Type Cover Microsoft Surface Accessory Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,088 words · ~5 min read
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welcome to my unboxing and first look at the type cover for the Microsoft Surface
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this is the English layout and it comes
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in a box that says it's designed for surface Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro
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okay awesome and that's pretty much all the information there is on the outside
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so I'm going to treat this as a bit of a comparison between the Surface type
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cover and the Surface touch cover you can see the touch cover is installed on
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the surface that's behind the packaging right here I love Microsoft's packaging
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for the surface line of products overall they've sort of taken a couple cues from
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from companies that do packaging well and implemented them not to sort of you
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know don't want anyone to run crying foul about how you know o Microsoft
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copied a packaging idea or whatever else um in here we've got a little bit of
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documentation that covers kind of not a whole lot of information that could
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matter that much it should be pretty straightforward this is the type cover
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so what is the difference between the type cover and the touch cover they both
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attach to the surface using this magnetic and proprietary keyboard
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interface here Microsoft is allowing third parties to use this interface if
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they pay a licensing fee so that way Microsoft takes a little bit more margin
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out of it and uh other companies will be able to contribute their their addition
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to what they see as a vision for how it should work um so the difference is this
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is pressure sensitive so you press a button by
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like pressing a button there's no tactile feedback this is a very low
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profile keyboard you can see that in actual thickness like in real terms
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they're not that different the the touch or the type what is it called
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the type cover is not that much thicker
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than the touch cover and both of them are significantly thinner than something
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like see an iPhone my usual iPhone thickness comparison very very close
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would it help if I turn these on edge for you so you can see them a little bit better very very close now the overall
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feel of them is similar on this side where they have like kind of a a dense
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sort of fabric cover that should be pretty durable it doesn't feel like it's
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going anywhere and then this one has kind of a almost like a microfiber sort
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of clothy feel to the inside whereas
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this one is just a keybo Bo um now the keys are ever so slightly recessed
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around an edge of sort of a more rubberized softer feeling material here
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so that you're not going to end up scratching the screen um and their
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actual travel is not that bad all things
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considered there's a little bit of movement to the Keys you see how I can
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move them back and forth a little bit so because of the low profile construction
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there's only so much they can do to make it like the most rugged rage proof
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keyboard ever uh the layouts are very similar
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so there's not a not a whole lot of differences there at all and they use a
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they both use an acceptable layout there's layout sort of cardinal sins
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that drive me crazy and neither of them do but one thing that I'd say is going to be a huge improvement improvement
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besides the obvious typing experience is the fact that the touchpad is a proper
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touchpad with a hard surface I did notice that with the uh with the touch
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cover this is a little bit harder to use
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than I'm than I'm used to with a touchpad because this FY material makes
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very small precise movements not as easy as they would otherwise be so to attach
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it to the surface is very straightforward all you do is kind of
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somewhat remotely align them up align
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them up line them up align them and it's a very very strong bond that Finds Its
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way into the right place sort of almost no matter what you do except the one
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time when I'm yeah see there you go so you don't really have to do a whole lot of adjustments the kickstand is awesome
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now from my like user perspective it almost feels like I'm using this more
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like a notebook than like a tablet
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except that I can sort of put my fingers all over my screen if I wanted and enjoy
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my computer use that way so let's just go ahead and well I mean all the usual
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Windows features are here so you've got Aros snap which I think they call um
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modern snap or something I don't know what they're calling it but uh so let's
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have a look and see how typing is on this I did try out the touch already how
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are you today sir this is a much better
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experience than the touch uh what's it touch
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cover uh the tactile feedback is most reassuring sir
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so without any practice is my first time I'm actually able to type on this thing
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whereas with the touch cover it will take some getting used to um it's very
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quiet um unless you're really mashing on
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it with the exception of the backspace
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backspace has a bit of a sound to it space bar has a bit of a
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sound these keys are all very quiet um I
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think that's pretty much it I mean we can compare how it how it affects the
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overall profile of the surface the surface is still a pretty acceptable
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profile if you consider more like a notebook form factor and if you consider
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it less like a tablet at this point and more like a super duper Ultra portable
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notebook that can then have its keyboard removed very easily and be used as a
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100% tablet you sign in just like that and I think that pretty much covers it
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not much else to say thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look
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at the type cover for the Microsoft Surface don't forget to subscribe to L
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