Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I received my preordered Microsoft Surface tablet last night. Here are some quick impressions about the hardware, software and user experience of Microsoft's first tablet.

A number of blogs have already documented the unboxing of the Surface so I won't focus on that in detail. The Surface box is a sleek affair and it manages to house both the tablet and cleverly integrates the Touch Cover. Styling and packaging are reminiscent of Apple's approach. Meaning no, frills and barely any manuals for the user which is supposed to allude to the ease of use of the device.

How similar to an iPad's packaging is the Surface's, I half expected to find a 'Made in Redmond' sign and a couple of Windows stickers.

The Hardware

I think what intruigued me most about Surface is Microsoft's approach to the hardware and their maniacal attention to detail. Surface is one of the nicest looking tablets I've had the chance to use and while it is encased in a slate-coloured Vapor-Mag alloy which feels delicate but is supposedly just as sturdy than Aluminum while being lighter. The look and feel of the Vapor-Mag is reminiscent of the Sony VAIO X subnotebook that predated Ultrabooks and it does have a premium feel.

That said, I worry that the rear casing of the Surface will scratch as it is exposed. The Surface is one of the nicest feeling tablets I have had the chance to touch. It is all about weight distribution and the Surface is well balanced and easy to hold because of the way the corners are designed.

The Surface weighs 1.5 pounds which is good for two handed use. Typing is a bit challenging with the 10.6 inch display. I have large hands and still found it a stretch to touch type on this device.

Much has been made about the built-in kickstand and while it works well and feels reasonably secure it isn't as robust as I had imagined. Microsoft played up the whole 'like a thunk of a closing luxury car door," analogy and I wasn't getting that.

While the kickstand is clever, it is also quite seriously limited. It only opens up to one setting, no more, no less. There's no way to lock it either which would have been good to simply elevate the Surface for typing on flat surfaces (the same way the iPad Smart Covers fold to give the iPad a better typing angle).

I did get the whole 'designed to feel like a book,' approach and the Surface does have that vibe and feel. I cant wait for Moleskine to make some clever covers for the Surface that give it that old world book feel.

I like how the microSD card slot is neatly hidden under the Kickstand, you will need that microSD card slot, specially if you ordered the 32GB version of Surface. After installing a handful of apps, my 32GB Surface only had 14GB of storage free. How much space does this supposedly pared-down version of Windows take?

Thankfully most of the third party apps are similar to smartphone apps in size and are between 1 to 3 megabytes. You can't store apps in the microSD slot but you can place media and documents on there. At least the option is available.

The Touch Cover is an integral part of the Surface experience. I opted for the black one. It does connect to the Surface with a reassuring click and feels like a natural extension of the device. The front side is made of a hard wooly material while the keyboard itself is like a rough fabric.

Typing on this almost flat and no feedback keyboard is challenging but a lot of it is your mind mixing up signals. If you spend half your day typing away it gets easier as the keys are generally where they are supposed to be. In less than 24 hours with the keyboard I've sorta-kinda managed to type at a workable pace, I'm giving it a few more days practice before I make my recommendation.

The weakest point of the Surface keyboard and kickstand is that you need a completely flat surface to work. I tried using it in bed or in the family room couch and I was better off typing on the screen (which, as I mentioned, isn't great). I doubt you can use this successfully on your lap just because the angle on the Kickstand is so rigid.

The screen is responsive and gorgeous with reduced glare. Playing back Netflix videos on this device is glorious and its natural widescreen aspect ratio will satisfy anyone who loves to watch videos on their tablets.

Performance is suitably fast, I did not experience any lag or weirdness in moving from the Start page to any of the open apps. WiFi range is superb as I was able to pick up more hotspots than any other tablet, smartphone or PC at my home office.

The magnetic charger isn't as sticky as the Touch Cover but latches on well and seems to charge the Surface quickly enough. I am still determining battery life.

Software

Software is the most contentious element of Surface since it runs Windows RT designed for ARM processors. As I quickly found out, there are a lot of compromises on software right now. Surface ships with a full suite of Microsoft Office apps, which is great. Internet Explorer seems to be the only browser available which is a bummer because I am a Chrome user and have it set up in all my devices.

There are a number of key applications missing from Windows RT. There's no Facebook or Twitter (although there are substitutes for the latter), no photo editing apps, few games and media players. This will all change in time but right now the choices are sorely limited for Windows RT.

One app that blew me away is OneNote which is simply fantastic on a number of levels (even if synching was a bit wonky). OneNote can easily replace MS Word for most word processing tasks and is such a well designed app that it gives purpose to the Surface.

Skype is awesome, the Bing apps are awesome and the underlying user interface formerly known as Metro works great in this tablet form factor.

Conclusion

I am still not sure if I am going to keep the Surface. I love the idea, I love what it represents and I am excited for what it could be. I realize it is still early in the game and Microsoft is going to put a significant effort behind this device and I am putting my faith in that idea. Microsoft really wants Surface to work and so do many people.

So far, I like the Surface more than any 10-inch Android tablet I have used, hands down. I see it as a different device from the iPad, they really are world's apart in approach and I can see the content creation focus the Surface is going for even if the iPad is more mature and more accomplished (and still more intuitive).

Let's see how I feel after a few weeks.