Specifications Advice

[rmgatl]

I have a nice budget from my employer ($5k) to get a new work machine. I thought about SP4 but I think I'll probably use it 75/25 as a traditional laptop so I'm pretty sure I want to try a Surface Book.

I will just be doing typical office work plus music apps like Staff Pad, maybe FL studio, etc. The music apps need lots of memory and a fast processor helps (although an i5 is probably fast enough for what I'm doing).

I know this is redundant with so many threads...it's been hard to keep track of various stories about heating, bugs, battery life issues etc. etc.

Bottom line, is there a particular configuration to favor or to avoid to minimize the impact of whatever remaining design shortcomings? For example, does the i5 exhibit fewer heating or battery problems (vs. the i7)?

I might as well get 16 GB of memory and suppose the 512 GB is big enough (1 T is within the budget though).

Any other considerations I might not have thought about? We will get the machine directly from MS so I would hope their inventory would have the latest/greatest SW/FW releases.

Thanks so much in advance! I don't get to do this very often and want to make a good decision.

 

[KBoss]

I have a nice budget from my employer ($5k) to get a new work machine. I thought about SP4 but I think I'll probably use it 75/25 as a traditional laptop so I'm pretty sure I want to try a Surface Book.

I will just be doing typical office work plus music apps like Staff Pad, maybe FL studio, etc. The music apps need lots of memory and a fast processor helps (although an i5 is probably fast enough for what I'm doing).

I know this is redundant with so many threads...it's been hard to keep track of various stories about heating, bugs, battery life issues etc. etc.

Bottom line, is there a particular configuration to favor or to avoid to minimize the impact of whatever remaining design shortcomings? For example, does the i5 exhibit fewer heating or battery problems (vs. the i7)?

I might as well get 16 GB of memory and suppose the 512 GB is big enough (1 T is within the budget though).

Any other considerations I might not have thought about? We will get the machine directly from MS so I would hope their inventory would have the latest/greatest SW/FW releases.

Thanks so much in advance! I don't get to do this very often and want to make a good decision.

Going to be totally honest with you dude, hold off on the Surface Book. I own one and love it, but there are still some issues with it that are getting annoying. It's a great product but the constant crashes...

 

[JaeMelo]

^ this. I have the i7/dGPU/16GB ram/512GB SSD and its littered with little annoyances. One of the most annoying is the keyboard and mouse failing to work at times. If you can put up with the laptop not working as intended for an indefinite amount of time go for it. Just be sure to grab their extended warranty.

 

[KBoss]

^ this. I have the i7/dGPU/16GB ram/512GB SSD and its littered with little annoyances. One of the most annoying is the keyboard and mouse failing to work at times. If you can put up with the laptop not working as intended for an indefinite amount of time go for it. Just be sure to grab their extended warranty.

Recently I've been having this issue, Surface Book Keyboard hardware failure?
and this is my second surface book, really considering swapping it out for the SP4 but I neeed the dGPU since I use 3D software (Engineering major). Probably going to head over to a Microsoft store and have them replace it

 

[rmgatl]

Thanks for the advice. Is the SP4 a safer bet?

I guess the main thing I'd lose is comfort holding it in my lap, although I've read folks claim to use it that way, no big deal. Who knows, I might really get into the tablet aspect of it.

I would wait on the next book version, but I've just got this window over the next few months to use the money offered to me by my employer.

 

[olimjj]

Thanks for the advice. Is the SP4 a safer bet?

I guess the main thing I'd lose is comfort holding it in my lap, although I've read folks claim to use it that way, no big deal. Who knows, I might really get into the tablet aspect of it.

I would wait on the next book version, but I've just got this window over the next few months to use the money offered to me by my employer.

Go for the surface book. You have 30 days to return it.

 

[rmgatl]

I won't tolerate bugs to be honest...if there are hiccups within the first week or two it will be going back to MS. I'm starting a new position and the last thing I will need is an unreliable machine.

If anyone cares to argue for just going with the SP4, I'm all ears.

 

[KBoss]

I won't tolerate bugs to be honest...if there are hiccups within the first week or two it will be going back to MS. I'm starting a new position and the last thing I will need is an unreliable machine.

If anyone cares to argue for just going with the SP4, I'm all ears.

Do you need the dGPU or the 2 usb ports that bad? If the answer's no then don't get it. Get a higher spec'd SP4 and get the display dock to connect it to a monitor if you really want a larger screen and more usb ports. Also you can just buy a USB adapter thing that has more USB ports on it.

 

[Niterider4]

If you won't tolerate bugs, then I would say the SB is not for you. It may be good one day, but it has lots of bugs now, and has had lots of bugs since it launched. MS appears to be trying to fix the bugs, but every time they fix one they seem to create another.

I love the SB in theory. However, the ever present bugs make it a frustrating piece of equipment to own and very difficult to rely on when needed.

 

[JaeMelo]

Your best bet would probably be to simply go out and play with both machines. See which you like best and go from there. Personally I prefer the traditional laptop form over the Surface Pro setup. I'm sure Intel and Microsoft will sort out the driver issues eventually, assuming it isn't something seriously wrong with the new Skylake chipsets themselves.

 

[everalm]

Bit of advice, people mostly post if they are unhappy with something rarely if they are happy with it.

As an example, I have the i5 8Gb 256Gb with dGPU, bought 6 weeks after release.

After the usual round of MS updates and patches during the first month, then normal cycle since I have had precisely

One BSOD
Three "Your video card stopped and restarted" back in middle/end December
No issues with WiFi, Bluetooth
A couple of occasions of a freeze of a tab in IE more likely related to the website or the VPN connection
No crashes with Edge although it seems a bit of a power hog IMHO so lower usage than IE11

I run Office 2010 extensively, travel globally a lot so use a VPN connection as a standard, use One Note for note taking on a regular basis, ditto Skype, Viber and Netflix as well as a handful of games from the Store for disconnect time when I'm on the plane.

Not doing anything special, treating the precious as a work and home driver

I've had exactly the same effectively issue free experience with my Surface Pro 3 since purchase.

Maybe I've been lucky twice or maybe it's simply the nature of the beast, people are much more likely to complain than to praise

 

[Orlbuckeye]

I won't tolerate bugs to be honest...if there are hiccups within the first week or two it will be going back to MS. I'm starting a new position and the last thing I will need is an unreliable machine.

If anyone cares to argue for just going with the SP4, I'm all ears.

Well I would look at the Dell XPS 13" or 15" if you don't want to go with the SP4. But if you want s tablet form factor the SP4 is fine but if you want more of a laptop i would look in that direction starting with the Dell XP and maybe Lenovo.