Seriously considering a Surface Pro 3

[xraydoc]

I'm in a similar situation as a college student (computer science and web/graphic design). I too have an rMBP which is my main machine but am still very interested in the SP3, specifically for the form factor, OneNote, and stylus integration, not to mention full Windows. It would be nice to be able to bring the SP3 back and forth from campus instead of my 15in rMBP. Anyways...

Does anybody have experience with digital textbooks and OneNote? I think that will be the deciding factor for me. I have PDF versions of most of my textbooks and would love to be able to just carry the SP3 instead of all the textbooks. How is annotation? Is it really worth the price tag? I would really appreciate all feedback but specifically from college students.

I use an app called Drawboard for annotating PDFs. It's great. Hand written notes, highlighting, multiple colors, etc.


The only thing I suggest if you're going to go all-digital for notes is to have a serious backup plan. I save everything to OneDrive (in case my device is stolen, is destroyed or fails) -- and to the SP3 so I can access when off-line, and I also have everything auto-backed up when at home via Windows File History to a networked hard drive in case my online copies become corrupted or my account gets hosed somehow (and since any potential errors may get copied down from the cloud to my device itself before I discover it).


Always better safe than sorry.

 

[spinedoc77]

I use an app called Drawboard for annotating PDFs. It's great. Hand written notes, highlighting, multiple colors, etc.


The only thing I suggest if you're going to go all-digital for notes is to have a serious backup plan. I save everything to OneDrive (in case my device is stolen, is destroyed or fails) -- and to the SP3 so I can access when off-line, and I also have everything auto-backed up when at home via Windows File History to a networked hard drive in case my online copies become corrupted or my account gets hosed somehow (and since any potential errors may get copied down from the cloud to my device itself before I discover it).


Always better safe than sorry.

OneDrive is pretty awesome on a windows machine. It creates a local drive and acts like a local drive, but all the info is on the cloud server. It's quite seamless in that you really don't feel like you are using a cloud server. You can even selectively choose which files are actually kept on the local hard drive or just have a pointer to the cloud file.

I'm on the 100GB for $1.99/month and it's more than worth the money. It's very stable and very fast as well.

 

[xraydoc]

OneDrive is pretty awesome on a windows machine. It creates a local drive and acts like a local drive, but all the info is on the cloud server. It's quite seamless in that you really don't feel like you are using a cloud server. You can even selectively choose which files are actually kept on the local hard drive or just have a pointer to the cloud file.

I'm on the 100GB for $1.99/month and it's more than worth the money. It's very stable and very fast as well.

I agree. I have it set to keep everything both local on the SSD and synced to OneDrive.


I've got an Office365 subscription, so I've got 1TB of OneDrive space

 

[spinedoc77]

I agree. I have it set to keep everything both local on the SSD and synced to OneDrive.


I've got an Office365 subscription, so I've got 1TB of OneDrive space

Yeah, what's nice is you can set that up PER device. So you can have your desktop with its huge hard drive keep everything locally, but you can be more selective with your tablet and only keep some files. You still get a pointer but it is seamless and simply downloads the file on demand.

Good stuff. Dang, 1tb is nice. I have a ton of Office 2013 licenses due to all the windows hardware I own, but the Office 365 sub is well worth it and I'll prob get one of those soon.

 

[burgman]

OneDrive is pretty awesome on a windows machine. It creates a local drive and acts like a local drive, but all the info is on the cloud server. It's quite seamless in that you really don't feel like you are using a cloud server. You can even selectively choose which files are actually kept on the local hard drive or just have a pointer to the cloud file.

I'm on the 100GB for $1.99/month and it's more than worth the money. It's very stable and very fast as well.

Onedrive storage deals are amazing, Some friends were excited when Apple announced iCloud drive storage. Opened Onedrive and showed them my 1.3 TB storage. When they said I must be crazy to buy that much, I reminded them that I had told them to get the free Office 365 that was offered for iPads. Then showed them how to use Bing rewards to stack storage. Yeah I enjoyed that.

 

[mentaluproar]

With specs did u buy? I'm thinking about getting the entry level for basic note taking on university that one with an i3 and 64gb storage, will it suit my needs?

The model you listed will only have 32gb available, but it should work fine for that. I got the i5 256 here, since I'm a power geek with little sense of financial responsibility.

I can get iCloud to sync with outlook, but not from there to the windows calendar. It's maddening that such a useful tile doesn't tie in with anything I already have.

 

[spinedoc77]

The model you listed will only have 32gb available, but it should work fine for that. I got the i5 256 here, since I'm a power geek with little sense of financial responsibility.

