As title suggests, I just switched from a Surface Pro 3 to a base rMB and overall I am very happy. I used my SP3 and now this rMB as my main computer and thus far the rMB has handled everything just as well as my old SP3. Notice I don't use too many processor intensive programs - mostly word, excel, email, browsing, Win10 in Parallels, and (the most processor intensive thing I use) Bluebam Revu for viewing construction plans and other large PDFs. These PDFs can have up to 1200 pages or so and some with lots of detail. The rMB has rendered and handled these docs as easily as the SP3 did. If you're on the fence, I say take the leap and try this little mac out. BTW, I LOVE not having a fan....the fan on my SP3 was nearly always running it seemed.
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I switched from SP3 to rMB
- Thread starter Keene1bj
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Wow. Paralells? How many gigs of RAM did you give it? Is it running smoothly? I thought virtual machines would be out of this machine's "envelope" as someone in this forum says. Looks like the envelope is more manila office rather than letter.
Envelope jokes. Yes, that's what I'm resorting to right now.
I actually only gave it 2GB of Ram and it runs fine. Note, I only use it for one program but either way I don't have any usability issues with it. So far, I am completely satisfied.
No.
Who wants a stylus? You have to get them and then put it away, and then you lose them, yuck. Nobody wants a stylus.
I literally never used it. I do miss touch screen though - nice for scrolling and zooming PDFs and websites
Agree with OP.
My SP3 is feeling very much unloved since my rMP showed up.
Having said that, it proves to me that the use case for pen/sylus input is very niche, and there is NO substitute for an excellent keyboard and touchpad, something I always felt was missing on the SP3.
SP3 is still a great swiss-army knife computing device, and for running to clients, drawing blueprints and process flows and managing advanced Power BI development, it's hard to fault. MS just have zero convergence draw card for Windows like OS X and iOS have. Nadella has his work cut out for him.
This is quite interesting because I have the surface pro 3 now and I do love it alot. It's my computer away from home (i use a retina macbook pro at home).
One thing is for sure the rMB is sexy looking!!
Another Surface Pro user here who now also has a Macbook. The Surface is my work computer, I'm trying the Macbook out as my personal laptop now that my iMac is getting on in age and has been relegated to the basement office with kids having taken over my old office. So far so good. The screen is fantastic. Size and weight is fantastic (my wife's 11" Air really does feel heavy in comparison). Still on the fence about the keyboard. It's better than the one on the Surface, but on both of them I'd love just a hair more travel. I do appreciate the distinct click giving good tactile feedback that the key has been depressed - this is what the Surface needs more of. The trackpad is of course first rate, and Force Touch just kills the old style. On the Air it now feels difficult to depress and completely uneven in the required pressure.
I have not done a whole lot of heavy lifting with this yet, but so far everything has installed fast as I'd expect and there are no glaring slowdowns. That's just as I'd expected because I know that my personal workflow is rarely processor bound. That's what attracted me to the Macbook so much in the first place.
I have not done a whole lot of heavy lifting with this yet, but so far everything has installed fast as I'd expect and there are no glaring slowdowns. That's just as I'd expected because I know that my personal workflow is rarely processor bound. That's what attracted me to the Macbook so much in the first place.
I guess I'm the aberration (which I typically tend to be 
).
I'm happy with the SP3 as my secondary machine. I love the portability and for me the fact it runs windows. I have a need to use a windows machine and traveling with the SP3 is a joy.
I think OS X does scaling better, but overall windows 8 and more so, windows 10 has some really exciting stuff.
).I'm happy with the SP3 as my secondary machine. I love the portability and for me the fact it runs windows. I have a need to use a windows machine and traveling with the SP3 is a joy.
I think OS X does scaling better, but overall windows 8 and more so, windows 10 has some really exciting stuff.
I think the Surface is still a great machine, and it has taken over completely from my old (well pretty new) Thinkpad ultrabook. I really love the stylus, the screen is great, and the overall flexibility of the device is great. My complaints are largely around how many things are still left slightly unfinished - I think the keyboard and trackpad are like 85% there - but they should be better. Auto-brightness is terribly ineffective. Battery life is all over the place; I can rarely get more than about 6 hours even when shutting everything down and trying to maximize it. Mostly though, even though I'm given complete autonomy over my work computers, I haven't had a laptop that is all 'mine' in close to 10 years. Hopefully the Macbook fits the bill.
I guess I'm the aberration (which I typically tend to be
I'm happy with the SP3 as my secondary machine. I love the portability and for me the fact it runs windows. I have a need to use a windows machine and traveling with the SP3 is a joy.
I think OS X does scaling better, but overall windows 8 and more so, windows 10 has some really exciting stuff.
GASP.
MR mod uses a SP3 ... and enjoys it? Windows EIGHT? READY THE CARRIER PIGEONS! We must let this be known by the highest authority.
Hahaha. Without misunderstanding the humour, I still do believe that Apple and Microsoft aren't exactly bitter enemies they once were. Both seems to coexist and find their niche just fine, which is something improbable to think of five or six years ago.GASP.
MR mod uses a SP3 ... and enjoys it? Windows EIGHT? READY THE CARRIER PIGEONS! We must let this be known by the highest authority.
Probably they are joining forces to "fight" a common "enemy" in the Big G.
I ran multiple VMs on Parallels (none at the same time) on a 1.2 Macbook. The only issue is the installation, which took forever (in comparison to a rMBP). That's to be expected though because it's incredibly processor intensive to setup the VM. I also saw slow downs when updating and such, but for day to day usage of Word and even Visual Studio 2013 (it didn't run perfectly, but more than usable), it was pretty darn good. I also tried some Linux VMs on Parallels with pretty much the same story -- slow install, ran fine (probably even better than Windows) after that.
I also had a SP3 before returning it. The problem for me is that it's just too big of a compromise -- an iPad is a MUCH better tablet and a Macbook/Macbook Air are much better laptops. The keyboard/trackpad on the SP3 was hard to work on for any extended period of time for real productivity work and the scaling on Windows 8.1 was terrible (yes you could make this better by having an external keyboard and/or mouse, but then you're getting away from carrying a single device).
For me I think the portable setup (with the fewest devices possible) is perfect with a Macbook and iPhone 6 Plus, then having an iMac at home for the heavy lifting/development work I do. The only real drawback of this setup is the Macbook only gives you 12 inches of screen space which can slow you down during certain tasks (development, writing long documents, multitasking sometimes, etc). Just my two cents.
@porterusaf is correct. Working for a long period of time with *just* the SP3 keyboard and trackpad is purgatory.
Yes, it will work, but no it is not a pleasant experience.
SP3 is a well made piece of tech though and does many things very well.
Yes, it will work, but no it is not a pleasant experience.
SP3 is a well made piece of tech though and does many things very well.
I am an i7 Surface Pro 3 user and I have to say I absolutely love the machine, even though it's been really tough for me to get used to Windows, as I think OS X is far superior, but I really think Microsoft is heading in the right direction with the Surface. I also bought the rMB and it is the perfect computer for me, at least for my uses performance has been great and I love everything else, it an awesome computer. My only problem with Apple line of products is the lack of Stylus and inking, I value this feature a lot as I am a student and I take a lot of notes and highlight PDF documents, I just hope they would release the new iPad with inking but I don't see that possible anytime soon.
I think MS is at a point where it believes it can succeed without having apple fail. When Ballmer and Gates were at the helm that was the mentality, now its services across all platforms, android, iOS OS X, etc.