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I have a surface pro 2, which is absolutely the same form factor, but intel based. It is an okay tablet, and still runs Windows 10. I have both a touch and type keyboard, so I can tell you, touch is okay, type is best.
@@memsom I have a second gen, too, and was vaguely aware that Windows RT was once a thing, but wasn't that much aware how much worse those things were... Now I appreciate that tablet of mine (that I bought very cheap on eBay 3 years ago) more, I should use it more often, I guess.
@@memsom i have the pro 2, it seems to be very easy to scratch than the surface pro 1 and mine needs a kickstand replacement, its a good machine but is way less durable
Back then Surface RT wasn't available in Taiwan, had to find some seller on eBay who's willing to ship it to Taiwan. The reason was that Microsoft didn't want to offend computer manufacturers in Taiwan, so they decided to delay the sale. I finally got my Surface RT from eBay, it was good, though not many ideal apps in the marketplace, yet I did see the booming of it. Most of the time I played some small games, and sometimes I watched videos on it, the image quality was pretty good. I used it until I bought Surface 3 in 2015, about time to change.
I picked up a 512gb pro 3 awhile back for $100 and it's basically a paperweight due to a dead battery and it needing a bios update for the power controller. So it essentially overheats and throttles while idling or it just holds stuff with it's lifeless corpse. I'd love to swap out the battery but the success rate without breaking the screen is abysmal.
@@nintendo-toasteredition the new ones aren’t monstrosities, they are more useful for work than iPads and I’m not even going to mention android tablets.
The rt was actually more useful than a Chromebook, it had full browser, plus complete access to office and a few other programs, but the most important it had a desktop (at least when the windows 10 update came) so you could actually organize files
That was the biggest failure of that Surface, not the lack of apps, but the stupid requirement of install everything throug the Windows store, instead of letting the user install everything just like a Windows x86 machine
@@namesurname4666 it’s hardly used outside of always connected laptops, but there’s upcoming Microsoft hardware which will use it. Evidently they’re hoping it can take off and jump ship from Intel if ARM’s mobile performance to power ratio keeps outpacing x86, and they had to set the groundwork with the x86 translation layer since that’s what doomed RT. It might not happen but I’m pretty sure Microsoft wants to keep the option open to have, say, in 5 years most laptops being ARM-powered but still backwards compatible with the x86 library.
I worked at a local store dealing in used electronics, I was given four of these to list to eBay and was blown away since it was the first time I had even heard about them, let alone seen one in person, I got lectured for "testing" it for too long. What a nostalgia trip
The ARM PC is not failure, people and the dev are not ready. Sadly. I'm totally amazed when Windows 8 introduced gesture navigation even it is works well with touchpad (not touchscreen) although people hate it but look at Apple and Google OS now, they're using gesture navigation.
I had one of this, I bought it really cheap with a spare keyboard that I was able to sell easily. I was able to use a few things via the built-in IE browser, like Spotify or Netflix, but it already had a lack of support in 2016, when I had that tablet. Still, I think this was ahead of its time, Apple just switched to ARM and they are doing it much better. I really wish MS should have been working on this line a bit more.
I've owned one of these since 2013 or so, and it's still a very nice piece of hardware. Mine has held up well, though it does have some scratches on the rear panel. It's a shame the software support wasn't better though. My Surface RT is the 64GB model, and I only paid $100 for it - the man I bought it from got it for free from work as part of a giveaway. I used mine for productivity work with Microsoft Office, and in the later years it became a portable, touch-based RDP client that I used around the house. I still use it from time to time. When I used it for work I would connect it to an external keyboard, mouse and monitor, and it became a full blown desktop computer. I have fond memories of this tablet, and I'd love to see more done with them in the future.
LOOOLL! My father bought it for work back in 2012, and I used to play angry birds on it. It runs windows 8 but it doesn't work well anymore. We still have it at home
I have the pro version of this, and it still runs OK. It came with a Wacom EMR pen that is a lot better than the N-trig pen Microsoft used for the Pro 3 and later. For those debating, just do a slow diagonal line or curve with a more recent Microsoft pen.
Still have mine. Got it in 2013. Probably the most premium feeling device I have ever felt. It works great. If you got the touch-type keyboard it left a lot to be wanted. Honestly, if you could find one of these with the physical button keyboard bundled together cheap, would be a killer portable document writing machine. Good to know there is crossy road on it. Will have to pull it out for that.
(1:53) I had an original Surface Pro during my time in college, and the way I held mine was to open the kickstand and tuck some of my fingers under there, which lessened the chance that I dropped it. I never dropped mine, but it still got loads of scratches from when it was in my backpack, however the screen was protected as I had a Type Cover with mine. (3:11) Same for me, the lack of apps on the RT (especially because Microsoft didn't allow third-party desktop apps on on Windows RT) turned me away from it on to the original Surface Pro once that finally became available here in Singapore after several months following the launch of the RT.
had a very bad experience with SP4, screen flickering issues, bloated battery, non functioning type cover after updates....and all coincidentally occur right after warranty ends
(3:14) Yep, that. When the Surface RT finally became available to buy in Singapore, there were adverts for it but I kept being turned away by its lack of apps, then when the Surface Pro finally became available to buy here, I immediately pre-ordered one and it became my secondary PC for a year or two. As much as I had enjoyed it, my needs had changed since then and I would instead get a ThinkPad X13 Yoga. Microsoft also realised how much of a failure the Touch Cover was, and I was glad I went with a Type Cover instead as I was using Evernote quite a bit back then, but not as much as today, Speaking of Evernote, they had a Windows 8 and RT specific 'Evernote Touch' that was separate from their regular desktop app and that was what I used back then.
I remember when Microsoft announced the OG Surface, there's a clip that features someone awkwardly getting another model as the model they were demonstrating froze on them lmao.
I love how microsoft always gives their products second trys, for example this, if it wouldnt have been for microsoft's smart move to give the surface a second try the surface would be a huge failure.
I still have one of these in perfect working order, and the hardware itself (especially the screen) isn't too bad, it's just a shame that Microsoft crippled it so much it's practically useless for most of anything. It's kind of infuriating considering it works perfectly.
