EVE V – 5 hours in
It’s finally here. After a long wait, and then some more than unfortunate trouble, I am one of the lucky few who have so far received their HEB Vs. After just a few hours, I thought it would be a good time to look back at day one with the device (the i7 version), and see what I think about it, and also see how it compares to my current laptop, a 15” MacBook Pro.
I’ll keep it short
The Screen:
Even though the screen is slightly smaller than I personally like, especially since I use a large device, It is simply beautiful. More importantly, while I regularly used my MBP at 80-100% brightness, I have yet to set the V to anything above 25%, it’s just that bright and clear. In my opinion, though some will, no doubt, disagree, the panel we have now was well worth the wait, as I don’t think I have seen a display on any laptop or tablet that looked better. Touch works well, as expected, and there is no backlight bleed that is really noticeable on my unit.
5/5, and beats the MBP.
The Keyboard:
I’m still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, the key travel is great, and the keys have a generally nice feel to them, but sometimes the edge of a key, when you hover over them while typing, can feel a bit sharp. Personally, I slightly prefer the old MacBook keys, though those are no longer being made, so I guess that would be an unhelpful comparison. The Backlight function is nice, though I don’t think I’ll be using it that much, especially in RGB mode. As for the debate about the V and Oops key, I was on the side that would have preferred classic buttons, but I really don’t see why anyone would fuss about it, and I doubt most people will notice or care particularly.
Overall, a very good keyboard, especially for a 1st Gen Device.
4/5
Trackpad:
The Trackpad is fine. Being a long time Mac user, I still firmly believe that no other firm comes even remotely close to how apple trackpads feel. That might well be down to Windows vs. macOS, but the fact remains. The Trackpad on the V is small. Very small if you’re coming from a mac, and it takes a while to get used to. Personally, I miss the speed of being able to move around the desktop using the trackpad, but that might improve over time, as I get used to the small size.
3/5, MBP wins with a large margin.
Bluetooth:
The Bluetooth functionality of the keyboard is working flawlessly so far. Even though I was very sceptical when Mike announced the keyboard would be wireless too, I can now see his point. What I use it for right now is putting the V in a tablet stand in the upright position, so that I get a full page view, and I love writing like this. There is no really noticeable lag when using the keyboard I this mode, and I can only recommend that everyone at least try using it like this.
5/5
Pen Functionality:
Though I a no doubt a bad artist and have limited experience using pens on laptops, being able to annotate documents was one of the main things that attracted me to the V in the first place. I’m happy to say that if your main purpose is to use the pen for marking up, and highlighting, documents, you will not be disappointed. Similarly, if you use it to apply effects inn Photoshop or Lightroom, the pen performs very well, and shouldn’t leave much to be desired. In most applications, pen input is so lag free that I don’t find what little lag remains to be much of a disturbance.
I do have to note, though, that palm rejection is still hit-and-miss so far. While the pen works nicely when my hand is off the device, when I rest my palm, there are relatively frequent recognition problems, though this can no doubt be tweaked in future software patches.
4/5
That’s all I can really report after this first day of use!
Thanks for the pic of the vertical V, it’s a different use case than I pictured, but can definitely see the value.
Everything else is perfect!