Should I just wait for the surface pro 4

[Christopher Lindsay]

I'm out shopping with my girl and we see the surface 2 and she's impressed with it. I tell her there's a new version and it runs the full version of windows and i show it to her. She thinks it's the perfect device for her since she's going back to school within a year. We planned to look at laptop options to replace her old one. her old laptop functions fine, it's just old lol. I want her to have a surface but the issue I'm having is tiers and pricing. She would prefer to have more than 64gb for the hard drive but an i5 or i7 is super overkill for what she needs. I can throw in an SSD and windows 8 on her current laptop and wait for the surface pro 4 or should we just get the surface pro 3 anyway?

 

[SamiHanna]

Just get the pro 3. I think the 4 will only have an better battery, bigger, better resolution, and maybe lighter.

 

[Maaz Mansori]

I would wait for the Surface Pro 4. It will likely have an Intel Broadwell processor which should improve both performance and battery life. By then I would expect the entry level device to have 128 GB of storage as SSD prices drop and 64 GB drives are phased out. There's also a good possibility that it will be released within the next year. I have the original Surface Pro. While it's a good machine, I had to add a power keyboard and it's a bit bulky overall and the screen is a little too small to do real work on. While the Surface Pro 3 addresses these issues, I feel that it is not quite there yet. My understanding is the fan kicks on quite often. Broadwell should address that issue and they may possibly go fanless as well and the device has the potential to be as thin as a regular tablet.

 

[Kyle Baker2]

There's always something better coming out in tech. Buy what you want when you need it.

 

[TheJoester09]

Keep in mind that if you get the 64GB model, you can always get a high capacity micro SD card to add some extra storage space.

 

[JamesPTao]

There's always something better coming out in tech. Buy what you want when you need it.

Very true. Get her the 3. The 3 had quite an improvement overall. If you can only afford the 64g then like another post said get a micro SD later. Outside of slightly faster processors and battery life the 4 shouldn't be that different. And from the sound if it the pro 3 has more than enough processing power for her.

 

[Fred Mertz]

Screw the Surface Pro 4. I'd hold out for SP7 instead.

 

[Pete The Penguin]

I'm out shopping with my girl and we see the surface 2 and she's impressed with it. I tell her there's a new version and it runs the full version of windows and i show it to her. She thinks it's the perfect device for her since she's going back to school within a year. We planned to look at laptop options to replace her old one. her old laptop functions fine, it's just old lol. I want her to have a surface but the issue I'm having is tiers and pricing. She would prefer to have more than 64gb for the hard drive but an i5 or i7 is super overkill for what she needs. I can throw in an SSD and windows 8 on her current laptop and wait for the surface pro 4 or should we just get the surface pro 3 anyway?

If you wait for the SP4, you may as well wait for the SP5... Point is, there will always be a new device with better specs.

Get the best device for your girlfriend; that sounds like her current laptop with an SSD.

 

[link68759]

I'm out shopping with my girl and we see the surface 2 and she's impressed with it. I tell her there's a new version and it runs the full version of windows and i show it to her. She thinks it's the perfect device for her since she's going back to school within a year. We planned to look at laptop options to replace her old one. her old laptop functions fine, it's just old lol. I want her to have a surface but the issue I'm having is tiers and pricing. She would prefer to have more than 64gb for the hard drive but an i5 or i7 is super overkill for what she needs. I can throw in an SSD and windows 8 on her current laptop and wait for the surface pro 4 or should we just get the surface pro 3 anyway?

Wait for the SP50, that will have some insane features!

 

[Fred Mertz]

Wait for the SP50, that will have some insane features!

Instead of a Pen, it comes with your very own customizable Cyborg for those looking for world domination. That and they bring you coffee in the morning too.

 

[SeeVuPlay]

Screw the Surface Pro 4. I'd hold out for SP7 instead.

Link??

 

[Fred Mertz]

Link??

Which link would you like? SP4, SP5, SP6, SP7 or SP50?

 

[Mike Gibson]

... I can throw in an SSD and windows 8 on her current laptop and wait for the surface pro 4 or should we just get the surface pro 3 anyway?