The funny thing is my dated Surface Pro 3 can run Windows 11 despite the fact the processor isn’t officially supported and it continues to get updates, if you want to run Windows 11 without feeling like you have to shell out money for the Surface Pro 8, it’s a good option.
I don't know as much about Surface Pro tablet's, but I'm assuming the older one's had at least TPM 1.2. I'm using a 2013 Motion Computing MC-F5TE tablet that has TPM 1.2. I modified the registry to ease the TPM and CPU requirements so I can later on install Windows 11. It's just crazy that Microsoft expects computers to run TPM 2.0 for Windows 11 when they never even required TPM 1.2 previously. Microsoft's also allowing PC makers to install Windows 11 on new PCs and laptops without the TPM requirement which comes off as a double standard to me when they advise against consumers doing it. I believe Microsoft wants to line their pockets with more money by selling new PCs than the security claim. They shouldn't be punishing supporter's of their software that they make billions off of and can't even design updates to patch security vulnerabilities without messing something up.
Great video! Yes, Surface RT was a failure in that it had so few apps. Microsoft should have had its ducks in a row before introducing both Surface and Windows 8. If app support was there, Microsoft would have had an edge over Apple in touch screen and ARM, as opposed to MI chips turning the whole market upside down.
Amazing video again Nathan! This device was all the hype back then, but it was kinda sad that it didn't meet expectations. Anyways it is good that this became the predecessor to the now successful Surface lineup :)
i have one back in its day, it works perfectly, had genuine office intalled and it worked perfect for college, its full size USB port was perfect for me in order to pass archives easily between my classmates
I recently picked up a Surface RT for 20 bucks with charger and keyboard. It has a very nice build quality, it's somewhat similar to the Kindle HDX 8.9 that released a year later. The aspect ratio 16.9 was ahead of its time, and the stereo speakers made this great for watching movies. The second iteration of the Surface RT is still great for watching movies with higher resolution display. Albeit a very limited device, it's still very nifty and fun to tinker with.
This is neat to see. My ex had one of these and ended up returning it for a Lenovo yoga 2 pro. They got a lot of it right but the app experience (and bugs, as I recall) killed it. Similar to the Lumia windows phone I used to have, that didn't work out lol but it was a good attempt. He now has a newer surface pro and it's great.
A couple years ago my office was cleaning out our tablet rack. We do mobile development, and kept a ton of tablets around. I was told I could take one of these. I took it home, realized there was almost nothing of value I could do with it, and actually just brought it back.
I had a Surface RT. I loved it, but I did get it for $50 and knew it was going to be pretty much only an internet browser. Surprised yours is in such good condition lol, the RTs are known for having really poor paint quality and it flakes off super bad. Edit: you aren't getting the full surface experience, those pins are way too good. Apple used curved pins for good contact, and the surface uses flat ones. Surfaces 1 through 3 are known for having awful charger issues.
0:03 is that the iPad 2 or 3? I recognized it because I have the iPad 2 Wi-Fi model, on iOS 9.3.5, still running ok, had it for two years, my teacher/librarian gave it to me at the end of 7th grade, I’m in 10th grade and still use it a little. Sadly, the plastic gasket around the digitizer broke off, so Wi-Fi signal doesn’t reach my room, and I usually use it as my school alarm
Tablets by functionality... iPad = best as a tablet, poor as a computer Galaxy Tab = good as a tablet, average as a computer (DeX) Chrome OS tablets = average as a tablet, good as a computer Surface = poor as a tablet, best as a computer
Chrome os isn't good for any of them, like they are good if you are going to write docs and that's it. Not even internet browsing is fun on it. That's my opinion
Video idea: run Linux on it? Supposedly, this thing can run Linux incredibly well and Linux supports a much wider variety of arm-based apps than Windows, pretty much everything that's compiled for x86 is also compiled for ARM. I'm willing to bet you can get a decently modern browser on that thing.
@@ps5hasnogames55 Ah, the 'expert' speaks! Nobody cares about Linux... apart from the millions who use it every day, and all those data centres that run their servers on it. Or the Raspberry Pi and other SBCs, several games systems and of course Android is based on Linux. Of course, Apple's Mac OS and IOS are based on BSD, which is another Unix clone, just like Linux. Apart from that, nobody cares.
This is the ARM powered Surface RT, there was an updated/upgraded “Surface RT 2” released along with intel x86 counterpart. Nokia made a competing RT tablet (Nokia Lumia 2520)
I still have a surface 1 Pro the first intel surface with i5 and 4 gb ram and 128ssd! It is thick but it is very portable and still run super fast with windows 11!It's unbelivable for a 9 year or more device!And with the pen it's fantastic for taking notes!
The Surface was so far ahead of its time. Just look at what the iPad has evolved into. Windows RT and 8 were fantastic on a tablet, very thoughtfully designed, many parts of the UI have been stolen since by iPadOS 15 too. It’s a shame it never really got good app support.
I had the first gen surface (non RT version) years ago and it's definitely still one of my favourite computers I've ever owned. The versatility of it being a laptop/tablet was super handy and I loved the stylus it came with. It also had pretty decent specs so I was able to run plenty of programs and play quite a few video games.
Got one from a student program in 2012. Even back then it was so slow as to be nigh unusable for my needs. Then the gpu started dying and it got replaced by the RT 2 with the infinitely better Tegra 4 for free, due to no stock of the original still being around on the final day of the warranty. Lucky. Today it sits in a bag as e-waste because the cheapsauce magnetic charger clip kept shattering itself throughout its life, replaced repeatedly until there was none left to replace it with. Fun fact, this is technically the great-grandfather of the Nintendo Switch. The Nvidia Tegra SOCs used on the Surface RTs would be used on the Nvidia Shield tablets following RT's discontinuation, before getting exclusive licensing from Nintendo during the Switch's development. An action which apparently occurred so abruptly that Nvidia didn't even send internal memos about the Shield being pulled from their own shelves.
I used this little guy in 2013. I got it for 200$. It had great battery life, type cover keyboard was nice, and I never worried about annoying Windows updates. You didn’t mention that together with this device we got free MS office!
