Oh gotcha, yeah. I have seen some folio covers for the entire device, but at best they look like they are made to accommodate the SB2 in "display mode," not display portion by itself. That would be useful, I am surprised nobody does one.
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Surface Devices
- Thread starter Dave245
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Oh gotcha, yeah. I have seen some folio covers for the entire device, but at best they look like they are made to accommodate the SB2 in "display mode," not display portion by itself. That would be useful, I am surprised nobody does one.
I looked at MS’ Surface for education site, and saw everything except the Surface Studio 2 in regard to edu discounts. I confirmed with MS chat, no educational discount on the SS2. 
Crud.
The SP6, SB2 and SL2 all qualify though.
Crud.
The SP6, SB2 and SL2 all qualify though.
I looked at MS’ Surface for education site, and saw everything except the Surface Studio 2 in regard to edu discounts. I confirmed with MS chat, no educational discount on the SS2.
Crud.
The SP6, SB2 and SL2 all qualify though.
No military discounts on the SS 2 either. I wonder if they will be added to the program eventually?
I am really sad about this as MS offered an okay edu discount on the first SS.
I was just so gutted. I need a new computer and would have jumped in with the mid tier SS2 had there been an edu discount. I do not want to do the financing through Dell.
I may test the Surface Pro 6 and see if that and a larger storage 10.5 iPad (for Procreate, just cannot give that up) would work as my set up, but we’ll see. I’ve grown used to using an iPad for almost everything (except video conversion, long writing sessions and school) and need to be mobile in the house now.
I cannot see a SB2 since the SP6 now has quad core, and I am not ready to spend that amount on a Windows laptop given my experience with the Acer. I would have tried a SS2 despite these preferences, because of it’s unique ability to also serve as another digital art tool.
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Having enjoyed my SP6 for the past few weeks, I gave my daughter my iPad Pro, keyboard for school. I am thinking about picking up a Surface Go for simple web browsing, watching Netflix, HBO GO and streaming movies from my NAS and Youtube.
Would the 4/64 model suffice? I am trying to keep the cost down instead of getting another iPad.
Would the 4/64 model suffice? I am trying to keep the cost down instead of getting another iPad.
I bought 4/64 Go and it choked and needs restart daily when I open it up. I'd opt for 8GB
I found I needed a couple programs not on MS Store so I switched out.
You might be fine, but I wanted to manage my OneDrive photo albums plus Google photos.
It ended up getting SL2 though I did keep the SG.
I found I needed a couple programs not on MS Store so I switched out.
You might be fine, but I wanted to manage my OneDrive photo albums plus Google photos.
It ended up getting SL2 though I did keep the SG.
My 4GB Pro 2 is mostly fine for that stuff. But push it too hard and it definitely chugs.
Anybody have long term experience with the Surface Laptop keyboard deck? They've got $300 and that matte black one is calling.
My X1C shows up on Wednesday. Really loving the Book 2 in spite of it's oddities. I wish it folded thinner and was maybe $250 cheaper than it is. $2,000 with the student discount would make it a bit more palatable.
Anybody have long term experience with the Surface Laptop keyboard deck? They've got $300 and that matte black one is calling.
My X1C shows up on Wednesday. Really loving the Book 2 in spite of it's oddities. I wish it folded thinner and was maybe $250 cheaper than it is. $2,000 with the student discount would make it a bit more palatable.
I wonder if they will add it to the educational discount program after the new year. There may be enough demand vs available supply at full price right now where they don’t feel there is a need to discount it further.
The 4/64 Surface Go model has a much slower storage (eMMC), which might be noticeable compared to the SSD in the 8/128 model.
That would be the optimistic approach. The only other thing I can think of is that not many students took advantage of the edu discount on the first Surface Studio and they nixed that. Who Knows?
At any rate, will need to visit MS and Apple stores over the next two weeks to see if I have much better luck with a Surface Pro 6 test or 2017 21.5” iMac (only to see if I can even handle text at 4K. I am not a fan of scaling text).
Anyway, I think my Best Buy Surface test was a fluke given almost everyone’s experience here.
You never know. It may be a supply/demand issue where they are already having difficulties in meeting demand, so why add any promotions or discounts. Or as you said, maybe not many students took advantage of the Surface Studio on educational discounts, so they figured it wasn't a popular option with students.
If you do try another Surface Pro 6 at Best Buy I would suggest maybe going into Settings-->Devices-->Bluetooth & Other Devices and remove any pens that appear there. Re-Add the Surface Pen you want to demo with by clicking the + Add Bluetooth or other device-->Bluetooth and press and hold the "eraser" button on the top of the pen until it appears among the devices. Select it and it should appear. That way you *know* it is specifically connected to that pen and *only* that pen. It probably wouldn't hurt to reboot as well.