If her current laptop just needs an SSD and Win8 to make it peppy, I'd leave it at that. I just switched from an HDD to an Intel SSD on my Lenovo IdeaPad and it helped a ton. And Crucial just introduced a new consumer SSD family that really brings down the price/GB.

I also think that Win81 can make a difference in perceived performance (faster boot, resume, etc.). The Desktop side of Win81 is the best version of Windows by far.

 

[dstrauss]

Do not wait for the mythical SPro 4, and DO NOT go with the i3/64GB model. That is SOLELY for advertising a price point in the iPad Air neighborhood. It doesn't matter if you can add a mSDXC card, get the i5 with at least 128gb SSD. You won't regret it.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

I feel like some of these responses are because people clearly aren't reading the original post through. I never mentioned surface specs not being good enough. I mention price and configuration. Smh

 

[chadthebuilder]

Do not wait for the mythical SPro 4, and DO NOT go with the i3/64GB model. That is SOLELY for advertising a price point in the iPad Air neighborhood. It doesn't matter if you can add a mSDXC card, get the i5 with at least 128gb SSD. You won't regret it.

I got the 128 GB i5 model. I will probably regret only having 4 gigs of RAM down the line, but its what I could afford, and I didn't need more than 128GB storage (as a hobby developer, I store my files on external HHD disk drives). I really would have liked the i7 processor and the bump in graphics, but I couldn't justify the huge price increase, since I didn't actually need all that storage. I would recommend, like you, that people go for no less than the base i5. $800 is a lot to spend on a tablet to have only 64GB of storage and an i3 without Turbo Boost, when the i5 is $200 more.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[darthhen]

Christopher,

It would be helpful if you put down the current spec of her laptop, otherwise it will be hard for us to comment objectively.

Let's put some $$ into this conversation. I'm guessn' that upgrading her laptop to Win8 and SSD is probably going to run you around $200 (64GB SSD, since you're comparing it against a SP3 w/64GB SSD). Comparing $200 with the entry level SP3 (i3/64GB, $800), which is really no comparison. $200 vs. $800? I would go for the $200 every time. Most students are poor.

If you had to order a SP3 for your girl, get the 128GB option. Some comments have been made about using the external SD card for storage. To be honest, that's not a realistic option. SD cards are not reliable if you're going to be constantly writing/reading to it. If you open a Word document on your drive today, you'll notice Word creates a ~<file> in the same directory. You're external SD card is going to constantly accessed. At some point, the card will fail and you will lose your precious data. Don't go cheap here, get the 128GB option. I'm assuming you do know that with a 64GB SSD, you will only have ~36GB of usable space (see Buy the new 12-inch Surface Pro 3 - Microsoft Store)

Without any further detail from your, my opinion is still upgrade her laptop since it is cheaper!

 

[Editguy1900]

Christopher,

Some comments have been made about using the external SD card for storage. To be honest, that's not a realistic option. SD cards are not reliable if you're going to be constantly writing/reading to it. If you open a Word document on your drive today, you'll notice Word creates a ~<file> in the same directory. You're external SD card is going to constantly accessed. At some point, the card will fail and you will lose your precious data.

Without any further detail from your, my opinion is still upgrade her laptop since it is cheaper!

I agree with everything you said except for this. I'm a professional videographer and use a prosumer cam with dual card slots. I have never had a failure yet. I think the critical part is buying a good SD card, which does lead us back to cost. And, even though a good SD card is cheaper than upgrading to the 128GB SP3, it would be a wiser decision to spend the extra and get the 128GB SP3. So, in essence, I agree with what you said :smile:

 

[JamesPTao]

Buying internal memory as high as possible is always better than just slapping a SD card I to make up for it. But I sence this is not a need situation as much as a want. He stated the surface is much faster than what she needs but she wants it. Most likely he could upgrade hers and it would run great but I sense he is doing this to make her happy and not just for logical reasons.

 

[oditius]

Which link would you like? SP4, SP5, SP6, SP7 or SP50?

How about a SurfaceBrain model? They implant it in your skull and you can use your thought to control a keyboard and screen only you can see.!!!! :grin: