Macbook vs New Surface 3

dexterbell said:

Played with a new Surface 3 at Best Buy today. $600 for the 128 SSD. Id pay double the price and get the new MacBook just so I wouldn't have to use that awful, plastic keyboard and trackpad. The S3 itself is pretty decent but that keyboard, ugh. Quality between the S3 and the MacBook is night and day.

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Your exaggerating just a bit about the quality being night and day..... I own a 2015 rmbp 13" and I spent about a half hour messing around with a Surface 3 at the Microsoft Store. The quality of the Surface products is really good and has only gotten better with the Surface 3. The magnesium case feels sturdier than aluminum. The device exudes quality. The keyboards are quite nice as well.

Considering the S3 with keyboard is half the price of the rmb and has performance that isn't much worse, it is a pretty compelling offer. Additionally, the extended warranty you can buy for $99 covers accidents similar to having an iPad with Applecare+.

Personally, I would rather have an ultra portable device in the $600 price range that includes accidental damage because I know I will be walking around everywhere with it and if 1) it gets stolen or 2) it gets dropped, I am not out $1300 dollars.

I don't know how people use that keyboard. When I had a surface pro 3 I had to use a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard. That thing is just flimsy looking.

dexterbell said:

Played with a new Surface 3 at Best Buy today. $600 for the 128 SSD. Id pay double the price and get the new MacBook just so I wouldn't have to use that awful, plastic keyboard and trackpad. The S3 itself is pretty decent but that keyboard, ugh. Quality between the S3 and the MacBook is night and day.

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You can always use an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Then again, the biggest flaw of Surface is that they run Windoze. If it was running OS X with pen capability, it would've sold better.

the biggest flaw of Surface is that they run Windows

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This 110%, but not because it's MS' O/S.

I had a SP3, and the SINGLE. BIGGEST. COMPLAINT. I had about it was display scaling. Ended up trading it in because it was that horrible. [well, ok, that and because it throttled so bad it couldn't even run minecraft at consistently playable frame rates]

I have three Macs and have a rMB on order but still ordered and use the Surface 3 (4GB/256GB) model because-- It was reasonable $670 for device, pen, and keyboard and $99 for Complete Care. I really like the machine which I only use for Offie and OneNote with the stylus. That system along with a windows/pen combination is the best for my productivity because I use OneNote on every device.

If Apple would offer a true stylus as good as a Wacom or Surface then it would pretty much be game over for me to use Windows devices. (I may still install Parallels and Office)

Hopefully I will love the rMB and will keep it and soon after Apple will release a stylus that works on an existing iPad

The Surface keyboards are flimsy but much improved compared the the first generation devices. I don't mind typing on my Surface 3 type cover for short periods of time. Then again, I actually use it more in tablet mode than in laptop mode, so it generally works well for me. I actually bought the surface 3 as a replacement for the iPad, as although powerful and designed well, just doesn't have the software and broad range of ports I like to have on a carry around device. The USB, display port and micro usb charge port of the surface 3 are real practical advantages for me. The real big bonus for me is the microSD card slot, its really cool that its hidden behind the kickstand but still easily accessible.

cbautis2 said:

You can always use an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Then again, the biggest flaw of Surface is that they run Windoze. If it was running OS X with pen capability, it would've sold better.

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I just connected my Apple wireless keyboard to my SP3 and am typing this with it. Works much better than the SP keyboard. Only difference is, the F keys don't work at the top but that's ok.

macguy360 said:

Considering the S3 with keyboard is half the price of the rmb and has performance that isn't much worse, it is a pretty compelling offer.

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Performance is nowhere near the same level than the rMB. CPU is substantially worse, it has less RAM and slower storage. In fact, rMB Geekbench scores are just about twice as high as the Surface 3, and that's only the CPU, which is one of the rMB's weak points.

inmnbob said:

I have three Macs and have a rMB on order but still ordered and use the Surface 3 (4GB/256GB) model because-- It was reasonable $670 for device, pen, and keyboard and $99 for Complete Care. I really like the machine which I only use for Offie and OneNote with the stylus. That system along with a windows/pen combination is the best for my productivity because I use OneNote on every device.

If Apple would offer a true stylus as good as a Wacom or Surface then it would pretty much be game over for me to use Windows devices. (I may still install Parallels and Office)

Hopefully I will love the rMB and will keep it and soon after Apple will release a stylus that works on an existing iPad

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Wow you have a very rare S3 with 256GB. Where did you get it?

I have the S3 and the SP3. These are as good as the Apple stuff, just VERY different IMHO. So in spite of what just about everyone says, in regards to some kind of competition, I don't see it.

I have both the SP3 i5 and rMB. They are completely different devices.

One is an amazing ultra portable laptop with an excellent productivity orientated OS, the other is Windows with a Pen, which is kind of magical in its own way.

However, outside of advanced excel (Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot) and note taking / blueprinting with the pen in OneNote, I have no reason to use a Windows only device. OSX and iOS have a way better level of integration and workflow support.

SP3 is considerably more powerful than the rMB fwiw.

They're both excellent devices though and I'm finding they compliment each other well, especially if you use OneDrive and OneNote and live in the MS Office universe.