I had one of these. The hardware was great, but with a locked bootloader that would not allow me to install a better OS was the problem. I still used it for years as a portal ssh terminal.
I remember that in 2014-2015 my mom bought either this surface or the one after but ended up returning it after a few days to get an iPad because she found it so complicated to use. She ended up being an iPad mini 2 and she still has it even though it's not really in use
True geeks know that first Microsoft Surface wasn’t this flop tablet but a 2008 Vista-based table. Now they call it PixelSense and it was/is actually interesting concept, bit gimmicky but it’s from period when there was still some creativity and uniqueness in tech.
I still have my surface pro 2, which is basically a beefed up version of this guy that can run full windows applications. I really love that thing, it got me through college, while functioning as a portable drawing tablet. The surface line is probably the most versatile group of computers on the market right now.
I had to use one of these for surveying work and I hated it! I always thought they were cool until I used it. The battery would be gone in 3 hours max and it would overheat so fast. 👎
I almost bought a Surface RT. At the mall there was both an Apple Store and a brand new Microsoft store. I ended up getting the iPad Mini. Years later I bought a Surface Pro 7.
I remember when I have been given the choice to either have a iPad or Surface back then. I went with the iPad 2 as a friend of mine had a Surface and was quite frustrated with it. Since then I stayed with the iPad, only upgrading when necessary.
I used this for ages for work. It's still a usable tablet to get work done on the go. Having office on hand was and still is pretty good. The battery lasted forever.
I miss this era of Microsoft. These types of products didn't fare well commercially but I personally loved the Microsoft design language. It's a shame they've largely shifted away from consumer hardware
My company used to send us to the Microsoft Ignite conferences years ago. At one of them (2013, I believe?) when were selling these for $100 USD. Everyone bought one (including me).
My school bought 10 of them, for 'tech' class. Including the keyboards. I had to clean up and reset them all. A lot of the tools that were used a lot of them were actually removed from the MS store. 1 tablet died, all 10 keyboards died, the keyboards really are very bad. The chargers were mediocre and i found that the magnets in them were just too weak, the cables fall out too easily. The paint on the magnesium body is prone to chipping off as well. Also the headphone jacks, if i recall only 2 of them still worked. So yeah, while it looks very promising, it just didn't work out. kinda like the zune
I have a NUC (without a monitor) with a bunch of external drives running as a media server and I use a Surface RT's built in Remote Desktop (as though it's a KVM ) to drive the NUC from anywhere in the house. When I look at the System About page on the NUC this way it shows as having a touch screen with 5 touch points. Watching videos on the surface using remote desktop works but the screen refresh is too slow to enjoy but if I use the RT to watch a video straight over the network using its built in video player (or VLC) it plays perfectly. Basically, I only use my RT's as video players and as wireless KVMs. I'm happy with that.
I had one of these given to me by school, the keyboard was ass and broke, the usb slots are terrible and too small it’s stressful to put anything in, and after just 2 years it completely crapped out and basically bricked itself despite me basically doing nothing with it but writing documents and browsing the net, only downloading updates. I really wanted to like it, I did, but the device did not want to feel the same towards me.
I bought one from the Microsoft store after they reduced the price by about $100.00 and had it hooked up to a full size keyboard and mouse for a while. It was OK.
I’m a late bloomer to the Surface gang but comparing my Surfaces to the laptops and desktops I see around my OLD surface pro 2 and a surface book 2 still act better than most Walmart level laptops.
Second-gen Surfaces are so, so, much better, with Intel CPUs meaning regular, full (not crappy RT version) Windows support and hence standard Windows software. I got one on eBay for 100 euro like 3 years ago already, so they must be even cheaper to get now if you hunt for fine deals.
I picked three up for $200 Cad with the keyboard in 2013 and I really loved it. Full office suite was great for work and I would lend them to clients so they could RDP in to our infrastructure and work remotely when travelling. With RDP and office compatibility I thought this was a great machine, it needed 1080p more ram and a better kickstand but it could have been a great machine.
In a time when one of the largest companies in the world (Google) abandons products and services at the drop of a hat if deemed 'unsuccessful', I find it quite interesting and, dare I say, commendable that Microsoft's hardware division stuck with the Surface concept past its initial failure. They held out until hardware and software caught up to their vision and the Windows laptop market is all the better for it
I loved this device! I then went and upgraded it to the Surface Pro 4 before my current Lenovo. I miss having a Surface around, that keyboard was amazingly comfortable and that alcantara! *chef kiss*
I think the issue with Windows RT was the fact that it was closed off. In my opinion Windows 8 may have been the perfect time to release a new executable format and while Microsoft kinda did do that. It was dead on arrival as it was locked to the windows store.
I bought one on fire sale, I think for 199 with keyboard. I absolutely loved the hardware and I still support the idea behind Windows RT. But the software was so limited, there were no apps and the browser was just way too slow to use this device as a daily driver. It ran free Office apps thought so as a student I was very happy with it. Still use Surface products today.
This one doesn't have the fully adjustable kickstand of the later Surfaces, right? I seem to recall reading that the early Surface models only had one or two kickstand positions. Personally, I love my Surface Pro 7 and can certainly see a lot of its design all the way back at the beginning.
Damn I remember spending hours watching youtube on this. Also office apps worked great. Speakers were amazing on this. I think it had like 4 speaker setup But ultimately lack of app support killed iy
I bought an 64GB Surface RT, but it can’t be use after refresh the system…… Because it cannot install other browsers, it cannot connect MS Store, and do Windows Update……😢
My first gen Surface Pro is still running strong in 2021 running Windows 10. It's surprisingly quick for everyday tasks like web browsing and getting office tasks done even though it only has 4GB of RAM. Microsoft did do something right with Surface and has never bogged down or crashed.
I had one of these briefly. I loved the feel of the hardware and Windows 8 worked quite nicely on it, from a responsiveness standpoint. Another good thing was being able to just hook up any old USB device. But the app support just wasn't there, unfortunately. I also had a Windows Phone during this era too.
