Surface Pro Owners

[Redskinsfan10]

Hey guys!
I'll be buying the surface pro and have a couple of quick questions to ask for those who own one.
How do you like it?
Have you sold your older laptop and replaced it with the surface pro?
For those who have 1st gen and 2nd gen. Big difference? Worth the upgrade?
Also if you guys have any photos of your surface setup that would be cool too

Thank you all!

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

If you are OK with Win 8 and the whole tiles thing, the Surface Pro 2 is a fine ultrabook replacement "thing." It's not quite as featured as an ultrabook, but it does almost everything an ultrabook can and doubles as a (heavy) tablet.

I'm not pleased with the overall scaling issues faced by non-Office apps running on the Pro 2, however. Some of them become almost unusable its so bad.

I also have a RT 2 (or whatever they call it now....second gen RT). LOVE the size of it much more, wish the Pro 2 was that light. Its nice that it has a license of Office pre-loaded, really great value if all you need is an Office-running tablet. But otherwise, you'll really wish you'd gone with the full Pro 2 to get access to Windows proper apps. Windows app store sucks big time, which hampers the RT.

 

[TheHateMachine]

Hey guys!
I'll be buying the surface pro and have a couple of quick questions to ask for those who own one.
How do you like it?
Have you sold your older laptop and replaced it with the surface pro?
For those who have 1st gen and 2nd gen. Big difference? Worth the upgrade?
Also if you guys have any photos of your surface setup that would be cool too

Thank you all!

My hospital provided me with a Surface Pro 1 and a dock. Using a display port hub i'm driving 2 24" monitors. It has replaced my desktop, laptop and ipad at work.

The battery life leaves something to be desired so I'm trying to push for a Surface Pro 2 upgrade.

I am currently at a different hospital than the one I normally work out of. Otherwise I would show you a picture of my setup.

 

[rav16]

My hospital provided me with a Surface Pro 1 and a dock. Using a display port hub i'm driving 2 24" monitors. It has replaced my desktop, laptop and ipad at work.

The battery life leaves something to be desired so I'm trying to push for a Surface Pro 2 upgrade.

I am currently at a different hospital than the one I normally work out of. Otherwise I would show you a picture of my setup.

On a average what kind of battery life do you get ?

 

[MRU]

On a average what kind of battery life do you get ?

My surface pro 2 gets a good 8-10 hours web surfing and listening to music and using metro style apps.

When running more processor intensive applications this can drop to 4-5

Still better than my 11" MBA

 

[1appleAday]

Can any SP2 owner share experience about using it on a lap? Is it comfortable and stable enough to be productive? thanks!

 

[MRU]

When I use mine on my lap I just use onscreen keyboard. I only have touch keyboard and it's not great in the lap; the type cover is likely much better.

 

[rav16]

My surface pro 2 gets a good 8-10 hours web surfing and listening to music and using metro style apps.

When running more processor intensive applications this can drop to 4-5

Still better than my 11" MBA

Any idea what is battery life of the first generation surface pro ?

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

When I use mine on my lap I just use onscreen keyboard. I only have touch keyboard and it's not great in the lap; the type cover is likely much better.

Not really. Depending on your physique, putting the SP2 on your lap, you still only have three basic ways to use it.

-No kickstand, cross your legs or pull your knees up if on a recliner and lay the screen out that way. The keyboard is then at a fairly flat angle to the screen but its usable.
-Kickstand position one. I end up having to crane my neck down too far to make this work comfortably.
-Kickstand position two....works best for me but then I've got the keyboard pressed into my belt line. Makes it hard to use the trackpad.

Really, the thing is made for either sitting on a horizontal surface or just being used as a tablet. It's not comfortable in your lap.

I've resorted to using a rather large lapdesk to give it a flat surface. Much better, but I still prefer my MBA for a true laptop/ultraportable.

 

[soulreaver99]

Any idea what is battery life of the first generation surface pro ?

I get an average of 5-6 hours. You can tweak the power settings. What I do is set the CPU to 50% if it's unplugged. Works great for me

 

[TheHateMachine]

Any idea what is battery life of the first generation surface pro ?

