Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsand really wanted to like it, but it is so uncomfortable to use
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 8, 2018
After a few months using it... I'm selling it.
I had high expectations on this, and really wanted to like it, but it is so uncomfortable to use. The screen is very small for a computer, and very big for tablet mode. It has a beautiful resolution, but it is so glossy that everything will reflect on it. I bought the type cover and the Surface Pen as well. The type cover is flimsy and I always worried the tablet would fall on the side. It is uncomfortable to use on your lap, in bed and pretty much everywhere, except for a flat surface. I hardly ever used the pen, and the screen is so small that reaching every icon and button is a little bit difficult, kind of like playing "operation".
Some of the programs and apps do not adjust to the size and look very blurry, or simply part of the window does not show. I don't understand why this is sold as a work computer for entrepreneurs if many software is not even compatible with the screen.
The performance was 4 stars out of 5. It gets just a little bit warm, but on the good side it does not make any noise. However, it was not really fast. Scrolling down pages with your finger shows a noticeable lag, and the screen doesn't flow, as if it was scrolling down a bit at a time, not fluently. I know I purchased the i5 model with 4 gb of RAM, but only running a simple program as Camtasia would get it to freeze, and with just a few videos in HD, not even full HD. I don't know how other reviewers claim to use photoshop, illustrator and other heavier adobe programs in this model. Besides, you can imagine the headache it is to try to use the tiny menus and controls for editing, even in tablet mode.
Battery performance is mediocre for being a tablet. Even as a laptop if falls behind many other brands. I would get maybe about 4 hours and a half of surfing the web and working on docs.
I think the marketing of this tablet is very misleading, and tries to sell it as a work tool. It is far from being that. I could never use it for editing either, even with the pen. You end up cringed in the small screen trying to make something work.
What would I recommend it for? Someone who just needs to read PDFs, sometimes write a paper and who doesn't mind an uncomfortable keyboard, watch a few movies on the go (maybe just a couple due to battery life).
I just bought an Asus VivoBook S, and have been using it for a couple of days. So far, it has been great. It does get hot sometimes, and makes a low fan noise which is not really disrupting. I spent about the same amount of money taking into account the type cover and pen, and I got an i7 processor, dual drive (1 tb hdd and 256 ssd), 8 gb of ram and NVIDIA mx150. Should have done this since the beginning....
