[Windows 8 General] mnbrennan:
I got one of these for Xmas, and have been using it for a few days (writing this reply on it now). Please bear in mind I have come from an iPad 2. While this is a good consumer experience, it is a bit of a "toy" in my eyes, because you cannot do work seriously on it. As a Business Performance Improvement Consultant, I like the idea of having a tablet when I want to lounge around the house and mess around on the internet/view videos, and to be able to have a place to do work while I am on the train. Here is a collection of my thoughts.

Performance

I thought seriously about whether the Atom processor would be powerful enough for me to do some serious work, and after lots of internet searching I decided I would go for the 700T for the extra grunt. My folks were away in the US, however, and the Microsoft store had none in stock so they came back with the 500T.

Actually the 500T runs pretty smoothly. There is the occasional judder when scrolling through graphically intensive websites, but really I think this is my impatience and does not impede on the experience. I have installed MS Office 2010, and decided to do some annotation with the s-pen (more on this later) on a 200 page document. The result? Very smooth, no lags or issues whatsoever. Word loads quickly and performs to my expectations.

I have not had the chance to run some of my very processor intensive Excel files yet, although I am under the impression that the Atom processor will struggle to cope. My work provided Lenovo i5 laptop can take a long time to process, so I am better sticking to Word and PowerPoint, and only use Excel on small files.

Overall the user experience on the 500T is good. I do not want to go into detail about the Win8 experience, although I will say that while the Metro interface looks good, it can be a pain switching between this and the desktop - like I say, I use Office most of the time, and it would be great to have the option of being able to stay in desktop mode for work, and the Metro interface for play. I know that there are add ons to put the Start menu back in, but this should be provided out of the box.

The design of the 500T is a bit hit and miss for me. I was originally looking for the HP Envy X2 because of its all aluminium design, just to give me the piece of mind that it would be protected properly while in my backpack. The keyboard on the 500T is made of plastic, and while I am writing this review up I can feel it flexing slightly. This is not a MASSIVE issue, it just makes me feel a little uncomfortable that it can flex. Typing on they keyboard is a breeze!!

The back of the screen is quite slippery, so when you are resting it on your lap it starts to slide around. This is not the most convenient. I would like to get a cover for the screen part, which will still allow to attach it to the keyboard dock. If you know of one, please let me know.

The other good point about the HP Envy X2 is that there is a battery in the keyboard dock, allowing you to work for longer. This is not present on the 500T.

What I will say, however, is that the battery life is awesome! Really, I would be very comfortable leaving my charger at home and using the 500T all day without running out of juice. I think it performs better than the iPad 2.

The screen also beats the iPad 2. It is vibrant, and while not retina type resolution, is more than adequate. I noticed the difference in PPI compared to my phone (HTC One X) at first, but now have gotten used to it.

The s-pen is great for annotating documents, or for just drawing. Here is one I made earlier on Fresh Paint - bearing in mind I haven't drawn so much as a diagram in 10 years, I think its good. It really flaunts the accuracy of the Wacom active digitizer.

Conclusion - I think this is a keeper. If you can afford the extra money, the HP Envy X2 looks like a better all round package. If you do not, however, the 500T gives a decent performance, excellent battery life and an active digitizer.