Installation on surface windows 8. Review and testing of the Microsoft Surface RT tablet

Readers of our blog often ask about the possibility of downgrading from Windows 8.1 RT to Windows 8 RT for later purposes. It is useless to condemn such a desire if a person wants to go one step back in the evolutionary chain - it is his right.

On the famous forum xda-developers.com There is a discussion thread in which users confirm the possibility of such a rollback. We are talking only about the Surface RT tablet (not Surface 2) and the procedure will require the original Surface RT Recovery Image from Microsoft (it was published during the distribution of the Windows 8.1 update). Generalized instructions in English are available below. If you are unable to understand it in the original language - refrain from downgrade procedure– you won’t be able to go there without losses!

Bringing Windows 8 back to Surface RT

Use your Surface RT to create a recovery USB stick with Windows 8.1
Download Windows RT 8.0 recovery image from Microsoft
Copy the file “install.wim” (located under “sources” from your downloaded 8.0 recovery image to your 8.1 recovery USB stick
Boot your surface with the 8.1 recovery USB
Start a cmd session (after choosing “Troubleshoot” -> “Advanced options” ...)
Use diskpart to delete both recovery partitions and the system partition
Create a new partition and format it with NTFS
Make it active and assign this partition a drive letter (for example G:)
Close diskpart
Use dism to install the Windows 8.0 image to your drive (if you saved the “install.wim” from the Windows RT 8.0 image to your USB sticks root dir, use this command: dism /apply-image /imagefile:D:\install .wim /index:1 /applydir:G:\
After applying the image use bootrec /fixboot
Close cmd and restart your Surface

The system recovery image mentioned in the instructions has been removed from the official Microsoft website at the moment. This is another reason why you should not attempt such experiments if you are not confident in your actions. You can download a copy of the image on the website Softpedia: Surface RT 8.0 North America.zip (3.7 GB)

After a successful downgrade to Windows 8 RT, your tablet will not be activated. Do not connect it from the network, create a local account and go to the activation dialog. Select the option: “Activate by phone” and follow all the suggested steps. To the question “How many PCs do you have this copy of Windows installed on?” We answer 1.

That's it, you have successfully returned your tablet to the fall of 2012... Why? Here are the emotions of a person who performed a downgrade and subsequent jailbreak in September 2018: virtuallyfun.com

Remember the rumors that Microsoft is preparing a successor to the Surface 2 tablet? Today they were confirmed, as the company officially introduced the Surface 3 tablet (without the Pro console), which runs on full Windows 8.1 with the ability to upgrade to Windows 10. The price of the device starts at $499. The tablet is available in WiFi and LTE variants.

Surface 3 inherits the beautiful and premium design of the Surface Pro 3, only it's even more compact. The tablet weighs 622 grams and is 8.7 mm thick. It has a 10.8-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 3:2. The resolution is 1920x1280 pixels. It is significantly smaller compared to the Pro version and feels very compact. Surface 3 was equipped with a 3.5 megapixel front camera with autofocus, and the rear one received a resolution of 8 megapixels and the ability to shoot FullHD video. Microsoft promises that the Surface 3's battery will last all day. A microUSB output is used to charge it, which means that if something happens, you don’t have to look for a unique charger. Like the rest of the Surface line of tablets, the new Surface 3 has a proprietary support that can be positioned in three positions for comfortable work at a desk, on a sofa or chair, as well as for handwriting.

Surface 3 runs Windows 8.1 64-bit and will be available with Windows Pro for business users. In the future, he will easily receive Windows 10 immediately after the final release. With full Windows, you can run your desktop applications to perform the tasks you need. Included with the tablet, the buyer will find an annual subscription to Office 365 with full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Of course, 1 TB of cloud storage is included here too.

Along with the tablet, Microsoft showed a number of accessories. This is how the branded Type Cover keyboard-case for Surface 3 and a special dock were presented to turn the tablet into a workstation capable of connecting a huge range of peripherals. It's also worth noting that Surface 3 is equipped with a full USB 3.0, MiniDisplay Port and microSD card slot.

The new Intel Atom X7 processor, the most powerful of the Atom line, ensures high-quality and productive operation of Surface 3. However, it does not require active cooling, which makes it possible to make the tablet thinner and quieter. The performance of this tablet is quite enough to perform all everyday tasks. Microsoft also notes that the Surface 3 will handle video rendering and even 3D modeling, and the promotional video depicts the ability to play Minecraft.

Microsoft did not overlook the proprietary Surface Pen stylus. It can recognize 256 levels of pressure, but the pen will be available separately (in grey, blue, black and red) while it comes bundled with the Surface Pro 3.