First here is your first problem you didn’t update the surface to the latest updates Microsoft later on added a start menu to the original surface windows RT model when they added that start menu to the operating system to make it better to navigate they actually caused even worse problems for the device this included the device randomly freezing lagging and my personal favorite the computer rebooting Microsoft promised everyone a fixed and never delivered then they released the surface two with a faulty battery design where you would plug in the surface two thinking it was charging when it wasn’t you go to fire up your computer and the computer would drop dead and not allow you to recharge the battery because of a faulty firmware on the battery controller Microsoft released a firmware update fix for the battery controller but if your battery was already dead thanks to the battery controller failure you couldn’t update the firmware on the battery controller to get your battery back Because in order to install this update you had to have a fully charged battery which you couldn’t do because the onboard battery charger wouldn’t function
Surface RT wasn't a failure because of Apple or Steve Balmer, but because the thing came in ARM CPU version only. Even today Windows on ARM is largely useless if you want to use your Windows machine for desktop-level applications, you can imagine how barebones the software selection for it was 10 years ago.
I still have a Surface RT and I attempted to use it the other day. almost no apps actually work, it's astonishingly slow, and the battery is truly dreadful. there's literally nothing useful you can do with it in 2021, not even set it up as a smart home controller!(unless I guess you set up some convoluted web app?)
The Surface cover is junk on older Surface tablets. Microsoft never wrote a good driver for it but a Surface compatible Bluetooth keyboard connects and you can run it in laptop mode.
This ran Metro apps, which is an entire new set of APIs, like Mac -> iOS. Which means, programming for arm was more or less the same as anything else.. the problem was that entire new set of APIs to learn
Does everyone just completely forget that the 2008 Microsoft Surface (later renamed PixelSense) coffee table computer was a thing? That was the biggest thing that bothered me about the surface release back in the day - that they had already released a product with that name (and apparently I was the only person excited about that thing...)
My dad accidentally bought Surface RT in 2013 instead of iPad since iPads at that time were sold out. He regretted buying this thing, since he bought it because it had Microsoft’s name on it, mistaking it for a fully unlocked x86 Windows tablet. This was slow, only could run mp4, mp3, no mkv, No avi, no apps, very bad load times. The only app I got was Asphalt 8. VLC came way later. At that point, I had already thrown this in the bin. I had Windows Phone 8, It was fun, but still no WhatsApp and stuff, but this RT was depressing to use. Then I got Galaxy S4, iPad Air, iPhone 7+, XS Max, etc. Even 400$ HP budget 2 in 1 was way better than this device. I have this device still in 2021, have no use for it, and can’t sell it, cuz I chipped one of the edges hard. The MagSafe like charger was nice though.
I had an HP 10" tablet that had a keyboard and Win RT. I got a blue screen at the first time I turned it on and you can imagine how bad the tablet was.. But for word docs and very slow internet browsing- I guess it worked.
The awesomeness of this it’s just the fact that no one ever wrote any malware or viruses for the Nvidia cpu c++ compilers You can be online with out malware or antivirus because all viruses written for windows can’t run on its architecture
I got one from my uncle because they were massively discounted for teachers. I actually liked it as a lightweight PC for the go because it had a fully functioning office preinstalled, what’s pretty good because at the time Office wasn’t available for iPad. This combined with a browser would make a quite good tablet for students that wanted to take notes in Uni and write on their homework assignments. But ultimately for the price a laptop would have been the better choice
I never owned one but I heard from an online friend at the time they got one for Christmas and wasn't happy it couldn’t run gimp. A year later I got the Surface Pro 2 and got good use out of it.
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RT moment
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I bought one of these around launch and I was confident the Windows Store would grow just as the App Store did. That was a mistake...
No developer would invest on a platform that keeps changing, Microsoft literally did everything wrong.
Yeah although now windows tablets get Android apps
I pre-ordered it with the super slim touch keyboard the moment it was launched. What a huge mistake.
it will now
How Microsoft continuously fails to develop good software or ecosystems but somehow doesn't have competent competition is beyond me.
I have a Surface Pro 4. This product definitely feels like a prototype, not a predecessor, to the now successful Surface line of tablets.
I have a surface pro 2, which is absolutely the same form factor, but intel based. It is an okay tablet, and still runs Windows 10. I have both a touch and type keyboard, so I can tell you, touch is okay, type is best.
@@memsom I have a second gen, too, and was vaguely aware that Windows RT was once a thing, but wasn't that much aware how much worse those things were... Now I appreciate that tablet of mine (that I bought very cheap on eBay 3 years ago) more, I should use it more often, I guess.
@@memsom i have the pro 2, it seems to be very easy to scratch than the surface pro 1 and mine needs a kickstand replacement, its a good machine but is way less durable
@@asianflex yeah, the coating flakes off. I saw a pro 1 years ago, but only when practically new. So not sure how well they survive.
I have a Pro 1 and I game on it
Back then Surface RT wasn't available in Taiwan, had to find some seller on eBay who's willing to ship it to Taiwan.
The reason was that Microsoft didn't want to offend computer manufacturers in Taiwan, so they decided to delay the sale.
I finally got my Surface RT from eBay, it was good, though not many ideal apps in the marketplace, yet I did see the booming of it. Most of the time I played some small games, and sometimes I watched videos on it, the image quality was pretty good. I used it until I bought Surface 3 in 2015, about time to change.
Cool info to know!
-10000 social credit for mentioning taiwan
This is actually more repair friendly than the current surface models.
Other than the Surface Laptop SE
I picked up a 512gb pro 3 awhile back for $100 and it's basically a paperweight due to a dead battery and it needing a bios update for the power controller.
So it essentially overheats and throttles while idling or it just holds stuff with it's lifeless corpse.
I'd love to swap out the battery but the success rate without breaking the screen is abysmal.
Not mentioning IPads
@@aidan1585 thats an full laptop, not this tablet monstrosity
@@nintendo-toasteredition the new ones aren’t monstrosities, they are more useful for work than iPads and I’m not even going to mention android tablets.
the nostalgia is kicking in, i used to own this thing when i was a kid...
@@BrianMui same, mine doesnt work either...
