RT or Pro for requirements

[leahtt]

I'm an iPad 3 owner who is looking to move to a Windows tablet, but not sure which one yet.

I use Textastic on the iPad for both writing html / css and ftp and know about Code Writer for the RT, but what do you use for ftp? Is Mftp good?

Have a Mac Book Pro supplied for editing booklets, pamphlets etc. and wondering if the RT and Word would handle an A5 sized booklet of 60 pages with lots of photos, with up to eight in colour?
Would I be better with a Pro in case of emergency if the Mac book failed.

My printer tells me they have no trouble printing large Word docs.

In any case I would like to know if the RT and Word could handle a 60 page booklet on an RT?

Donkey & Mule Society of New Zealand (Inc.) - Donkey & Mule Protection Trust

 

[souldier]

I don't own a surface RT, but I have heard complaints that it can start getting bogged down with certain tasks. 60 pages + pictures sounds like a bit too much load for the RT but would be a piece of cake for the Surface Pro.

 

[oion]

I don't own a surface RT, but I have heard complaints that it can start getting bogged down with certain tasks. 60 pages + pictures sounds like a bit too much load for the RT but would be a piece of cake for the Surface Pro.

This is such a generalized and assumptive statement that it's meaningless, besides which you don't even have an RT to do a proper test.

Your second mistake is about page size. A5 paper size is 148 × 210mm (5.8 x 8.3 inches). This is definitely not 8.5"11" letter and should take up less space in file size and resources. That said, I don't have a Word document at the moment with a lot of graphics that translates to 60 A5 pages; I have a document that translates to 98 pages in A5 format, which loaded and scrolls fine, but otherwise I don't know what sort of formatting tests you'd want to do.

That said, since you have both an iPad and MacBook, I think it'd be more efficient to replace both with a Pro (2 is coming "soon" and should have noticeably better battery life than Pro 1) unless you definitely want two separate devices for some reason. RT certainly comes with MS Office while Pro doesn't.

 

[leahtt]

Thanks oion,
The Mac Pro was bought in 2010, works well, but I'd be curious to see if I could use Windows 8 with Word on a tablet instead.
I like the fact that the RT is safe from viruses. Never had a problem with a Mac but am afraid that the Pro would be open to viruses.
Also the RT is light, I have Kindle on the iPad for reading and would want to read on the Tablet. The RT does not have a fan either which is a plus.
The 60 page booklet loads as a pdf on the RT, but I don't know how it would handle formatting it in Word.

I'm giving the iPad to a family member as soon as I purchase a tablet. Will be very interested when Microsoft releases the final details on the 2nd round of their Tablets. I love the touch screen on the iPad and have played with the Windows tablets in a store. Really impressed and oh to have folders! I find the iPad very basic even with all the great apps, which by the way, take an age to load each time I want to use them.

 

[jnjroach]

I manage Pivot Tables based Reports that are 10-25MBs in size and Technical Documents that 100s of pages with graphics and tables in Word all the time on my RT. If you can hold off for a month I'm sure we will see the new Surface Tablets as well as a bunch of other options (Nokia Tablet, Bay Trail Atom Tablets, etc.).

 

[oion]

Thanks oion,
The Mac Pro was bought in 2010, works well, but I'd be curious to see if I could use Windows 8 with Word on a tablet instead.
I like the fact that the RT is safe from viruses. Never has a problem with a Mac but am afraid that the Pro would be open to viruses.
Also the RT is light, I have Kindle on the iPad for reading and would want to read on the Tablet. The RT does not have a fan either which is a plus.
The 60 page booklet loads as a pdf on the RT, but I don't know how it would handle formatting it in Word.

I'm giving the iPad to a family member as soon as I purchase a tablet. Will be very interested when Microsoft releases the final details on the 2nd round of their Tablets. I love the touch screen on the iPad and have played with the Windows tablets in a store. Really impressed and oh to have folders! I find the iPad very basic even with all the great apps, which by the way, take an age to load each time I want to use them.

It's best to think of either Surface as a true hybrid tablet--you'll need to buy the keyboard separately, and I highly recommend the Type cover; you wouldn't use MS Office on a pure "tablet," after all.

