Laptop advice

Solomon Pleasant

Hi guys,

College student here considering buying the Microsoft Surface Pro laptop. It’ll cost me around 950€. This seems fairly steep. The quality of and style of the laptop appeals to me.

Should I go for something cheaper? Is this laptop way overpriced? I want a 2 in 1 laptop tablet style device, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Xterminator

Hi

ive good experience supporting the surface pro's in an IT environment.

pros - light & portable, good performance, good battery life, looks class & will impress

cons - expensive for what you get, expensive to repair, docking and peripheral support/drivers are only okay, bugs and funny things happen

IMO you can get better bang for book with some of the high performance light laptops being a better value.
But then if value for money is not your no1 criteria - then surface pro could well work out for you.

here is a reasonable alternative -
http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops-notebooks-and-2-in-1-laptops/inspiron-13-7000-2-in-1/spd/inspiron-13-7373-2-in-1-laptop
cheaper than similar spec surface pro.

Solomon Pleasant

Xterminator wrote: »

Hi

ive good experience supporting the surface pro's in an IT environment.

pros - light & portable, good performance, good battery life, looks class & will impress

cons - expensive for what you get, expensive to repair, docking and peripheral support/drivers are only okay, bugs and funny things happen

IMO you can get better bang for book with some of the high performance light laptops being a better value.
But then if value for money is not your no1 criteria - then surface pro could well work out for you.

here is a reasonable alternative -
http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops-notebooks-and-2-in-1-laptops/inspiron-13-7000-2-in-1/spd/inspiron-13-7373-2-in-1-laptop
cheaper than similar spec surface pro.

Hey,

Thank you for your reply!

In your view, is the surface pro overpriced? Would I be wasting money by paying for it?

wheresmahbombs

There's no way I'd pay over €1,000 for 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The CPU is also outdated - 7th-gen dual-cores are only available. Even the recently-released LTE model keeps the 7th-gen i5-7300U, instead of replacing it with an i5-8350U.

Solomon Pleasant

wheresmahbombs wrote: »

There's no way I'd pay over €1,000 for 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The CPU is also outdated - 7th-gen dual-cores are only available. Even the recently-released LTE model keeps the 7th-gen i5-7300U, instead of replacing it with an i5-8350U.

This is my feeling aswell. I think I’ll try to get a Lenovo/Asus 2 in 1 laptop instead. Thanks!

wheresmahbombs

No problem.
I took the Lenovo route with an i5-8250U/8GB RAM/256GB SSD Yoga 920 for €1,359, which came on Monday. Its stylus' latency is good, although unwanted strokes can appear at times during fast scribbles. Not that it's a real detriment, it works fine almost all the time. I got the stylus included with the laptop.

The Yoga 720 is another viable option, with similar specs but a smaller display (13.3" vs 13.9") and a conventional hinge.

wheresmahbombs

Speaking of the Surface, my brother told me that a few people in his workplace have Surfaces that BSoD. That sparks concern for QC issues.

Xterminator

The Bsod issues with surface pro are usually device drivers that can be updated.

once the drivers are updated, this usually goes away. Display driver and dock drivers are the 1st ones to update.

Solomon Pleasant

Xterminator wrote: »

The Bsod issues with surface pro are usually device drivers that can be updated.

once the drivers are updated, this usually goes away. Display driver and dock drivers are the 1st ones to update.

Would you recommend the surface pro considering the price?

Xterminator

Not with my own money!

i don't have a problem supplying one for an exec who asks for one - using company money. they have pro and cons - It does the job as an exec 'super portable' laptop. ive docked them with dual screens keyboard and mouse and they are fine for day to day use as the business laptop, but come into their own as a portable device - they have a wow factor, fast thin and light.

At the time they came out, we were supplying a laptop for the office and an Ipad for travel, so from my point of view we were consolidating 2 devices. They second and 3rd generation of surface pro's ironed out a lot of the bugs, just making sure all the drivers and firmware are bang up to date before rolling them out resolve all the blue screen issues.

wheresmahbombs

I have the money for one, but I saw no point in buying one, given its low price-performance ratio.

Xterminator

If your criteria is raw speed & value for money, then no its not for you.

however most people don't use the full potential of their 'high performance' machines. Thus to purchase a machine for day to day use, based on performance criteria is flawed. I've purchased laptops for 2k, with cutting edge cpus, SSDs (when they were new) top end graphics capabilities and as much ram as they could handle, knowing the user will open emails and the odd word/excel spreadsheet, and browse the web. some never even left the desk they were sat on!

New Surface pro's are fast enough for general use. they provide a good use expereince for the end user, and excel as a portable device. there is a wow factor. Is putting a smile on someone's face valuable?

I have never purchased an top end iphone for myself. I see surface pro's as filling a similar market in the laptop space as the flagship phone does in the mobile phone market.

Solomon Pleasant

Thank you all for sharing your views!

I’ve decided that I probably won’t go for a Surface pro as the return isn’t great in terms of what you pay.

I’m struggling to find a good quality alternative however. A lot of reviews appear quite critical of Asus as a brand and laptops aren’t cheap.

I’m willing to spend 700€ on something similar to the surface pro. If anyone has any suggestions or experience with a good model, please share!

Thanks again!