After the Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released on Wednesday, it took me a few hours to decide if I wanted to install it on my old HP TouchSmart tm2. I bought that tablet a while before the original iPad was released, and use it daily. After the Windows 8 setup program told me just about everything I had already installed would be compatible, I decided to take the plunge.
It turns out Windows 8 is going to be a lot like Windows Phone 7 — and that’s probably a good thing. You’ve got full screen “Metro” style apps that have no remnants of application chrome or even operating system controls. There are gorgeous live tiles that animate with pictures, social network notifications, messages, emails and weather. Everything is smooth and responsive to the touch.
However, there are some big differences. First of all, I was quite content with the Windows 7 touch interface. You touch the buttons and they activate. That’s pretty simple. But now that I’ve been using Windows 8, I’m much more impressed. The touch UI is designed to be both ergonomic, highly efficient, and clutter-free.
The main controls are right next to the bezel where your thumbs would be if you were holding a tablet. Just swipe your thumb along the left side to flip between open apps. Swipe across it and then back to show a list of thumbnails representing open apps that you can easily tap to open the one you’re looking for. Then swiping on the right side with your thumb opens the “charms” for other types of operating-system interactions.
It’s really quite nice once you learn how to use it, and there’s only one issue: There’s nothing on the screen giving you any kind of indication on how to interact with this new user interface.
Overall, I’m impressed with the speed, usability, and preview apps in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I’m glad Microsoft went this direction for their new tablet initiative rather than scaling up a mobile operating system like Windows Phone 7. The fact that you can easily jump back into a desktop computer interface to run all of your high-end content-creation programs (even though they may not be designed for touch UIs) is fantastic for mobile productivity.
Have you tried the Windows 8 Consumer Preview yet? Are you looking forward to new Windows 8 tablets becoming available?
This article originally published at Pocketnow here.
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