series 7 Slate, or Dell Latitude 10, or any of the multitude of other Windows 8 Pro devices because I feel like it’s the flagship Windows 8 Pro tablet. If it’s not, it should be. Microsoft invested a lot and risked offending its OEM partners by stepping on their toes so it could develop a marquis tablet that lives up to the potential of Windows 8. If Microsoft itself can’t get it right, then maybe the concept just won’t work.

This blog isn’t intended to be a tech news or tech reviews blog. The focus of the Bradley Strategy Group is to provide industry analysis and insight more than news. But, it seems apropos for me to live through this 30 Days experiment here as I “eat my own dog food” so to speak, and try to see if my rhetoric about the convergence of tablets and PCs, and the future of computing matches my reality.

Keep coming back. For the next 30 days…well, 29 now…I will share the trials and tribulations, as well as the victories and triumphs as I make the switch to using the Surface Pro as my one and only PC..and tablet. I will replace both my MacBook Air and my iPad with the Surface Pro, and we’ll see if the experience can live up to my expectations.

A complete list of all of the posts from the 30 Days with Surface Pro series:

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Tony Bradley

Editor-in-Chief at TechSpective

I have a passion for technology and gadgets--with a focus on Microsoft and security--and a desire to help others understand how technology can affect or improve their lives. I also love spending time with my wife, 7 kids, 4 dogs, 7 cats, a pot-bellied pig, and sulcata tortoise, and I like to think I enjoy reading and golf even though I never find time for either. You can contact me directly at tony@xpective.net. For more from me, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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