Demo computers can be a hot mess from everyone playing with them, connecting whatever pen or dial is handy and creating lag and other issues as a result.
It may not have wide pipes but eMMC is not really a slouch either. 8/128 would be safe bet.
I've got IPP 10.5 and Tab S3 that both have 4/64 and do well at same tasks.
I think the Go suffers because 1. CPU and 2. Windows Home with 4GB.
Which model to buy?
https://m.windowscentral.com/surface-go-64gb-vs-128gb-which-model-should-you-buy
eMMC vs. SSD storage: What's the difference?
https://m.windowscentral.com/emmc-vs-ssd
I've got IPP 10.5 and Tab S3 that both have 4/64 and do well at same tasks.
I think the Go suffers because 1. CPU and 2. Windows Home with 4GB.
Which model to buy?
https://m.windowscentral.com/surface-go-64gb-vs-128gb-which-model-should-you-buy
eMMC vs. SSD storage: What's the difference?
https://m.windowscentral.com/emmc-vs-ssd
Many thanks for the Pen settings add/remove instructions. I hope I'll be able to do that at a Microsoft store.
Looking at the Surfaces more closely on the website and remembering what I tried, The pen I used was connected to a Surface Book 2.
There were no pens that I could connect to two SP6s that were on display (and I was so lost trying to use the W10 menu on the SP6 when I tried just using touch). No sales folks around either.If I do not have to work in the a.m., I'll hit the Microsoft store for an hour or so before my afternoon job later this week. I'll report back again if I do. It's getting to the point that I need to look beyond Apple, and while I love my 27" screen on my 2013 iMac, the mobility has become very, very important.
BTW, Dell has just released some kind of competitor to Wacom, I'll politely pass. I'd just buy a Wacom Cintiq instead.
Many thanks for the Pen settings add/remove instructions. I hope I'll be able to do that at a Microsoft store.
Looking at the Surfaces more closely on the website and remembering what I tried, The pen I used was connected to a Surface Book 2.
If I do not have to work in the a.m., I'll hit the Microsoft store for an hour or so before my afternoon job later this week. I'll report back again if I do. It's getting to the point that I need to look beyond Apple, and while I love my 27" screen on my 2013 iMac, the mobility has become very, very important.
BTW, Dell has just released some kind of competitor to Wacom, I'll politely pass. I'd just buy a Wacom Cintiq instead.
That is always a concern with the demo computers, especially if there is only 1 pen on display. Just how many computers is that single pen connected to?
One advantage of the Microsoft Store is that you can arrange a one-to-one type demo where they will set up the Surface Pro clean, along with the pen, dock, dial, whatever you want to demo and give you some one-to-one time with the devices. Best Buy... eh... from my experiences with Best Buy, I am not sure they even refresh the disk image daily. Probably weeks worth of garbage on those machines.
That is always a concern with the demo computers, especially if there is only 1 pen on display. Just how many computers is that single pen connected to?
One advantage of the Microsoft Store is that you can arrange a one-to-one type demo where they will set up the Surface Pro clean, along with the pen, dock, dial, whatever you want to demo and give you some one-to-one time with the devices. Best Buy... eh... from my experiences with Best Buy, I am not sure they even refresh the disk image daily. Probably weeks worth of garbage on those machines.
Lots of pluses to the MS store. I like that. I wish you could download art programs to test them on the product first. That's pretty important. I'll ask when I go in, if I decide to make a second one-on-one appointment if that is something that can be done (and see if they'll let me do that).
I am sure I'd get up to speed on W10 touch pretty quick, it's the pen that is the deal-breaker at this point. I can learn everything else (and being able to back up making disk images and things, will be good to learn).
I appreciate you taking the time to let me know what's available at the MS stores and through their warranties. Maybe Best Buy will let me do an educational discount on the SS2? Who knows...
As always, I appreciate it.
Macs have better trackpads then any competitor out there. Period.
But with that said, SB2 has a great trackpad as well. Close to MBP for example. But MBP is still better.
I’ll add that the physical clicking of the MS trackpad is so inelegant after using haptic feedback in a MacBook.
Since switching to Surface I'm still really enjoying the Surface Pro 6, it will be interesting to see what products they announce next year for the Surface range, I've been seeing rumours of the Andromeda device which would be interesting to see. I wonder if there will be a Surface Book 3 as well?
I am certain that there will be a Surface Book 3 next year. I think the only question will be whether or not they add Thunderbolt 3. I will be shocked if they don't.
