New Surface Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: New Surface Pro

#241

Post by passive » Tue, May 23, 2017, 3:58 PM UTC

doublerebel wrote: post #236

passive wrote: post #199

I've been using a Surface Pro 3 as my one-and-only for almost 3 years, and it really feels like time to upgrade, so I've been looking forward to this one. My workload is probably something like 40% reading, 30% writing, 25% coding, and 5% running code, and the Surface has been a nearly ideal form factor for this. The new "Surface Pro" ticks a lot of boxes for me: - Supports my existing keyboard, pen, dock, and power…

The priciest part should be the SSD, and most people are fine with a small SSD and use the microSD for overflow. I'm similar to you, I just chose a 16GB i7 256GB model SP4 with the Alcántara keyboard, and it came in well under 2K. Super powerful and the price point well beating a comparable Mac was one of the top selling points for me. I have storage coming out of my ears after years of collecting disks cards servers…

I've got 256GB currently, and I definitely couldn't go smaller, but it only becomes limiting every few months. 8GB RAM on the other hand, is 85% full nearly all the time, so I actively make decisions to work around that.

Enjoy your SP4!

Re: New Surface Pro

#242

Post by doublerebel » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

pfooti wrote: post #227

passive wrote: post #199

I've been using a Surface Pro 3 as my one-and-only for almost 3 years, and it really feels like time to upgrade, so I've been looking forward to this one. My workload is probably something like 40% reading, 30% writing, 25% coding, and 5% running code, and the Surface has been a nearly ideal form factor for this. The new "Surface Pro" ticks a lot of boxes for me: - Supports my existing keyboard, pen, dock, and power…

what sort of coding do you do on the spro? I'm going to be buying a new laptop / ultraportable / tablet in the near future, and I'm curious about this. Can you comfortably run some kind of linux VM on it? What kind of external keyboard does it support? How does the display hold up in moderate lighting conditions? For a lot of work, I've got a desktop, but I use my 2013 mbp at cafes and such. I mostly do node and fron…

Coding? All of it. C++, Node, frontend... The dense screen is great and flipping to portrait can be nice.

Keyboard? Anything USB or Bluetooth. Only one USB port, though.

Display? Pretty bright, the spec is posted if you look. Glossy, but everything is these days.

VM? Sure, it's a 2 core 4 thread processor, just order enough RAM. My i7 has Hyper-V but I don't know if that extends across all procs.

Re: New Surface Pro

#243

Post by StreakyCobra » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

tracker1 wrote: post #111

StreakyCobra wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got mine for the equivalent of 1028 USD: SP4 i5, 256G, 8GO pen and type cover (this was a special offer though). This was one month ago. So when the new model will go out, the prices of SP4 will probably drop. So far the only drawback of the SP4 is the battery life, so except if they improved it a lot I don't see the point of paying the 500-600$ more. They say it's possible to watch 13.5 hours of videos, but manufa…

Depends... being able to get through a day at a conference center matters a lot to some people. Not so much to me, but to some.

Yes, it is why I said "Maybe" :-) I'm actually working in research and I'm going to conferences, but the limit of ~4 hours kind of forces me to focus on talks instead of coding all day long.

I mean, during the conference day I'm kind of depressed of not having battery any more, but with cold head I tell myself it is better for me.

Re: New Surface Pro

#244

Post by lmm » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:04 PM UTC

wooter wrote: post #215

melling wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C is already shipping on cheap desktops, a lot of smartphones, and many laptops. In two years Apple won't ship any computers with USB-A. USB-C has arrived: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/shop/laptops-with-usb-c

seriously... what do people even use usb-a for besides charging things? compatibility was crap, transition to 3.0 was crap and even the highest end computers offered limited ports - opting to keep a few 2.0s given that support for 3.0 on the device side was even weaker, big, asymetric, fragile, ... lets just let it die and move to cables that won't need a dongle and aren't thicker than almost everything in a laptop f…

I still want to be able to transfer data to/from my phone (S7) and my camera. I still want to use my headset. These things are going to last for several years; as such I'm not buying a laptop without USB-A any time soon.

