Surface Devices

[Queen6]

I`ve pulled the trigger on the surface studio 2.
It arrived yesterday but had no time to unbox.
Maybe later today.
If anyone has any questions just shoot!

I'd love one, but my hardware has to fly, as in the aircraft. I'm still tempted, although my daughter would very likely pinch it. Admittedly she's a very talented digital artist, better to order a pair methinks

Q-6

 

[maflynn]

I`ve pulled the trigger on the surface studio 2.
It arrived yesterday but had no time to unbox.
Maybe later today.
If anyone has any questions just shoot!

Congrats on your new baby. When MS rolled out the first generation, I was all for it, though I was diappointed in that it ran with a 5400 rpm drive. The second generation is everything that I'd want.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

To be very honest I use it only for my photo hobby. So I have no pressure to produce anything professionally on it.
The first generation was a disappointment spec wise so I passed on it.
The second generation is much better. It is not so fast as my office desktop (built around a i7 8700k processor and nVidia Quadro p4000 card) but for photography and graphic design it works like charm.

 

[derekamoss]

To be very honest I use it only for my photo hobby. So I have no pressure to produce anything professionally on it.
The first generation was a disappointment spec wise so I passed on it.
The second generation is much better. It is not so fast as my office desktop (built around a i7 8700k processor and nVidia Quadro p4000 card) but for photography and graphic design it works like charm.

Do you find the Surface dial to be good or add more to it? I was always curious of using that in normal workflow or as you said hobby flow

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Hi,

The dial was a no brainer (the studio was 5099 Euros and the dial 90) compared to the cost of the computer.
Where it is supported, the dial is helpful. For example in Sketchable, OneNote or Photoshop. You may use it directly on screen or you may put it nearby on the desk.
The problem is that it is not widely supported, which is a shame.
[doublepost=1555839713][/doublepost]If you looked at the pictures I posted you may have noticed that my last link with the Mac ecosystem is my 13" nTB MacBook Pro...
I'm really asking myself if is not wiser to jump the ship entirely ... I do have issues with the keyboard (I hate it with passion and 2 keys are getting intermittently sticky) which makes me considering replacing it with a win device (sl 2 or Huawei Matebook X Pro) but emotionally is very hard. I loved Apple products and for many years used them almost exclusively... It is very hard to make the divorce complete.

 

[lcseds]

It's not easy deciding to move from Mac. I am on an XPS 15 and a Win home made desktop. When Apple makes a nice notebook again, I'll have a look. But the longer that takes, then it will be reversed and difficult moving from Win. Still keeping iOS devices, but I just can't take the Mac hardware now. I will always want a 15" notebook but I absolutely abhor that touch bar. I mean, I really hate it.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Speaking of touch bar .... The surface dial does in some way what the touch supposed to do (in a good way). But it left the function keys intact, it is not obtrusive and when you don't need it you just put it away...

 

[derekamoss]

Hi,

The dial was a no brainer (the studio was 5099 Euros and the dial 90) compared to the cost of the computer.
Where it is supported, the dial is helpful. For example in Sketchable, OneNote or Photoshop. You may use it directly on screen or you may put it nearby on the desk.
The problem is that it is not widely supported, which is a shame.
[doublepost=1555839713][/doublepost]If you looked at the pictures I posted you may have noticed that my last link with the Mac ecosystem is my 13" nTB MacBook Pro...
I'm really asking myself if is not wiser to jump the ship entirely ... I do have issues with the keyboard (I hate it with passion and 2 keys are getting intermittently sticky) which makes me considering replacing it with a win device (sl 2 or Huawei Matebook X Pro) but emotionally is very hard. I loved Apple products and for many years used them almost exclusively... It is very hard to make the divorce complete.

I was in the same position you were so I feel you. This is how I came to a desicion. I have to quit looking at the software and hardware in a device because macs have lower specs mostly but work great and windows has better specs but windows 10 isnt as polished, and then think which device as a whole enchants me more. Which one do I have more fun and enjoyment using. It used to be Apple but for some reason Apple to admit that the things they said werent good devices, yet everyone loves them, wont happen so you get half baked ideas like touch bar (in response to touch screens) and the iPad Pro with a pencil (in response to two in ones and the Surface line. I look at Apple devices and see what they COULD be and I like at my Surfaces and see what they CAN be.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

To get rid of my last Mac is really an emotional decision.
I`ve used and loved Apple so many years ... but the latest idiotic decisions are making me absolutely mad.
I am talking about the keyboard reliability right now...
I understand that many folks are talking about apple care which makes them sleep well (by the way in Central Europe, where I live, apple care isn't available) but that is for a hobbyist maybe. I used my laptops professionally and I cannot put on hold my clients telling them to wait a week or ten days till my computer comes back and the fact that I cannot pull the ssd when in service complicates my life even further (I`m a lawyer so I do work with sensitive info).
I get the point that the chances of failure are present with any brand. But with the latest keyboard this is almost a certainty with Macbooks (and I and my colleagues DO have too much first hand experience with this issue) not a mostly theoretical chance of bad luck.

 

[derekamoss]

To get rid of my last Mac is really an emotional decision.
I`ve used and loved Apple so many years ... but the latest idiotic decisions are making me absolutely mad.
I am talking about the keyboard reliability right now...
I understand that many folks are talking about apple care which makes them sleep well (by the way in Central Europe, where I live, apple care isn't available) but that is for a hobbyist maybe. I used my laptops professionally and I cannot put on hold my clients telling them to wait a week or ten days till my computer comes back and the fact that I cannot pull the ssd when in service complicates my life even further (I`m a lawyer so I do work with sensitive info).
I get the point that the chances of failure are present with any brand. But with the latest keyboard this is almost a certainty with Macbooks (and I and my colleagues DO have too much first hand experience with this issue) not a mostly theoretical chance of bad luck.

I was the same way. I had been using Mac's since 2001 and was very emotionally invested in it. Breaking from Apple is like ending a relationship with someone because you just arent compatible anymore but still love them! but like an breakups it gets better over time lol.

 

[cubbie5150]

To get rid of my last Mac is really an emotional decision.
I`ve used and loved Apple so many years ... but the latest idiotic decisions are making me absolutely mad.

I feel you and am in the same boat. Until recently, I would have never even considered a switch to Windows. In fact, I was an annoying Apple fanboy to people I know IRL. I got more than a dozen people to switch to Mac starting a decade or so ago. I have had to scramble to learn as much about Windows laptops because I literally paid zero attention to such hardware before. I have a lot to learn over the next year or so.

I have considered staying w/ iPhone & going non-Apple for everything else. However, I then consider that that is precisely what Apple wants these days. I feel (as others have mentioned) that Apple would like nothing more than to point at sales numbers & say "see!! Consumers only want iOS-based products!! Screw macOS-based devices!"

Whatever. At then end of the day, I'll just go with what works for me, but I still think about this stuff form time to time. Increasingly, saying goodbye to macOS is clearly in the cards, with a parallel move away from iOS likely as well.

 

[xraydoc]

I feel you and am in the same boat. Until recently, I would have never even considered a switch to Windows. In fact, I was an annoying Apple fanboy to people I know IRL. I got more than a dozen people to switch to Mac starting a decade or so ago. I have had to scramble to learn as much about Windows laptops because I literally paid zero attention to such hardware before. I have a lot to learn over the next year or so.

I have considered staying w/ iPhone & going non-Apple for everything else. However, I then consider that that is precisely what Apple wants these days. I feel (as others have mentioned) that Apple would like nothing more than to point at sales numbers & say "see!! Consumers only want iOS-based products!! Screw macOS-based devices!"

Whatever. At then end of the day, I'll just go with what works for me, but I still think about this stuff form time to time. Increasingly, saying goodbye to macOS is clearly in the cards, with a parallel move away from iOS likely as well.

I keep flirting with moving away from iOS, but there are apps that I use on my iPad that sync to same app on my phone, plus a few that don't have an Android equivalent. Not to mention everyone in my family uses iMessage and Find My Friends.

No trouble moving away from MacOS. But I'll probably stick with iOS for now.

 

[SDColorado]

I keep flirting with moving away from iOS, but there are apps that I use on my iPad that sync to same app on my phone, plus a few that don't have an Android equivalent. Not to mention everyone in my family uses iMessage and Find My Friends.

No trouble moving away from MacOS. But I'll probably stick with iOS for now.

For me, the phone and the watch will be my hardest Apple devices to give up. I really do like my Apple Watch and really need the phone to make it work.

