Originally Posted by jonner101:
“I think the frustration issue that the desktop mode is more or less unusable without a keyboard”
But I don't really see why one would want to use the desktop mode without the keyboard/trackpad.
For the screen - it's better than a Macbook Air 11-inch screen. (One can easily cherrypick comparisons).
Microsoft also has the ClearType sub-pixel technology to improve readability of text which helps things a lot.
Yes, it doesn't have an amazing high resolution like the iPad or Nexus 10. But it does compare favourably to the average £400 laptop especially with things like the optical bonding of the display. It certainly does far better than the iPad2 which also has 768 lines of resolution.
Certainly when I looked at it, I found it quite satisfactory. The Surface Pro screen I thought was stunning, especially when I saw a Full HD demo video on it.