David Pogue of The New York Times liked the hardware but spotted problems with the software in his review of the Surface.
Here is what others thought.
Matt Buchanan at Buzzfeed wrote, “Surface should be the answer, a tablet that is capable of so much more. It simply isn't.†He takes a broad look at what Surface is supposed to do for Microsoft in the home and isn't tickled.
Deadlier still, a lot of what the New Microsoft promises is a total unity across Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone, but my experience with SmartGlass, the new application that connects an Xbox to a Windows device, was not exactly fantastic. The music and video apps baked into Surface were designed and built by the Xbox team, but music, particularly in concert with my Xbox, was totally confounding to use.
Mathew Honan at Wired writes, “This is one of the most exciting pieces of hardware I've ever used. It is extremely well-designed; meticulous even.†But he hates the keyboard cover and junky cameras, and calls the display weak. He did like the software:
I'm already addicted to the charms - the five options for search, share, start, devices and settings that fire with a right-side swipe, or via dedicated keys on the Touch and Type Covers. The Search Charm, which lets you search both universally and within specific apps, is particularly hot.
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge was comprehensive but oddly more tentative than the others.
So what to make of this strange hybrid? Is it the next logical step in computing - a transmutable slab which offers the best of the past and the present - or is it something else? A half-step, a feint, a compromise? Can you really have it all, as Microsoft suggests, or is the Surface trying to go in too many directions at once?
Even at the end:
The whole thing is honestly perplexing. If this device is not a s good as (or better than) the best tablet, and not a complete alternative to a laptop - who is this for? What is it supposed to be?
Walt Mossberg at AllThingsD said:
I like it. It's beautifully and solidly built and it's the purest expression of Microsoft's new Windows 8 touch screen operating system which, like the Surface, goes on sale on Friday. The new operating system also works on laptops and desktops. It can be operated with a mouse or touch pad, but its dramatically different, touch-optimized user interface begs to be used on a touch screen tablet.
O.K. That may be the outlier. Sam Biddle at Gizmodo seemed to sum up the consensus:
We hadn't looked forward to something this much in a long, long time. Now it's here. And it's been just as long a time since a gadget has been so disappointing. Surface is good, but Surface RT sure isn't the future. Not yet.
