MS Surface Pro
Discussion
Anyone have any experience of a MS surface Pro, thinking about getting one and looking for some advice.
Apple house hold with both my self and the wife having Apple MacBooks with Apple tablets and Apple phones.
I’m thinking of replacing my ipad with a surface pro so we have a windows machine, I only tend to use my iPad for meeting notes, Netflix, browsing the web and games.
Just trying to figure out if I should get an older surface 9 or the most current one with co pilot
Apple house hold with both my self and the wife having Apple MacBooks with Apple tablets and Apple phones.
I’m thinking of replacing my ipad with a surface pro so we have a windows machine, I only tend to use my iPad for meeting notes, Netflix, browsing the web and games.
Just trying to figure out if I should get an older surface 9 or the most current one with co pilot
I have had them in the past, a couple from 5 years+ ago.
I liked them as a Windows laptop/tablet hybrid thing. But the iPad still does the tablet thing much better in my view and I have had a Macbook air for a few years now as a laptop.
It has been a while since I tried them, and I think if you fancy the idea of it, give it a whirl. I wouldn't have anything bad to say about them overall - worked well as a very light laptop while I had my two. If I was going back to a Windows laptop, it would definitely be on the list, although no idea how much they are these days.
I liked them as a Windows laptop/tablet hybrid thing. But the iPad still does the tablet thing much better in my view and I have had a Macbook air for a few years now as a laptop.
It has been a while since I tried them, and I think if you fancy the idea of it, give it a whirl. I wouldn't have anything bad to say about them overall - worked well as a very light laptop while I had my two. If I was going back to a Windows laptop, it would definitely be on the list, although no idea how much they are these days.
For what you state as your use case, the Surface Pro would work. It would depend on what you mean by notes and how you take them presently. Consuming the Internet is something all devices will do.
Beware the battery life of anything but the ARM-based devices, presently, because my Surface Pro (7) never went beyond 3 hours off power. But it's 5 years old and I use it all day, every day. I even chose it above an iPad Pro and have no regrets.
It is not an iPad which can be both a pro and a con.
Beware the battery life of anything but the ARM-based devices, presently, because my Surface Pro (7) never went beyond 3 hours off power. But it's 5 years old and I use it all day, every day. I even chose it above an iPad Pro and have no regrets.
It is not an iPad which can be both a pro and a con.
I got one last xmas. Bloody great thing. I have had various Android tablets, partly for browsing the news in bed, partly for running my business whilst away over winter, and partly for hooking up to TVs when away over winter. I kept running into limitations with the tablets and eventually decided to go full fat windows, but wanted to retain the tablet form factor.
Been thoroughly impressed - pro 9, i5, with keyboard bundle. It's done what every single windows laptop in the world does after a couple of months of ownership -battery drains in standby, but other than that, faultless.
It's a joy to be able to run proper windows applications - VPN, Outlook, manage my website back end with an actual touchpad (web dropdowns can be a nightmare with touch screen only).
They keyboard is great - it takes a little while to get used to the off placement of the left shift, but that's it
Been thoroughly impressed - pro 9, i5, with keyboard bundle. It's done what every single windows laptop in the world does after a couple of months of ownership -battery drains in standby, but other than that, faultless.
It's a joy to be able to run proper windows applications - VPN, Outlook, manage my website back end with an actual touchpad (web dropdowns can be a nightmare with touch screen only).
They keyboard is great - it takes a little while to get used to the off placement of the left shift, but that's it
eeLee said:
For what you state as your use case, the Surface Pro would work. It would depend on what you mean by notes and how you take them presently. Consuming the Internet is something all devices will do.
Beware the battery life of anything but the ARM-based devices, presently, because my Surface Pro (7) never went beyond 3 hours off power. But it's 5 years old and I use it all day, every day. I even chose it above an iPad Pro and have no regrets.
It is not an iPad which can be both a pro and a con.
Thanks sounds positive, i currently use one note for taking meeting notes on my iPad with the iPad built in touch keyboard, but like the idea of having a real keyboard instead. I know i can buy accessories for the iPad and Belkin sell a decent iPad case with a keyboard, but still means it's the apple eco system.Beware the battery life of anything but the ARM-based devices, presently, because my Surface Pro (7) never went beyond 3 hours off power. But it's 5 years old and I use it all day, every day. I even chose it above an iPad Pro and have no regrets.
It is not an iPad which can be both a pro and a con.
The idea of a windows machine appeals, especially recently when trying to update the wife's car for apple car play, i needed a windows machine.
From a gaming perspective, this will really only be when travelling on trains or flights, used to have a steam account many moons ago so be good to get back to that.
I don't need to sell the iPad and replace it, but like the idea of it, plus could also potentially look to use it for work and replace my heavy dell laptop when travelling as we have a byod policy but only applies to windows machines.
