Surface Devices

[SDColorado]

I actually picked up a more robust SP6 at the MS store (Did I really need 16gb / 512 probably not, but that’s where I went). Some very good deals and I got 10-20% student discounts on all the accessories and the complete warranty. I figure I will use this for two years.

You won't regret it. More people regret underbuying than over buying. 8MB is plenty of RAM for a lot of people, but you won't be sorry you have 16. The 512GB SSD will be a decision you will probably be happy you made down the road.

The SP6 is definitely the lighter and more portable of the two. It is nice that you can charge it in the car as well, which I have done on several occasions between locations.

Perhaps if there is a serious markdown on the 15” with the 512gb drive, I’ll consider it down the line. Because drawing on that 15” display, um, yeah! That hinge is soooo cool. Typing on it is great and I really enjoyed the experience. I’d love one with 32gb of RAM though.

Hopefully, when the SB3 is released, 32GB will be among the options. That I am sure is on the "wishlist" for that model release.

I asked about the Wacom Bamboo, and the sales associate said yes they do work, but the pen feels better on the Surface Screen. Of course up sell. That’s okay, I got the SP nibs too. I realize some of my issues with the pen were on an app by app basis as the pencil setting thickness in Paint3D was scalable in Paint, but not in Word.

Anyway, will set up when I get home tonight. Now I have to earn money to start to pay for this baby.

Thanks everyone.

They may be correct about the Wacom Bamboo pen. I have no experience with it and the Surface. You can always pick one up and try it, return it if you don't like it. But you are correct that the biggest issues are on an app by app basis. Some apps, surprisingly even Microsoft's (in the case of Word) are a little behind in support.

There should be some changes coming with Office 2019 and Office 365

Enjoy your new device. I think the more you use it the more you will like it. Give it the better part of the 30 days and give yourself a chance to get used to the device and to Windows 10

 

[SteveJUAE]

If it makes you feel any better I've gone been trying to decide for the better part of 6 months now. The variety is a double edged sword. Even now I'm like 'hmm, Surface laptop is $300 off - can I live with the alcantara?'

My sister just came over from UK with her year old Surface Laptop and I asked her how's the alcantara KB been she said great she had even marked it several times with a ball point pen and the blue ink just wiped off

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

I actually picked up a more robust SP6 at the MS store (Did I really need 16gb / 512 probably not, but that’s where I went). Some very good deals and I got 10-20% student discounts on all the accessories and the complete warranty. I figure I will use this for two years.

The SB2 is gorgeous: felt great and I love it, but at least grand savings, black casing and portability won out today. If I find I need more horse power, easy peasy just swap.

Perhaps if there is a serious markdown on the 15” with the 512gb drive, I’ll consider it down the line. Because drawing on that 15” display, um, yeah! That hinge is soooo cool. Typing on it is great and I really enjoyed the experience. I’d love one with 32gb of RAM though.

I asked about the Wacom Bamboo, and the sales associate said yes they do work, but the pen feels better on the Surface Screen. Of course up sell. That’s okay, I got the SP nibs too. I realize some of my issues with the pen were on an app by app basis as the pencil setting thickness in Paint3D was scalable in Paint, but not in Word.

Anyway, will set up when I get home tonight. Now I have to earn money to start to pay for this baby.

Thanks everyone.

Tests of Wacom Bamboo vs Surface Pen on Surface:

 

[IowaLynn]

I had SP 2017 and it was a bit much as a tablet. The Go should have gotten a SnapDragon, it struggles with meger Pentium too much but I like the 10.5" for tablet. So I ended up with i5 SL2 13.5" Very nimble and runs smoothly.

Next year I think SB3 will find a home.

I would only get i7 if I was doing heavier work with graphics and video.

 

[kazmac]

I had SP 2017 and it was a bit much as a tablet. The Go should have gotten a SnapDragon, it struggles with meger Pentium too much but I like the 10.5" for tablet. So I ended up with i5 SL2 13.5" Very nimble and runs smoothly.

Next year I think SB3 will find a home.

I would only get i7 if I was doing heavier work with graphics and video.

I might have to. I have no idea what school might throw at me.

 

[GoldfishRT]

My sister just came over from UK with her year old Surface Laptop and I asked her how's the alcantara KB been she said great she had even marked it several times with a ball point pen and the blue ink just wiped off

This does give me some confidence.