While full Windows is indeed more prone to viruses, that depends a whole lot on what you do with it. Download stuff a lot? Use what web browsers? Allow Windows to auto-update? Also, starting with Windows 7, Microsoft's own Security Essentials suite (free) does a fine job. But it's true that Windows in general simply requires more maintenance: It has a much higher market share than Mac OSes and is a riper target. If you're willing to figure out how to do the maintenance, then the Pro is a great tool. But if you're paranoid or unwilling to figure that out, the RT devices are certainly much more low-maintenance in that respect.

As for fan noise, I'm not sure, but supposedly the Pro's fan kicks into high gear only when you do more heavy-duty things like gaming. But I get how it can be an irritant, since my first WinXP subnotebook imported from Japan was cutting edge because it didn't have a fan either. Another plus for the RT.

As for handling large documents with images, keep in mind that I have a first generation RT. The new generation is supposed to have more memory and a faster CPU. But you may or may not want to wait for the new release (we'll find out exactly when at the Sep 23 announcement thing). Unless you have six browser windows open and Excel and PPT and a game open at the same time, I'd personally hedge my bets that the RT can handle your use case (30pp letter size in this case) if the malware, fan, and size issues are important enough to you, especially if the only thing you do on your MacBook Pro is editing anyway. The RT can easily fill that use requirement.

I'll add, though, that you didn't mention how much graphic editing power you need for those images you put into pamphlets. There are plenty of basic photo editing apps on the RT (you can browse them to get an idea of what they can do), but if you need something more powerful like Photoshop, you'd have to get the Pro.

Edit to add: I haven't tried the FTP apps in the app store, but I really should since I'll need it eventually. (I'm so used to using PuTTy, however, I may just do the soft jailbreak to sideload those.)

 

[leahtt]

It's best to think of either Surface as a true hybrid tablet--you'll need to buy the keyboard separately, and I highly recommend the Type cover; you wouldn't use MS Office on a pure "tablet," after all.

While full Windows is indeed more prone to viruses, that depends a whole lot on what you do with it. Download stuff a lot? Use what web browsers? Allow Windows to auto-update? Also, starting with Windows 7, Microsoft's own Security Essentials suite (free) does a fine job. But it's true that Windows in general simply requires more maintenance: It has a much higher market share than Mac OSes and is a riper target. If you're willing to figure out how to do the maintenance, then the Pro is a great tool. But if you're paranoid or unwilling to figure that out, the RT devices are certainly much more low-maintenance in that respect.

As for fan noise, I'm not sure, but supposedly the Pro's fan kicks into high gear only when you do more heavy-duty things like gaming. But I get how it can be an irritant, since my first WinXP subnotebook imported from Japan was cutting edge because it didn't have a fan either. Another plus for the RT.

As for handling large documents with images, keep in mind that I have a first generation RT. The new generation is supposed to have more memory and a faster CPU. But you may or may not want to wait for the new release (we'll find out exactly when at the Sep 23 announcement thing). Unless you have six browser windows open and Excel and PPT and a game open at the same time, I'd personally hedge my bets that the RT can handle your use case (30pp letter size in this case) if the malware, fan, and size issues are important enough to you, especially if the only thing you do on your MacBook Pro is editing anyway. The RT can easily fill that use requirement.

I'll add, though, that you didn't mention how much graphic editing power you need for those images you put into pamphlets. There are plenty of basic photo editing apps on the RT (you can browse them to get an idea of what they can do), but if you need something more powerful like Photoshop, you'd have to get the Pro.

Edit to add: I haven't tried the FTP apps in the app store, but I really should since I'll need it eventually. (I'm so used to using PuTTy, however, I may just do the soft jailbreak to sideload those.)

I work with a lot of graphics on the Mac Book Pro but having said that, Adobe PS Touch works amazingly on the iPad. I do hope it is made available for Windows 8.

As an experiment, I converted the 60 page file to both pdf and Word, loaded them onto my SkyDrive and then opened each one using the SkyDrive's Word. Both files are about 30MB and both opened using my iPad on SkyDrive. The file saved into Word had changed fonts - no surprise - and some of the graphics were peculiar, especially those with layering and backgrounds in alfa. The pdf opened flawlessly.

Next time I'm in town, I shall take a pen drive and I am sure that the nice man at the store will let me try out the files on the Surface.

Yes, I am definitely holding out until the new announcements on the 23rd. I do hope that the new devices are made available by Microsoft in the Southern Hemisphere very soon after. People like me need to be able to get our hands on them well before the Christmas market, so we can show others how impressive they are!

