One of Android's best qualities is that it offers more customization options and power-user features than iOS. But Windows 8 offers even greater depth of user control. The time I spent with the W700 in its pure "" tablet mode showed me that the big brains in Redmond are introducing some real innovations to the greater touch-control lexicon.

The split-screen view is one of my favorite new tricks. The OS supports full multitasking, and with a specific finger swipe maneuver, you can open two different Windows 8 apps on screen. For example, your Mail app can occupy the left pane (which is fixed at roughly one-quarter of the display) while Internet Explorer can sit in the right pane (which dominates the screen). If you like, you can flip their positions, moving the skinnier pane to the right side.

Another neat trick: To switch between open apps, simply drag your finger from the left side of the screen. Its the Windows 8 version of Alt-Tab, and once again demonstrates just how powerful--and fun--the system is relative to the competition. To see a thumbnail filmstrip of all of your open apps, quickly drag your finger right and then left, from the left edge of the screen. To access the Windows 8 "charms" bar--a centralized home for search, sharing, and settings functions, among others--swipe in from the right bezel.

All these touch maneuvers became second nature once I learned them, but they're not intuitive from the giddy-up, and they're difficult to describe in words. This could emerge as a public relations pain point for Microsoft. If the company is smart, it will build a force-run demo video into Windows 8--something that pops up the first time someone turns on the new hardware.

The demo video would inevitably be met with crushing criticism--oh, imagine the glorious memes!--but Microsoft needs some practical way of teaching users these unintuitive (but ultimately simple) controls.