My iPad I don’t really care about. I have never felt they were very good devices and unless they reverse course and add full file system, mouse/trackpad support, I am sure I have purchased my last one.

Been busy with other stuff so haven’t gotten around to building a desktop yet to replace my iMac, but that will be the next Apple device to go, followed by my MBP.

The new Mid-2019 Razor Blade Pro, looks really good! I would post a link, but I can’t remember without double checking the EULA if I can post a link to another forum or not.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I never was a diehard IOS fan. I gave a shot to the iPhone but never truly liked it. So I landed in Android land 4 or 5 years ago and am a happy camper. My only iOS device is my ipad which is integrated to nothing and is a excellent media consumption/mobile gaming device for me.
I love OSX and loved the Mac for what they are/were, not for any iOS integration.
I bought a Huawei MateBook X Pro. If I like it, bye bye MacBook Pro.
If not, I will send it back and shall see what I`ll do.

 

[xraydoc]

While off-topic, I just felt like I had to share. Finally got the updated Office 2019 & OneNote system icons. Guess my number came up last since everyone else seemingly already got them via Update. Mine finally flipped over earlier this week. Even my iPad got them before my Surface Book 2 did.

 

[LindsayD]

A recent experience reminded me that a third level of laptop backup would be very useful within my small business. It’s also clear that for a lot of people one laptop simply can’t cover all of their needs - I am one of those. I’ll be getting my Lenovo X1E in a few weeks and that will be my main working business backup machine, 2nd to my office desktop arrangement. Since I have to run lessons and in-house presentations on a laptop I also need to backup laptop, should anything go wrong. Provision for that is through my Lenovo L390 Yoga, which also keeps me nicely productive when I’m away from the office.

After a good deal of thought my third line backup laptop, as of last week, is a Microsoft Surface Pro 6. When I initially looked at these several weeks ago I was shocked by the price, given the addition of the keyboard et cetera. However before Easter some useful bundles appeared here in the UK and I paid £899, including the keyboard for the SP6 i5 256Gig model (I've added a 128Gig micro SD for additional space). Going up to the next level in either processor or storage added hundreds to the bill and was well out of my budget.

So far I’m very pleased with my device - it’s pretty fast, it runs all of my tasks (including Adobe lightroom and photoshop) efficiently enough to keep me going should the other machines be inaccessible. My only minor gripe is that I can’t seem to turn off the adaptive brightness - it makes no difference when turned off in the Windows 10 settings, and there is no Intel control panel where I would normally do this. Apparently installing the Intel control panel can be problematic on this device, I haven’t looked into this thoroughly enough yet to find out.

The build quality is quite good, I have the machine in silver, but I suspect it may scratch if the owner isn’t careful. I’m going to buy a skin for it. Having only a standard USB port is an oversight, as we all know. I have enough dongles to get round this fairly happily although with the USB port being high up on the screen a couple of my adapters don’t have long enough cables to reach the table, so that’s something to bear in mind.

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

My only minor gripe is that I can’t seem to turn off the adaptive brightness - it makes no difference when turned off in the Windows 10 settings, and there is no Intel control panel where I would normally do this. Apparently installing the Intel control panel can be problematic on this device, I haven’t looked into this thoroughly enough yet to find out.

Maybe this helps:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/41a1xv/turning_off_adaptive_brightness_surface_pro_4_i7/

https://superuser.com/questions/126...ng-brightness-adaptive-brightness-is-disabled

I know this is a YouTube movie from 2013, but it may still work:

These are more recent:

 

[LindsayD]

Thanks Andy - unfortunately out of all the options the only one left is the registry edit. I'll report back if it works!

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Thanks Andy - unfortunately out of all the options the only one left is the registry edit. I'll report back if it works!

I suspected that already . Fortunately, changing something in the registry with regedit is not as daunting as it seems.

 

[LindsayD]

Hopefully I'll remember to create a restore point first - in case I accidentally inflict some carnage on my PC!

I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't install the Intel control panel - it's so handy to have. And I don't get why they make it so difficult if not impossible to install yourself - I can only guess it's down to some vagary in the 'pixelsense' screen technology they use.

 

[maflynn]

I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't install the Intel control panel - it's so handy to have. And I don't get why they make it so difficult if not impossible to install yourself - I can only guess it's down to some vagary in the 'pixelsense' screen technology they use.

