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Comparing a MS Surface Pro 3 to 2015 13" MBA?

ozziegn

ozziegn

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 16, 2007
1,321
870
Central FL Area
I've been toying with the idea of ditching my 13" MBA for a 12" MS Surface Pro 3. Mainly because I like the idea of having something that has a high resolution display along with the touchscreen option. I have always been an Apple user at heart and I vowed never to buy a MS product again after I bought my first Mac roughly eight years ago.

One of my co-workers brought in his MS Surface Pro the other day and I must admit it was pretty nice. I just wonder what the performance difference will be (if any)?

what do you guys think?
 
HW wise only it's graphics are slower than MBA's (by about 40%).
But when we take into account software as well, MBA will feel much faster, especially for system wide scrolling. Touchpad on SP will feel ridiculous in comparison and for some controls it's next to impossible to use touchscreen as opposed to mouse pointer.
Then comes build quality. Well I don't think anyone has any doubts on which of these is better in this department.
 
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ozziegn said:
I've been toying with the idea of ditching my 13" MBA for a 12" MS Surface Pro 3. Mainly because I like the idea of having something that has a high resolution display along with the touchscreen option. I have always been an Apple user at heart and I vowed never to buy a MS product again after I bought my first Mac roughly eight years ago.

One of my co-workers brought in his MS Surface Pro the other day and I must admit it was pretty nice. I just wonder what the performance difference will be (if any)?

what do you guys think?
Click to expand...
I suggest that you seriously consider the specific reasons why you like the idea of a touchscreen option. You'd be trading an outstanding ultrabook for a device that makes a decent ultrabook but a poor tablet. That is before you get into the differences between OSX and Windows 10.
 
ozziegn said:
I've been toying with the idea of ditching my 13" MBA for a 12" MS Surface Pro 3. Mainly because I like the idea of having something that has a high resolution display along with the touchscreen option. I have always been an Apple user at heart and I vowed never to buy a MS product again after I bought my first Mac roughly eight years ago.

One of my co-workers brought in his MS Surface Pro the other day and I must admit it was pretty nice. I just wonder what the performance difference will be (if any)?

what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Total junk. It's terrible for touch, terrible for typing. I honestly cannot understand why anyone coming from an Air would want the Surface. It boggles my mind. 5 hours of real world battery life is just the start of your problems. Besides what a hideous piece of junk to look at. If Apple made that thing people would have howled with laughter. Nobody really expects much better from Microsoft.
 
philosopherdog said:
Total junk. It's terrible for touch, terrible for typing. I honestly cannot understand why anyone coming from an Air would want the Surface. It boggles my mind. 5 hours of real world battery life is just the start of your problems. Besides what a hideous piece of junk to look at. If Apple made that thing people would have howled with laughter. Nobody really expects much better from Microsoft.
Click to expand...

What can I say? I was kinda sorta wowed by the SP3 when one of my coworkers was using his. I like the idea of having a tablet and the ability to have a computer all in one. I guess it doesn't matter now because I'm thoroughly disgusted with the SP3 i just bought and it will be returned ASAP.

I think Best Buy has the 13" rMBP on sale for $1100 so I think I will buy one. I do like my 13" MBA but I really want something that has an HD display.

SmOgER said:
Why not. It's a flawless machine.
Click to expand...

Definitely NOT.
 
philosopherdog said:
Total junk. It's terrible for touch, terrible for typing. I honestly cannot understand why anyone coming from an Air would want the Surface. It boggles my mind. 5 hours of real world battery life is just the start of your problems. Besides what a hideous piece of junk to look at. If Apple made that thing people would have howled with laughter. Nobody really expects much better from Microsoft.
Click to expand...
Looking past the emotional hyperbole...

Have you ever owned a Surface device? Or used one for a prolonged period of time in real world scenarios?

One reason why the Surface might be attractive to people who currently use Apple products is the promise of a converged device... a single device that can function as a tablet AND a notebook. In theory it sounds wonderful. The ability to easily switch between full-featured desktop apps and touch-optimized Modern UI apps.

When done properly and fully realized it will be highly attractive. Unfortunately, for some/many the Surface is not done properly.

I've owned a few Surface devices, and currently own a Surface 2. They may have a different design ethos but they are very attractive and generally of high build quality. The S2 makes a neat little netbook (especially with the current prices for used... 32GB Surface 2 + TypeCover for $100-$140) but it is a poor tablet (as is all Windows tablets IMO) compared to my iPad Air 2.
 
You also have to look at which SP3 you buy. The $799 & $999 are a lot slower. I bought the one with a Core i7 processor, 8gb memory and 256gb SSD. This thing is blazing fast. Start up is very similar to my MBA, under 10 seconds. Shut down is also similar at about 5 seconds. Internet refreshes are amazing. I also have the full Office 365 package. It does an amazing job as well.

I hate Office on the Mac. I find myself using the SP3 for work stuff, anything related to Office (including Publisher that isn't available on Mac), an accounting program and printing Ebay labels. The MBA fits the more general needs of email, web, pictures, iTunes, etc.

I've also hooked up both to a 27" monitor. The graphic output is pretty amazing on both. I wish the MBP had WiDi capabilities like the SP3 so you can mirror your desktop wirelessly.
 
Personally my laptop choice is the Dell XPS 13, but I's take a SP3 (or better yet, SP4) over an MBA. I just prefer Windows.
 
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