The only slight concern is battery life, my iPad easily lasts the entire flight watching Netflix, Prime etc, and playing a few games on a flight from here to LA. If i have to carry the charger on the flight for a surface pro then i might just stick with an iPad.
I've had several and a Surface book.
(Very) Weak point is the battery. if you don't use it constantly it will crap out and then it's pretty much fit for scrap only.
Contrast that with the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S which I bought refurbished over 7 years ago, the battery is still good as new and doesn't need constant use to keep it going.
Depending on budget, I'd look elsewhere, from personal experience I wouldn't buy another Surface Pro.
(Very) Weak point is the battery. if you don't use it constantly it will crap out and then it's pretty much fit for scrap only.
Contrast that with the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro S which I bought refurbished over 7 years ago, the battery is still good as new and doesn't need constant use to keep it going.
Depending on budget, I'd look elsewhere, from personal experience I wouldn't buy another Surface Pro.
sgrimshaw said:
(Very) Weak point is the battery. if you don't use it constantly it will crap out and then it's pretty much fit for scrap only.
Not been my experience at all.My Surface Pro 3 (bought July 2014) is still going strong, Very sporadic use (over most of it's life to be fair).
My daughters both use it to watch films while in the bath if their iPads are dead, so the battery lasts at least a couple of hours.
Both my daughters have Surface laptops (Gen1 - c.2017) both sporadic use and both still holding plenty of charge.
I've worked with literally dozens of people that have had various Surface products over the years, never even heard of dead batteries.
The battery life of course, is on par with other Windows laptops, so nowhere near ipads and other ARM based machines, but then it's a full fat PC and will do things unavailable on a tablet.
zippy3x said:
Not been my experience at all.
If it had been just one device I'd say I'd just been unlucky, but my Surface Pro 4 is dead as a dodo, and the screen part of the Surface Book is the same. The main part of the Book is OK though.My Surface Pro 7 is at MS at the moment under warranty, screen was glitching badly. At least that one's battery is OK.
UPS is currently giving it a tour of Poland, but that's not MS's fault.
sgrimshaw said:
zippy3x said:
Not been my experience at all.
If it had been just one device I'd say I'd just been unlucky, but my Surface Pro 4 is dead as a dodo, and the screen part of the Surface Book is the same. The main part of the Book is OK though.My Surface Pro 7 is at MS at the moment under warranty, screen was glitching badly. At least that one's battery is OK.
UPS is currently giving it a tour of Poland, but that's not MS's fault.
The Internet says said:
The processor on a Microsoft Surface Book is located in the tablet portion of the device. The Surface Book is made up of two parts: a tablet and a keyboard base. The tablet contains the processor, storage, touchscreen, and wireless connectivity. The keyboard base contains a mobile GPU and its own cooling system.
hmmm, the screen part of the surface book has the processor, memory and ssd. the base is just a fancy snap on keyboard. How is it possible that the screen is like your Pro 4 (dead as a dodo) yet the surface book base is OK?I'm on my third. I had one if there first models z then a 4, and now I'm running an 8. Treated well, they last a good few years.
As you can tell, I love them, as they suit two use cases for me.
1 - taking notes in OneNote. I run all my projects out of that. It's great.
2 - annotating slides, drawing graphs live during presentations - nothing else gets close.
I also run an iPad Air 5, but the Surface gets used for the "series" stuff...
As you can tell, I love them, as they suit two use cases for me.
1 - taking notes in OneNote. I run all my projects out of that. It's great.
2 - annotating slides, drawing graphs live during presentations - nothing else gets close.
I also run an iPad Air 5, but the Surface gets used for the "series" stuff...
FWIW on the topic of reliability (since my Pro 7 is 5* in January).....
The device is very reliable, certainly for me. At the end of 2 years of ownership, I RMA-ed my Surface Pro 7 to MS because it regularly BSODed. I suspected a hardware issue with the device but further investigation led me to understand that the LIDAR camera for WIndows Hello cannot deal with facing a window with a constantly-changing cloudline and so on.
Turning that off in the UEFI settings (it has no BIOS) will stop the BSOD. Bye-bye Windows Hello, that's OK.
Mine lives mostly on a stand connected to BT keyboard and mouse with a USB-C connection to an external monitor. If I go somewhere, I take my iPad and more often MBA (because it has battery forever). But I work all day, every day on the Surface.
I don't use a pen nor touch much. It's Windows. But I have used it on flights for movies and it will work with a PD powerbank, which I have. It also charges through USB-C so if you have a screen with that plus PD, that is your one connection.