I can get iCloud to sync with outlook, but not from there to the windows calendar. It's maddening that such a useful tile doesn't tie in with anything I already have.

You can offload the windows installation files and gain back about 12gb I think, something like that. I offloaded mine onto a tiny little usb drive and just leave that in my laptop bag in case of emergency. Office also takes up a lot of space, but I use it every day so would never delete it.

 

[burgman]

The model you listed will only have 32gb available, but it should work fine for that. I got the i5 256 here, since I'm a power geek with little sense of financial responsibility.

I can get iCloud to sync with outlook, but not from there to the windows calendar. It's maddening that such a useful tile doesn't tie in with anything I already have.

When you first setup the tablet windows asks if you want to use a SD card to store files, that way your libraries are moved to the card. You can do it later manually. Also buy a external hard drive and use file history to back up everything. On the 64GB the restore partition is about 5gb. Run disk clean often and remove windows update files. The first setup installs something like 58 updates.

 

[xraydoc]

When you first setup the tablet windows asks if you want to use a SD card to store files, that way your libraries are moved to the card. You can do it later manually. Also buy a external hard drive and use file history to back up everything. On the 64GB the restore partition is about 5gb. Run disk clean often and remove windows update files. The first setup installs something like 58 updates.

If you can spring for the cost, I'd suggest a NAS device for backups. That way whenever you connect to your home WiFi, your backups with File History will automatically run. Otherwise, your backups are only as good as your ability to remember to connect your external HD regularly.


I use an WD MyCloud and it works great.

 

[burgman]

If you can spring for the cost, I'd suggest a NAS device for backups. That way whenever you connect to your home WiFi, your backups with File History will automatically run. Otherwise, your backups are only as good as your ability to remember to connect your external HD regularly.


I use an WD MyCloud and it works great.

4 macs I use Time Capsule, 2 Windows machines plus SP3 same Time Capsule so yeah I agree with you. But for many a $70 portable hard drive is all they need, plus my NAS at home does nothing for me when I travel for work.

 

[m98custom1212]

4 macs I use Time Capsule, 2 Windows machines plus SP3 same Time Capsule so yeah I agree with you. But for many a $70 portable hard drive is all they need, plus my NAS at home does nothing for me when I travel for work.

You can access your nas from anywhere in the world if you have internet..

I have NAS plus cloud storage plus another cloud storage based in France syncing (not live syncing I have them on 24 hour delay) to each other on my important would weep and cry in the corner if i lost.

 

[Kristine]

I just bought a 13" MBA for uni a few days ago (not opened yet).

BUT - the surface was released two days ago in Australia, and I got the chance to play with a friends one this afternoon.

I've pretty much decided to get the surface and return the MBA.

 

[xraydoc]

I've had my SP3 about a month now. It's great.

It's a nice laptop with a fast SSD (I've got the i5/256) and a very high-res screen. It's also a decent tablet - IE 11 Touch is a good browser.

It does have a bit of a split personality since there's the tablet-oriented Metro/Modern interface and the traditional desktop interface, so it is at first a bit jarring. But it's great to have full versions of Word and PowerPoint (two apps I use constantly) at my fingertips.

Touch OneNote is great for notes in meetings and the full OneNote 2013 turns all my handwriting in to searchable text (preserves the handwriting but does OCR for indexing). Or I can do handwriting-to-text conversion right on screen with one of the keyboard choices much like the Samsung Note products can.

With the docking station, it makes a great desktop -- mine is connected to a 30" Dell display, nice keyboard and mouse, gigabit Ethernet and a DVD-R drive. I'm considering replacing the monitor with a Samsung 28" 4K display.

It's definitely not as light and slim as an iPad, but must remember this is basically a laptop in a tablet-sized form factor, not a tablet with a few laptop features. And while thicker and heavier, the big 12" retina-quality display is simply amazing.

And with full Windows 8.1, I can do things like print to PDF that you simply can't do on an iPad.

I like it so much as an iPad Air and MacBook Air replacement that I've been considering replacing my Nexus 7 with a small Atom-powered Win8 tablet (not RT) and I've been seriously looking at the HTC One Windows Phone edition (though the absence of several mobile apps I use frequently like Nest and the FIOS phone/DVR will probably stop me for now).

 

[burgman]

You can access your nas from anywhere in the world if you have internet..

I have NAS plus cloud storage plus another cloud storage based in France syncing (not live syncing I have them on 24 hour delay) to each other on my important would weep and cry in the corner if i lost.

