Three good reasons why the Microsoft Surface is the ultimate tablet for professional photographers

Last Monday Microsoft introduced its first two tablets – Microsoft Surface. They are really awesome devices with many new features not available by its competition. But in this post I’ll focus to the Intel based Surface with Windows 8 Pro and why do I think this is currently the only tablet useful for the photographers.

1. Windows 8 Pro is a true OS (operating system).
   It is not derived from a phone OS like iOS or Android. As such it runs several applications that we already use on our notebooks or desktop machines like Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and others. You can’t run these on an iPad or an Android tablet. Well you have iPhoto on iPad but I’m focused to professional photography in this post.
2. Stylus.
   We all know that you can’t do any serious photo retouch with your fingers. Many retouchers only use Wacom tablets for that purpose. Well. You can buy a stylus for iPad but it’s use is very awkward. You can’t touch the tablet surface with your hand or fingers while drawing. On the other hand Microsoft Surface has a stylus with the proximity sensor integrated.

   The proximity sensor that the Surface has switches off the Touch functionality as soon as it detects the pen is close to the tablet surface. From that moment the Surface behaves just like a Wacom tablet. And this way you get a cheap Wacom Cintiq tablet worth at least US$1200 but at the same time it offers you much more than just being a tablet.

3. Color management
   It is essential for the photographers to have the correct colors through all the process. Currently Windows 8 is the only widely used tablet OS with the color management integrated. I know that DataColor Spyder 4 Elite offers you some kind calibration when your iPad is attached to your Mac. But again this type of calibration really looks awkward to me and the results are quite questionable. And are you willing to buy another calibrator for your iPad just because you already had X-Rite calibrator before?

These are just three essential features where Microsoft Surface really pops out. But sure there are many more we could discuss about.