When this gets too slow (it's not yet plus I restaged it 2 months ago for the 2nd time), I will take another Surface and probably 2nd gen or later ARM. Intel might catch up with Lunar Lake and its siblings on being able to avoid cables for 6+ hours, we have to see......
The device is very reliable, certainly for me. At the end of 2 years of ownership, I RMA-ed my Surface Pro 7 to MS because it regularly BSODed. I suspected a hardware issue with the device but further investigation led me to understand that the LIDAR camera for WIndows Hello cannot deal with facing a window with a constantly-changing cloudline and so on.
Turning that off in the UEFI settings (it has no BIOS) will stop the BSOD. Bye-bye Windows Hello, that's OK.
Mine lives mostly on a stand connected to BT keyboard and mouse with a USB-C connection to an external monitor. If I go somewhere, I take my iPad and more often MBA (because it has battery forever). But I work all day, every day on the Surface.
I don't use a pen nor touch much. It's Windows. But I have used it on flights for movies and it will work with a PD powerbank, which I have. It also charges through USB-C so if you have a screen with that plus PD, that is your one connection.
When this gets too slow (it's not yet plus I restaged it 2 months ago for the 2nd time), I will take another Surface and probably 2nd gen or later ARM. Intel might catch up with Lunar Lake and its siblings on being able to avoid cables for 6+ hours, we have to see......
zippy3x said:
hmmm, the screen part of the surface book has the processor, memory and ssd. the base is just a fancy snap on keyboard. How is it possible that the screen is like your Pro 4 (dead as a dodo) yet the surface book base is OK?
The battery in the screen part will not charge, its dead.When docked it will work, its getting power from the base's battery.
The screen part won't work on mains only either.
Weird.
I've got a Surface Pro 9 and an Ipad Pro. I prefer the Ipad in every respect.
The "touchscreen" on the Surface is nowhere near as good, the standard keyboard flexes while you're typing and the display is much worse than the Ipad one. Luckily I just dock it with my PC so most of the "usage" issues don't apply.
The "touchscreen" on the Surface is nowhere near as good, the standard keyboard flexes while you're typing and the display is much worse than the Ipad one. Luckily I just dock it with my PC so most of the "usage" issues don't apply.
I have several Surface Pros. I am still using a top spec SP4 on a regular basis, never had any problems with it. I also have a mid-spec SP7 that I use at work for things like Visio and Project because the company only uses the cloud based versions.
My wife just updated her work SP9 to a brand new one and also has her own SP4.
No issues with any of them, though I would say the brand new one is heavier and more robust. Our older ones all pair with the same docking stations so no need for expensive additions.
My brother had a mid-spec SP4 and that gave up after 4 years or so. The battery overheated and expanded. Most of these with this issue were exchange FOC by MS, typically he did not bother to contact them.
Conversely, I have had no end of troubles with Samsung kit, would not touch them with a barge pole. I use a Motorola phone, as good as more expensive Samsung and Apple products for just £250 earlier this year.
My wife has an iPhone for work, no end of issues with it. Just updated to a 14 yesterday, we will see. During the swap process the IT team cloned/copied the old phone. A lot of apps and things like WhatsApp have not gone over.
My wife just updated her work SP9 to a brand new one and also has her own SP4.
No issues with any of them, though I would say the brand new one is heavier and more robust. Our older ones all pair with the same docking stations so no need for expensive additions.
My brother had a mid-spec SP4 and that gave up after 4 years or so. The battery overheated and expanded. Most of these with this issue were exchange FOC by MS, typically he did not bother to contact them.
Conversely, I have had no end of troubles with Samsung kit, would not touch them with a barge pole. I use a Motorola phone, as good as more expensive Samsung and Apple products for just £250 earlier this year.
My wife has an iPhone for work, no end of issues with it. Just updated to a 14 yesterday, we will see. During the swap process the IT team cloned/copied the old phone. A lot of apps and things like WhatsApp have not gone over.
I have a surface pro, great for being really mobile. Just about enough power to edit 360 videos. Horrible to use on your lap as it’s a flick out stand at the back.
I tend to still use my IPad for socials and watching videos, but both together are still lighter and smaller than the 17” gaming laptop I had before 😂
I tend to still use my IPad for socials and watching videos, but both together are still lighter and smaller than the 17” gaming laptop I had before 😂
MustangGT said:
Conversely, I have had no end of troubles with Samsung kit, would not touch them with a barge pole. I use a Motorola phone, as good as more expensive Samsung and Apple products for just £250 earlier this year.
On this point, although I use them for work, my Surfaces are my own devices. My work gave me the Dell convertible equivalent which was dire. Battery became useless within one year. Keeps locking up with "systems interrupts" hogging the CPU, which I understand to be something to do with an errant driver. Of course, the work IT bods can't be bothered to fix it.
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