Price. Microsoft is asking for the following money for the following models:

2 GB RAM and 64 GB storage - $499
4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage - $599
2 GB RAM and 64 GB storage + LTE support - $599
4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage + LTE support - $699.

It’s worth explaining right away that MicroSoft will present two versions of its tablet, pro and rt. The Pro version on Intel Core i5 will appear early next year and will differ in that Microsoft uses much more powerful hardware and x86 architecture, that is, in fact, it will be a regular computer on which you can install desktop applications. This is the rt version on the Arm mobile architecture.

Package

Sold in this big black box. For clarity, you can compare it with a box from an iPad, but as you can see, the difference is almost twofold and, surprisingly, I still don’t understand how such dimensions are justified. We remove the peel from the box, open it and a very familiar picture opens before our eyes - a tablet and a charger. The charger, by the way, looks very cool, it is small, pleasant to the touch and, most interestingly, it has a magnetic connector, well known to MacBook users.

This is actually very convenient, you can be sure. Next is the tablet itself, packed in film, which we will remove a little later. In the meantime, let's take it out of the box and try to get the instructions that lie underneath it. In principle, they do not carry anything interesting, and are made in a very minimalist style. And at the very bottom there is a touch cover - a keyboard cover. In principle, there is nothing particularly interesting about it, the buttons on it are not felt at all, but there is a small trackpad, but it is so small that it is simply inconvenient to use.

Iron

Now let's move on to the most interesting part, to the thing itself and its filling. In this tablet they decided to use a Tegra 3 processor with four cores. at 1.4 megahertz each. This whole thing is accompanied by 2 gigabytes of RAM and 32 or 64 GB. built-in memory. By the way, with built-in memory the situation is not quite as Microsoft claims. For example, in our 64 GB version there is about 46 GB of free memory, everything else is eaten up by Windows and pre-installed applications. Somehow it’s not entirely fair, but as they say, we have what we have. Let's probably start from the front.

Here we have a 10.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. It is quite bright and surprisingly clear, and overall there are no special complaints about it. The Surface screen is really good. Above the screen there is a front camera with an LED, just like on real laptops. It lights up when the camera is in use, and at the bottom is the Windows touch button. Let's move on to the right side. Here we have a magnetic connector for connecting charging, a USB 2.0 port, micro HDMI and a speaker grid.

On top there is a lock button and a microphone. On the left is another speaker grid, a 3.5 mm jack, a volume rocker and this recess for pulling out the stand. Under it, by the way, there is a slot for microSD cards and therefore, if the built-in memory is not enough, you can always add more.

Keyboard case

In general, holding this thing is simply inconvenient, its weight of 676 grams simply puts pressure on your hand, and the 16:9 aspect ratio limits the use of the Surface, only in landscape orientation, which you understand is not always convenient. The touch cover helps out - it fits into the same keyboard case. It's thin enough to always carry with you and prevent scratches on the screen, and it connects like this. You can pull out the stand and place the Surface on the table, and even try typing texts.

It’s not entirely clear which is more convenient for typing text – on the screen or on the keyboard, but such an accessory certainly won’t be superfluous. In general, as for , for the first four hours I was simply trying to overcome the desire to turn everything off because I couldn’t figure out Windows 8. Yes, everything is nice, minimalistic and all that, but I still couldn’t use it.

Honestly, changing the tablet language to Russian took me about 30 minutes, and 20 of them I was looking for settings where this whole thing can be changed. Windows 8 is not user friendly - that much is for sure. If I somehow figured it out with Windows Phone, here everything is completely different. Some squares, everything is moving, it’s unclear where the windows are coming from and where they are disappearing, where are the human settings in general.

I'm sure that after a week of close communication with the Surface, I would, of course, figure it all out, but you understand. A week to master the system interface is clearly too much, despite all its revolutionary nature and so on and so forth. There are still very few applications in the store, and there isn’t much to choose from, but there is an office suite among the short ones, so you can always entertain yourself by writing poetry, or, say, plotting graphs in Excel.

With the Surface 3, Microsoft has decided to break with tradition as it marks the first time we get a non-Pro Surface variant running a regular version of Windows 8.1. So the slim 10.8" tablet allows you to run a plethora of Windows apps. But can the smaller Surface be the ultimate Windows tablet?

