I've been so overdue for a new work laptop and finally decided on the Surface Pro 3.
I absolutely LOVE it. I'm completely surprised by just how much I love and use it.
It's worth it to own just for PDFs alone - Adobe's touch-optimized version of Reader is just stunning and so well executed; you can zip through PDFs so quickly, then pinch to get to a tiled / zoomed-out view of all pages to really whip through a long PDF and get to exactly the page you want. The larger, 12" screen of the Surface Pro is even better than the iPad, particularly for reading. When you hold it in portrait mode and read a PDF, it's almost like holding an actual 8.5x11" stack of papers in your hand.
Prior to getting the Surface, I was using my iPad for 98% of my daily work. Now I've flipped; I use my surface 98% of the time, and my iPad maybe 2%. I can do 100% of the stuff I need to with it, as opposed to 80-ish percent with my iPad...little stupid things that used to irritate me with iOS: I use QB Online; you cannot enter a negative value on the quickbooks iOS app; I do this sometimes to track / show labor included in a clients plan. It's no problem at all to enter a negative number into QB Online's website. I also use Boomerang for Gmail to schedule & track emails; there's no iOS app or implementation at all.
If they had a 3G version of the Surface PRO - not the newer, smaller one, but the 12" model I have - I'd be all over it and would almost certainly shut off the cellular data on my iPad Air 2 in favor of the Surface Pro. Even then, it's nowhere near as big a hassle as I thought to have a wifi-only device; the reality is that 98% of the places I go have wifi, and I'm generally at a clients home or office where I already have the WiFi code anyway. ;-)
Sure it's nowhere near as thin and light as my iPad Air 2, but the Surface runs 100%, full-bore Windows; no need to load PDFs into any specific app, don't need to open up a different app just to get at my Word & Excel files....no need for an O365 subscription just to be able to work on Office files....
The nice thing about iOS is that there's an app for just about everything....the worst thing about iOS (indeed most mobile devices) is that there is a different app....for every single different thing you want to do. I sometimes feel overloaded with apps.
I feel foolish for not investing in a nice new laptop sooner; I'm surprised how much I take it to coffee shops, bars, etc, and get lots of real work done while not being chained to my desk.
I thought I was mobile before with my iPad....man, I really recommend the surface!
Having the touchscreen is nice for everyday use; scrolling through long webpages is easier & faster than with a mouse, and I can mouse with my right hand & scroll / touch buttons with my left. Google Chrome nicely supports pinch to zoom to quickly zoom in on a photo or some text.
Anyway, it's a fantastic device & wanted to share.
I absolutely LOVE it. I'm completely surprised by just how much I love and use it.
It's worth it to own just for PDFs alone - Adobe's touch-optimized version of Reader is just stunning and so well executed; you can zip through PDFs so quickly, then pinch to get to a tiled / zoomed-out view of all pages to really whip through a long PDF and get to exactly the page you want. The larger, 12" screen of the Surface Pro is even better than the iPad, particularly for reading. When you hold it in portrait mode and read a PDF, it's almost like holding an actual 8.5x11" stack of papers in your hand.
Prior to getting the Surface, I was using my iPad for 98% of my daily work. Now I've flipped; I use my surface 98% of the time, and my iPad maybe 2%. I can do 100% of the stuff I need to with it, as opposed to 80-ish percent with my iPad...little stupid things that used to irritate me with iOS: I use QB Online; you cannot enter a negative value on the quickbooks iOS app; I do this sometimes to track / show labor included in a clients plan. It's no problem at all to enter a negative number into QB Online's website. I also use Boomerang for Gmail to schedule & track emails; there's no iOS app or implementation at all.
If they had a 3G version of the Surface PRO - not the newer, smaller one, but the 12" model I have - I'd be all over it and would almost certainly shut off the cellular data on my iPad Air 2 in favor of the Surface Pro. Even then, it's nowhere near as big a hassle as I thought to have a wifi-only device; the reality is that 98% of the places I go have wifi, and I'm generally at a clients home or office where I already have the WiFi code anyway. ;-)
Sure it's nowhere near as thin and light as my iPad Air 2, but the Surface runs 100%, full-bore Windows; no need to load PDFs into any specific app, don't need to open up a different app just to get at my Word & Excel files....no need for an O365 subscription just to be able to work on Office files....
The nice thing about iOS is that there's an app for just about everything....the worst thing about iOS (indeed most mobile devices) is that there is a different app....for every single different thing you want to do. I sometimes feel overloaded with apps.
I feel foolish for not investing in a nice new laptop sooner; I'm surprised how much I take it to coffee shops, bars, etc, and get lots of real work done while not being chained to my desk.
I thought I was mobile before with my iPad....man, I really recommend the surface!
Having the touchscreen is nice for everyday use; scrolling through long webpages is easier & faster than with a mouse, and I can mouse with my right hand & scroll / touch buttons with my left. Google Chrome nicely supports pinch to zoom to quickly zoom in on a photo or some text.
Anyway, it's a fantastic device & wanted to share.