Man I'm old
Same.. My goodness
if yall were kids in 2012, yall still kids today
@@EfftingES boomer moment
The rt was actually more useful than a Chromebook, it had full browser, plus complete access to office and a few other programs, but the most important it had a desktop (at least when the windows 10 update came) so you could actually organize files
Chrome is a browser, y'know.
@@notthatntg Chrome os exists you know?
with IE browser it has always been a brick
I kept using mine to watch Netflix years after it was left for dead.
holy shit remember using a windows rt for school back in year 7 it was so frustrating not being able to install any applications
That was the biggest failure of that Surface, not the lack of apps, but the stupid requirement of install everything throug the Windows store, instead of letting the user install everything just like a Windows x86 machine
@@kolotxoz I think they didn't allow it because they didn't add any compatability layer to windows to run x86 software.
@@alex12win19 which is also why they’re not making that mistake again. Compatibility layer on Windows ARM now
@@kaitlyn__L is latest windows arm even used? It seems obscure...
@@namesurname4666 it’s hardly used outside of always connected laptops, but there’s upcoming Microsoft hardware which will use it. Evidently they’re hoping it can take off and jump ship from Intel if ARM’s mobile performance to power ratio keeps outpacing x86, and they had to set the groundwork with the x86 translation layer since that’s what doomed RT. It might not happen but I’m pretty sure Microsoft wants to keep the option open to have, say, in 5 years most laptops being ARM-powered but still backwards compatible with the x86 library.
I worked at a local store dealing in used electronics, I was given four of these to list to eBay and was blown away since it was the first time I had even heard about them, let alone seen one in person, I got lectured for "testing" it for too long. What a nostalgia trip
It was a failure, but it brought a new line of pro tablets to market. Even the iPad pro was probably inspired by the later Surface devices.
The ARM PC is not failure, people and the dev are not ready. Sadly. I'm totally amazed when Windows 8 introduced gesture navigation even it is works well with touchpad (not touchscreen) although people hate it but look at Apple and Google OS now, they're using gesture navigation.
Windows 8 didn't introduce gesture navigation lmfao you're on crack
@@ps5hasnogames55 did windows 7 have ANY gestures besides scrolling?
@@SpaceSysZ did you know there's other OS's that aren't windows
@@ps5hasnogames55 well im guessing they're talking about windows
@@imloveeatfries they're claiming windows had gesture nav before apple and google did which is so obviously wrong lmfao
I had one of this, I bought it really cheap with a spare keyboard that I was able to sell easily. I was able to use a few things via the built-in IE browser, like Spotify or Netflix, but it already had a lack of support in 2016, when I had that tablet. Still, I think this was ahead of its time, Apple just switched to ARM and they are doing it much better. I really wish MS should have been working on this line a bit more.
I've owned one of these since 2013 or so, and it's still a very nice piece of hardware. Mine has held up well, though it does have some scratches on the rear panel. It's a shame the software support wasn't better though. My Surface RT is the 64GB model, and I only paid $100 for it - the man I bought it from got it for free from work as part of a giveaway.
I used mine for productivity work with Microsoft Office, and in the later years it became a portable, touch-based RDP client that I used around the house. I still use it from time to time. When I used it for work I would connect it to an external keyboard, mouse and monitor, and it became a full blown desktop computer.
I have fond memories of this tablet, and I'd love to see more done with them in the future.
Have you tried installing Linux on this tablet.
@@bazil4146 I have one, Linux support is not great on here. 32bit ARM Windows 10 runs just fine though
LOOOLL! My father bought it for work back in 2012, and I used to play angry birds on it. It runs windows 8 but it doesn't work well anymore. We still have it at home
I have the pro version of this, and it still runs OK. It came with a Wacom EMR pen that is a lot better than the N-trig pen Microsoft used for the Pro 3 and later. For those debating, just do a slow diagonal line or curve with a more recent Microsoft pen.
Microsoft is ironically a better hardware company than a software company.
A problem Microsoft had is that developers that made apps for iOS and Android, wouldn't make apps for Windows
Still have mine. Got it in 2013. Probably the most premium feeling device I have ever felt. It works great. If you got the touch-type keyboard it left a lot to be wanted. Honestly, if you could find one of these with the physical button keyboard bundled together cheap, would be a killer portable document writing machine. Good to know there is crossy road on it. Will have to pull it out for that.
This is fresher than the eucalyptus oil i just drank
U did what
@@axieore Had a drink
@@maggiethegamer1271 u did whaaa
(1:53) I had an original Surface Pro during my time in college, and the way I held mine was to open the kickstand and tuck some of my fingers under there, which lessened the chance that I dropped it. I never dropped mine, but it still got loads of scratches from when it was in my backpack, however the screen was protected as I had a Type Cover with mine.
(3:11) Same for me, the lack of apps on the RT (especially because Microsoft didn't allow third-party desktop apps on on Windows RT) turned me away from it on to the original Surface Pro once that finally became available here in Singapore after several months following the launch of the RT.
had a very bad experience with SP4, screen flickering issues, bloated battery, non functioning type cover after updates....and all coincidentally occur right after warranty ends
I have an OG Surface Book, the batteries are bloated and the screen has some burn in but for an nearly 5 year old tablet it is holding up great.
Welcome back! It’s always a good day when you upload!
yeah
(3:14) Yep, that. When the Surface RT finally became available to buy in Singapore, there were adverts for it but I kept being turned away by its lack of apps, then when the Surface Pro finally became available to buy here, I immediately pre-ordered one and it became my secondary PC for a year or two. As much as I had enjoyed it, my needs had changed since then and I would instead get a ThinkPad X13 Yoga. Microsoft also realised how much of a failure the Touch Cover was, and I was glad I went with a Type Cover instead as I was using Evernote quite a bit back then, but not as much as today, Speaking of Evernote, they had a Windows 8 and RT specific 'Evernote Touch' that was separate from their regular desktop app and that was what I used back then.
I remember when Microsoft announced the OG Surface, there's a clip that features someone awkwardly getting another model as the model they were demonstrating froze on them lmao.
I love how microsoft always gives their products second trys, for example this, if it wouldnt have been for microsoft's smart move to give the surface a second try the surface would be a huge failure.
