Because many people are asking me how developing software on the Surface 1 Pro works, I’ve decided to write this second recap here. Right now my Surface is about 8 months old, and the general availability of Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro are an excellent reason to recap.

Surface 1 Pro

First of all, I’ll give you a rough overview of what’s installed on my Surface Pro right now — Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate
  • Microsoft Office 2013 Professional
  • Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012
  • Git & GitHub for Windows
  • Various Apps including for example Skype, Facebook, Amazon Kindle, Twitter, Yammer
  • gVim 7.4

What am I using the Surface for?🔗

Well, because I’m using my Surface Pro almost every day it’s solving different requirements for me. During meetings and while reading I use Microsoft OneNote to keep track of valuable information. I’m using it also as common couch-device to quickly research things on the web, to locate a restaurant or to read news online. For mail management and appointments I’m of course using Microsoft Outlook 2013 which offers a touch-friendly user interface which was enabled by default when I installed Office 2013 on the Surface. What about development?

Can you use Surface Pro as a development machine?

In short, yes you can. It’s an excellent device for doing development using Visual Studio 2013 or other IDEs. Because I’m mostly creating SharePoint Apps I don’t have the requirement of installing all SharePoint bits locally. So for SharePoint App Development the Surface Pro is perfect. Also when it comes to Provider-Hosted or Auto-Hosted Apps, Surface works like a charm. By using SQL Server 2012 Express, I can create my Database-Projects in Visual Studio 2013 and develop my App from the backend to the frontend here. I’m currently also interested in developing Apps for Windows Phone 8, which requires a Hyper-V for running the Windows Phone 8 Emulator. Because Surface 1 Pro was shipped with an Intel CoreI5 CPU, I can smoothly run Hyper-V on my Surface. So again, this works fine on Surface Pro.

Surface 1 Pro

Another great benefit is Surface’s screen resolution. With a resolution of 1366×768 pixels Visual Studio and it’s Tool-Windows are big enough to use them for a whole day of working without rearranging the windows every 30 minutes.

What are the disadvantages of developing on the Surface PRO?🔗

In my eyes, there are only two disadvantages when we talk about Surface PRO as a Development Machine.

  1. The Keyboard: I won’t talk about on-screen-keyboard or pen support right here, because these options are useless when it comes to development. Microsoft is currently offering two Surface Keyboards, the TouchCover — which is the cheapest one — has no feedback when hitting a key. I own a TouchCover, and it’s great for typing mail addresses, URLs, tweets or status updates. However, for me, it isn’t the best choice. The second option is TypeCover, TypeCover is a small Keyboard with real keys, but again it’s tiny — or my hands are too big :) — yes it’s more comfortable than TouchCover, but for daily development, it’s just not perfect. My Solution is currently a Microsoft Comfort Curve 3000 with US Layout. It’s a wired Keyboard, but I’m writing as twice as fast as I do with TypeCover.
  2. Battery. Well, this problem may be solved today with the availability of Surface 2 Pro, but also for Surface 1 Pro owners there is a solution appearing at the horizon, Microsoft is going to ship the PowerCover, which is a TypeCover like Keyboard with an integrated battery. Currently, my Surface Pro runs about 4hrs on battery (compared to an IPad that’s bad but compared to a regular development notebook it’s more than ok, isn’t it?)

Recap🔗

The surface is an every-day-device which allows me to develop software — including real-world projects from our customers; In addition to that, I’ve incredible pen support which makes OneNote officially the Killer-App! Also as couch-device, I found no real disadvantage. In bottom-line, I’m happy with my SurfacePro. I hope all you developers out there have now a common understanding of what you can do with Surface 1 Pro and what isn’t possible. With the combination of an external keyboard and mouse, it’s an option.

Happy Surfacing'