I would go for the 8/128 version simply the overhead of W10 and if you have a MS Office family licence to gain your 1TB onedrive storage etc is just too tempting this will knock of >30GB of space before you have done anything else
There is enough to manage on the GO keeping it minimal and even with a SD card for Doc/Photo etc the 4/64 just adds another nag to watch
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Whilst no one will deny the Apple trackpad is the best but this is largely based on multi gesture support which are different on W10 products
so a bit mute reallyOther than this the MS trackpad is as good, however some like the feel of the haptic feed back over the MS click but I tend to use tap to click which makes this again a mute point
Funny but a bit like when you swap between the MS KB and Apple newer KB they feel flat I find the same on the Apple trackpads
Adjusting to the MS trackpad is far easier than adjusting to Apple shallow KB's
and given that you have minimum 2 other (Finger/Pen) input methods on the MS products over the Apple the advantages outweigh any niggles on trackpads and the MS keyboards are a huge plus 
Surface GO/64 is limited by the CPU, RAM & storage, faster CPU, more RAM or faster storage individually or combined are going to improve the experience, equally much depends on the usage. My new Acer Switch 5 only has 4Gb RAM, it's 128Gb SSD is faster than the 64Gb GO and slower than the 128 GO, biggest difference is the CPU being an i3 7130U that's over 70% more performant than the GO's Pentium Gold and holds up very favourably to a 2017 i5 Surface Pro. Even with the 4GB RAM performance has held up favourably for such a lightweight device. That said I'm mindful of keeping it lean & light, as I have far more powerful notebooks for any heavy lifting and mass storage.
Surface GO/64 I would class more as consumption device, more so than the IPP, and likely best left on Windows S with no heavy apps installed. Light browsing & Watching video I would expect the Go/64 to be adequate, although if usage expands it may become irksome.
As for Office try Libre Office or WPS Office as they are both far lighter & smaller than Microsoft Office, as I doubt Surface GO would be used for any heavy productivity, my documents are on the SSD for security & performance. Anyone wanting the GO to be snappier, needs to reduce the number of background processes as the tablet is somewhat bottlenecked by the CPU. I look to get the CPU idle down to say 2% or less in Task Manager with the system fully up and loaded for normal use, preferably 1%.
Q-6
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Whilst obliviously the GO is low on raw power compared to some although a fully functional OS I don't think it's fooling anyone that tries to be heavily productive on any 10" device
I think it's strength is when push comes to shove and you receive that file from work that otherwise has you dropping your iPad or Android Tablet the GO simple handles it.
Maybe not at a blistering speed but you will be able to tackle most things thrown at you from a simple spreadsheet that has a macro to any other complex native CAD file or complex model Photo etc etc
Sure your not going to sit down and do 8 hours editing LOL but your already a 100% ahead on any mobile OS for compatibility.
The SP6 and a smartphone is a great traveling combo, but if you have a 15" Laptop and do not want to cart it around the GO is a great companion device when coupled with a smartphone as you have most bases covered
But as you note there are a few alternatives to the GO like your Switch and Samsung Book. They all have pro's and cons but IMO as long as they have a full OS your likely to get more out of them than just a browsing bedside mobile OS tablet
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Whilst obliviously the GO is low on raw power compared to some although a fully functional OS I don't think it's fooling anyone that tries to be heavily productive on any 10" device
I think it's strength is when push comes to shove and you receive that file from work that otherwise has you dropping your iPad or Android Tablet the GO simple handles it.
Maybe not at a blistering speed but you will be able to tackle most things thrown at you from a simple spreadsheet that has a macro to any other complex native CAD file or complex model Photo etc etc
Sure your not going to sit down and do 8 hours editing LOL but your already a 100% ahead on any mobile OS for compatibility.
The SP6 and a smartphone is a great traveling combo, but if you have a 15" Laptop and do not want to cart it around the GO is a great companion device when coupled with a smartphone as you have most bases covered
But as you note there are a few alternatives to the GO like your Switch and Samsung Book. They all have pro's and cons but IMO as long as they have a full OS your likely to get more out of them than just a browsing bedside mobile OS tablet
I very much like the GO, it's ideal for those seeking a smaller form factor with a full OS, when a mobile OS simply is unable to deliver. Switch 5 meets my needs a little better at the expense of display (brightness) & SSD performance, as it brings USB A & C (with charging) can be utilised as an external display to my primary notebook and the i3 7130U. The CPU is extremely well balanced for the Switch 5's chassis, offering full performance, zero throttling with just passive cooling, yet being only 8% behind in performance compared to the significantly more expensive i5 Switch.
SP6 is undeniably better hardware equally in all transparency I don't want to invest so heavily into what is effectively a tertiary device, additionally once my mobility needs change towards mid to end 2019 a high spec SP6/SP7 or SB2/SB3 will likely be the weapon of choice. The i3 Switch 5 at just $650 is a tremendous bargain for it's specification, as barring CPU & SSD capacity it shares identical hardware to it's more expensive siblings, and very far from the squeaky plastic builds of yesteryear that the likes of Acer once produced.
Q-6
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