Check out our review of the Microsoft Surface 2 tablet.
If big tablets meant big sales, Microsoft would be on top of the world right now. In its latest stunt to show the world just how monumental its Surface tablet is, Microsoft has constructed a 17-foot tall Surface Pro 2 and dropped it in London’s Trafalgar Square. It comes with a working Type Cover, too. (Compensating for something, Microsoft?) Tourists can jump on the keys and attempt to navigate Windows 8.1 as if it’s a massive game of Dance Dance Revolution – or an outtake from Big? Of course, learning how to use Windows 8 is no easy task on a 10.6-inch Surface, so we can only imagine how frustrated locals must be when they try to find the desktop on a 383-inch version.
The giant Surface also does something the regular Surface cannot: It stands up, like a laptop. If you try to use a standard Surface on your lap, you have to pull out a kickstand to get it to sit upright, which digs into your legs and isn’t comfortable. Neither is the floppy Type Cover. If only the small Surface was a little more like the giant one.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has tried to use a giant prop to celebrate the launch of its new product. A couple years ago, it erected a giant Windows Phone screen in New York, and last October, it baked a giant Surface tablet cake.
Outside of giant-oversized recreations of its products, Microsoft has also spent a huge amount of money filling our television and movie screens with Windows devices. Many popular TV shows and movies have become less believable as all of their casts exclusively use Windows products. Under the Dome, Parks & Recreation, Suburgatory, Elementary, NCIS, a Kelly Clarkson music video, The Wolverine, Man of Steel, Homeland, Revenge, Scandal, Grudge Match, a Katy Perry music video, some Lindsey Lohan movie, the trailer for Quantum Break (an Xbox One video game), and Arrow, which has a scene that shows us how to connect a Type Cover. Have these shows made any of you want to buy a Windows product?
Spending millions (maybe billions) on product placement and giant statues are cool, but we really wish Microsoft would spend more time and money fixing Windows.
But hey, let’s not end on a sour note. Did we mention that the 17-foot-tall Surface Pro 2 is powered by an actual Surface tablet? That’s cool.
(Special thanks to The Verge for snapping a ton of great shots of the new mega tablet.)
