Surface 3 vs. Ultrabook

[vietly23]

Hey guys! I'm off to college this fall, and I am having trouble on deciding what kind of computer I will buy. Should I get the Surface 3 or an ultrabook? If possible, list a justification so I may be able to weigh the pros/cons of each. Thanks!

[Guest]

Honestly I bought the Surface pro 2, my logic was, yes I needed a mobile computer but I don't want to carry around a laptop that takes up precious desk real estate or add unnecessary weight. Books are heavy man and the last thing I need is my laptop to break on my way to class.

[GoodBytes]

Hey guys! I'm off to college this fall, and I am having trouble on deciding what kind of computer I will buy. Should I get the Surface 3 or an ultrabook? If possible, list a justification so I may be able to weigh the pros/cons of each. Thanks!

As a student at university with a Surface Pro 2 (and used to have a laptop), the Surface Pro is an excellent choice. It shines with OneNote 2013.

I try and get my book in digital copy form, which allows me to take segment (copy if I can select them, else screen clip with OneNote if I can't), and paste it in my notes in OneNote, to compliment them. I can type my notes in class, and when comes to diagram, graphs, math, I can easily switch to tablet, do them with the pen, and flip back to laptop mode. For classes like math, I can stay in tablet mode, and just hand write all my notes.

Here is a sample:

OneNote has a powerful Ink Math to text. On a laptop, I just could not do easily the above.

Picture copies from book added to notes.

Where things can fail in your note taking skill. Teacher uses broken PDF file and everything is on it, and posted online right before class, so that you can't interact with it, and you have to import it as image in OneNote. Something that is time consuming, and sometimes it doesn't work well, due to the broken PDF, and teacher is not bothered to fix it, as he or she doesn't care about teaching his or her class and just want to do their research.

The device in itself is powerful. I have the Pro 2 rev 2. So it has the same CPU as the Pro 3 med range model (Core i5 4300U CPU). It runs everything perfectly. To be picky: playing 1080p MKV under aggressive Power Saver power plan setting (max/min CPU set to 0%, locking the CPU at 750MHz) it can handle the load. Intel GPU (HD4400) is not fast enough. The system needs to be under Balance. Firefox takes a bit of time than normal to load under Power Saver power plan. If you like Chrome, then be prepared to enjoy much less battery life. Chrome is power hungry. One thing to note is that the U series CPU, which the Surface Pro uses, is that it is power efficient, but when pushed, it consumes a lot of power, and eats your battery. Chrome is not power-aware software and due to its aggressiveness in rendering it consumes a lot of the CPU.

IE11 will give you the best battery life as confirmed by reviews, Firefox in second spot right behind it, and Chrome third. Same applies for games, if you play a demanding PC game, expect on the Pro 2 (we have to see for the Pro 3, would be a bit better due to the larger battery), ~3h, but if I turn off wireless, and minimum screen brightness, I get ~12h reading a document. So as you can see, the difference is large. I get ~7-8h on Pro 2 normal school usage. So, the 9h web surfing claim by Microsoft is possible to be accurate.

[peters.11]

the main reason why I brought the pro 2 is because when they announced it they were editing 6k footage on it. I didn't get close to that and i killed it. 

[GoodBytes]

the main reason why I brought the pro 2 is because when they announced it they were editing 6k footage on it. I didn't get close to that and i killed it.

Did you use Assimilate? 'cause that was the software they used. http://www.assimilateinc.com/

[peters.11]

I think thats the software that everyone uses

[GoodBytes]

Also what do you mean by editing. I just watched the press conference and beside color adjustment and playback of "RAW content", they didn't show rendering. The lack of OpenCL, DirectCompute, and CUDA due to the Intel integrated graphics (let alone being Intel integrated graphics(, should be obvious signs that it will take forever to render anything. The GPU can only output 4K at 30Hz at best.

The point that Microsoft was making, as at the time of the release of the Pro 2, the majority of other ultrabooks were slower, even similarly specs one, and based on benchmarks, that was true. They continued to stay on top with the rev 2 model with the 4300U CPU. The problem that Microsoft had was that the Surface 1 was too slow if you multitasking, and the Pro 1 had concern that the CPU would be too hot and always throttle due to the size of the device, which is not really true. So, to fix these concerns Microsoft pulled an Apple by stretching things.

Hopefully the device is useful to you in other ways, though.

[toughtrasher]

I like the Surface 3 much much better.

[Ramzez]

I'm currently studying at university and I've tried using a tablet but it wasn't as ideal as ultrabook in my usage scenario. I do a lot of notes during classes and I would have to carry around the touch cover all the time so it defeats the purpose for having a tablet. Also I rarely use the touch screen on my ultrabook because it's so much slower than using a real keyboard and a trackpad. Surface could be a better touch experience but I highly doubt that it could be better than an ultrabook. There might be some situations where the Surface is better (like what GoodBytes posted) but it always comes down to personal preference.

[GoodBytes]

I'm currently studying at university and I've tried using a tablet but it wasn't as ideal as ultrabook in my usage scenario. I do a lot of notes during classes and I would have to carry around the touch cover all the time so it defeats the purpose for having a tablet. Also I rarely use the touch screen on my ultrabook because it's so much slower than using a real keyboard and a trackpad. Surface could be a better touch experience but I highly doubt that it could be better than an ultrabook. There might be some situations where the Surface is better (like what GoodBytes posted) but it always comes down to personal preference.

The keyboard flips on the back, giving you a nice grip and avoid scratching the back the device. And when you close it normally it protects the screen. The keyboard and touchpad disables itself when you flip it on the back.

Touch is faster than mouse as you can quickly jump to which button you want to hit, you don't need to slide your finger to move a cursor on the button and target it, and hit. Although, if you use Windows at 100% DPI, on a screen small like the Surface Pro 1, 2 and 3 (Pro 3 has a larger screen but the resolution is higher), and the target you want to fit is small, track pad may be faster as you need to target well your finger. But it is usually not a problem. Also Office 2013 has touch mode, which makes everything larger and allows you to select and edit text with your finger like a normal tablet. If you use the tablet at 150% DPI, then it is not a problem.

[Ramzez]

The keyboard flips on the back, giving you a nice grip and avoid scratching the back the device. And when you close it normally it protects the screen. The keyboard and touchpad disables itself when you flip it on the back.

Touch is faster than mouse as you can quickly jump to which button you want to hit, you don't need to slide your finger to move a cursor on the button and target it, and hit. Although, if you use Windows at 100% DPI, on a screen small like the Surface Pro 1, 2 and 3 (Pro 3 has a larger screen but the resolution is higher), and the target you want to fit is small, track pad may be faster as you need to target well your finger. But it is usually not a problem. Also Office 2013 has touch mode, which makes everything larger and allows you to select and edit text with your finger like a normal tablet. If you use the tablet at 150% DPI, then it is not a problem.

 

Well I don't like to scale the Windows because it makes some applications "blurry". And if I'm not wrong, using excel with touch controls isn't as good as using it with traditional keyboard and trackpad.