I picked up the i5 model from Best Buy for $999. Fastest computer? Nope. But at this price it really does feel like the MacBook Air used to. It's not a lot but its absolutely enough and very nice and really quite affordable for what it offers.

I'm going to see how it holds up to my nightmare hands over the next few weeks. I've pitted every MacBook I've owned and my X1 also has palm prints even after a few weeks so I imagine if this material is problematic it will show up pretty quickly.

The black is slick. I honestly would have preferred the silver but I already know how that went - I don't trust that one still.

I initially - prefer the Surface Book in every way - but barring the GPU this is a cool $700 cheaper (and of course, that makes the Book 2 70% more expensive) and has very similar performance. The screen is worse than the Book but still nice, and the speakers are honestly quite a bit better. I do wish they stuck with the 3000x2000 - being able to use 200% scaling eliminates a lot of the scaling issues but it's far too large on this unit.

 

[SteveJUAE]

I had SP 2017 and it was a bit much as a tablet. The Go should have gotten a SnapDragon, it struggles with meger Pentium too much but I like the 10.5" for tablet. So I ended up with i5 SL2 13.5" Very nimble and runs smoothly.

Next year I think SB3 will find a home.

I would only get i7 if I was doing heavier work with graphics and video.

The GO is just my travel device as I do not want to take my SB2 15" on holiday and would feel naked in just taking an Android or IOS tablet.

If they had stuck an I5 and a sheet battery in the GO KB I may use it more often other than for casual reading etc else it sits waiting for my next holiday or business trip

The SL is just a nice rounded device at a good price point. My sister was actually at the checkout with a rMB as she liked my wife's bootcamp rMB set-up, then spotted the SL. She did a full 360 and walked out with a 2 year John Lewis warranty and saved several 100 UKP with her silver SL

When my son turns up on the 27th from Rome we will have 4 or the 5 Surface devices in the house . Now if my wife would let me pop down to Singapore I could pick up a Surface Studio as they are not available in KL

 

[SDColorado]

I have found the Alcantara has held up well with my SP2017 and I am not all that kind to it. I have it outside a lot, throw it in my motorcycle panniers, take it camping, put it down in some s'mores marshmallow and chocolate residue, etc. I find it cleans up with a little Sonnax Extreme Upholstery and Alcantara cleaner. I think I paid $7.95 for the bottle from a local auto store. A little foam goes a long way.

 

[kazmac]

Wow, I do not know squat about Windows 10. Will continue to use and monitor over the weekend. Running into various issues, and this runs very hot.

I am sure a good deal of this is my very limited grasp of W10 settings. I will continue to chug along here, but I know it will take time and patience. Neither of which I have...

Starting to think the Surface Book 2 might be smarter for me since it would be less of a learning curve and I'd only use the tablet for drawing, notes. Though if I wind up with a Surface studio 2 I will laugh.

 

[Queen6]

Wow, I do not know squat about Windows 10. Will continue to use and monitor over the weekend. Running into various issues, and this runs very hot.

I am sure a good deal of this is my very limited grasp of W10 settings. I will continue to chug along here, but I know it will take time and patience. Neither of which I have...

Starting to think the Surface Book 2 might be smarter for me since it would be less of a learning curve and I'd only use the tablet for drawing, notes. Though if I wind up with a Surface studio 2 I will laugh.

Don't worry about the temperature, computer will take care of it's self. Remember it's a relatively thin & light device with an i5/i7 quad core CPU so heat on the backplate is to be expected, even my i3 Acer Switch 5 gets warm to the touch under load.

Windows is just more complex, yet it's a lot easier to deal with these days, just take your time, back up and be prepared to reset the computer a few times until your happy with it.

Q-6

 

[SDColorado]

Best Battery on the power slider is going to give the coolest performance and Best Battery life, but I think you will find that the machine eventually settles down. Much like with a Mac, the initial use is a lot of setup, downloading, updated (much of which is running in the background) and restarting.

I was amazed the first time I went into the Microsoft Store because I thought mine was running hard and the fan was always on. The tech ran some command line stuff I still can't figure out and showed me how like 20 things where downloading and updating in the background.

As you said, it will take some time and patience

 

[kazmac]

Thanks, guys. I did not get upset or angry as I know a lot of this is me not knowing my way around.

The heat I expected, however I am nervous because I think my 2017 iPad Pro’s touch ultimately failed because the screen got so hot in drawing sessions and began to fry the screen. That said, I know the MS machines are built super tough though, so that won’t happen.

