I was setting it up at my desk at work. The dock is designed for desktop use, has USB, HDMI, USB and Ethernet connections. I find it great that something like this is part of the standard packaging, as was the Bluetooth keyboard, that said, the keyboard is too small for my fingers, so it is a little unpractical. I now have an Apple USB keyboard plugged in, which has normal sized keys.

Using it in tablet mode, away from the dock is very good, but like the iPad, I find using it on my lap, on the sofa a little awkward. It is fine for browsing, but posting replies on forums like this is one of the areas where I find that a laptop is still much more practical.

I still see the on-screen keyboard as an emergency substitute for a real keyboard. One of the main reasons that I rarely post (or even use the browser) on my smartphone or the Android tablets and iPads I've used.

I find the browser is very good on Windows 8 (the Metro version). It feels much smoother and it works very nicely, compared to Chrome on Android or Safari on iOS and having the full desktop experience, with Chrome, Firefox and IE with plug-in support, if I need it is very useful. Especially if I am testing websites.

As to the keyboard comment, I live in Germany and spend a lot of time on English and German forums. One thing that is very impressive in Windows 8, with the keyboard and IE 10 is that I can quickly switch between layouts on the fly and IE will also automatically change the spelling checker language as well. That is something I've not experienced with other browsers on Windows or on tablets and smartphones, which leads me to disable the automatic spelling checker and word completion facilities on the smartphones and tablets I use. Windows 8 is the first platform I've used, where this "just works".

Even if I switch the layout for 2 or 3 words in a sentence, Windows will check those words in the language whose keyboard I wrote them with.

Edit: Windows 8 works nicely as a desktop system, especially if you are using multiple monitors, they have really worked on improving this area over Windows 7. But the "Metro" side of Windows 8 only starts to make real sense if you have touch. I bought a Logitech T650 touchpad for my laptop and that made a world of difference to Windows 8.

Metro style applications can look very lost on large displays and they don't make much sense there. On a laptop, they make more sense and with a touchscreen, they are very natural.

I am looking at using a decently powered tablet to be a "desktop replacement", something that remains plugged into a docking station most of the time in the office, but which I can undock and take to meetings, or use on the road. I am still unsure how much use it would be in a meeting, without a proper keyboard, taking notes would be very difficult, although I am thinking of getting a voice recorder app and seeing if that works, plus OneNote for snippets of text and sketching.

The new Acer Iconia W500 and W700 look interesting. The W500 is only Atom based, but the new Atom, so they are much more powerful than the old ones, don't need fans and have a battery life of around 12 hours normal use and 21 hours, with the optional keyboard dock plugged in. Something like that would be exceptional on trips, but I don't know how practical it would be in day to day use. The W700 has a Core i3 or i5 processor and 4GB RAM, so is much more suited to "every day" work, but is a little thicker and heavier and only around 6-7 hours use (the Samsung also gets just over 7 hours from the battery). The W700 comes with a faux-leather keyboard case (without additional battery), so could be more practical on the move - if I got an iPad, a keyboard case would be one of the first accessories I'd buy for it.

I'm still dithering about what I would actually buy; the Surface Pro also looks interesting, but isn't available yet.

The Atom based version might be suitable, longevity on trips and the ability to run "full" applications, albeit it a bit slowly. In the office, we are supposed to use a terminal server session anyway. Something I don't often do at the moment, because I have a PC, instead of a terminal, and I have the need for some specialist software, which isn't licensed for the terminal server.

Different beast, but I can certainly recommend the Acer Android tablets. Cheap and fast, good screens, basically what Acer do with their laptops

If I am going to get a tablet, it will be Windows. Android is fine for my phone, but it wouldn't make a replacement for a laptop or desktop, mainly because all of the tools I need are Windows / OS X only.

I had a play with the Acer W510, a couple of Samsung tablets and the Lenovo Lynx. The Atom processor doesn't seem too bad and the keyboard on the Lenovo wasn't too bad. That said, they weren't being pushed, running multiple applications on the desktop etc. the max. 2GB RAM is a bit of a problem. But if I can RDP into the terminal server for heavy lifting, with Office local for on the move, it might work.

Interestingly, I've hardly used the tablet over the weekend. It has sat in the dock the complete time and I'm typing this on my laptop - bigger screen and better keyboard.

I'll be hooking it up to a 24" monitor at work and will see if I can work on it day-to-day. Certainly in tablet mode, it doesn't make much more sense than an iPad or Android tablet for what I want to do, at least at home, I will have to see how it is in meetings.

I think the biggest problem at home is that, apart from my office, there isn't really anywhere where I could use it on a regular basis - one of the biggest reasons why I haven't bought another tablet before now. I probably get about an hour in front of the TV a week, without the others being there, so using it on the sofa isn't really an option and my fiance would probably kill me, if I tried to use it in bed.

1st try of Windonws 8 last night on my new PC

No major issues although the loss of the start button is annoying but that is I think just from habbit
The big test will be when SWMBO start to use it

Yes it probably is habit. It will be only a matter of time before you find a workaround. Are there app/task launchers for windows that you could use to load the apps that you want?

Google Start8

Well its been a few weeks now and getting used to it.
SWMBO has all the applications she uses on the start / metro screen and is happy. So far been able to do everything without the start button. IF it comes abck in 8.1 / Blue then I would probably start to re-use it but I ahve no need to revert to W7