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I have reason to suspect many sp3 "user experiences" posted here. The pen is not laggy, and you dont have to press hard to write. The pressure sensitivity is comparable to the wacom sp1--though i slightly prefer the tracking and pressure curve in the sp3.

It makes shading in drawings really easy to do. I made my first drawing on my SP3 the day after buying it. The problem is, I don't think there is much demand for stick figure art.
 
Given the huge disparity between the number of Mac users and PC users I don't think Microsoft's slight edge over Apple's YouTube ad views is anything to write home about.

The surface Pro 3 is an interesting device. I must admit that I find tempting. However, Microsoft skips over an important fact. If you want to use applications such as Adobe Photoshop you need to buy the $1800 core i7 model. I find this to be very misleading, and I think will blow up in Microsoft's face.

I've played with the base model at the Microsoft store and found it to be a bit sluggish. I think a more accurate comparison of the MacBook Air is between the the surface Pro3 core i5 and i7 of which are more expensive than hey comparable MacBook air.

All that being said, if Apple doesn't get in gear soon, Microsoft will close the price and performance gap and that could spell trouble for Apple's much beloved MacBook air.

You're right that the better comparison would be the midline SPs, which run about the same price as the equivalent Airs. But you don't need an i7 to do any work. The 8GB $1299 i5, which is the best option in my opinion, could run the entire Adobe suite easily.
 
I'm not so sure about that. I've seen people wait 40 minutes just to get a salesman. I've been to a number of Apple stores and some of them were jammed packed with people trying to buy stuff

I certainly agree around major product launches. And no doubt their sales and traffic far exceed a Microsoft store. Just highlighting the fact there is a significant number of folks there at any given time that are there for service or repairs.
 
You're right that the better comparison would be the midline SPs, which run about the same price as the equivalent Airs. But you don't need an i7 to do any work. The 8GB $1299 i5, which is the best option in my opinion, could run the entire Adobe suite easily.

I have the 4GB i5 version and can do anything so far and have no run into any slow downs or low memory warnings. I honestly think that Windows does a much better job at handling memory than OSX.

I have my 2012 i7 4GB Mac Mini running all the time and there are times when I type in a URL in Safari to check on something. I wait. And wait. Give up and open my SP3 and type in the URL and get to the site and I'm still waiting for Safari to open the site on the Mini. Yes, I am being serious. I love my Mini but my SP3 is just so much easier and faster at doing things. The Mini may be just as fast but usually only after a reboot with nothing much running.
 
Compare Surface Pro 3, MacBook Air, ipad

Handwriting: Suface Pro 3 ++ (Universities …)
MacBook Air —
ipad —
Drawing: Suface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad —
4k 60Hz exteranal Monitor Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad —
Replace “coffeeed” Keyboard Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad (++)
Use in Portrait-Mode Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad ++
newest MS Office Suit Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air (++)
ipad —
Visual Studio Pro Comm.Ed. Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air (++)
ipad —
 
Why not get a newer 13" MBA for a lower price that will still outperform the Surface in every way except for the touchscreen aspect? Oh, and it will cost less and have the keyboard included along with more I/O ports?

Well, I use Windows more than OS X for starters. Also, Surface seems like a cooler device.
 
Mac OS was most perfect at Snow Leopard. That was the certified UNIX at its peak. Literally every release after as taken power user features away for fluff.

Huh, Yosemite is UNIX certified.

Making up fake points about 'power users' and 'features' that no longer exist is a joke.
 
I have the 4GB i5 version and can do anything so far and have no run into any slow downs or low memory warnings. I honestly think that Windows does a much better job at handling memory than OSX.

I don't know if it's better, but from what I've seen, it's not any worse. I run a Win8 PC with just 4GB, and it doesn't cause me any problems whatsoever unless I'm doing something ridiculously heavy.

Really, everything they show in these commercials can be done with the baseline i3 SP3. Photoshop? It can get pretty ram intensive depending on what you're doing, but even an old Core2Duo could run it without breaking a sweat. Same thing with Illustrator, as I'm finding out. An i3 might get a little chuggy once you start getting into incredibly high detailed images, but you'll have to push things pretty far to get to that point.

