Working with a Windows 8 tablet: a long-term test

Friday, October 26th, 2012

Yesterday’s official launch of Windows 8 felt like a curious anti-climax for me. Not because of the lacklustre presentation – although the death by PowerPoint was thoroughly deflating – but because I’ve been running Windows 8 on my primary work PC for the past six months, ever since the launch of the Consumer Preview. And for the past three months, I’ve been running the new OS on a Samsung 700T tablet, to get the full touchscreen experience.

So what’s it like using a Windows 8 tablet as your primary work PC? For the vast majority of the time, it’s been absolutely fine. The 700T comes with a smart little docking stand with HDMI-out, that lets me connect a second 24in Full HD display on my desktop. That means I can keep the old-school desktop running on my primary display with all my regular Office apps etc, and use the tablet’s screen as a secondary display for Metro apps and keeping an eye on the PC Pro Twitter account.

Without that second screen, I don’t think I’d even bother with the Windows 8 Start Screen or Metro apps at all, because they don’t scale well on screens much bigger than my tablet’s. However, when sat on the secondary display, the live tiles on the Windows 8 Start screen are actually quite useful for spotting a new email dropping into my Gmail account, upcoming calendar appointments or news headlines.

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