I still have one of these in perfect working order, and the hardware itself (especially the screen) isn't too bad, it's just a shame that Microsoft crippled it so much it's practically useless for most of anything. It's kind of infuriating considering it works perfectly.
The funny thing is my dated Surface Pro 3 can run Windows 11 despite the fact the processor isn’t officially supported and it continues to get updates, if you want to run Windows 11 without feeling like you have to shell out money for the Surface Pro 8, it’s a good option.
I don't know as much about Surface Pro tablet's, but I'm assuming the older one's had at least TPM 1.2. I'm using a 2013 Motion Computing MC-F5TE tablet that has TPM 1.2. I modified the registry to ease the TPM and CPU requirements so I can later on install Windows 11. It's just crazy that Microsoft expects computers to run TPM 2.0 for Windows 11 when they never even required TPM 1.2 previously. Microsoft's also allowing PC makers to install Windows 11 on new PCs and laptops without the TPM requirement which comes off as a double standard to me when they advise against consumers doing it. I believe Microsoft wants to line their pockets with more money by selling new PCs than the security claim. They shouldn't be punishing supporter's of their software that they make billions off of and can't even design updates to patch security vulnerabilities without messing something up.
Great video! Yes, Surface RT was a failure in that it had so few apps. Microsoft should have had its ducks in a row before introducing both Surface and Windows 8. If app support was there, Microsoft would have had an edge over Apple in touch screen and ARM, as opposed to MI chips turning the whole market upside down.
Amazing video again Nathan! This device was all the hype back then, but it was kinda sad that it didn't meet expectations. Anyways it is good that this became the predecessor to the now successful Surface lineup :)
Damn I remember finding it so cool in 2012. I really wanted one back then
i have one back in its day, it works perfectly, had genuine office intalled and it worked perfect for college, its full size USB port was perfect for me in order to pass archives easily between my classmates
so this is the 4th video i have seen psivewri not using isopropyl alcohol, oldschool runescape and eucalyptus oil
I recently picked up a Surface RT for 20 bucks with charger and keyboard. It has a very nice build quality, it's somewhat similar to the Kindle HDX 8.9 that released a year later. The aspect ratio 16.9 was ahead of its time, and the stereo speakers made this great for watching movies. The second iteration of the Surface RT is still great for watching movies with higher resolution display. Albeit a very limited device, it's still very nifty and fun to tinker with.
This is neat to see. My ex had one of these and ended up returning it for a Lenovo yoga 2 pro. They got a lot of it right but the app experience (and bugs, as I recall) killed it. Similar to the Lumia windows phone I used to have, that didn't work out lol but it was a good attempt. He now has a newer surface pro and it's great.
i wanted a windows phone when they got better but they never did idk why
A couple years ago my office was cleaning out our tablet rack. We do mobile development, and kept a ton of tablets around. I was told I could take one of these. I took it home, realized there was almost nothing of value I could do with it, and actually just brought it back.
I had a Surface RT. I loved it, but I did get it for $50 and knew it was going to be pretty much only an internet browser. Surprised yours is in such good condition lol, the RTs are known for having really poor paint quality and it flakes off super bad. Edit: you aren't getting the full surface experience, those pins are way too good. Apple used curved pins for good contact, and the surface uses flat ones. Surfaces 1 through 3 are known for having awful charger issues.
I used mine as thin client, worked great I miss mine :(
0:03 is that the iPad 2 or 3? I recognized it because I have the iPad 2 Wi-Fi model, on iOS 9.3.5, still running ok, had it for two years, my teacher/librarian gave it to me at the end of 7th grade, I’m in 10th grade and still use it a little. Sadly, the plastic gasket around the digitizer broke off, so Wi-Fi signal doesn’t reach my room, and I usually use it as my school alarm
Tablets by functionality...
iPad = best as a tablet, poor as a computer
Galaxy Tab = good as a tablet, average as a computer (DeX)
Chrome OS tablets = average as a tablet, good as a computer
Surface = poor as a tablet, best as a computer
DeX's gui is laggy and i think they discontinued it. I have a samsung s10 and when i connect it with my pc its really laggy...
@@LKonstantina915 dex isn't discontinued
Chrome os isn't good for any of them, like they are good if you are going to write docs and that's it. Not even internet browsing is fun on it.
That's my opinion
Believe or not, I once thought of buying this one (used) in 2021… glad I’ve abandoned that idiotic thinking.
I still had a Surface Pro 2 from 2013 until very recently. Good machine, but these Windows RT ARM Surfaces were just terrible.
4:31 Edge works on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. You should get it working
We need to go further back to the one that was a table not a tablet.
Video idea: run Linux on it? Supposedly, this thing can run Linux incredibly well and Linux supports a much wider variety of arm-based apps than Windows, pretty much everything that's compiled for x86 is also compiled for ARM. I'm willing to bet you can get a decently modern browser on that thing.
Linux sucks no one cares about it
@@ps5hasnogames55 your opinion sucks no one cares about it
@@ps5hasnogames55 Ah, the 'expert' speaks! Nobody cares about Linux... apart from the millions who use it every day, and all those data centres that run their servers on it. Or the Raspberry Pi and other SBCs, several games systems and of course Android is based on Linux. Of course, Apple's Mac OS and IOS are based on BSD, which is another Unix clone, just like Linux. Apart from that, nobody cares.
@@another3997 wow cool to know you joined 9 years ago!
@@ps5hasnogames55 correct!
what the hell is a moist consumer? 1:08
This is the ARM powered Surface RT, there was an updated/upgraded “Surface RT 2” released along with intel x86 counterpart. Nokia made a competing RT tablet (Nokia Lumia 2520)
I wouldn't call it competing since Microsoft ran Nokia back then
I still have a surface 1 Pro the first intel surface with i5 and 4 gb ram and 128ssd! It is thick but it is very portable and still run super fast with windows 11!It's unbelivable for a 9 year or more device!And with the pen it's fantastic for taking notes!
The Surface was so far ahead of its time. Just look at what the iPad has evolved into. Windows RT and 8 were fantastic on a tablet, very thoughtfully designed, many parts of the UI have been stolen since by iPadOS 15 too. It’s a shame it never really got good app support.