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I'm an iPad 3 owner who is looking to move to a Windows tablet, but not sure which one yet.

I use Textastic on the iPad for both writing html / css and ftp and know about Code Writer for the RT, but what do you use for ftp? Is Mftp good?

Have a Mac Book Pro supplied for editing booklets, pamphlets etc. and wondering if the RT and Word would handle an A5 sized booklet of 60 pages with lots of photos, with up to eight in colour?
Would I be better with a Pro in case of emergency if the Mac book failed.

My printer tells me they have no trouble printing large Word docs.

In any case I would like to know if the RT and Word could handle a 60 page booklet on an RT?

Donkey & Mule Society of New Zealand (Inc.) - Donkey & Mule Protection Trust

I have a 132 page document that is in booklet form (5.5" x 8.5") which is very close to A5 size. Only 1/2 dozen images. But I was able to load it into Word on the RT and traverse the entire document smoothly. I'll see if I can insert some photos in it and see if the RT can handle it.

 

[oion]

I work with a lot of graphics on the Mac Book Pro but having said that, Adobe PS Touch works amazingly on the iPad. I do hope it is made available for Windows 8.

As an experiment, I converted the 60 page file to both pdf and Word, loaded them onto my SkyDrive and then opened each one using the SkyDrive's Word. Both files are about 30MB and both opened using my iPad on SkyDrive. The file saved into Word had changed fonts - no surprise - and some of the graphics were peculiar, especially those with layering and backgrounds in alfa. The pdf opened flawlessly.

Next time I'm in town, I shall take a pen drive and I am sure that the nice man at the store will let me try out the files on the Surface.

Yes, I am definitely holding out until the new announcements on the 23rd. I do hope that the new devices are made available by Microsoft in the Southern Hemisphere very soon after. People like me need to be able to get our hands on them well before the Christmas market, so we can show others how impressive they are!

This is the only official Adobe photo-editing app in the store at the moment: Adobe Photoshop Express now available for Windows 8 and RT | Windows Phone Central

There are lots of photo editing apps now and you might find one that does what you need. Perhaps Adobe will add more features or something; I've never used these stripped down photo apps before and rely on Photoshop on my desktop PC. In fact, I use the regular built-in MS Paint in Surface's desktop mode for certain basics (crop, resize, rotate, add shapes) along with the ability to annotate (type/scribble text directly on image--for some reason, other photo apps don't allow this).

FTP: I read more of the mFTP reviews. It doesn't allow active connections nor SFTP (a bit of a dealbreaker for me, and it looks like there are no SFTP apps in the store so I'll have to jailbreak eventually). Win8/RT also has its built-in FTP client that's command-line, in case someone is comfortable using that.

Definitely get some good hands-on demo experience when you can.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Let me add to this:

I have the RT. I also have a published manuscript - approx. 340 a4 sized pages with 16 diagrams. I was reviewing some of my references and the index to the MS recently. It worked brilliantly - no lag whatsoever. I am signing my next book contract within the month and will be using the RT (when I am not in my study) to work on the new MS, which I expect will be of similar length and with a similar number of diagrams. I have also recently proof-read another MS (by another author) recently. That was about 250 pages but it had no images. That document also worked brilliantly on the RT.

 

[leahtt]

oion wrote

FTP: I read more of the mFTP reviews. It doesn't allow active connections nor SFTP (a bit of a dealbreaker for me, and it looks like there are no SFTP apps in the store so I'll have to jailbreak eventually). Win8/RT also has its built-in FTP client that's command-line, in case someone is comfortable using that.

Definitely get some good hands-on demo experience when you can.

Thanks, no SFTP is a deal-breaker for me too. I'm not sure that command line would be viable. I have all my web sites bookmarked so it is just a click to load files.

 

[leahtt]

Let me add to this:

I have the RT. I also have a published manuscript - approx. 340 a4 sized pages with 16 diagrams. I was reviewing some of my references and the index to the MS recently. It worked brilliantly - no lag whatsoever. I am signing my next book contract within the month and will be using the RT (when I am not in my study) to work on the new MS, which I expect will be of similar length and with a similar number of diagrams. I have also recently proof-read another MS (by another author) recently. That was about 250 pages but it had no images. That document also worked brilliantly on the RT.

Thanks for that, it looks as the RT is much more useful than the iPad.