After spending a month using the Surface Pro tablet as a replacement for both my MacBook Air, and my iPad, the 30 Days with Surface Pro series is coming to a close. For Day 30, I sum up the experience, and try to answer the ultimate question: should you buy one?

As a PC, the Surface Pro holds its own. The lack of a docking station notwithstanding, the Surface Pro is functionally no different than any other desktop or laptop PC running Windows 8 when I’m sitting at my desk. I connected it to an external 23-inch monitor, a physical keyboard, a mouse (later replaced by a touchpad), an external webcam, my printer, etc. Essentially, if I placed the Surface Pro under my desk or in a desk drawer there’d be no obvious way for anyone to tell I was using a tablet as my PC.

Where the Surface Pro outshines its traditional desktop and laptop PC cousins is the fact that it is a tablet, and when I need to go to a meeting, or read a book in bed, or do some social networking on the couch, I can easily take the thin, light, touchscreen device with me. But, the Surface Pro is lacking compared with a pure tablet like the iPad–it’s heavier, it’s thicker, it has less battery life, it runs hotter and louder, and it has fewer apps (specifically fewer of the apps I want and use).

Still, a Surface Pro is both a PC and a tablet at the same time, and that gives it an edge over both PC and tablet rivals in many respects. However, there is still one big caveat to consider when answering the question “Should you buy a Surface Pro?”: price.

Read Surface Pro, Day 30: Should you buy a Surface Pro? for the full story.

To follow up on my five biggest complaints about the Surface Pro, I invested Day 29 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series outlining the five things that impressed me most about the Microsoft tablet.

There’s a lot to love about the Surface Pro. I enjoyed my time with it, and I’m not looking forward to packing it up and shipping it back to Microsoft. Owning my own Surface Pro may very well be a short-term goal I’ll have to pursue.

So, what are the five things I love most about the Surface Pro?:

1. Well-engineered hardware
2. The Windows 8 Search charm
3. The digitizer pen
4. The Touch and Type keyboard covers
5. It’s a real PC running the full Windows 8 Pro operating system

As with the five biggest complaints, there are a couple things here that are unique to Windows 8 rather than the Surface Pro. Actually, only one really–the Search charm. The fifth point–the fact that the Surface Pro runs the full Windows 8 operating system and all traditional Windows software–is actually a function of the Surface Pro (or Windows 8 Pro tablets in general). That point should not be underestimated, either. There are a lot of great Windows PCs out there, and there are a lot of awesome tablets, but having one device that can fill both roles simultaneously brings a little something extra to the table and opens up new possibilities.

Check out Surface Pro, Day 29: The five things I love most about the Surface Pro for more details.

My month-long experience giving up my MacBook Air and iPad in exchange for a Surface Pro is coming to a close. For Day 28 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series, I take a look back and list my top five issues or complaints about the Surface Pro.

Don’t get me wrong–overall I’m a fan of the Surface Pro. I think Microsoft got a lot more right than wrong with its tablet, and a few of my top complaints are really a function of the Windows 8 operating system itself rather than the Surface Pro.

In a nutshell, though, here are the five things I think need to be a priority to make the Surface Pro better:

1. Bizarre behavior or Internet Explorer
2. The 75/25 split screen in the Windows 8 Modern UI
3. The Messaging app in Windows 8
4. The lack of 4G/LTE cellular connectivity
5. The lack of a docking station option

If Microsoft would address these issues with Windows 8 and the Surface Pro, this tablet could be a virtually perfect merger of the traditional PC with a mobile tablet experience.

For more details about my issues with the Surface Pro, or the things most lacking in the Microsoft tablet, read Surface Pro, Day 28: My five biggest Surface Pro complaints.

The Surface Pro is certainly no match for a dedicated gaming PC, but most people aren’t hard-core gaming devotees. So, the question I seek to answer for Day 26 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series is simply how well the Surface Pro handles gaming in general.

I used to do a lot more gaming on my PC. I blame Electronic Arts for my waning interest in PC gaming. My primary driving force when it comes to gaming has always been Madden Football, and EA decided a few years ago to pull the plug on the PC version–forcing me to spend more time with my Xbox 360 and less time with my PC. I’ve also been a long-time aficionado of flight simulator games, but it seems like the options for those has become quite limited as well.

My “gaming” on my PC or mobile devices lately has been confined to things like Angry Birds and Tetris. But, my teen boys have migrated the other direction–spending less time on the Xbox, and more time with PC gaming, especially games available through Valve Software’s Steam.

I deferred to my kids for Day 26, letting them spend some time playing games on the Surface Pro and reporting back to me. They have pretty high standards when it comes to graphics quality and the frames per second that games are capable of playing at. I had my doubts that the Surface Pro could stand up to their lofty requirements at all, which is why I let them be in charge of assessing the Surface Pro as a gaming platform.

Check out Surface Pro, Day 26: Gaming on the Surface Pro to find out more.

Instant messaging is a primary method of communication these days. Many people text from their smartphones way more than they place or receive voice calls, and on PCs people use instant messaging services to chat in real-time. For Day 25 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series, I spent some time with the Windows 8 Messaging app, and explored other instant messaging apps for the Surface Pro.

