We have the Microsoft Surface Dial on sale - even before Microsoft
Microsoft is launching the Surface Dial in spring. But if you can't wait: We already have the device on sale and put it through its paces during a day of testing.
Sometimes our product managers pull off a coup that surprises even us. We know that we occasionally have things in house before the official sales launch and can sometimes even offer them. It also often happens that we are the only ones in Switzerland to have something on sale. However, it is rare for us to have an item on sale that the manufacturer has not yet released.
This is what happened with the Microsoft Surface Dial. The new control device from Microsoft is part of the Surface family, which will be released in the first quarter of 2017. However, our product managers Randy Stalder and Adrian Soske have already managed to add it to the range and are therefore able to offer it to you.
As technology enthusiasts, we naturally tried out the Dial. After giving it a quick spin, we realised that the device is surprisingly intuitive, but that we are probably not the best qualified testers. We therefore decided to bring an expert into the house. As I write this, our graphic blogger and professional graphic designer Mariana Hurtado is one of the first in Switzerland to produce something with the Dial. Because in the end, the Dial has to be able to stand up to the work.
The inconspicuous button
The Surface Dial is inconspicuous. It looks a bit like you've taken the volume control off your stereo and left it on the table. It's not too easy to turn, so the knob won't just spin out. But not too strenuous either. I wonder how long Microsoft's engineers worked on the turning strength.
The device pairs with the computer via Bluetooth. As the Surface Studio was not yet available on the day we tested it, but could still be pre-ordered, we settled for the first laptop that came along. The Studio can now be ordered. The pairing of the Dial works well and if your Windows 10 is on the latest version, a separate menu item called Wheel will appear in the settings after pairing.
In the settings, you can more or less freely choose which options you want to place on the dial. Although these default options change depending on the programme, these are the options you will have at all times in Windows.
An example: Let's assume that you are currently in the Zoom function, but would like to make your music louder.
- Press the dial. The menu appears
- Turn until the speaker is selected
- Press on the dial
- The rotation will now make the music louder or quieter
The underside of the dial is coated so that the button does not slip. No matter what surface the device is lying on. Weighing 145 grams, the dial is about as heavy as a smartphone. In short: the device hardly ever slips.
After an hour: first attempts at turning
Mariana has been working on our test setup for an hour now.
"The device is pretty intuitive," she says without looking up from her device. As her first doodle, she draws a Pokémon trainer in a classic pin-up girl pose. She uses the pen and dial to switch between pen thickness and colours. Mariana is not talkative, because the art has priority. However, it is obvious that the dial in combination with a touchscreen opens up previously unimagined possibilities.
It is also clear that Microsoft is taking a step into the future: away with the mouse. After all, the mouse in its current form - i.e. buttons at the top, directional recording at the bottom - has remained unchanged since 1968. Sure, more buttons were added, then the wheel and then shortcut buttons. But the action of moving across the table has remained unchanged for almost five decades now.
After two hours: A Poké-Pin-Up is created
With the rise of touchscreens, the action of clicking is visibly dying out. Sure, desktop computers still rely on the mouse, as do most laptops, but companies like Microsoft are making great strides in integrating insights and technologies from the use of tablets and smartphones into a PC environment. "It all feels a bit new," says Mariana. This is not just because she usually works on MacOS and is now doing design work on Windows 10 for the first time.
"You need a little finesse when it comes to employees using the Dial," says Mariana. Especially with the function that used to be Edit → Undo (or CTRL+Z), she was a bit overzealous at the beginning and deleted too much of her sketch when undoing smoothly. But since the Sketchable programme saves the progress of the drawing in both directions, the drawing can be restored by rotating it clockwise.
Mariana gets her first cup of coffee.
After four hours: We are in uncharted digital territory
"As much as I like it, I would like to be able to configure the options on the dial," says Mariana. She has decided to turn her sketch of the Pokémon trainer into a finalised image. The reason: she likes the woman sitting on the Pokéball.
The graphic designer starts to draw comparisons with other products. With products from Wacom, her brand of choice, she has Express Keys that she can freely configure. This allows her to perform actions and short processes at the touch of a button. "With the Dial, the actions are predefined in Sketchable," she explains. Although this is practical, she really appreciates the configuration feature as it simplifies her work and makes her feel more comfortable in the programme. She hopes that Microsoft will enable this in future updates, because otherwise Sketchable is a good tool, she says.
Mariana has also tried out other programmes in the meantime. Her initial conclusion: "Sure, they don't have any support yet. The device is still brand new". But if Adobe misses the opportunity, then they're really missing out. At the beginning, operating the Dial was a bit new and unfamiliar. "But if I'd grown up with the Dial, I'd probably be about a million times faster". Despite the fact that she grew up with a mouse, she quickly got used to the dial and the image of the Pokétrainer whirls across the screen, rotating continuously just so that the graphic designer can add a few lines here and there. She looks experienced, fast and productive. Her sketch already has clean lines. She says she hasn't actually had any difficulties yet.
Lunch break.
After five hours: Camera running... and action!
The Surface Dial is something that needs to be shown in motion. That's why our video blogger Stephanie Tresch asked us to film it. The Pokétrainer isn't quite in colour yet, but as the whole setup is mobile, Mariana can continue drawing during the breaks in filming. In the studio, the picture is coloured for the first time.
"It feels like I'm drawing on glass," says Mariana. She is used to Wacom products whose surface is modelled on the texture of paper. But there is one rarity: "No parallax. The colour appears on the screen where the tip of the pen is. Great!"
"The Surface Dial has so much potential," says Mariana in conclusion, "I love it, honestly." After a day's work, she has not only internalised a completely new input system, but also created a drawing with it. And if the world's software companies play along, then the good old mouse can be sent into a well-deserved retirement after five decades.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.