63 replies to this topic

[Mike in STL]

What's your take? Here's the deal. I have an iPad that collects dust because my phone that fits in my pocket does everything my iPad does. And I have a laptop.

My soon to be wife wants the new Surface 3 tablet because its a tablet that acts as a laptop. Has Office which she uses often for work. Its light for her to take to work.

Question is does it really act as a laptop? Am I really killing two birds with one stone? Or will it eventually go the way of the iPad where if I'm not using our laptop she'll gravitate to it instead and just continue to use her phone for casual stuff like email and looking up random things?

[Chris B]

I'm actually in the same boat for myself. I like the functionality of the Surface 3, just don't know if I'll use it over my laptop.

 

If anyone has one or has suggestions, I'd love to hear your opinion.

[JeremyStrain]

There are still things you'll need a computer for. It does fine if ALL you use your laptop for is to browse the internet, but if you copy pictures to the computer to upload or share, or if you need to save files, even just the functionality of some websites you can't get on a mobile version.

 

It's nice and all, but I wouldn't say it's a replacement for a computer, just an alternative.

[RShack]

Depends on what her balance of usage is... Surface 3 big among biz folks, but most of them are primarily consumers of data, not generators... so, they do some email and maybe the occasional doc, but what they're mainly doing is looking at the screen, not mainly using the keyboard...  

 

If it was me, I'd ask her about that... ask her how important it is to her to have a good keyboard... plus, does she care about things like having a keyboard backlit... lots of very nice ultrabooks out there that compare very favorably to the Surface 3 while being actual notebooks, not tablets-with-a-trick...

[Mike in STL]

Depends on what her balance of usage is... Surface 3 big among biz folks, but most of them are primarily consumers of data, not generators... so, they do some email and maybe the occasional doc, but what they're mainly doing is looking at the screen, not mainly using the keyboard...  

 

If it was me, I'd ask her about that... ask her how important it is to her to have a good keyboard... plus, does she care about things like having a keyboard backlit... lots of very nice ultrabooks out there that compare very favorably to the Surface 3 while being actual notebooks, not tablets-with-a-trick...

That sounds like what she uses it for most. Reading and answering emails. She puts together invoices. Probably surfing the web too. facebook, pintrest, pandora, etc..

[Mike in STL]

There are still things you'll need a computer for. It does fine if ALL you use your laptop for is to browse the internet, but if you copy pictures to the computer to upload or share, or if you need to save files, even just the functionality of some websites you can't get on a mobile version.

 

It's nice and all, but I wouldn't say it's a replacement for a computer, just an alternative.

Plus the more I'm reading, it sounds like if you want any accessories with the Surface, like the keyboard that you see in the commercial, you need to pay extra. I'm sure there is a service plan that would be a good idea to get.

 

If shes going to print things it means buying a wireless printer.

 

Probably looking more and more like I can just get her a nice new laptop for half the price that'll do everything she needs, that's also lightweight for her to carry around with ease. 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Does she have to provide her own computer for work?  Is whatever you buy going to be the main device she uses at the office, or will it only get occasional use for work?

[RShack]

If shes going to print things it means buying a wireless printer.

 

You can get a cheap gizmo that makes any USB printer wireless...

[JeremyStrain]

Plus the more I'm reading, it sounds like if you want any accessories with the Surface, like the keyboard that you see in the commercial, you need to pay extra. I'm sure there is a service plan that would be a good idea to get.

 

If shes going to print things it means buying a wireless printer.

 

Probably looking more and more like I can just get her a nice new laptop for half the price that'll do everything she needs, that's also lightweight for her to carry around with ease. 

 

You could always get her one of the lightweight 2 in 1s that are laptops with touchscreens so you can use them as a tablet too.

[Mike in STL]

Does she have to provide her own computer for work?  Is whatever you buy going to be the main device she uses at the office, or will it only get occasional use for work?

