Surface for RT or Pro?

I was going to write a "my first post" post, but then thought, nah let's just jump right in!

I don’t think I have been this excited about Microsoft since the initial introduction of Windows Phone a little of two years ago.  This past week however blows that excitement out of the water.  Between the announcements of the Surface and Windows Phone 8, I couldn’t avoid the flood of Microsoft news even if I wanted to.

In particular, I am most excited to get my hands on a Surface tablet later this year. As someone who has owned all three iPads and having seen the slew of nondescript Android tablets hit the market over the last couple of years, I have to admit the tablet category was starting to feel a bit tired.  Sure there have been plenty of software enhancements and improvements, but form factors just have not changed.  All due credit to Asus for the Transformer(s), but the idea of trucking around a heavy keyboard dock along with the tablet does not offer any compelling reason to use it over a higher powered, feature rich Ultrabook.

The Surface asserts not only Microsoft as a serious competitor and innovator in the tablet space, it also satisfies my desire for a pure software experience running on first party hardware where the software and hardware are married in a way that OEMs simply have not been able to achieve with previous versions of Windows.  Of course all of us who are excited about the Surface are now posed with the ultimate question: RT or Pro?

There are several factors to consider here, not the least of which is price.  It is a foregone conclusion that the Pro version will be more expensive, but it will include pen input as well as full Windows 8 desktop support on the Intel architecture.  That said, it will also be larger and heavier - two attributes I would prefer to minimize in a portable computing device.

But more importantly, I have to consider what I want out of a tablet and the Surface in particular.  I have been running the new OS since the initial developer preview in September of last year. Nine months later, I still spend over ninety percent of my time on the desktop in Chrome.  It comes down to the combination of the level of functionality and personalization I’ve come to rely on in Chrome as well as those old habits dying hard.

I have come to accept that my usage habits may linger for a while when it comes to my laptop, but I am very interested in using Windows 8 Metro and the best way for me to do so is to force myself.  Yes, by choosing the Surface for Windows RT I will lose pen input, screen resolution, etc. but I believe the pros outweigh the cons and I will be able to delve into Metro as it is intended.  One of the reasons why I love Windows Phone as a mobile platform is due to its clean, slim and efficient experience and I expect no less from a tablet.  At its core, Metro is designed around touch interaction and I believe the best way for me to take advantage of that is to go with the Surface for Windows RT.

...now all I have to do is wait.