[HansTWN]

So I finally got my hands on the Surface last Thursday and used it for a few days. My overall impressions are very positive. It looks great, is extremely light for its size (exactly the same length as my Kindle DX but a lot narrower) and the build quality seems to be excellent. I was very surprised how well the Touch keyboard works, I really wasn't expecting this. Battery life is very, very good. But I really wish the angle of that kickstand was adjustable, hardware wise this and the proprietary power adapter are my only complaints. The full size USB port is also great, just plug in a mouse, keyboard, HDD, whatever, that doesn't need drivers. With the mouse Office apps work just like they do on any PC and the same goes for connecting to our server via RDP.

OS-wise I love the side-by-side apps. That alone puts it way ahead of the competition. Although I wish they had gone farther and allowed four apps and also allow for two windows of equal size side-by-side. There actually is one app (Windows 8 tools) which allows you to display up to 7 smaller windows with preset tools within one part of the split screen. Very handy for the clock, weather, battery display, etc. Which brings me to one glaring oversight --- battery status and clock are not usually visible. These are essential on a mobile device. The OS seems very smooth, apps open and close almost instantly, with few exceptions. The sync feature is also a great idea, as soon as had logged in all the different keyboards for various languages with the appropriate settings from my laptop where installed.

Flash works great right out of the box (you may have to edit the white list manually), Hulu, Amazon instant video, ARD and ZDF from Germany, all work fine. Unfortunately there is no Java support.

Lack of apps definitely will be a concern for most at this time, though I am pretty sure it will get better very soon. I personally just want to see a pressdisplay app and some more browser options --- although IE 10 seems really excellent. But if you like to play a lot games and are constantly looking for new apps, Windows RT definitely is not for you. At this moment a lot of audio and video files cannot be played -- but we know that Windows RT supports all of these and developers have announced that they are already working on apps that can play these file types.

I tried the Kindle app and I was really surprised at how good text looked in spite of the low resolution. And I held the device really close up to my face.

Final verdict is that for me the Surface RT can do about 90% of what my PC can do, which is a lot more than I can say about Android. I am generally happy with the interface, though Android is a lot more customizable, but the Surface can definitely hold its own as a tablet.