Got my Surface Book - makes Macbooks look like dinosaurs...

[snowboarder]

I received my Surface Book yesterday. I'm speechless. This thing is the future,
makes my Macs look obsolete. Not old, but prehistoric old. Incredible.

Photoshop runs like a charm. 16GB of RAM, Nvidia card, 512 SSD, i7. Everything is seamless.
Tablet mode - perfect.

But the device itself is the most amazing. Screen can be detached easily, flipped, reattached.
Pen is as smooth as any Wacom. When in tablet mode, you can use writing recognition
and it WORKS! Anything, web addresses, passwords anything works. Switch to a virtual keyboard
if you want to. When we saw how great writing recognition works, our jaws dropped.

This is my first exciting laptop in ages, more than 10 years for sure.

Feels like the future. My previous comparable experience - first iPhone.

So sad to see Apple being so far behind. Even Windows 10 make OS X look very old...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Enjoy mate, couldn't agree with you less but everyone to their own...

 

[keysofanxiety]

If it's been more than 10 years since your last laptop, no wonder you're amazed. It's quite a step above the PowerBook G4

Personally I prefer the Retina MacBook Pros even if the graphics horsepower isn't comparable. I much prefer the multi-touch trackpad and the SSD speeds are atrociously quick, 2GB/s read and write with the 1TB SSDs. Not sure Apple are that far behind with portables IMHO. Desktops, certainly - but not portables.

As poster above me said, each to their own. Pleased you're enjoying it!

 

[snowboarder]

more than 10 years since my EXCITING laptop dude. Have had a new Macbook almost every year
for more than 20 years... Sorry to say that, but never again.

 

[Zirel]

So sad to see Apple being so far behind. Even Windows 10 make OS X look very old...

Vista+++?

eg.?

 

[fisherking]

it is a thing of beauty, but...it's the OS that keeps me on a macbook; not necessarily a better OS, but my preferred one. so am, at least, glad that the macbook pro (and the new macbook) are as good as they are (while i wait to see what's next)....

 

[McGiord]

@snowboarder how good does it manages the heat while using it as a Tablet?
Can you post some pictures of it?
Have you tried any good PC games?

Some interesting things:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2997...t-your-new-surface-book-or-surface-pro-4.html

 

[snowboarder]

Sorry, no games and not planning to. Used it last night for a few hours,
mostly with Photoshop. Detached and reattached the screen a few times. Did some Win updates.

Played with Edge, the new browser, hacked the hosts file to kill off all the adds and it worked.

No heat at all. No issues, nothing. Absolutely seamless.

My number one use is Photoshop. This thing has a full SD card slot, what I miss in my Macbook Air 11.
Two USB 3 slots for any external drives etc. BTW my Macbook Air next to this is like an ancient giant cell phone,
4 pounds and a giant antenna sticking out, you know what I mean. Really sad...

 

[McGiord]

Thanks for sharing your experience with it.
My initial impression when playing with one at a local BestBuy was that with all those vent holes around the whole periphery it will be a portable running heater that will be annoying to hold in the afternoon.

Let me tell you that for the first time in my whole Apple experience I'm interested in a portable running Microsoft OS.

Here are some interesting comparisons:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2995...nt-twice-as-fast-its-three-times-as-fast.html

Hopefully they sell plenty of them and outsell MacBook growth in the next couple of quarters to drive the right decision making at Apple to bring on something better.

How well does the stylus feel? is it comfortable to use? how long does the stylus battery will last?

 

[felt.]

It sounds like you wish it ran OSX but you're willing to settle for Windows 10.

 

[maflynn]

Sorry, no games and not planning to. Used it last night for a few hours,

Do you run Lightroom? I'm guessing even if you don't it will run decently. I'm happy with LR's performance on my SP3 (even though it is slower then my MBP).

Played with Edge, the new browser, hacked the hosts file to kill off all the adds and it worked.

What changes did you make the host file, I'm curious as I use Chrome mostly, though I've dabbled with Edge

BTW my Macbook Air next to this is like an ancient giant cell phone,
4 pounds and a giant antenna sticking out, you know what I mean. Really sad...

I wouldn't go that far while the design of the MBP is several years old, I think the lines are classic. I do love the look of the MBP and on the flip side, I worry about material falling into the SurfaceBook thanks to the fulcrum hinge design.[/quote]

 

[snowboarder]

How well does the stylus feel? is it comfortable to use? how long does the stylus battery will last?

They say it lasts for a year or so and you need to get a new one LOL
It feels GREAT. No delay in PS at all. When you open a new document and start painting,
there is a super tiny moment of "recognition" the pen before your first stroke,
hardly a delay. But then once you keep painting, zero delay whatsoever.