When Microsoft first introduced the Surface generation in the summer of 2012, the hardware wasn't entirely convincing. The situation was saved by , which provided decent performance thanks to the Ivy Bridge ULV processor, but the tablet was actively cooled, and the battery life left much to be desired. As for , Microsoft faced a dilemma: using the available x86 processors, it was hardly possible to release the desired product. As a temporary solution, Microsoft decided to rely on ARM processors (NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the Surface tablet, NVIDIA Tegra 4 in the Surface 2 tablet). This is the only way the tablet could provide a reasonable level of performance with passive cooling, while at the same time it turned out to be thin and light.

But this solution also had its drawback: Microsoft had to specially develop a version of Windows for ARM processors. As a result, Windows RT was born. In terms of the user interface, this operating system is practically indistinguishable from standard Windows 8(.1), but you will not be able to run familiar x86 applications under Windows RT. Windows RT users had to make do with apps from the Windows Store. However, the range of applications increased slowly; platform production partners began to “fall away” from Microsoft due to the lack of popularity of RT.

When the successor entered the market, it became obvious: the future of Windows RT is very vague. But technically, the second Surface tablet turned out to be quite convincing. Microsoft has improved the Surface family in almost every way, with decent performance, a Full-HD display, and long battery life. But Microsoft decided to make the transition to the regular version of Windows 8.1 only with the third generation of Surface.

The transition to the x86 architecture was a completely reasonable step, given the technical progress of Intel Atom processors. Microsoft's choice of Atom x7-Z8700 processor is a great example. It features four "Airmont" cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz, but Intel specifies an SDP thermal package of just 2W. High efficiency is achieved thanks to the transition to a 14-nm process technology. Microsoft said battery life for the Surface 2 and Surface 3 tablets is up to 10 hours. Our tests will show whether the tablet can hold up no worse than its predecessor, despite the different processor architecture. Of course, there are other changes to Surface 3, which we'll cover in this article.

A complete list of features is presented on the last page of the review.

Microsoft brought the architecture change and a new pricing policy. Surface 3 will be sold significantly more expensive than its predecessor. When we asked for a tablet about 450 euros. The successor, meanwhile, launched in Europe at a price of 599 euros - and this price is only for a tablet with 2 GB of RAM, 64 GB of flash storage and Wi-Fi only. At the time of publication, the tablet had not yet appeared in Russia. Accessories are not included in this price. For the Surface Stylus (49.99 euros), Surface 3 Type Cover (149.99 euros) and the Surface Dock 3 (229.99 euros) you will have to pay extra. Thus, the price of Surface 3 with accessories can easily exceed 1,000 euros - do not forget that this is a tablet with an Intel Atom processor. Students and faculty receive a 10 percent discount when purchasing Surface 3 and accessories from the Microsoft Store. The entry-level price for students would therefore be around 539 euros.

Microsoft has unveiled the Surface 3, a new addition to the company's tablet series, which is known for its claims to be a laptop replacement and a high price. The new device, however, will start at $499 and promises everything Windows is known for, including a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Microsoft Surface 3 has a 10.8" display with a resolution of 1920x1280 pixels (214 ppi) and an aspect ratio of 3:2, which is closer to the standard of tablets than laptops (16:9).

Despite being positioned a class below the Surface Pro 3, the new device runs a full version of Windows 8.1, and the disastrous Windows RT is finally consigned to history as a topic Microsoft is unlikely to ever want to talk about again.

The new Surface 3 is the first device on the market to feature the new quad-core Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) processor. The amount of RAM is 2 or 4 GB depending on the configuration, while the internal memory will be available in 64 or 128 GB. There is also a USB 3.0 port, DisplayPort, microUSB, stereo speakers with improved sound from Dolby Audio, an 8-megapixel main camera with autofocus and a 3.5-megapixel front camera. As for wireless standards, there are several of them: there is support for Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS and optionally LTE.

Traditionally for this series, the new model has a rear pillar, which in this case supports three different positions. The Surface 3 is made of magnesium, and the device is 8.7 mm thick and weighs 622 grams, making it Microsoft's lightest tablet to date.

The tablet promises all day work on a single charge or 10 hours of video playback. The Surface 3 can be used with a stylus, but it will be sold separately for $49.99. The keyboard, which doubles as a screen protector, will also be sold separately for $129.99.

The tablet itself will be available for $499 in a version with 2 GB RAM and 64 GB of internal memory (Wi-Fi only), and a version with 4 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal memory will cost $599 (Wi-Fi only). The model with 2 GB RAM and 64 GB of internal memory + LTE will be available with a price tag of $599, and the most expensive version with 4 GB RAM, 128 GB of storage and LTE will be offered for $699.

Microsoft will release the tablet in May.

Have a great day!