New Tablet

I used black Friday as an excuse to buy myself an early Christmas present - a Microsoft Surface. I've been eyeing tablets ever since they became the biggest new thing, but could never bring myself to pay too much for something in between a smartphone and a laptop that isn't a phone or capable of running the Microsoft programs I use on a regular basis.

The main reason I wanted a tablet is for travel. Because I can surf the web just fine on my iPhone while on the go, that wasn't one of my main concerns. What I did want is a device that I could download and edit photos on while traveling. Having Windows is a bonus as I can continue the same organizational system I use on my laptop. And I wanted to be able to post blog posts from the tablet while traveling (that is possible on the iPhone, but the photos end up very small) . Having a tablet with a USB port was important (for downloading photos). I also wanted to be able to run Microsoft programs so I could work on documents while traveling or at conferences.

I did a bit of research recently and decided a Microsoft Surface would work for me. They just came out with the Surface 2 but those are a little spendy for my taste. I figured they would be getting rid of the old ones pretty cheap so I checked Black Friday deals and there they were for less than half the price of the newer ones. I also bought the hard keyboard so I can use it as a laptop (unfortunately almost as expensive as the tablet itself).

So far I'm still getting comfortable with it since its so different from the iPhone operating system that I'm used to but I think its exactly what I need. It doesn't have all the apps that apple does, but you can pin web sites to the homepage which is handy. The keyboard hasn't come in the mail yet so I can't say anything about that (only that typing on the screen is really annoying).

I will warn anyone who is thinking about getting this tablet that it does not have the fastest processor out there, but for the price I paid (and knowing it's the old model) it's about what I expected. And it will do the job I need it to.

 Look for more blog posts while we're traveling from now on!