 

[snowboarder]

What changes did you make the host file, I'm curious as I use Chrome mostly, though I've dabbled with Edge

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm


BTW yes, I will need to run Lightroom as Bridge seems to be killed by Adobe. No update for Bridge in CC 2015...
My workflow is selection in Bridge -> Photoshop, not sure I like the whole library thing in Lightroom,
although I guess I can avoid it....

 

[snowboarder]

It sounds like you wish it ran OSX but you're willing to settle for Windows 10.

The problem is - do you want to wait when such an amazing device is already available?
And problem number 2 - Apple will not allow full OS X on a tablet as it doesn't have touch screen.
iOS is useless as you know LOL

 

[maflynn]

BTW yes, I will need to run Lightroom as Bridge seems to be killed by Adobe. No update for Bridge in CC 2015...
My workflow is selection in Bridge -> Photoshop, not sure I like the whole library thing in Lightroom,
although I guess I can avoid it....

Thanks for the link
As for LR, your workflow will change. Its more like LR for 99% and maybe PS for some things. I hardly go into PS and do everything in LR. I use plugins to extend the power of LR as well which also reduces the need to use PS for me. I'll qualify this, and say I'm just a hobbyist so my needs are probably a lot less then yours

 

[felt.]

I recommend running https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking seeing as windows 10 is pretty much a rootkit/keylogger/malware if you don't.

 

[snowboarder]

Thanks for the link
As for LR, your workflow will change. Its more like LR for 99% and maybe PS for some things. I hardly go into PS and do everything in LR. I use plugins to extend the power of LR as well which also reduces the need to use PS for me. I'll qualify this, and say I'm just a hobbyist so my needs are probably a lot less then yours

Many people do what you do, but I spend a lot of time on every image and use tons of layers,
some plugins etc. So Lightroom is not enough for me...

Can you use Lightroom simply for selection/RAW conversion and go to Photoshop fro anything else?

Not sure how to setup such workflow.

 

[maflynn]

Can you use Lightroom simply for selection/RAW conversion and go to Photoshop fro anything else?

You can but its basically selecting the image then telling LR you want to edit it in PS. Sounds like another tool may be better if you're planning on working in PS for the majority of your work.

Pop over to the photography forum, there's a couple of people there that can recommend a bridge replacement/tool to help cull your images.

 

[modernaccord]

It sounds like you wish it ran OSX but you're willing to settle for Windows 10.

This is my wish - it will most likely never happen unless I get a job at Apple and convince everyone all the way to the top to do it (which will also most likely never happen). I love the SB hardware - it's really premium. Windows? not so much.

I would actually stand in the rain/snow/wind outside an apple store for 2 weeks to be the first to buy one if they launched it (okay, maybe not, but you get the point).

 

[fieldsphotos]

They say it lasts for a year or so and you need to get a new one LOL
It feels GREAT. No delay in PS at all. When you open a new document and start painting,
there is a super tiny moment of "recognition" the pen before your first stroke,
hardly a delay. But then once you keep painting, zero delay whatsoever.

The pen has a AAAA battery, so you don't have to replace the whole thing. They did a very poor job of advertising that with the whole "pen lasts a year" thing

I am glad to hear it's running PS like a champ. I ordered the same configuration surface book, but I am in the Nov/Dec shipping date crew. How does it handle large files and the more processor intensive filters like smart sharpen or the lens blurs?

 

[maartin]

I don't know man...

I'm happy for you, enjoy with your new laptop/tablet. But you lost me at this whole ancient claim, lack of SD card and comparing 11' Air with Book... It might be the best thing ever (for you anyway), but even then, Macbooks are still the second best thing ever. It makes your "first impression" kind of silly.

 

[Meister]

Good for you

 

[marc55]

I'll bet the track pad is not as good as a MBP

 

[Steve121178]

I'll bet the track pad is not as good as a MBP

Even Paul Thurrott says the MacBook trackpad is still superior. He did say that the SB trackpad is about as good as it's ever been on a Windows based machine though.

 

[Steve121178]

I don't know man...

I'm happy for you, enjoy with your new laptop/tablet. But you lost me at this whole ancient claim, lack of SD card and comparing 11' Air with Book... It might be the best thing ever (for you anyway), but even then, Macbooks are still the second best thing ever. It makes your "first impression" kind of silly.

I found his post cringeworthy. It was like a kid who's got a new toy for Christmas and suddenly last years toys are forgotten about. Any modern notebook will look great compared to his old 11" MBA, that machine is so long in the tooth it's not even funny.