For me $70 plus not worrying about cloud/internet/power issues is worth it. Lots of elegant fragile solutions available.

 

[mrex]

Im abit worried about the heat issue. At first it seemed to be only a software bug but now they have said it is both the software and the design issue. So I wonder if i7 can be ever fixed... :/ iwas going to buy i7/8gb/256gb but now im abit disappointed...

 

[tennisproha]

You can access your nas from anywhere in the world if you have internet..

I have NAS plus cloud storage plus another cloud storage based in France syncing (not live syncing I have them on 24 hour delay) to each other on my important would weep and cry in the corner if i lost.

any NAS setup recommendations you're willing to share? I've been wanting to set one up for a while but it's a bit intimidating to be honest. I can't quite find the best system out there. I'd want to be able to access everything on the system from anywhere in the world preferably on my iPhone as well.

 

[Klyster]

forums.macrumors.com/threads/1770150/

 

[maflynn]

forums.macrumors.com/threads/1770150/

What do you by that link? The member there is looking to sell his SP3 only because his company is giving them a laptop and he now has little need for the tablet.

On the other hand, people in this thread are debating whether the SP3 is a good device or not.

 

[Klyster]

The name of this thread is " Seriously considering a surface pro 3"

The other is a person try to sell a surface pro 3, sorry if it's inappropriate to link it in this thread but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Feel free to delete. .

 

[maflynn]

The name of this thread is " Seriously considering a surface pro 3"

The other is a person try to sell a surface pro 3, sorry if it's inappropriate to link it in this thread but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Feel free to delete. .

I'm not understanding your logic, that's all. Two different topics, albeit for the same product.

One person is looking for advise on selling his SP3 because his needs changed (he's making no such statement that its a bad/good/indifferent product, just where to sell it).

This thread is discussion the merits of the SP3.

 

[Klyster]

There's a " Why surface pro?" thread too...

forums.macrumors.com/threads/1768257/

Maybe they mean the original but looking a the stating date, I'm guessing the thread is about the same product, so there's 3 threads.

Please, if it's an issue delete these posts as the topic seems a little derailed.

My initial intention was not malice.

 

[mentaluproar]

Get the i5. The i7 really isn't that much faster.

I used my Synology NAS for file history and time machine. The iPad had better support for that though. The only metro app for it isn't that great.

I'm surprised over some of the glitches though. Alarm doesn't work unless the tablet is plugged in. It goes into hibernate and the hardware won't wake itself. Horrible oversight.

The video app cannot add my NAS either. It cannot index things.

I keep hitting the Microsoft button by mistake, kicking me out of tasks. Handwriting recognition in portrait mode is worthless because of this.

My iPad had better sound too. Louder and fuller.

It's an odd duck device.

Scanning on it was terrible until I got the HP scanning app. Much nicer.

I loathe the keyboard. I feel like my fingers are going to fly off the keys.

 

[mrex]

i7 has a hd5000 graphics while i5 has a hd4400.

 

[mentaluproar]

My understanding is it doesn't make that much difference in real world use on the surface. Thermal throttling?

 

[spinedoc77]

Get the i5. The i7 really isn't that much faster.

I used my Synology NAS for file history and time machine. The iPad had better support for that though. The only metro app for it isn't that great.

I'm surprised over some of the glitches though. Alarm doesn't work unless the tablet is plugged in. It goes into hibernate and the hardware won't wake itself. Horrible oversight.

The video app cannot add my NAS either. It cannot index things.

I keep hitting the Microsoft button by mistake, kicking me out of tasks. Handwriting recognition in portrait mode is worthless because of this.

My iPad had better sound too. Louder and fuller.

It's an odd duck device.

Scanning on it was terrible until I got the HP scanning app. Much nicer.

I loathe the keyboard. I feel like my fingers are going to fly off the keys.

Sounds like the iPad is a better bet for you. Personally I don't understand the keyboard gripes, I find the type keyboard quite nice to use. It's marginally worse than the iPad air keyboard, but only marginally IMO as the difference between the 2 is also exaggerated IMO. Now the difference to a MacBook Pro is much more pronounced but we not comparing apples to apples anymore.

My alarms work perfectly on battery, I just used it last weekend when away from home visiting relatives. I agree I'm not thrilled with the windows button placement, I hit it by accident when sketching. Microsoft is aware of this and is supposed to release an option to either turn it off, or automatically turn it off if it senses the stylus. Sound I think it sounds about the same from iPad to SP3, both are fair at best but I don't expect much out of such thin devices anyhow.