talksr Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 I have been trying to find some light weight, small, easily portable but powerful laptops. Most of the ones I have found, my SMT are not impressed with. They want something as small as an iPad, but easier to use when it comes to word processing, opening and editing documents. I have never thought of it until now, but wondered if anyone has any comments on a Surface Pro? These appear quite slim, use the same OS the SMT already use and have a keyboard and mouse, just like a conventional laptop. I suppose my only concerns would be the cost. It looks like it would be around £849 with vat for an i5 with 128gb hdd and 4gb ram. I would rather start with an i5 than consider an i3. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Floydus Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 I know three people who've had the Surface Pro's and they ended up hating them. Keyboard's nasty, touch element is clunky and unresponsive and installing software is a nightmare. Your best option is a laptop with a 360deg hinge if you need the convenience of a tablet with the power of a laptop. 1
pcstru Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 I have a surface pro 2 with the type keyboard and for what I use it for, I love it. I wouldn't go back to a laptop - although I occasionally have to resort to one when I need to connect to our projectors (VGA). On the other hand, I use a desktop most of the time and would find working on either a laptop or the SP2 all of the time to be extremely cramped. 1
sted Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 I have a surface pro 1 and it does the job not a replacement for my laptop as I cant be doing with a 10" screen for some things (laptop has a 17" screen) but as long as its got a decent amount of storage they are fine. The cloth keyboard isn't great but I don't do a huge amount of typing with it and if I was to I could soon shove a usb keyboard in it. My biggest issue is the battery life ive managed to run it flat in a few hours before but newer ones are supposed to be better at that, its also noticeably heavier than an ipad
jamesfed Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 As a bit of kit for personal use I'm over the moon with it - haven't asked it to do something that it hasn't been able to do yet (up to and including playing all of my games library at low/medium detail with the i5 128GB model). As with my Surface RT the WiFi in it is excellent - better signal strength than any other laptop I've had. Using mine with my original Type Cover for Surface RT (like that they kept backwards compatibility) and so can't comment on the modern touch/type covers. Expect to loose a few pens - the magnet isn't as strong as it could be and its not like the old HP TX series where there was a slot for it. Domain wise...no clue although I do hear Microsoft have released some tools to make enterprise class deployment easier.
flyinghaggis Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly welcomed. IMO buy them 11" MacBook airs and install windows on them! Edited June 30, 2015 by flyinghaggis
sted Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 IMO buy them 11" MacBook airs and install windows on them! may as well get an xps13 instead of a mac for windows
flyinghaggis Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 may as well get an xps13 instead of a mac for windows True but IME "buy me a small light laptop like an iPad" is usually management speak for "buy me a MacBook" so anything you get them will immediately be compared to that!
3s-gtech Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 We have a Surface 3 (non Pro). Performance is good (especially considering the low power SoC), it's smaller and lighter than the Pro, and costs significantly less. The Edu bundles that are appearing come with keyboard and stylus, and have Pro pre-installed. Easy enough popping Enterprise on, but I didn't need to PXE boot - USB adaptors are available though.
Arthur Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 Microsoft have released some tools to make enterprise class deployment easier. a.k.a. MDT and/or SCCM? Regarding deployment, the following links might help. The first one is very comprehensive. Deployment and Administration Guide for Surface Pro 3 (Direct Link) Surface Pro 3 Deployment - Channel 9 Troubleshooting Common Surface Pro 3 Issues Post Deployment - Ask the Core Team
Snuffkins Posted June 30, 2015 Posted June 30, 2015 To be honest i would say that the Surface 3 might be a better fit for an iPad replacement than the Surface Pro range based on size/weight/price etc. It does depend on the use case a little though and if you're looking for performance I'd certainly go no lower than the i5 Pro 3. I would expect though that the Surface 3 would cope with the day to day tasks that would be thrown at them, of course if they are planning to replace desktop/laptop with them then i would look at the Pro range. At that point as well it doesn't look so expensive, when some people have an office desktop, a laptop and a tablet. I use a Surface Pro 3, battery life is good, performance is good, keyboard imo is ideal for what I perceive to be it's intended use, which is use out of the office/home and during travel etc. I use mine docked most of the time with multiple monitors and it performs perfectly. I don't use any other devices. However, it's been mentioned that it's bigger and heavier than an iPad. Whilst i don't find this affects me the use case may well be different. I can imagine if you're expecting a normal tablet weight this may be an issue, especially if you are going to use in tablet form for long periods of time. That said from a selection of devices that we have tried over the last 2 and half years the Surface Pro 3 is the preferred device for SLT and other users here. 1
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