You don't have to get the highest end SP3 to do any work. The only reason why I'd suggest everyone go with the i5 8GB is because it's the best rounded of the bunch, and gives you a little more future proofing compared to the 4GB models.
 
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Handwriting: Suface Pro 3 ++ (Universities …)
MacBook Air —
ipad —
Drawing: Suface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad —
4k 60Hz exteranal Monitor Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad —
Replace “coffeeed” Keyboard Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad (++)
Use in Portrait-Mode Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air —
ipad ++
newest MS Office Suit Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air (++)
ipad —
Visual Studio Pro Comm.Ed. Surface Pro 3 ++
MacBook Air (++)
ipad —

To be fair, the ipad provides interaction with an ecosystem of apps and games--which the surface cannot match. Personally--i am not interested in games and apps. Both the ipad and surface are excellent browsers--although i find advantage in a non mobile browser (flash, you tube)
 
The funny thing is, all the casual tech users who watch this commercial around me are absolutely certain the Surface Pro 3 is around $299 to $499 like a Chromebook.

The fact it is the same or if not more than a Macbook blow their minds when they find out and usually utter something to the effect of "who would actually buy that for that price?".

I think it might be Microsoft's subtle way of going "yes, this Surface Pro costs over a grand." and doing it in a horrible manner.
 
Because it is already close to perfection as it comes.

This part is a complete joke. You can do virtually nothing on this bloody thing without add ons. Not even a network port in the ridiculous and never ending quest to make things too thin.
 
Here is Microsoft's issue... The process to do everything on the Surface Pro (and Windows in general) is much more lengthly/difficult than Mac. Even on this site, nearly every one of the "points" MS is trying to point out has 1 paragraph for the Mac and 2 for the Surface Pro.

You sound like someone that either doesn’t or never has used Windows.

----------

Well get ready for an even thinner 12" MBA.

Yeah I know. I saw that rumour. Won’t be buying. Once something gets thin enough and lets face it the MBA is already thin enough, (too thin in IMO), you may as well add more connectivity/interfacing.
 
I'd probably buy a Surface.

If I could un-install Windows and run Mac OS with official support. I've got a development laptop sitting here running Windows 8 and it's the most infuriating goddamn OS they've ever released.
 
I certainly agree around major product launches. And no doubt their sales and traffic far exceed a Microsoft store. Just highlighting the fact there is a significant number of folks there at any given time that are there for service or repairs.

For the most part, every Apple Retail store I've worked in (all of them in Maryland anyway) were packed because of tech support and One-To-One training.

Most people are buying things online.

I disagree. The iPhone 6+ is just big enough and in my opinion it is the first iPhone ever that has an acceptable size. By now you probably already know that I'm a huge fan of the Galaxy Note device class. ;-)

I agree here as well. I've got the Note 2 and the iPhone 6+ and even when looking at the regular iPhone 6 I couldn't help but feel the phone was too small for what I'll use it for.

I still don't get the point of touchscreen notebooks with a desktop OS. I had one in 2004 and I didn't like it, and I still don't like it now.

I'd cut them some slack. Especially if the last time you used one was in 2004. That's a decade ago .... back when hard drives topped out at 400GB and the PowerPC was king in the Macintosh space.

The funny thing is, all the casual tech users who watch this commercial around me are absolutely certain the Surface Pro 3 is around $299 to $499 like a Chromebook.

The fact it is the same or if not more than a Macbook blow their minds when they find out and usually utter something to the effect of "who would actually buy that for that price?".

I think it might be Microsoft's subtle way of going "yes, this Surface Pro costs over a grand." and doing it in a horrible manner.

I would tell them to take a breath and read. It's easy to confuse the Surface for a normal tablet or even a Chromebook like device but it's still just a laptop.

Not to undersell it either. IMHO it's the best darn thing to come out of Redmond since the Xbox or maybe even Windows 8.1 (which I like . . . i know you can flame me for that.)

If I were a diehard Windows user fully adopted into their ecosystem the Surface Pro 3 would be my main machine hands down. The $2100 version of it, totally maxed out. It really is a laptop/tablet/desktop replacement machine.

