I've had my eye on it before it was released and have been considering it ever since, now with the recent price drop it is very tempting. I am looking for a tablet, something to take on vacation to check email and reply, watch netflix and browse the web. I am not looking for a full-fledged PC experience as I have a new desktop and am going to buy a new laptop for work soon - so that eliminates my need for a surface pro.

I have an Android tablet, a Lenovo IdeaPad2 and honestly it just collects dust. I like the RT because of the obvious reasons, keyboard, kickstand, office suite so I can open the odd excel/word/PP file while on vacation. I also like to play games (obviously) but am not a real fan of mobile gaming but if there are some good games that would be a plus.

Please chime in with your experience or cautionary tales.

Be aware that the Surface RT is not x86-based, and as such will not run any of your old Windows games. Get the Surface Pro instead if that matters.

Also, there are office suites for Android that can work with MS Office files.

I googled that and couldn't find anything. Can you provide a link of fuller name?

I'm wondering because it's not clear to me why your tablet is gathering dust. I can understand the attraction of the RT as a "business tablet", but most Android tablets can also be paired with a case/keyboard and there are several office suites for Android. Android also has more games (not as much as iOS, but still more than Windows RT).

I work in a software house that's totally about MS products (MS Office in this case). As a result there are quite a few MS fans, and there were many surface RTs ordered at release day. About half of them have since sent them back (which I was surprised they could do). There were a variety of problems, but the core one was that it was too limited as a tablet.

These guys were devs, so they wanted some power features that you probably don't care about, however it was a pretty damning review of the product.

Also, I think there's a Surface RT 2 coming out soonish (rumour link), so it might be wise to wait for a real slash of prices on the Surface 1.

Having said all that, it fits all your stated requirements, so it would probably do for you.

Please let MS fail in the tablet market like the failed everywhere else. Please, please, please.

I've not used it myself, but I've heard mixed things about it from people who have. So take that as you will. :/

there's article where a manufacturer said the Surface tablet has actually failed as a product.

I own one. I am a translator and I use it to review the final drafts of my translations. For that purpose it serves me well. I have only used it for a few days, but my initial impression is that it will serve me for that and for little else. To me the Surface RT is MS Office (which can be very useful) and a decent web browser. I haven't found many apps that are worth having, maybe because of the awful design of the app store or because there aren't any (probably both, actually). Bear in mind that I plan to use it to work, so that lack of distractions is actually a good thing for me.

Windows RT is a three-headed monster. The first head is beautiful: the new interface, which truly shines on this device. The second is awkward: the desktop, the cumbersome legacy that MS carries around like a heavy boulder. And the third is irritating: the locked app store (you can only install apps purchased in the MS app store). The temptation to imitate Apple proved too strong, and I think it shows that MS doesn't really understand why Windows was successful in the first place.

I also own an Asus Transformer and a Kindle Fire. I think Android or IOS will offer a far better experience to most users, but I found the office applications rather appalling (and I've tried the main ones: Documents to Go, QuickOffice Pro, OfficeSuite Pro, Kingsoft). In many aspects, Windows RT is a more elegant and powerful OS than either Android or IOS, but I am a Windows user and not a Mac user because I prefer having a wide and rich catalogue of programs instead of an elegant OS. So for the same reasons I chose Windows I would choose now Android or IOS... if they had a decent office app, which they don't.

The Surface RT is a decent tablet. The build quality is superb, battery life is good, the keyboard works great once you get used to it, and the screen is actually quite good, despite the poor res. But if you don't need a tablet with MS Office I think there are better alternatives out there.

Because no one uses Windows, or Office, or Exchange, or ....

Ah, that makes sense.

I don't know that seeing them fail will be a good thing, though. The competition they provide will keep Apple and other manufacturers on edge with pricing and features. Although, in this era Apple could probably rebrand a 386 and sell it.

to be fair, they were successful with the Xbox 360.

But they also incurred what, 2 billion in losses due to releasing bad hardware, over the objections of one of their lead engineers who told them the 360 would have massive overheating problems?

Depends on your measure of success. The overall venture is still in the negative, and it came in third this generation in worldwide sales. It's a successful foothold though, if they keep building on it, but we'll have to see.

Windows is crap, Office is crap, Exchange, well, it's only really useful for enterprise, and even then there are alternatives that you can set up if you're really interested.

Mostly, people use Windows because it's built into most of the machines sold. Objectively speaking, none of those products stands up very well to the competition unless you're one of the subset of people that genuinely needs one of the features they have.

And that's coming from somebody who's been using MS products for over 20 years and they always have serious bugs and undocument features. The documentation has been quarter-arsed since at least Win 95, and they barely bother to cover over the fact that they're removing features to cajole you into overpaying for their OS.

What's worse is that they change the interface regularly so that people who learn a newer version can't use an older version without great difficulty. And bribe standards bodies to include their specifications that aren't quite compatible with everybody elses.

They need to fail miserably at this because quite frankly, they haven't earned any of their success, apart from the XBox, I can't think of one thing they've been successful with that wasn't the direct result of Gate's penchant for antitrust violations.