Surface RT are overly negative. They complain about the lack of apps in the store and the fact that the RT won’t run full blown windows apps.
I’m not the only one starting to think the critics aren’t giving the Surface RT a fair shake and looking at it for what it is instead of what they wished it was. For example, over at Pax Innovation. there is an excellent post talking about how the tech media “killed” the Surface RT.
I think the critics are ignoring a lot of great things about the Surface RT and they may be scaring you away from getting one even though it’s a great little tablet. So, I thought I’d try to point out the difference between the “expert” opinion and the “user” opinion along with the discrepancies between them.
Surface RT “Expert” Reviews
I started this post off talking about expert reviews. By expert review I mean that someone writing as an expert on technology is giving you his/her opinions about the Surface RT. Usually these are likes/dislikes and are very subjective.
This is different than a technology review as they tend to stick to quantifiable things like processor speed and application load times. These are important things to measure but, they can’t be fudged and if you look at the post Joanna did on the subject, you’ll see the numbers are pretty favorable for the RT.
You can see a couple of the expert opinion reviews at the following sites.
Pretty scathing, huh? Now go back and read the comments… I’ll wait.
Notice how many people say they have a Surface RT and like it. Not everyone, of course, but there seems to be a lot of folks defending the Surface RT. Why?
No, seriously, why would they do that?
I’ll bet you can’t come up with too many reasons (unless you subscribe to Conspiracy Quarterly). I know I sat down and thought about it for a while and I couldn’t really come up with anything.
Also, when you see a negative comment, note how many of them claim to have used a Surface RT. I think you’ll find that most of them haven’t or have only used one for a very short time.
Surface RT User Reviews
Now lets take a look at some consumer ratings sites to see what real people who have actually put down their own money (instead of their company’s money) to get a Surface RT think. Few (if any) of the reviews at these sites are by people paid to put them there.
As with the expert opinion reviews, these are opinion but, they’re the opinions of actual, honest to God, real users of the Surface RT. Not someone who was paid to play with it for 2 hours then write something about it in time to meet a deadline.
- C-Net (I thought it was funny that it got a decent score from real users considering that their own expert slammed it in the review above)
- Amazon (Check out the average of the 200+ reviews. Scroll down and see.)
- The Verge (Notice how much higher the user score is compared to the expert)
Interesting huh?
Now, I realize, this is a small sample set and you will find other reviews (both positive and negative) if you look and you should look. Just keep in mind the difference between expert and user opinions.
So, as the Surface RT and Windows RT evolves, I urge you to not pay too much attention to the professional critics and do your own research based on your needs. You might just find that the Surface RT is perfect for what you want to do with a tablet.
I hope I’ve given you something to ponder and, as always, feel free to comment with any feedback you may have.
Tim
