SP4 vs Z Canvas

[Dariusz1989]

Hey

Struggling to decide between

SP4
16 gb ram, 512hdd

And
VAIO Z Canvas
16gb ram, 512 HDD.

I want to use it for CGI and Photoshop, need at least 5+ hours of battery life in using with photoshop + other programs.

Would any of you have any comments? Could Surface Pro 4 withstand that usage ?
What other opinions would you have?

 

[ttsoldier]

Seems like a tough choice lol

 

[Dariusz1989]

Yes its very hard decision ! I like SP4 a lot... but Z Cover all the extra ports, 4cores, etc etc... damn ! If they both end up having the same battery live then oh dear :C

 

[StevoPhilo]

I'd imagine that the Canvas Z would dramatically lose battery life when using programs like Photoshop. Pretty much your battery life will get cut in half so you can realistically get probably 3-4 hours when using something as intense as Photoshop. That would purely be my guess.

Now let's also consider Haswell vs Skylake. I won't get too much into the nitty gritty.
The original SP2 and SP3 used the Haswell processor and they were dual cores. The SP4 is suppose to be 30% faster than those iterations according to Microsoft. I'm assuming they are still duals (we don't know yet), but with the increase performance I would say the Canvas only defeats it just cause it's a Quad.
It's tough to say right now mainly cause of the tech specs not being fully released on the SP4. I'd say wait till it's out. Look up some benchmarks and then decide. I'm probably sticking with the Surface line and I do PS as well.

 

[Dariusz1989]

I'd imagine that the Canvas Z would dramatically lose battery life when using programs like Photoshop. Pretty much your battery life will get cut in half so you can realistically get probably 3-4 hours when using something as intense as Photoshop. That would purely be my guess.

Now let's also consider Haswell vs Skylake. I won't get too much into the nitty gritty.
The original SP2 and SP3 used the Haswell processor and they were dual cores. The SP4 is suppose to be 30% faster than those iterations according to Microsoft. I'm assuming they are still duals (we don't know yet), but with the increase performance I would say the Canvas only defeats it just cause it's a Quad.
It's tough to say right now mainly cause of the tech specs not being fully released on the SP4. I'd say wait till it's out. Look up some benchmarks and then decide. I'm probably sticking with the Surface line and I do PS as well.

How much battery do you get out of Surface when you use it for Photoshop?

I'm a photographer so my usage is going to be mostly, go on a set, shoot tether to surface, check pictures for quality, maybe do some 3d matching and then move on. So out of 1.5h shoot session I would use tablet for 45 min,3h session 90 min etc etc etc...

I would love to get a solid 5h+ working system.

About Z Canvas I would think that every time I use it field I would just disable 2 cores and set speed limits so it stays as around 20-25W if possible.

 

[StevoPhilo]

How much battery do you get out of Surface when you use it for Photoshop?

I'm a photographer so my usage is going to be mostly, go on a set, shoot tether to surface, check pictures for quality, maybe do some 3d matching and then move on. So out of 1.5h shoot session I would use tablet for 45 min,3h session 90 min etc etc etc...

I would love to get a solid 5h+ working system.

About Z Canvas I would think that every time I use it field I would just disable 2 cores and set speed limits so it stays as around 20-25W if possible.

Unfortunately I can't give you an exact estimate mainly because the only Surface Pro I've own was the original. So when I did do Photoshop for some college projects it was 2-3 battery life on a 4-5 hours device (at the time it's battery life was short). When I got the power cover I got more around 3-4 hours instead.

If you're going to disable cores on the Canvas Z then I think you eliminated the main reason to get it in the first place. The quad core works best together than as individual cores. So those individual cores will perform slower than the Duals found in the SP line.

I think you'd personally do better with a Surface setup for the battery life.