To start with, the best thing about Windows 8 is the form factor of the latest machines. If you’re willing to spend a little extra and you care a lot about performance, it’s not hard to see why a Windows 8 based laptop-tablet hybrid device makes most sense for you over an iPad 4 or another Android-based tablet. In terms of tech specs, nothing can come close to what these hybrid models can offer – and of course, the greatest advantage is that you can use Microsoft Office on your portable Windows 8 device. Initially, Microsoft tried to catch everyone’s attention with the Surface tablet running Windows RT. And while it’s priced comfortably in the same range as its competitors, it didn’t quite give the complete Windows experience. It’s still more of a tablet than anything else and you can just as easily pick up a Google Nexus 10 or iPad 4 instead. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro running the full fledged Windows 8 OS and blew our minds! It’s more portable than an Ultrabook, but the tinier form factor doesn’t seem to affect its performance at all. However, given its steep price of $999 for the 128 GB SSD model and then another $130 for the Type Cover, it still didn’t seem to make it on most buyers’ preferred list of gadgets. A more convenient alternative is the wide range of tablet-laptop hybrids in the market made by Microsoft’s hardware partners. They let you enjoy the complete Windows 8 experience even when on the go. And the keyboard’s already there – you don’t need to make an additional purchase. Given the way things are going, we can expect to see a lot more new tablets and hybrid devices coming out in 2013, all running on Windows 8. It’s familiar, so you don’t need to ramp up your knowledge on yet another OS to operate a Windows 8 based device, and you know it works well. But as more Windows 8 based portable devices enter the market, can we expect Android and iOS to become more versatile to take on Microsoft’s silent success?
