kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
Do you carry around your 17" Sony (or the Dell XPS) AND the Surface Pro when you are on the road?
Anyone replaced their home computer with the Surface Pro?
- Thread starter Profoxcg
- Start date
Do you carry around your 17" Sony (or the Dell XPS) AND the Surface Pro when you are on the road?
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
That's cool. Though, I found that when I had to carry my ThinkPad R400 everyday, it almost broke my back - too heavy and cumbersome. Carrying the Surface RT is perfect for me. I pair that with a Nexus 10 and my total work/ play needs are met. Of course, all this is highly relative to the kind of work/ play that one does/ engages in.
HD_Dude
New Member
Exactly.
But my use of the Surface Pro - bringing it along with my laptop - is not new behavior. I used to do the same thing with an iPad, a Nexus 7, a Kindle Fire...I always liked traveling with a big, fast laptop, along with a small, fun tablet.
Those tablets, however, always disapponted me. Since my big laptops easily fill up the entire tray on planes, I use tablets to watch HD movies when I fly. I burn them from BluRay in big files. And all of the above tablets filled up too soon, when loading 'em with a bunch of 7-10GB movies. Plus, if I wanted to watch a film directly from an external 3.0 hard drive, no way. Plus, when you're headed back home and want to delete some movies to add more? Totally difficult on the iPad. The iPad had to be synced with the main iTunes computer to add or delete content. So right there - I needed my big laptop. Same is true if I take a bunch of HQ digital photos on a trip. The iPad could only accept SD cards, with an adapter, but my camera shoots 36MP files on both SD and CF. So, one of my card types won't work, and even using the other card, it would fill up the iPad instantly, and then forget any movies or music.
The Surface though, is incredibly adaptable to external content. Plug in a drive and drag and drop the content right to the SD card or internal memory. And when it's done? Delete it. Replace it with new content. If I like, I can plug in my external hard drive, which is USB 3.0, and watch a movie directly from there on the Surface. Camera? Plug its USB 3.0 cable right into the Surface's USB 3.0 slot. If the 64GB card fills up, I can plug in another. And for all those photos, I can process with Photoshop - the real one, not the tablet version.
Perfect.
So for me, the success I've found with the Surface is not that it replaces my desktop. Rather, it's that it can - when I'm totally mobile. When I'm flying, or in a coffee shop, or in a car, or on a train, there are no trade-offs. Zero. The Surface gives me 100% at all times. And finally, I no longer say 'I can't do that, because it's only a tablet.'
But my use of the Surface Pro - bringing it along with my laptop - is not new behavior. I used to do the same thing with an iPad, a Nexus 7, a Kindle Fire...I always liked traveling with a big, fast laptop, along with a small, fun tablet.
Those tablets, however, always disapponted me. Since my big laptops easily fill up the entire tray on planes, I use tablets to watch HD movies when I fly. I burn them from BluRay in big files. And all of the above tablets filled up too soon, when loading 'em with a bunch of 7-10GB movies. Plus, if I wanted to watch a film directly from an external 3.0 hard drive, no way. Plus, when you're headed back home and want to delete some movies to add more? Totally difficult on the iPad. The iPad had to be synced with the main iTunes computer to add or delete content. So right there - I needed my big laptop. Same is true if I take a bunch of HQ digital photos on a trip. The iPad could only accept SD cards, with an adapter, but my camera shoots 36MP files on both SD and CF. So, one of my card types won't work, and even using the other card, it would fill up the iPad instantly, and then forget any movies or music.
The Surface though, is incredibly adaptable to external content. Plug in a drive and drag and drop the content right to the SD card or internal memory. And when it's done? Delete it. Replace it with new content. If I like, I can plug in my external hard drive, which is USB 3.0, and watch a movie directly from there on the Surface. Camera? Plug its USB 3.0 cable right into the Surface's USB 3.0 slot. If the 64GB card fills up, I can plug in another. And for all those photos, I can process with Photoshop - the real one, not the tablet version.
Perfect.
So for me, the success I've found with the Surface is not that it replaces my desktop. Rather, it's that it can - when I'm totally mobile. When I'm flying, or in a coffee shop, or in a car, or on a train, there are no trade-offs. Zero. The Surface gives me 100% at all times. And finally, I no longer say 'I can't do that, because it's only a tablet.'
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Inadorel
Member
For me - the Pro is not a full desktop substitute because my main machine is a monster that often needs to run 3 or 4 vms at a time, plus VS, Office and various other tools. It is however a laptop substitute - I am not planning on taking my ThinkPad out on the road again - too heavy and bulky. I completely agree with HD_Dude that it is not 'only a tablet' - I only wish that MS had given the option for 8G (or even 16!) RAM.
maybe Surface 2.0 .. I do too want this.
HD_Dude
New Member
It could be - I want it to be - but until there is a real docking solution that makes it easy to just grab and go, it can't be my primary computer. Frankly, thinking about returning my Pro because of this. Amazing to me that this wasn't a priority for MS. This would seem to have been such a major selling point in the business market.
Have you looked at the Ultrabook space? I only know of two that have Old School Docking Ports (one from HP and one from Lenovo). The rest use the USB Docking and many require dongles for Ethernet and Video Out. So if traditional Docking Stations are your requirement you'll need to move to mainstream business laptops or move down to HP Atom Elitepad 900. Also I believe the Samsung ATIV 700T has a dock (used without the keyboard dock) coming available some time this quarter.
I would like a MS UBS dock. Something that follows the design aesthetics of the surface.
I use this device very much for hand writing and sketching and marking up stuff with the pen. I tried to have to connected to a screen and it works okay. I can have the main items on the large screen and write notes on the surface (second screen) however, with power cable and video cable it gets a little bothersome.
I wish they would have invented ONE cable for power, video and USB.
I use this device very much for hand writing and sketching and marking up stuff with the pen. I tried to have to connected to a screen and it works okay. I can have the main items on the large screen and write notes on the surface (second screen) however, with power cable and video cable it gets a little bothersome.
I wish they would have invented ONE cable for power, video and USB.
Nuspieds
Active Member
I don't know about the capabilities of the cover connection, but it seems to me that it is more than just a magnetic connection. As such, I would think that there is room in the future for such a thing as a docking station.
Had MS included docking capability in this first version, I do not think that we'd have this product today. I certainly believe that the capability and hardware to dock would certainly have significantly delayed launch.
Much as I dislike sharing bandwidth amongst my peripherals, I am content using a USB 3 hub as my docking station for this first version. Where I have the option, I always go USB 3 instead of 2, to ensure optimum performance.
Had MS included docking capability in this first version, I do not think that we'd have this product today. I certainly believe that the capability and hardware to dock would certainly have significantly delayed launch.
Much as I dislike sharing bandwidth amongst my peripherals, I am content using a USB 3 hub as my docking station for this first version. Where I have the option, I always go USB 3 instead of 2, to ensure optimum performance.
