Surface Keyboard Works Well,If You are Fine With Watching While You Type !

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Microsoft handsomely unveiled the Surface Tablet with two variants of upcoming Windows operating system Windows 8 and Windows RT.The tablets will feature Intel based and Nvidia Tegra 3 based processors respectively,both will also feature a Touch Cover which has an integrated Touch Keyboard.

Not much was known about the touch keyboard performance as of now,because no one had a chance to play with the device to get a feel of the touch keyboard,up until now.Recently Citi analyst Walter Pritchard had a chance to play with the Surface Touch Keyboard,when he met the Microsoft Executives.He played along with the keyboard using the Office 2013 RT version.

Talking about his experience with keyboard he said,

At the meeting with MSFT Windows execs, we were able to try the Surface touch keyboard (we weren’t at LA launch) and also use it conjunction with new Office (RT- version). All works well. The keyboard is responsive and natural (same size as laptop keyboard), with only downside being there is only slight raised delineation between keys, meaning you have to look at your fingers while you type. With short words, we were able to type accurately, although longer words were more error- prone.

 

So even though the keyboard is responsive to the keystrokes,due to its design of raised delineation between keys,you would end up mistyping a long text without having a look at the keyboard.So its a no no for all those fast typists who are quite used to the conventional keyboard typing without looking at which key is being pressed.So that is one of the areas of concern as far as the keyboard designing goes.

The Surface Tablet along with the other Windows 8 tablets will be released this holiday season,no specific dates have been announced yet.But we can expect a time frame of October or November,if we take a look back at the history or major releases from Microsoft happening in similar time frame.

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  • ericl5112

    For those people, they may want to try the other surface cover.  It’s thicker, but it’s got better keys for this reason.

  • http://wii4everybody.com/ Oziel

    Well its ok, ill give it a try on an Intel Machine xD

  • GoodBytes

    That is why Microsoft released a real keyboard (like the ASUS Transformer) for it as well. Obviously it is aimed for those who types a lot.

  • Mr Smith

    I’m surprised we are still using keyboards and long for the day the keyboard (the mice, gamepad, and joystick) dies. I think I would always like steering wheels and pedals–nothing seems to replace them. Give me a computer that can put my thoughts into words or actions! Or maybe Kinect is good enough replacement for the mouse and keyboard.

  • http://turbofool.com Jarrett Lennon Kaufman

    We’ll find out when we see it. That’s what I said for years about on-screen keyboards, that I couldn’t type without looking. Turns out I was wrong. I can type entire paragraphs with few to no errors now while looking at something other than the phone.

    Still, as others noted, the other keyboard cover is for serious typists.

  • skruis

    Probably just takes getting used to.  I know it’s awkward for me every time I have to type using someone else’s keyboard.  It’s strange how natural using our own keyboards becomes.