I made the SP6 freak out so bad, I lost the onscreen keyboard . Followed the instructions from the help and nada. Figured I would restart the machine and that fixed it.

Honestly though, I think the SB2 might be better for me (bigger screen, more powerful gpu and working with a PC form factor I am more confortable with (laptop)). The only thing that really stopped me yesterday was the price, but I immediately felt wrong inside by swapping that with an SP6. The more I thought about school too the more I think a larger screen would be smarter.

I am not going to give up on Windows or a Surface; I just think as a noob, it may be smarter to go with a form factor I understand better. I have to replace my iMac anyway. Justification talking 101.

 

[kazmac]

On the way home with an SB2, 15” i7/16gb/512gb.

Will wait to set up until the flash drive I purchased for recovery drive purposes arrives. I want to be sure to back up and make a recovery drive before I start installing and not tinkering.

Anyway, I appreciate all the insights, knowledge and user experiences here. I hope to be as helpful as everyone else has been with me. In a few months, I am sure I will look back on this and think “Why did I wait two years to jump ship?”

 

[Queen6]

On the way home with an SB2, 15” i7/16gb/512gb.

Will wait to set up until the flash drive I purchased for recovery drive purposes arrives. I want to be sure to back up and make a recovery drive before I start installing and not tinkering.

Anyway, I appreciate all the insights, knowledge and user experiences here. I hope to be as helpful as everyone else has been with me. In a few months, I am sure I will look back on this and think “Why did I wait two years to jump ship?”

Like all once you get past the initial hurdles, it's all good

Q-6

 

[SDColorado]

It is easy enough to do a recovery too if you get it set up and decide you want to start over. Been there done that.

You will similarly find that the SB2 will run a bit hot and fast during the initial setup. There may be a dozen things going on in the background that you have no idea about. So give it some time and don't be surprised if it feels a bit hot and runs a little loud initially. It will eventually settle down once those background processes have run their course

 

[IowaLynn]

On the way home with an SB2, 15” i7/16gb/512gb.

Will wait to set up until the flash drive I purchased for recovery drive purposes arrives. I want to be sure to back up and make a recovery drive before I start installing and not tinkering.

Anyway, I appreciate all the insights, knowledge and user experiences here. I hope to be as helpful as everyone else has been with me. In a few months, I am sure I will look back on this and think “Why did I wait two years to jump ship?”

That's one beast if a laptop! Be sure to thank your secret Santa as you play

 

[kazmac]

It is easy enough to do a recovery too if you get it set up and decide you want to start over. Been there done that.

You will similarly find that the SB2 will run a bit hot and fast during the initial setup. There may be a dozen things going on in the background that you have no idea about. So give it some time and don't be surprised if it feels a bit hot and runs a little loud initially. It will eventually settle down once those background processes have run their course

Recovery, good to know.

Yes, I definitely expect it to run hot and the fans to kick in. I will not interrupt any background processes etc.

That's one beast if a laptop! Be sure to thank your secret Santa as you play

That would be me AND my credit card company, who will thank me as I pay it off.

 

[SDColorado]

Recovery, good to know.

Recovery is under Update & Security. You will see an option for Reset this PC. If something goes sideways during setup and you can’t figure it out, this will get you back to square 1.

Choose the Remove Everything option and you will have a clean slate

That section is also where you will find a link to instructions for creating a recovery drive.

 

[IowaLynn]

Just checked specs on that, 15": 4.2 pounds (1,900 g)

Wikipedia has a note about running under heavy loads
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Book_2

 

[hemon]

So, how do you find the surface pro? Is the display not so small for comfortable work? How did you find it compared to the display of the surface laptop in regards to the size? Or, do you have the surface book2...? How are your opinions about it?

I would like to change system (from macOS/MacBook to Windows/Surface) but I would like to ear some opinions according to your experiences.

 

[kazmac]

Just checked specs on that, 15": 4.2 pounds (1,900 g)

Believe me, my body felt it on the way home. I know part of that is the graphic card inside.

Recovery is under Update & Security. You will see an option for Reset this PC. If something goes sideways during setup and you can’t figure it out, this will get you back to square 1.

Choose the Remove Everything option and you will have a clean slate

That section is also where you will find a link to instructions for creating a recovery drive.

So, how do you find the surface pro? Is the display not so small for comfortable work? How did you find it compared to the display of the surface laptop in regards to the size?

I would like to change system (from macOS/MacBook to Windows/Surface) but I would like to ear some opinions according to your experiences.