I had the first gen surface (non RT version) years ago and it's definitely still one of my favourite computers I've ever owned. The versatility of it being a laptop/tablet was super handy and I loved the stylus it came with. It also had pretty decent specs so I was able to run plenty of programs and play quite a few video games.
Got one from a student program in 2012. Even back then it was so slow as to be nigh unusable for my needs. Then the gpu started dying and it got replaced by the RT 2 with the infinitely better Tegra 4 for free, due to no stock of the original still being around on the final day of the warranty. Lucky.
Today it sits in a bag as e-waste because the cheapsauce magnetic charger clip kept shattering itself throughout its life, replaced repeatedly until there was none left to replace it with.
Fun fact, this is technically the great-grandfather of the Nintendo Switch. The Nvidia Tegra SOCs used on the Surface RTs would be used on the Nvidia Shield tablets following RT's discontinuation, before getting exclusive licensing from Nintendo during the Switch's development. An action which apparently occurred so abruptly that Nvidia didn't even send internal memos about the Shield being pulled from their own shelves.
I used this little guy in 2013. I got it for 200$. It had great battery life, type cover keyboard was nice, and I never worried about annoying Windows updates. You didn’t mention that together with this device we got free MS office!
I had one of these. The hardware was great, but with a locked bootloader that would not allow me to install a better OS was the problem. I still used it for years as a portal ssh terminal.
I remember that in 2014-2015 my mom bought either this surface or the one after but ended up returning it after a few days to get an iPad because she found it so complicated to use. She ended up being an iPad mini 2 and she still has it even though it's not really in use
True geeks know that first Microsoft Surface wasn’t this flop tablet but a 2008 Vista-based table. Now they call it PixelSense and it was/is actually interesting concept, bit gimmicky but it’s from period when there was still some creativity and uniqueness in tech.
I still have my surface pro 2, which is basically a beefed up version of this guy that can run full windows applications. I really love that thing, it got me through college, while functioning as a portable drawing tablet. The surface line is probably the most versatile group of computers on the market right now.
Hey Nathan, will you upgrade the Surface to Windows 10 ARM?
Here's the guide: ruclips.net/video/I-N6YPdX0V4/видео.html
Really wish Microsoft took a day or two to ship and update to these devices so they can run 10 for ARM.
5:02 It's called Reckless Racing
I had to use one of these for surveying work and I hated it! I always thought they were cool until I used it. The battery would be gone in 3 hours max and it would overheat so fast. 👎
They did run warm - I'd forgotten about that. I really liked mine though, probably because I was used to using warm laptop computers at the time.
I almost bought a Surface RT. At the mall there was both an Apple Store and a brand new Microsoft store. I ended up getting the iPad Mini. Years later I bought a Surface Pro 7.
I remember when I have been given the choice to either have a iPad or Surface back then. I went with the iPad 2 as a friend of mine had a Surface and was quite frustrated with it. Since then I stayed with the iPad, only upgrading when necessary.
I used this for ages for work. It's still a usable tablet to get work done on the go. Having office on hand was and still is pretty good. The battery lasted forever.
The interesting thing is that this Microsoft Surface would get security updates till January 2023, while iPads of that time are long obsolete
I miss this era of Microsoft. These types of products didn't fare well commercially but I personally loved the Microsoft design language. It's a shame they've largely shifted away from consumer hardware
I totally forgot how chucky the first surface looked like
My company used to send us to the Microsoft Ignite conferences years ago. At one of them (2013, I believe?) when were selling these for $100 USD. Everyone bought one (including me).
My school bought 10 of them, for 'tech' class. Including the keyboards. I had to clean up and reset them all. A lot of the tools that were used a lot of them were actually removed from the MS store. 1 tablet died, all 10 keyboards died, the keyboards really are very bad. The chargers were mediocre and i found that the magnets in them were just too weak, the cables fall out too easily. The paint on the magnesium body is prone to chipping off as well. Also the headphone jacks, if i recall only 2 of them still worked. So yeah, while it looks very promising, it just didn't work out. kinda like the zune
I have a NUC (without a monitor) with a bunch of external drives running as a media server and I use a Surface RT's built in Remote Desktop (as though it's a KVM ) to drive the NUC from anywhere in the house. When I look at the System About page on the NUC this way it shows as having a touch screen with 5 touch points.
Watching videos on the surface using remote desktop works but the screen refresh is too slow to enjoy but if I use the RT to watch a video straight over the network using its built in video player (or VLC) it plays perfectly.
Basically, I only use my RT's as video players and as wireless KVMs. I'm happy with that.
I had one of these given to me by school, the keyboard was ass and broke, the usb slots are terrible and too small it’s stressful to put anything in, and after just 2 years it completely crapped out and basically bricked itself despite me basically doing nothing with it but writing documents and browsing the net, only downloading updates. I really wanted to like it, I did, but the device did not want to feel the same towards me.
I bought one from the Microsoft store after they reduced the price by about $100.00 and had it hooked up to a full size keyboard and mouse for a while. It was OK.
I’m a late bloomer to the Surface gang but comparing my Surfaces to the laptops and desktops I see around my OLD surface pro 2 and a surface book 2 still act better than most Walmart level laptops.
Second-gen Surfaces are so, so, much better, with Intel CPUs meaning regular, full (not crappy RT version) Windows support and hence standard Windows software. I got one on eBay for 100 euro like 3 years ago already, so they must be even cheaper to get now if you hunt for fine deals.
I picked three up for $200 Cad with the keyboard in 2013 and I really loved it. Full office suite was great for work and I would lend them to clients so they could RDP in to our infrastructure and work remotely when travelling. With RDP and office compatibility I thought this was a great machine, it needed 1080p more ram and a better kickstand but it could have been a great machine.
In a time when one of the largest companies in the world (Google) abandons products and services at the drop of a hat if deemed 'unsuccessful', I find it quite interesting and, dare I say, commendable that Microsoft's hardware division stuck with the Surface concept past its initial failure. They held out until hardware and software caught up to their vision and the Windows laptop market is all the better for it
I loved this device! I then went and upgraded it to the Surface Pro 4 before my current Lenovo. I miss having a Surface around, that keyboard was amazingly comfortable and that alcantara! *chef kiss*
I think the issue with Windows RT was the fact that it was closed off. In my opinion Windows 8 may have been the perfect time to release a new executable format and while Microsoft kinda did do that.
