What does everyone use their surface or 4 - for?

[Nspyr]

Photo/video editing, small games, and school

 

[DavidZ]

I bought it as my travel PC. I've been seriously looking at ultrabooks for about 2 or 3 years, but none of them motivated me enough to make the purchase. I haven't been following the Surface evolution, but just became aware of the SP4 a couple of weeks ago. Once I saw the form factor, I was pretty much sold.

I'm having a lot of fun playing with it and will probably end up using it at home a lot, too.

Also, I use it for MS Office, websurfing, and connecting remotely to my home and office desktop PCs to check email, etc. I only store important documents on it temporarily. All documents are stored permanently on my desktops where they're backed up both onsite and offsite. That way, if my SP4 gets lost or stolen, I haven't lost any critical documents other than what I might have been working on currently.

I really enjoy this device a lot and know I made the right choice.

 

[Zkyevolved]

All documents are stored permanently on my desktops where they're backed up both onsite and offsite. That way, if my SP4 gets lost or stolen, I haven't lost any critical documents other than what I might have been working on currently.

Have you considered syncing like Dropbox or BTSync or Google Drive? I personally don't like the cloud, so I use BTSync (which also versions, which is fantastic for me).

 

[DavidZ]

Have you considered syncing like Dropbox or BTSync or Google Drive? I personally don't like the cloud, so I use BTSync (which also versions, which is fantastic for me).

I have a Dropbox account, but only used it once to transfer a large file. I guess I now have a OneDrive account, too, but haven't explored it yet. Generally, I've avoided the cloud because I feel safer with my data on my own drives with my own (multiple/redundant) backups.

Also, as of a month ago, I have a portal to transfer files to and from my clients securely.

 

[gman713]

I'm using it for certification training right now.

 

[Zkyevolved]

I have a Dropbox account, but only used it once to transfer a large file. I guess I now have a OneDrive account, too, but haven't explored it yet. Generally, I've avoided the cloud because I feel safer with my data on my own drives with my own (multiple/redundant) backups.

Also, as of a month ago, I have a portal to transfer files to and from my clients securely.

That's good. I don't like to use the cloud either, that's why I use BTSync, it only syncs to my own computers when they're on (and as my personal server at home is always on, it is always synced hehe).

 

[Cerif27]

I use mine for a lot of things. That was kinda the caveat for getting it in the first place. I read comics daily in tablet mode, talk to people on skype, play a few videogames at work (During lunch*), watch movies near daily, web browsing, word processing for work. Nothing but the games stress the processor so I have it set to turn the processor and video card WAY down when it's on battery power. Soon as I plug it in it cranks up and is ready for gaming and/or brightens up for movies. It's definitely powerful enough that I have considered using it's successors as my primary PC when the rig I just pieced together eventually craps out. Every game I have played so far hasn't needed me to change the resolution away from native so it's been pretty boss with the older games I have been throwing at it. And the pen is a whole new way to play strat games like the shadowrun series. Had a great time with Hong Kong. I'm a little sad the telltale games aren't optimized for touch on PC like they are for ipad...was kinda looking forward to that. Outside of that and sleep issues, can't say I have any real complaints.

 

[Philtastic]

1. Scientific data analysis with mostly mathematical curve fitting software (Origin).
2. Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, Powerpoint, etc. for paper publication and presentations.
3. Layered video (VSDC Free Video Editor) and audio (Audacity) editing and rendering.
4. Note-taking (OneNote) for seminars and meetings.
5. Drawing (Autodesk Sketchbook) and 3D modelling (Blender) when away from my desktop.
6. Getting into some C++ programming so running Visual Studio Community 2015 on it.
7. Some games like Diablo 3, XCOM, Broforce, and Final Fantasy VI.
8. ebook (Kindle and OverDrive) and comic (Comix) reader.
9. Tablet media consumption of movies and webpages in bed/on couch/while eating.

The Surface Pro line is one of my favourite tech gadgets ever.

 

[MisterEdF]

Mostly to serve pizza.

 

[Telstar1948]

I was debating (and still am in some ways) returning my i5 and getting an m3, but I like my device and it's working just fine. Battery life is all right though, between 4-6 hours of light usage. M3 seems to get better battery life from what I've been seeing.

FWIW, everything I'm seeing about the m3 is that the battery life is worse than the i5...you may want to check further on that.

 

[Zkyevolved]

FWIW, everything I'm seeing about the m3 is that the battery life is worse than the i5...you may want to check further on that.

I ended up returning the 128 i5 for the 256 i5 hahahahaha. The 8gb model was calling me and the 256 SSD is really a dream come true coming from the SP2 i5 with 128

 

[JordanAT]

Everything. I run a one-man engineering consulting firm, so it's used for engineering analysis and design (AutoCAD, RAM/Elements, numerous small utilities) and mudane reports, image id and markup, PDF reviews during the day. Mine is connected to two 42", 4k monitors so I can work in two D size (22"x34") prints at near full-size simultaneously. I've taken it out in the field and used the camera to take a picture, SketchBook to mark it up, and then emailed to a drafter to get drawn up in CAD. I used it a couple weeks ago for a telecon. I "dialed in" in a chrome window for audio with earbuds, a couple of users were participating via chat in a box, I had two working documents up - one in PDF, one in Word - plus a second chrome window with the live meeting minutes (that someone else was taking), and a OneNote window I could jot things down on...all while walking around my living room.

I do some hobby photography stuff on it, along with the occasional video (Adobe CC suite). I also compose/arrange for two vocal ensembles using MuseScore (still trying to get the hang of StaffPad) and use Reaper and Melodyne Studio to record and mix stuff for the two groups. I'm currently working on a mix for the younger group (mixed, 4 part contemp. a cappella), and it's got probably 100 takes, 20 tracks (including scratch, guide and click, plus downmix) with effects on several.

I've just been to a weekend conference where I used it to pull up sheet music from the past 10 years of events to help out where my memory was not 100%. I watched movies on the way home on the plane.

Like I said, I use it for just about everything.