Re: New Surface Pro

#245

Post by Fogest » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:05 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #91

nailer wrote: post #41

One import thing with all Surface laptops that most people don't know: > Support is limited to the country you purchased the device in. Eg: - If you buy an Apple laptop, and need a repair, they'll fix it if it's in warranty, regardless of where you are. - If you buy a Microsoft laptop, and need a warranty repair done in a different country, Microsoft won't help you. I purchased a Surface Book (which I love) in a Micr…

I bought a Surface Book on Black Friday and returned it a week later due to the number of glitches with the pen and the GPU. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XLVgpD-Dtc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YupJV7QPHfk

I had those same pen problems with my Surface. Never got it fixed, ended up just ditching it all together :/

Re: New Surface Pro

#246

Post by monochromatic » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

nrki wrote: post #29

tzaman wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate why? I'm somewhat of an apple-fanboy but Surface seems more and more appealing, and I'm leaning towards giving one a try.

The form-factor is pretty amazing. The portability is very good. The performance is also very good within the above two factors. The problem is the software and features: - Windows 10 is a known factor, and it constantly frustrates. - No Thunderbolt or USB-C is ridiculous in 2017. I'd like to see Microsoft releasing Linux drivers for the Surface Pro. If they really love Linux enough to support it on Azure, they shoul…

I've pretty much gotten used to Windows 10 at this point, and there are even a couple of minor UI tweaks that I miss when I use my Windows 7 machine at work. What frustrates you?

Re: New Surface Pro

#247

Post by kayoone » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

dawnerd wrote: post #237

kayoone wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the surface pro is more comparable to the XPS 13, which does not come with 32GB either.

Which makes it comparable to the 12" MacBook which is far from a pro device.

12" Macbook only comes with a Core M CPU and 8GB Ram max, the Surface Pro is much more capable than that, basically on Macbook Pro levels.

Re: New Surface Pro

#248

Post by melling » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:06 PM UTC

ashark wrote: post #222

melling wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C is already shipping on cheap desktops, a lot of smartphones, and many laptops. In two years Apple won't ship any computers with USB-A. USB-C has arrived: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/shop/laptops-with-usb-c

Sure, but most of my USB-A stuff will still be fine in 2 years, and much of it in 5. I won't have acquired enough USB-C things in 2 years to care much about it.

Everyone buying a newly released Mac this year will only have USB-C. People buying svelte Windows PCs will be getting only USB-C. Next year's Surface will be only USB-C.

I'm guessing that many of the almost 400 million Android phones that ship this year will have USB-C. Chromebooks? They're going USB-C.

You're just telling us that you'll be happy with legacy. That's fine with me. Not everyone has to plan for the future. It's coming with or without you.

Re: New Surface Pro

#249

Post by MLR » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:09 PM UTC

wooter wrote: post #215

melling wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C is already shipping on cheap desktops, a lot of smartphones, and many laptops. In two years Apple won't ship any computers with USB-A. USB-C has arrived: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/shop/laptops-with-usb-c

seriously... what do people even use usb-a for besides charging things? compatibility was crap, transition to 3.0 was crap and even the highest end computers offered limited ports - opting to keep a few 2.0s given that support for 3.0 on the device side was even weaker, big, asymetric, fragile, ... lets just let it die and move to cables that won't need a dongle and aren't thicker than almost everything in a laptop f…

Mouse, headset, keyboard, gamepad, bluetooth receiver, USB sticks, and yes a phone charger.

I have no intention of replacing any of these things until they break, that could be a long, long time.

Re: New Surface Pro

#250

Post by 8note » Tue, May 23, 2017, 4:12 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #205

pwaivers wrote: post #161

> Surface Pro boasts 50% longer battery life than Surface Pro 4, 2.5x more performance than Surface Pro 3 Why do they compare it to the Surface Pro 3, and not the 4??

The new surface pro is not a huge update from SP4 in terms of processing power. SP4 is still in the game, just without the extra pen sensitivity and battery life. That's my guess.

it's also now getting towards time to retire my SP3