It was dead on arrival as it was locked to the windows store.
I bought one on fire sale, I think for 199 with keyboard. I absolutely loved the hardware and I still support the idea behind Windows RT. But the software was so limited, there were no apps and the browser was just way too slow to use this device as a daily driver. It ran free Office apps thought so as a student I was very happy with it. Still use Surface products today.
This one doesn't have the fully adjustable kickstand of the later Surfaces, right? I seem to recall reading that the early Surface models only had one or two kickstand positions.
Personally, I love my Surface Pro 7 and can certainly see a lot of its design all the way back at the beginning.
Bro, you were in Mr. Who's the bosses video!
Oh neat! I just worked out which video you were talking about :)
Damn I remember spending hours watching youtube on this. Also office apps worked great. Speakers were amazing on this. I think it had like 4 speaker setup
But ultimately lack of app support killed iy
Microsoft made a mistake using an ARM processor instead of a traditional x86 one
I bought an 64GB Surface RT, but it can’t be use after refresh the system……
Because it cannot install other browsers, it cannot connect MS Store, and do Windows Update……😢
The first RT (2012) had a better mouse support and the file system than iPad Pro 2021. Seriously.
My first gen Surface Pro is still running strong in 2021 running Windows 10. It's surprisingly quick for everyday tasks like web browsing and getting office tasks done even though it only has 4GB of RAM. Microsoft did do something right with Surface and has never bogged down or crashed.
And then there is mine that suffers from a bluescreen every time I dare using the camera
I had one of these briefly. I loved the feel of the hardware and Windows 8 worked quite nicely on it, from a responsiveness standpoint. Another good thing was being able to just hook up any old USB device. But the app support just wasn't there, unfortunately. I also had a Windows Phone during this era too.
First here is your first problem you didn’t update the surface to the latest updates Microsoft later on added a start menu to the original surface windows RT model when they added that start menu to the operating system to make it better to navigate they actually caused even worse problems for the device this included the device randomly freezing lagging and my personal favorite the computer rebooting Microsoft promised everyone a fixed and never delivered then they released the surface two with a faulty battery design where you would plug in the surface two thinking it was charging when it wasn’t you go to fire up your computer and the computer would drop dead and not allow you to recharge the battery because of a faulty firmware on the battery controller Microsoft released a firmware update fix for the battery controller but if your battery was already dead thanks to the battery controller failure you couldn’t update the firmware on the battery controller to get your battery back Because in order to install this update you had to have a fully charged battery which you couldn’t do because the onboard battery charger wouldn’t function
incredible job microsoft
Wow, there's not a single punctuation mark in your comment...
didn't know steve ballmer was a furry
@@randomtech787 I could tell you way more Microsoft coding screwups
Surface RT wasn't a failure because of Apple or Steve Balmer, but because the thing came in ARM CPU version only.
Even today Windows on ARM is largely useless if you want to use your Windows machine for desktop-level applications, you can imagine how barebones the software selection for it was 10 years ago.
Loved my Surface RT used it for 4yrs as my media device was still turning on in 2020 when I found it in my cupboard
Wondering how a Linux distribution would run on it. Linux on ARM is great
no one cares about loonux. ugly user interfaces and your open source trash apps are incompatible with everything and unusable
I still have a Surface RT and I attempted to use it the other day. almost no apps actually work, it's astonishingly slow, and the battery is truly dreadful.
there's literally nothing useful you can do with it in 2021, not even set it up as a smart home controller!(unless I guess you set up some convoluted web app?)
The Surface cover is junk on older Surface tablets. Microsoft never wrote a good driver for it but a Surface compatible Bluetooth keyboard connects and you can run it in laptop mode.
This ran Metro apps, which is an entire new set of APIs, like Mac -> iOS. Which means, programming for arm was more or less the same as anything else.. the problem was that entire new set of APIs to learn
Does everyone just completely forget that the 2008 Microsoft Surface (later renamed PixelSense) coffee table computer was a thing? That was the biggest thing that bothered me about the surface release back in the day - that they had already released a product with that name (and apparently I was the only person excited about that thing...)
The EMMC of mine died when I compiled gentoo packages for 3 days straight.
My dad accidentally bought Surface RT in 2013 instead of iPad since iPads at that time were sold out. He regretted buying this thing, since he bought it because it had Microsoft’s name on it, mistaking it for a fully unlocked x86 Windows tablet. This was slow, only could run mp4, mp3, no mkv, No avi, no apps, very bad load times. The only app I got was Asphalt 8. VLC came way later. At that point, I had already thrown this in the bin. I had Windows Phone 8, It was fun, but still no WhatsApp and stuff, but this RT was depressing to use. Then I got Galaxy S4, iPad Air, iPhone 7+, XS Max, etc. Even 400$ HP budget 2 in 1 was way better than this device. I have this device still in 2021, have no use for it, and can’t sell it, cuz I chipped one of the edges hard. The MagSafe like charger was nice though.
I had an HP 10" tablet that had a keyboard and Win RT.
I got a blue screen at the first time I turned it on and you can imagine how bad the tablet was..
But for word docs and very slow internet browsing- I guess it worked.
As soon as I saw the word failure I knew that Steve Ballmers name would pop up.
The awesomeness of this it’s just the fact that no one ever wrote any malware or viruses for the Nvidia cpu c++ compilers
You can be online with out malware or antivirus because all viruses written for windows can’t run on its architecture
Love your channel bro!!
I got one from my uncle because they were massively discounted for teachers.
I actually liked it as a lightweight PC for the go because it had a fully functioning office preinstalled, what’s pretty good because at the time Office wasn’t available for iPad. This combined with a browser would make a quite good tablet for students that wanted to take notes in Uni and write on their homework assignments. But ultimately for the price a laptop would have been the better choice
I never owned one but I heard from an online friend at the time they got one for Christmas and wasn't happy it couldn’t run gimp. A year later I got the Surface Pro 2 and got good use out of it.