Mac to Surface? Are you still Happy?

[scottysize]

And an update, yes I did sell it to a friend who loves Windows 8, so it's all good. I never did get a response from any other Mac users. My original question's still out there.

If you were a Mac user, are you still happy with your Surface?

 

[InspectHerGadget]

And an update, yes I did sell it to a friend who loves Windows 8, so it's all good. I never did get a response from any other Mac users. My original question's still out there.

If you were a Mac user, are you still happy with your Surface?

I was never a purely Mac user but I've had a series of MacBooks and currently own a MBA 11 2014 and a iPad Air.

I find now that I have the Surface Pro (2) and having returned the SP3 as I didn't like the Pen and writing part, I still really love the SP2. I find I rarely use the MBA but I can't replace the iPad Air. As a tablet the iPad is perfect.

The MBA I love by the way and in terms of keyboard, OS and trackpad it is better in some ways than either the SP2 or SP3. It is a windows world though and I run MYOB and prefer windows for compatibility. I also like the online services that Microsoft have such as OneDrive, their email, People app and all the rest.

The MBA is more refined but I like what Microsoft are doing and I can't handwrite on the MBA and overall the SP2 is wonderful. It gets used all the time and I sometimes use my desktop and at night I reach for my iPad and occasionally my MBA. For work, I record job notes in handwriting so again it is the SP2 I reach for.

 

[macmee]

I just bought a Surface Pro 3 i7 and also a 2014 Retina Macbook Pro i7 (real 4 cores vs 2 in the Surface).

They're two different devices. I write software at a desk with my MacBook, and I take notes and read books on my Surface in bed. Both devices are disgustingly overpowered, and I'll likely never need their full processing power for anything whatsoever.

Some notes about both:

Pro MacBook:
* I prefer OS X to Windows because I think it's a lot less buggy personally
* Better specs all around compared to the SP3
* Thunderbolt (4k monitors, daisy chaining displays, etc)
* Unix like, so my dev environment works on it, also xcode works on it

Pro SP3:
* Thinner and lighter
* Better battery life
* I prefer OS X but Windows has better touch features
* More variety of games work on it (though I don't play them)

tldr; I wouldn't get rid of OS X, but I will keep buying Windows tablets over iPads until you can actually things on an iPad.

 

[InspectHerGadget]

Longer battery life, better palm rejection while using pen.

Graphics and CPU will of course be faster. Some people might want the chance to put 4G SIM in it which is probably quite handy although I could live with it.

The keyboard and trackpad are good but should be steadily improved and there is room for improvement.

I should add too, that Microsoft need to emulate Apple and disable the trackpad and keyboard combinations while typing. I'm typing on an MBA at the moment and NEVER suddenly lose text or get shunted out of what i'm doing whereas on a Windows 8 laptop or any of the Surface range it happens very regularly. This I think is an OS issue though.

 

[Geneo]

I was a Mac user.
Yes, I'm still happy.

 

[DeltaXray]

I was a Mac user and I am extremely happy. As an IT Infrastructure Specialist/Consultant I pretty much match the use cases the SP3 absolutely excels at. So I find this machine far and away more productive than my MacBook pro.

 

[InspectHerGadget]

It is a windows world and I also like the handwriting of the Surface Pro series, something the Mac can't do.

 

[Lobo]

I got the whole Mac fleet sitting right here and I'm a happy camper for it, but I need Windows on the job and fumbling around with Bootcamp / Parallels does get old after a while.

So far, the SP3 seems to be a great choice for my particular use case, constantly switching positions (sitting / standing) while working with my computer, the flexibility is just awesome.

Happy? Yes. But then I wouldn't kick my Macs out of the house either.

 

[InspectHerGadget]

I got the whole Mac fleet sitting right here and I'm a happy camper for it, but I need Windows on the job and fumbling around with Bootcamp / Parallels does get old after a while.

So far, the SP3 seems to be a great choice for my particular use case, constantly switching positions (sitting / standing) while working with my computer, the flexibility is just awesome.

Happy? Yes. But then I wouldn't kick my Macs out of the house either.

All these devices are expensive hence the people who would like to use one device as a tablet and as a laptop and in fact for their only computer as well (not counting the phone which is also a computer).

I would sell my MBA if it were not needed for my business as I have a desktop, the SP2 and a cheap W8.1 laptop I put an SSD into. I do like the MBA due to the keyboard and mouse. It is very good.

I would be reluctant to sell the iPad Air though as it is perfect as a tablet, big but not too big, long battery life and a better browser IMHO than the modern IE.

I'm looking to sell the cheap W8.1 laptop as the battery life is inadequate whereas my SP2 battery life is adequate and up to the job (although more battery life would be good).

 

[scottysize]

Well, here's what I did.

I was able to get most of my money back by selling the Surface and keyboard to a buddy. He loves it. Like I said, the SP3 is a great device, but I couldn't take Windows 8.1. Maybe I would have been happy with 9? Who knows. The writing capability was not a big deal for me. My pen "sticker" holder fell off the keyboard after a few weeks and I just left the pen sitting on the table. I don't think I used the pen more than 4 times. I type faster than I write, so why would I want to write?

So, for me, I found that I had the perfect setup with the MacBook Pro and iPad Air. My new MacBook Pro should be here tomorrow. Sorry guys. I'm out. Once again, GREAT DEVICE that is being held down by a horrible OS.

 

[Moonsurface]

I'm glad you found a good solution for your needs.

personally I'm liking win 8.1 on my surface so much and find it so quick to use and multi task etc with the split screen that I miss it's features when I use my win 7 desktop... while I'm not about to upgrade my desktop to 8.1 I would definitely consider 9 on it!

 

[eltos_lightfoot]

I love my SP3 so much that I no longer have my iPhone 5s, iPad mini retina, and MacBook Air. Soon the hackintosh will be gone also...Apple has some catching up to do.