The Messaging app in Windows 8 leaves quite a lot to be desired. I’m used to the Messages app in Mac OS X. It lets me connect with AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Facebook chat, Google chat, and Apple’s iMessage all from a single client. It’s integrated with iMessage on my iPhone and iPad so I can even do “text messaging” from my MacBook Air. Suffice it to say that the Messaging app in Windows 8 has a lot of room for improvement before it’s even in the same ballpark as the Mac OS X Messages app.

Of course, the Windows 8 Messaging app isn’t the only option. There are other apps like Skype and Lync that also provide some sort of instant messaging capabilities, and there are third-party apps that provide a more comprehensive platform for instant messaging–connecting to multiple services like the Mac OS X Messages app.

The question is, are any of the options good enough? For more, read Surface Pro, Day 25: Instant messaging on the Surface Pro.

As hard as some companies may still be trying, the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend can’t be ignored. We’ve reached a point of critical mass where BYOD is mainstream, and it’s simply become the standard for many employers. For Day 24 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series, I examine how the Surface Pro tablet fits into the BYOD equation.

On the one hand, the Surface Pro seems like an ideal BYOD device. It’s a full Windows 8 PC that can be connected to a Windows network domain, and managed via Active Directory and Group Policy, and it’s a tablet that functions quite nicely as a mobile device at the same time. Users can easily drift between business and personal use–running business applications and performing productive tasks when necessary, or reading a Kindle book or watching Netflix on their living room couch.

There is one fatal flaw that may eliminate the Surface Pro from consideration as a BYOD tool for many users, though. Check out Surface Pro, Day 24: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for more thoughts on the Surface Pro as a BYOD device.

Since I’m taking the Surface Pro show on the road and going mobile, Day 20 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series is about the cool Touch and Type keyboard covers, which seem to be virtually synonymous with the Surface Pro.

I’ll be honest. I don’t really mind typing on the glass. It slows me down a bit, but my chief complaint is that the virtual keyboard uses up half of the display and doesn’t leave me much room to work with. I’d have an issue with a physical keyboard as well if I had to set it on top of my monitor display.

I’m also not a fan, though, of the more notebook-like approach of the Samsung ATIV docking station. At first, I thought it was cool that I could turn the Windows 8 tablet into a legitimate ultrabook. But, then I had a thought–”What do I do with this docking station thing, if I’m hanging out at Starbucks and I just want to use the tablet as a tablet?”

The Touch and Type covers seem to be an effective way to provide a physical keyboard and protect the display of the Surface Pro at the same time. And, they’re thin enough, and fold out of the way so they aren’t an obtrusive burden when you want to use the Surface Pro as a tablet.

Read Surface Pro, Day 20: Touch and Type keyboard covers for more about the pros and cons of these keyboard covers, and which one I prefer to use.

I’ve spent the vast majority of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series up to this point checking out how the Surface Pro works as a “desktop PC” when connected to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse (or touchpad). Day 19 is the beginning of my exploration into using the Surface Pro as a mobile computer on the go.

On the one hand, the Surface Pro has a number of weaknesses as a tablet. It’s thicker and heavier than it’s counterparts–including the Surface RT. It runs hotter and louder (at times). The battery life is sorely lacking (I’ll spend more time on that another day).

If the Surface Pro were just another tablet, it would be easy to dismiss it out of hand as an also-ran doomed to failure. But, it’s not “just another tablet”. The Surface Pro is a tablet that packs an Intel Core i5 processor, and 4GB of RAM, running the full Windows 8 operating system. It has a digitizer pen. It has Touch and Type keyboard covers that essentially turn it into an ultrabook.

Basically, the Surface Pro can “out-PC” any leading tablet out there, and it can “out-tablet” any traditional notebook or ultrabook mobile PCs. It’s not the best tablet available, and it’s not the best mobile PC out there, but it is the best at being both at the same time.

Read Surface Pro, Day 19: Let’s take this show on the road for more details.

Over the course of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series so far, I think I’ve managed to prove that the Surface Pro tablet can hold its own as a “desktop PC” when connected to an external keyboard, mouse (or touchpad), and monitor. Starting with Day 18, it’s time to start checking out how the Surface Pro fares as a mobile device.

To be honest, even the iPad is a bit unwieldy for lengthy periods of one-handed reading. The iPad Mini (or other 7-inch tablets) is better, and the best choice for pure ereading is the Kindle Paperwhite. But, I’m not trying to find the best ereader, I’m trying to see how the Surface Pro functions as an ereader when the need arises.

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have developed ereader apps for the Windows 8 Modern / Metro interface. So, for Day 18 I take a closer look at how each of these apps works, and examine how the display resolution compares with other tablet options.

Read Surface Pro, Day 18: Using the Surface Pro as an ereader for more about reading your digital library from the Microsoft tablet.

Day 16 of the 30 days with Surface Pro series focuses on video chat and video conferencing from a Surface Pro. I looked mostly at Microsoft’s Lync and Skype apps, but I also delve into third-party video conferencing tools like GoToMeeting and WebEx.

One of the primary benefits of mobile computing is being able to work from home, or Starbucks, or wherever you feel like working. As long as you have a connection to the Internet, you can get things done. Sometimes, though, you need to speak with people “face to face”–and that’s where video chat and video conferencing comes in.

I like the Microsoft apps–Lync and Skype. I find the overlap a tad annoying, though. Both tools do essentially the same thing in almost the exact same way. Microsoft should phase out Lync and just use the reputation and brand recognition of Skype as its video chat, VoIP, and instant messaging platform.

For more, read Surface Pro, Day 16: Video chat and conferencing.