So I have been reading some of the early reviews and there are some major things reviewers forget to even mention that make the Surface Pro (1, 2, or 3) better than just a laptop or tablet.
1. (The Major One) The surface pro will replace your freakin paper notebook.
This is the main reason I was intrigued by the surface pro when it was announced in 2012 when I was doing my undergrad in mechanical engineering. It may be that reviewers, tech bloggers, reporters, etc haven't touched a paper notebook in ages but the truth is, a major portion of the pc/laptop market are students. The tech world would like you to think that people take notes on their laptops in class. However, from my experience, the majority of students (in general ed classes) still take notes with pencil and paper. When you look into any math, science, engineering, or art classes no one is typing their notes on laptops. The reason is that it is near impossible to quickly write an equation, sketch a figure, draw a schematic on a laptop with a keyboard and a trackpad.
Now for the surface pro proposition: what if you had all your handwritten notes from all your classes in one place? And what if all those notes never wasted a single sheet of paper and never took up any additional weight? What if all your notes were searchable and organized? Well guess what folks, any surface pro can do this for you with ease. Oh yeah and its a laptop (ish) and tablet.
Let me do a quick comparison for you. In my undergrad I took all my notes on paper. I would not be surprised if I accumulated over 15 lbs of notes in all those notebooks. Now I'm in aero engineering grad school I have not used a single piece of paper for notes or homework (besides reports). When I go to school now, all I take is my surface pro 2. I don't even need a bag. So If a student normally takes a paper notebook and a laptop and a tablet to school, that could be 4-7 lbs. If I take just my surface pro 2 (soon to be 3) it is only 2-2.5 lbs.
Now many of you might say, well, this is just college students. I would bet that in the business world, creating handwritten notes is still occurring, albeit much less.
2. No tablet is lap-able on its own except the surface. Yes the iPad air is light and you probably won't get tired holding it. But you still have to hold it. With the surface, you can plop out the kickstand, lean back and watch a movie. Yes there are cases for other tablets that address this issue, but those are add-ons which add cost and weight. I understand that as a laptop the surface isn't very lapable, but reviewers forget that no other tablet has a kickstand for hand's off entertainment. When they review other tablets they don't knock off points for not having a kickstand, but the surface gets knocked for a non-ideal implementation (their opinion). It drives me crazy.
3. Being able to snap two apps with adjustable sizes side by side is invaluable for multitasking. To the power laptop users, this is child's play compared to a desktop. But on a tablet, no one has implemented it as simply as Microsoft has. Yes, some Samsung tabs have it but only for certain apps. Even apple is considering it with ios 8. Reviewers seem to skim over it. But in actual use, being able to open two IE tabs side by side or word on one a PDF on the other is just amazing on a tablet.
Sorry guys and gals but that is my rant. Please add other benefits of the Surface Pro 3 over a typical laptop or tablet that many reviewers forget to mention or gloss over.
1. (The Major One) The surface pro will replace your freakin paper notebook.
This is the main reason I was intrigued by the surface pro when it was announced in 2012 when I was doing my undergrad in mechanical engineering. It may be that reviewers, tech bloggers, reporters, etc haven't touched a paper notebook in ages but the truth is, a major portion of the pc/laptop market are students. The tech world would like you to think that people take notes on their laptops in class. However, from my experience, the majority of students (in general ed classes) still take notes with pencil and paper. When you look into any math, science, engineering, or art classes no one is typing their notes on laptops. The reason is that it is near impossible to quickly write an equation, sketch a figure, draw a schematic on a laptop with a keyboard and a trackpad.
Now for the surface pro proposition: what if you had all your handwritten notes from all your classes in one place? And what if all those notes never wasted a single sheet of paper and never took up any additional weight? What if all your notes were searchable and organized? Well guess what folks, any surface pro can do this for you with ease. Oh yeah and its a laptop (ish) and tablet.
Let me do a quick comparison for you. In my undergrad I took all my notes on paper. I would not be surprised if I accumulated over 15 lbs of notes in all those notebooks. Now I'm in aero engineering grad school I have not used a single piece of paper for notes or homework (besides reports). When I go to school now, all I take is my surface pro 2. I don't even need a bag. So If a student normally takes a paper notebook and a laptop and a tablet to school, that could be 4-7 lbs. If I take just my surface pro 2 (soon to be 3) it is only 2-2.5 lbs.
Now many of you might say, well, this is just college students. I would bet that in the business world, creating handwritten notes is still occurring, albeit much less.
2. No tablet is lap-able on its own except the surface. Yes the iPad air is light and you probably won't get tired holding it. But you still have to hold it. With the surface, you can plop out the kickstand, lean back and watch a movie. Yes there are cases for other tablets that address this issue, but those are add-ons which add cost and weight. I understand that as a laptop the surface isn't very lapable, but reviewers forget that no other tablet has a kickstand for hand's off entertainment. When they review other tablets they don't knock off points for not having a kickstand, but the surface gets knocked for a non-ideal implementation (their opinion). It drives me crazy.
3. Being able to snap two apps with adjustable sizes side by side is invaluable for multitasking. To the power laptop users, this is child's play compared to a desktop. But on a tablet, no one has implemented it as simply as Microsoft has. Yes, some Samsung tabs have it but only for certain apps. Even apple is considering it with ios 8. Reviewers seem to skim over it. But in actual use, being able to open two IE tabs side by side or word on one a PDF on the other is just amazing on a tablet.
Sorry guys and gals but that is my rant. Please add other benefits of the Surface Pro 3 over a typical laptop or tablet that many reviewers forget to mention or gloss over.