Constant use zeros it out in about 4 hours, if I have some breaks interspersed in there. It can push 5-6 hours.

If I am gaming with something like Civ 5 however, 2 hours.

 

[MindsEye]

Quick question, so how do people find the onscreen keyboard in comparison to iOS & Android offerings?

 

[bwhinnen]

Quick question, so how do people find the onscreen keyboard in comparison to iOS & Android offerings?

I think with the swipe functionality of the Android keyboard I now tend to look at all others as "missing" something.

In saying that I've found for all single character typing scenarios that most of them are the same, there is the same lack of feedback, the same lack of speed as a normal feedback driven keyboard, but they get the job done The only keyboard I've not used in everyday use is an Android tablet based one (just the phone), but use (several) iPad(s) and a Surface Pro daily.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Quick question, so how do people find the onscreen keyboard in comparison to iOS & Android offerings?

About same as an iPad Mini but with the screen size and aspect ratio of the SP2 it takes up far too much of the screen in landscape. Portrait is ok however.

 

[LOLZpersonok]

I don't personally own a Surface Pro 2, but I have used them, and I'd say I've used one long enough to have an opinion.

I think it is a very nice little device. Not cheap, but I still like it. I really like the screen - sure it doesn't have the same pixel density as an iPad, but there's something about it that I really like. It's bright and the colour replication is very good. I like the fact that it is true HD. It seems a lot like the display in an iMac.

I think that the fact that they've upped the amount of RAM in it is very good. It'll play games better. With the 256GB and 512GB models you get 8GB of RAM, and that's quite nice if you're running multiple applications at once, or games as it boosts it. For me, it cannot replace the laptop I have (as it is advertised), but it is still powerful, especially for a tablet. And it's nice that the Pro runs the desktop version of Windows 8 - meaning it'll run games like The Sims 3.

It is not that light or thin either, but I like my devices to have depth to them. That's a personal opinion, other people like their devices thin and light.

My gripe about it is that it is very expensive, overpriced if you ask me. A MacBook Air, with the same specs (Surface = $1,300, Air= $1,250, aside from the storage capacity, only 128GB difference. A 128GB Surface Pro costs $1000, and has 4GB of RAM rather than 8GB. The processor remains the same, 1.7GHz Haswell i5) costs $50 less. The 512GB Surface Pro costs $1,800. For $50 less, you'll get a 13" Retina Display MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHz dual core i7, the same RAM and 128GB of storage. I would get something with better processing power and a larger screen, but that's me.

 

[MindsEye]

I think with the swipe functionality of the Android keyboard I now tend to look at all others as "missing" something.

In saying that I've found for all single character typing scenarios that most of them are the same, there is the same lack of feedback, the same lack of speed as a normal feedback driven keyboard, but they get the job done The only keyboard I've not used in everyday use is an Android tablet based one (just the phone), but use (several) iPad(s) and a Surface Pro daily.

About same as an iPad Mini but with the screen size and aspect ratio of the SP2 it takes up far too much of the screen in landscape. Portrait is ok however.

So i guess its a type cover all the way. I heard the upcoming phone 8.1 will have swipe functionality so one can only hope that it makes its way to full windows in an update.

One last thing how is predictive text? i'm hoping its more akin to Android than it is iOS.


Now just waiting for MS to restock the 256GB model.

My gripe about it is that it is very expensive, overpriced if you ask me. A MacBook Air, with the same specs (Surface = $1,300, Air= $1,250, aside from the storage capacity, only 128GB difference. A 128GB Surface Pro costs $1000, and has 4GB of RAM rather than 8GB. The processor remains the same, 1.7GHz Haswell i5) costs $50 less. The 512GB Surface Pro costs $1,800. For $50 less, you'll get a 13" Retina Display MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHz dual core i7, the same RAM and 128GB of storage. I would get something with better processing power and a larger screen, but that's me.

This part is quite biased, They're both comparable specs and price wise, config for config. Some instances the surface comes out cheaper and in some the Air. A 128GB difference in flash storage is huge when its literally double the amount. More over, while they both may be ultra portables, the surface is a hybrid and i'm assuming most people who choose the surface pro do so for the touch screen\digitiser and that it can function as a full fledged tablet.