What would you use the control panel for?

 

[LindsayD]

I use it on most devices as a quick way to adjust saturation after calibration. It's also part of my brightness habits - I might be an oddity but I tend to put the brightness up high on the normal Windows setting, then I fine tune in ICP. I've found this gets the very best out of the panel (especially panels which are reported as not having very high brightness). It's also good for disabling adaptive brightness when disabling it in Windows fails.

 

[Dave245]

Update:

So while I've been waiting on Apple to fix the butterfly keyboard on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, I have been using my Surface Pro 6 more (I've not sold it). While I do still like MacOS and Mac's in general I'm finding myself warming to the Surface device that I initially brought. This is where I will need to eat humble pie! I think I was quick to judge the Surface Pro based on my experiences with Apple devices rather than on their own merit, I also needed to give the Surface Pro 6 time! (Yes i'm an impatient person ).

As a computer I'm finding the Surface Pro 6 to be a good device, I can write what I need to while making notes with the Surface Pen. I can multitask, watch YouTube and play games (Two Point Hospital seems to work well).

I think the Surface and Windows in general have a learning curve, it's something I'm still learning at the moment. There are moments when I go to do something in a way I would do it on my Mac, that can be very frustrating, but there are moments that I find the Pro 6 shine. I'm typing on it at this very moment.

I have to admit that I was very harsh with my initial judgement of the Surface Pro 6. The hardware is actually really good, I really love the kickstand, something I think Apple should put on the iPad Pro.

I have been watching Netflix on this device, for some reason it no longer lags when watching which is weird, when I first had it I tried watching a few of my favourite shows, and it would lag with the sound being out of sync with peoples mouths. Could it have been a glitch?

Based on all of this, I have decided NOT to sell my Surface Pro 6, as it stands Apple hasn't fixed their keyboards on the MacBook and I just cant buy one of the current models while there are issues. The Alcantara keyboard for the Surface Pro 6 seems more reliable. C'mon Apple get the keyboard fixed on the MacBook's!

 

[derekamoss]

Update:

So while I've been waiting on Apple to fix the butterfly keyboard on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, I have been using my Surface Pro 6 more (I've not sold it). While I do still like MacOS and Mac's in general I'm finding myself warming to the Surface device that I initially brought. This is where I will need to eat humble pie! I think I was quick to judge the Surface Pro based on my experiences with Apple devices rather than on their own merit, I also needed to give the Surface Pro 6 time! (Yes i'm an impatient person ).

As a computer I'm finding the Surface Pro 6 to be a good device, I can write what I need to while making notes with the Surface Pen. I can multitask, watch YouTube and play games (Two Point Hospital seems to work well).

I think the Surface and Windows in general have a learning curve, it's something I'm still learning at the moment. There are moments when I go to do something in a way I would do it on my Mac, that can be very frustrating, but there are moments that I find the Pro 6 shine. I'm typing on it at this very moment.

I have to admit that I was very harsh with my initial judgement of the Surface Pro 6. The hardware is actually really good, I really love the kickstand, something I think Apple should put on the iPad Pro.

I have been watching Netflix on this device, for some reason it no longer lags when watching which is weird, when I first had it I tried watching a few of my favourite shows, and it would lag with the sound being out of sync with peoples mouths. Could it have been a glitch?

Based on all of this, I have decided NOT to sell my Surface Pro 6, as it stands Apple hasn't fixed their keyboards on the MacBook and I just cant buy one of the current models while there are issues. The Alcantara keyboard for the Surface Pro 6 seems more reliable. C'mon Apple get the keyboard fixed on the MacBook's!

It took me a little bit to fully appreciate the Surface Pro when I first got it. As you said a lot of the frustration at the beginning was just me being used to the way I used to do things. To me it's having a full desktop os in the tablet form factor. What's great about the Pro as well is it can be a tabet, a laptop, and when connected to external keyboard, mouse and monitor a desktop, so basically a 3 in 1. Plus the advantage of using a Micro SD card to add storage to it, instead of having to use an external HD is awesome.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I have the SP 2017 and I am hoping Apple makes it really hard on me by adding a full finder and external mouse and monitor support to the iPad Pro. Then I would really have to determine what I like best. Instead we will get nothing that turns the iPad Pro into a full-blown computer.

That's okay. I will still plug along on my SP 2017.