Surface Pro (2013) vs Surface Pro 6

[Alpha Mike]

I bought my Surface Pro back in 2013, and it still works fine. I don't really have any problems with it, except the battery does not seem to be holding charge too well, and I am also running out of space from the 128GB drive.
I have an opportunity to upgrade, but looking at the specs, it wasn't that clear that the performance of the Pro 6 is that much better. That's a bit surprising because its been over 6 years. The original Pro has an i5 processor, and the Pro 6 is also an i5, or optionally i7. The Pro 6 is slightly lighter (2 lb down to 1.7 lb), and the screen is slightly bigger (10.6" vs 12.3"). Battery life seems to be significantly better (9 hours compared to about 1 hour I get from the old battery). My question is, is this worth spending an additional $1500 to upgrade? In other words, is the Pro 6 significantly faster and better than the original Pro?

 

[GreyFox7]

CPU in the 2013 SP is an i5-3317U, CPU in an SP6 is i5-8250U or better
UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3317U vs i5-8250U

CPU in SP6 is 100% faster.

GPU in SP6 is 79% faster
UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3317U vs i5-8250U

The SP6 SSD is much faster than the SP 2013's SSD. (100-300%)

better screen, better kickstand, lighter weight, longer battery life.

You'll be pleased if you buy one. Is it worth it; is purely subjective but I think it is.

 

[Alpha Mike]

CPU in the 2013 SP is an i5-3317U, CPU in an SP6 is i5-8250U or better
UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3317U vs i5-8250U

CPU in SP6 is 100% faster.

GPU in SP6 is 79% faster
UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-3317U vs i5-8250U

The SP6 SSD is much faster than the SP 2013's SSD. (100-300%)

better screen, better kickstand, lighter weight, longer battery life.

You'll be pleased if you buy one. Is it worth it; is purely subjective but I think it is.

Thank you for that quick summary. I definitely sounds like I should get the new one. Most of the comparisons I found were between SP5 vs SP6, or SP4 vs SP6 etc.. I could not find a comparison of the 2013 SP with the SP6, probably because that one is too old.

 

[MickeyLittle]

I think you pose a difficult question. Simple of a tech forum as most here would say yes indeed but difficult for some in that it may not be worth the $1200 - $1500 depending on usage.

For me I was using my SP6 8-10 hours a day with some medium weight applications so I couldn't imagine doing that on your machine without screaming. But maybe for you or others your usage is very light and 1-2 hours every day or so and in that case then the question gets a little more difficult.

So is the SP6 that much better that the model from 6 years ago? Absolutely! Without a doubt!

 

[CrippsCorner]

I upgraded from the original Surface Pro to the 2017 model (both bought on release day) and it's a great improvement - Mainly in terms of screen size, backlit keyboard, fanless processor and the number one improvement for me - Infinite angle kickstand.

However in terms of quality control it's actually worse than my old one! I'm on my third one now, and they've all suffered from Bluetooth & Wi-Fi connection issues, lightbleed and noisy capacitance.

Would I buy again? Absolutely, even if it is frustrating sometimes!

 

[BubbaUK]

I'm still on my SPro 3, despite some irritations & failing touchscreen and battery.

The question about upgrading is always whether you open the machine, load up one or two programs and do all your work in them, or whether you need to switch between lots of applications doing different things.

If the former, say you open your email then fire up Word and spend 6 hours typing into that, then an upgrade isn't going to make much material difference to your life (whereas spending the money on a holiday would!).

If you open your email, open Word, PowerPoint and Excel and spend time copying & pasting data between them, do a bit of Visual Studio then some photo editing, then absolutely make that upgrade - you'll really notice the difference!

 

[Turbo4AWD]

Best Buy has the Surface Pro 6 i5 8gb ram/128gb ssd at $800. So the $1,500 price is no more. Even if you add a signature keyboard. Definitely worth the upgrade because of the Quad Core processor and the much longer battery life. Everything else is common issues with the tablet form factor. iPads, Android tablets, and Surfaces (that are tablet form factors) all suffer from light bleed. It's just a common thing unfortunately. However, some cases of lightbleed are REALLY BAD. A little bit of light bleed, not so much. Regardless, I would make the plunge and pick up a Surface Pro 6 without hesitation. I am thoroughly enjoying mine since I bought it!