If Apple made a competitor for it I'd drop my $2100 on that in a heartbeat.
 
I'd probably buy a Surface.

If I could un-install Windows and run Mac OS with official support. I've got a development laptop sitting here running Windows 8 and it's the most infuriating goddamn OS they've ever released.

You can, people have loaded OS X on their SP3s.
 
Oh, I never meant to imply that OS X is faultless. I consider myself a quite seasoned user on both platforms (20 years on Windows, 10 on MAC), and am convinced that it is easier to configure and maintain any OS X based system compared to Windows. People might call OS X dumbed down, but those people forget that the majority of users have got no clue how to configure and maintain an OS. To be honest nowadays these things should by managed by the OSes themselves. And OS X does so more effectively than Windows.

Actually, I find it completely the opposite. I work on about 4 different windows computers (one being parallels on my rMBP), one curated by my work, plus manage a home network with three windows computers for the wife and kids. I do not notice win 8 updates (but do notice adobe acrobat & java updates a lot). On top of that onedrive is seamless - it's brilliant across all 4 machines (I have it on OSX, and 3 windows computers). It's has fantastic data management on the surface.

That said, my Mavericks update was a disaster. Yosemite went ok, only one safari freeze, but nothing has made me lose more hair than bloodly icloud, authentication problems (because it isn't fully functional on Mavericks), crashes and sync problems on itunes, and setting up childrens accounts on ipads. I'm literally talking hours of problems with IDs and errors and apple support - and my accounts still aren't right. Never mind having to enter my ID and password over and over and over again.

I must assume that people that say OSX is easy are managing one account, that they've had forever, across only-apple devices. Not going all-in is a nightmare.

You misunderstood me. I didn´t say it wasn´t impossible. What I said was that MS has the market power to push new technologies. Even more so than Apple. They could have pushed for a migration from VGA connectors to a wireless standard. Even DVI has been here for more than 10 years and still in my work I see 95% VGA connectors to projectors.

Fair enough

While the Apple TV now lets me mirror my Apple devices directly to it via bluetooth and wifi, without the need to be connected via a wifi network. :p

Yes, windows doesn't require proprietary hardware to do that... That was the point around standards.
 
To be fair, the ipad provides interaction with an ecosystem of apps and games--which the surface cannot match. Personally--i am not interested in games and apps. Both the ipad and surface are excellent browsers--although i find advantage in a non mobile browser (flash, you tube)

you can't compare the ecosystem of Windows and iOS.

believe it or not, Windows will win if you're looking at number of available programs. Windows (NOT RT) is fully compatible with probably 20+ years worth of legacy windows applications. There is something for everything.

Don't get me wrong, for pure tablet apps, the iOS marketplace is still the largest, but for actual availability of programs? iOS is nowhere close to the historical vastness and richness of the Windows programs marketplace
 
Yeah I know. I saw that rumour. Won’t be buying. Once something gets thin enough and lets face it the MBA is already thin enough, (too thin in IMO), you may as well add more connectivity/interfacing.

Me neither, but then the SP3 is on my short list in the near future.
 
Me neither, but then the SP3 is on my short list in the near future.

I wouldn’t purchase either. I actually think if I needed a notebook that I’d try and get an old MBP, (yes the thick heavy one), with all the ports.
I saw a guy with a Surface at work recently, not sure if it was a 2 or 3. It was a good machine. Of course running Windows, (which I’d never do by choice), means it did almost everything he wanted it to.
He was the boss of a small company and they were all moving away from MBAs.
 
I wouldn’t purchase either. I actually think if I needed a notebook that I’d try and get an old MBP, (yes the thick heavy one), with all the ports.
I saw a guy with a Surface at work recently, not sure if it was a 2 or 3. It was a good machine. Of course running Windows, (which I’d never do by choice), means it did almost everything he wanted it to.
He was the boss of a small company and they were all moving away from MBAs.

For my needs, I want something a bit more portable then my 15" rMBP, and I have an increased need to run windows. I searched and while I certainly can find a cheaper PC/Laptop, this has a lot to offer that I can take advantage.

I'm impressed with it and I'm looking forward to when I can pull the trigger on this bad boy.
 
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