If you’re used to something like the 2015 MacBook screen or 12.9” iPP you’ll be fine with the screen size of the SP.

I am not the many happy users in this thread though and am also brand new to using Windows at home. So please take my very limited test run with a grain of salt.

I need more display real estate, but the text feels sharper and more clear to me than any current Apple machine except for the 5k iMac (my iMac is not the 5k).

SP6 is a very powerful tablet-top (looks like tablet works more like a hybrid of tablet and laptop). The screen was very nice. The weight was terrific and the I tested the type cover at the store. I liked it, but for a Windows noob, the touch aspects of the SP6 really threw me off.

Typing with the keyboard cover at the store was quite nice. I was pretty accurate, but another reason why I went for the SB2 was the mechanical keyboard which is a delight to type on.

I ultimately found the SP6 too small for more than consumption use, but I was not used to doing complex work on my iPP. You might find it perfect though.

@IowaLynn ah, yes I remember that.

 

[OdT22]

So, how do you find the surface pro? Is the display not so small for comfortable work? How did you find it compared to the display of the surface laptop in regards to the size? Or, do you have the surface book2...? How are your opinions about it?

I would like to change system (from macOS/MacBook to Windows/Surface) but I would like to ear some opinions according to your experiences.

The Surface Laptop 2 ended up being the sweet spot for me.

Without tons of detail, my history includes the old Macbook Air being my favorite and most used device (aside from Windows desktops at work). Following that, I attempted to make the iPad Pro line a replacement for the MBA. I used the smaller Pro for about 10-11 months before trying the larger 12.9" Pro for about 6 weeks. iOS limitations finally took their toll on me at this time, so I made the move to the SP5... last August I believe. It was a positive experience, but not quite like what I was most comfortable with. I replaced it with the SL2 just before this past Thanksgiving on one of the sales at Best Buy, and have been 100% content and comfortable since then, save the trackpad not being quite as intuitive to use as they are on the MacBooks I've owned (2 MBAs, and 2 MBPs).

The Surface Book 2 had my interests up but the weight was a bit much for my lap, (in theory). That, and the iPad & iOS have left me cold to the idea of owning any sort of a tablet for the time being.

In comparison to the SP5, the SL2s increased screen size is much more to my liking. I also find the SL2 faster to place on my lap, or put away when I'm done. Easier to maneuver, if you will. Easier to see, (I'm 50 years old, and my eyesight is changing pretty fast), and just overall more comfortable to view and use.

I have not traveled with it yet, and at this time I don't really plan to. But my hunch is that the SP would be much more comfortable to travel with. Luckily, my wife has (and loves) her SP5, so I can just steal hers if I need to do something my phone won't handle when we are away. lol

 

[SDColorado]

Of course all the talk about 4.something pound laptops reminds me of a Dell Inspiron 8100 that I still have around. I used to carry that thing all over the county and it weighed in just a little over 8lbs. While I still have it, but it only runs a little
Windows XP based motorcycle ECU tuning app now. No more carrying it around.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Believe me, my body felt it on the way home. I know part of that is the graphic


If you’re used to something like the 2015 MacBook screen or 12.9” iPP you’ll be fine with the screen size of the SP.

I am not the many happy users in this thread though and am also brand new to using Windows at home. So please take my very limited test run with a grain of salt.

I need more display real estate, but the text feels sharper and more clear to me than any current Apple machine except for the 5k iMac (my iMac is not the 5k).

SP6 is a very powerful tablet-top (looks like tablet works more like a hybrid of tablet and laptop). The screen was very nice. The weight was terrific and the I tested the type cover at the store. I liked it, but for a Windows noob, the touch aspects of the SP6 really threw me off.

Typing with the keyboard cover at the store was quite nice. I was pretty accurate, but another reason why I went for the SB2 was the mechanical keyboard which is a delight to type on.

I ultimately found the SP6 too small for more than consumption use, but I was not used to doing complex work on my iPP. You might find it perfect though.

@IowaLynn ah, yes I remember that.

Keep us posted about your learning process and experiences with the SB2! Due to my profession I have a lot of experience with Windows, but not with the SB2. I am considering buying one too.

 

[kazmac]

Keep us posted about your learning process and experiences with the SB2! Due to my profession I have a lot of experience with Windows, but not with the SB2. I am considering buying one too.

Sure thing.

Will be glad to blabber about my experiences. I really like MS’ support site how to’s > very direct.

Finally ready to start setting this up.