I agree that they compliment. I have the Surface 3 which I use with the Pen almost all day at work. I love the Pen and have everything in OneNote. The rMB is perfect for all that it does and the form factor. I run Parallels on it don't can have the better integration of Outlook and OneNote

thewusman said:

SP3 is considerably more powerful than the rMB fwiw.

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How do you come to this conclusion?

rambler358 said:

How do you come to this conclusion?

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SP3 has a full core i5 processor, rMP does not.

For heavier use cases such as Power BI development with sustained query building and data analysis, the rMP crawls. But that is not the rMP's forte nor real world use case.

SP3 handles it with ease.

And if synthetic benchmarks are your thing, the Core i5 in the SP3 is way ahead of the Core M in multi core tests.

Sorry, I thought this thread was about the Surface 3, and that's what I was really asking about.

I have the SP3 and the rMB. The Surface is nice. Gets really hot. Not as easy to use while in bed. Windows is Windows. Keyboard is much like the rMB.....more so than the rMBP. I'll get some pics up of them together.

cbautis2 said:

If it was running OS X with pen capability, it would've sold better.

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Tell me how can a device made by MS or any other manufacturer other than Apple can run OS X and sold in stores.

Here ya go...

Take out that cheap plastic cover. It makes the SP3 look like a toy compared to rMB. Then again, rMB is million times better looking than SP3 with or without keyboard and operates far faster too...

I was on the fence about getting either. I have a powerhouse of a pc for editing, gaming, really anything. But need an updated mobile platform, the aging 11" original air struggles as I type on this web page with 4 tabs open.

I tested out a fully loaded surface pro 3. While a completely capable device one thing killed it for me I think. I found it to be extremely cumbersome to use on my lap. I mostly use my mobile computing on my lap on the sofa, in bed, and or waiting in an airport or sitting in the park. This is where I found the SP3 to be weak and uncomfortable. The only reason I keep going back and forth is the SP3 is significantly more powerful.

Be interested to hear anyone who went from SP3 to rMB

cbautis2 said:

Take out that cheap plastic cover. It makes the SP3 look like a toy compared to rMB. Then again, rMB is million times better looking than SP3 with or without keyboard and operates far faster too...

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I agree with most of what you said except operating faster. Considering those are mine and I do the same things on each.

SP3 or S3 is a excellent system if it meets your needs, credit where credit is due. I own neither as OS X is my preferred "weapon of choice" equally if I had to use a Windows based system it would be a MicroSoft Surface. I own multiple Mac`s including a Retina MacBook, I rather wish that Apple had followed this path, as it is, all we are just getting is OS X dished up on smaller hardware, nothing truly innovative.

What MicroSoft did with the Surface is many things, and sets a new paradigm, in some respects flawed, equally far better than simply "marking time" Apple is about making $$$$ not innovation and risk taking, those days are gone...

Q-6

freitz said:

Be interested to hear anyone who went from SP3 to rMB

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I have a Surface Pro 3 that I purchased myself for work, and I have a rMB that I have just recently purchased myself for personal use. Anything in particular you'd like to know? I've been putting together a bit of a mini-review that isn't specifically comparing these two, but the SP3 does play a large part in comparison. Maybe I'll finish it up and post it here today.

zhenya said:

I have a Surface Pro 3 that I purchased myself for work, and I have a rMB that I have just recently purchased myself for personal use. Anything in particular you'd like to know? I've been putting together a bit of a mini-review that isn't specifically comparing these two, but the SP3 does play a large part in comparison. Maybe I'll finish it up and post it here today.

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That would be great to read the mini review. I am currently going back and forth. My company is about to issue us SP3's however I do not and will not keep personal things on a company issued device. Leaves to much room for people digging into my files that I do not want dug into like photos. Anyways I was considering either getting a second SP3, a Dell XPS 13, or a rMB. I am heavily leaning towards the rMB because I find the lighter the better and I need a travel companion for mobile editing in lightroom and light photoshop, browsing, emails, etc. When I travel I like to throw up a few photos I have taken and edit them and post. Then at home I can toss up the entire lot. I want the option to be able to edit all of them if I want. Seems like rMB fits the bill in mobility just worried about raw power that it provides.

freitz said:

That would be great to read the mini review. I am currently going back and forth. My company is about to issue us SP3's however I do not and will not keep personal things on a company issued device. Leaves to much room for people digging into my files that I do not want dug into like photos. Anyways I was considering either getting a second SP3, a Dell XPS 13, or a rMB. I am heavily leaning towards the rMB because I find the lighter the better and I need a travel companion for mobile editing in lightroom and light photoshop, browsing, emails, etc. When I travel I like to throw up a few photos I have taken and edit them and post. Then at home I can toss up the entire lot. I want the option to be able to edit all of them if I want. Seems like rMB fits the bill in mobility just worried about raw power that it provides.

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FYI, the 1.3 GHz BTO model is as powerful as the i5-4300U found in SP3 on "quick" benchmarks. On sustained loads, performance will be between the i3 SP3 and i5 SP3.

The only reason people feel SP3 is faster is because of poor GPU use of Yosemite. Windoze with DirectX API is well optimized that the UI runs super smooth (even with hidpi scaling) on even the super slow GPUs found on ATOM based chipsets. Just wait 'till El Capitan is released and you'll see that the rMB isn't any slower than an i5 SP3