She doesnt have to. They gave her a chrome book. But it doesnt do what she needs. she can't build invoices with it and whatnot. They got it for her, but they didn't really ask what she needs.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I guess you could always think about getting a cheapo $400 - $500 laptop and a $99 Kindle Fire 6" and you'd probably have all of the functionality of the Surface Pro 3 for a lot less money.  It wouldn't look as cool, though.

[RShack]

My bride has one of these and absolutely loves it:   http://www.cnet.com/...3000-ultrabook/  and  http://www.pcmag.com...,2429932,00.asp

However, it appears that they don't make it any more.

 

This item is basically the same thing, but it separates into just a tablet if you want it to: http://www.cnet.com/...re-13t-h200-x2/ and http://www.notebookc...e.105682.0.html

Somebody said the trackpad was lousy, but that could be a fixed-by-now firmware issue (or not, beats me).

There's a 1080-display version that's only a very few bucks more than the 768-display version, and is well worth the nominal upgrade price.

 

She also tried one of these: http://www.cnet.com/...acer-aspire-s7/ It's normal price is high, but she tried it because it was *way* cheaper as a refurb from the Acer store on ebay.  She liked it a lot, but not as much as she liked the first one I linked to above.

 

If I wanted a 13.3" screen, as of the time she was looking (early this year) this is the one I would have wanted, but it costs too much: 

http://www.cnet.com/...iv-book-9-plus/

 

 

FWIW...

[RShack]

She doesnt have to. They gave her a chrome book. But it doesnt do what she needs. she can't build invoices with it and whatnot. They got it for her, but they didn't really ask what she needs.

 

I was out of town in April and my laptop died with a week+ before I was headed home... and I can't be without connectivity for long (personal addiction)... so I got a HP-14 Chromebook sent to me... I expected to not like it, it was just a temp fix... but it's actually great... I was truly amazed...

 

After all these years, Chromebooks mean that somebody finally delivered on the big promise:  a PC without all the bullshit.  It's exactly what 95% of people need.  (The main issue now is that nobody makes a proper mid-range one: $500-$600 with a great screen and backlit keyboard.)  

 

Dunno exactly what your bride needs, but you can do a lot more with a Chromebook than most people think... I not only have my $200 HP-14 4GB-LTE refurb, but I also got a cherry used Pixel 4GB-LTE via ebay... my now-fixed killer laptop gets used about 2% of the time... are you sure she can't do it with google-docs?  or with OpenOffice?  Doesn't the company pay for Office 360?

 

(The only thing that's fascist about Chromebooks is that you need to use the Google-cloud-print thing in order to print anything... a old dusty netbook sitting by the printer solves that, but it annoys me anyway, just on principle.)

[Mike in STL]

I did look and office 365 is $99 a year to get office on every device. The iPad too.

After sleeping on it, Instead of the $999 for the surface, I may just do $849 for the MacBook air laptop. Maybe having a Mac laptop will sync up the iPad better and she can use both and figure out the cloud and yada yada yada... can't go wrong with a new mac I guess. Gives me an excuse to get a new mac when my five year old pc craps out on me.

[RShack]

I'm sure there is a service plan that would be a good idea to get.

 

It would be the first one ever....

[Mike in STL]

I'm sure there is a service plan that would be a good idea to get.

 
It would be the first one ever....

Haha. About that. I bought the MacBook air this morning. The three year service plan was $400!!!!. If she breaks it, she's S.O.L.

[RShack]

Haha. About that. I bought the MacBook air this morning. The three year service plan was $400!!!!. 

All of them are pretty much the Bend Over and Smile Plan...

[Dupin]

All of them are pretty much the Bend Over and Smile Plan...

Especially with Apple. The hardware failures and forced redundancies are planned so you have to buy more of their overpriced crap.

[JeremyStrain]

It would be the first one ever....

 

I got a 2 year plan on my daughter's iPad Mini. She's 4, I'd say that's a solid bet.

[RShack]

I got a 2 year plan on my daughter's iPad Mini. She's 4, I'd say that's a solid bet.

 

You bought an iPad Mini for a 4 yr old?