[beespeckled]

A few months ago I found a good deal on a 64 gig Surface RT. ($299)I didn't initially get the keyboard, couldn't see paying that much for one. I checked out another store to see what their pricing was like for the keyboards, (Much better $79) I chose an empty box, took it to the counter, asked if they had any grey or black ones I would prefer over the blue. Clerk came back with a grey one and it rung up as $17.90!!! I did a double take, she did too, but the price was correct. I lucked out on a closeout for that particular keyboard. It is the touch but it lights up in the dark and other than being a bit different for right/left click pad works out great.

I'm finding that I'm liking it so much better than expected. I purchased a microSDX 64 gig for it this week, so essentially, it has 128 gigs on board. I also purchased 32 gig thumb drives to supplement.

I had a Lenovo Twist for about a year that has the ssd etc. I thought this would be a good compromise as a hybrid tablet for several years at least. I won't go long winded here, but basically it has bricked on me. I've been very disappointed. I think the hard drive is basically toast. So, I was going to get an affordable Android to replace as an interim device. I wasn't using the Twist to read except for reference materials, camera manuals, knitting patterns. Mainly for photo storage and quick edits when away from home, and for productivity, taking notes at meetings.

My expectations were low, after reading reviews on the RT. But I liked the build and the built in kick stand. I like that I was able to get to OneDrive to access stuff that was saved there through the bricked laptop. I was able to get the Lenovo up long enough the other night to retrieve the special reference e-book for my particular camera that was stored on to a thumb drive and transfer it easily to the Surface RT (where I backed it up in OneDrive as a precaution)

The Surface does not get hot, it isn't a speed whiz but the more powerful Lenovo Twist was not much faster either. (the touch screen on the Surface responds so much better than the Lenovo ever did, so that might be part of it)I'm still going to check on getting the hard drive replaced on the Twist. I like the fact that the Surface keyboard is also a cover and it easily fits in my small backpack purse.

Adobe Acrobat just released a touch app for the RT recently, so I can now do PDFs on it plus I have a reader app from the Windows store that nicely formats PDF's. Overdrive seems to work fine on it. Still have to get used to it. I prefer the Android app for Overdrive overall, but I didn't buy this tablet as a main reader. I prefer my Sony 350 first, then my android S3 phone as a 2nd choice for convenient quick moments of reading overall. But the Surface is much better as an overall reader to use than the Lenovo Twist is.

The Surface RT isn't perfect by any means but I'm finding it fits my needs within its limits.