Should I just wait for the surface pro 4

[Fred Mertz]

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.

If he is having problems figuring out what Surface Pro to buy her, I'd hate to see what it's going to be like when he has to pick out the perfect ring when he pops the question.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

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!

I don't have it in front of me right now but I'm pretty sure she has some Pentium dual core processor. She's never had a single complaint with it ever. Which is why I say i3 is really all she needs. She's not gaming or running intense programs at all. I just think paying that much money just to get a processor she'll never take advantage of for more hard drive space is overkill. Maybe after the surface pro 3 is released depending on how hard it is to take it apart I might be able to update the hard drive myself.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

If he is having problems figuring out what Surface Pro to buy her, I'd hate to see what it's going to be like when he has to pick out the perfect ring when he pops the question.

I swear there's always a few cornballs on every thread. Troll somewhere else.

 

[vlad0]

I still think that SP3 was meant to run on broadwell, but Intel got delayed and they had to use Haswell .. it won't surprise me to see an SP3 with upgraded chips around the holidays.

Broadwell is a major step forward, much bigger than what we saw with Haswell... they are going down to 14nm which allows their Y chips to run at 4.5W TDP , that is huge..

Just look at what Asus presented at Computex last week..

So imagine what Microsoft can do with this chip..

We are too close to Broadwell to spent 1k + on a Haswell based machine.. if it was a year away, I would say go for the Sp3, but its only a few months away.

The question is how fast would Microsoft adopt the new tech from Intel..

I am holding off until a broadwell surface pro with LTE


My only issue that even with Broadwell we won't se DDR4 memory .. I guess we will have to wait until Skylake for that

 

[Elitis]

I don't have it in front of me right now but I'm pretty sure she has some Pentium dual core processor. She's never had a single complaint with it ever. Which is why I say i3 is really all she needs. She's not gaming or running intense programs at all. I just think paying that much money just to get a processor she'll never take advantage of for more hard drive space is overkill. Maybe after the surface pro 3 is released depending on how hard it is to take it apart I might be able to update the hard drive myself.

LMAO, good luck with that. 1: The Surface line in general (RT/2/Pro/Pro 2/Pro 3) are all notorious for being some of the hardest devices to open. 2: Everything in any tablet is soldered onto the motherboard. Unless you have the precision of a machine, it doesn't matter how amazing your soldering skills are.

Like most people have said, just upgrade her laptop. She doesn't need the SP2/3, she just wants it. Chances are, you can even upgrade her processor. Max out her RAM, upgrade to an SSD (and use the current hard drive as a backup drive through an external enclosure), install Windows 8.1, and it will be like she has a brand new laptop.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

LMAO, good luck with that. 1: The Surface line in general (RT/2/Pro/Pro 2/Pro 3) are all notorious for being some of the hardest devices to open. 2: Everything in any tablet is soldered onto the motherboard. Unless you have the precision of a machine, it doesn't matter how amazing your soldering skills are.

Like most people have said, just upgrade her laptop. She doesn't need the SP2/3, she just wants it. Chances are, you can even upgrade her processor. Max out her RAM, upgrade to an SSD (and use the current hard drive as a backup drive through an external enclosure), install Windows 8.1, and it will be like she has a brand new laptop.

I fix airplanes for a living. It's all a matter of cost and effort for me. Not ability. If it's easy and doesn't cost too much I'd take the plunge but if it requires too much work then I may pass on it. I've seen the other surface breakdowns and they're definitely not worth the effort and cost. But right now it's just a thought. I just don't understand why I have to have a new processor to get a better hard drive. Those components are not dependent on each other.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

I still think that SP3 was meant to run on broadwell, but Intel got delayed and they had to use Haswell .. it won't surprise me to see an SP3 with upgraded chips around the holidays.



Broadwell is a major step forward, much bigger than what we saw with Haswell... they are going down to 14nm which allows their Y chips to run at 4.5W TDP , that is huge..



Just look at what Asus presented at Computex last week..



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXUmFcFbzpY



So imagine what Microsoft can do with this chip..



We are too close to Broadwell to spent 1k + on a Haswell based machine.. if it was a year away, I would say go for the Sp3, but its only a few months away.



The question is how fast would Microsoft adopt the new tech from Intel..



I am holding off until a broadwell surface pro with LTE





My only issue that even with Broadwell we won't se DDR4 memory .. I guess we will have to wait until Skylake for that

That thing looks sleek. Maybe a real surface competitor.

 

[Wit4Breakfast]

I still think that SP3 was meant to run on broadwell, but Intel got delayed and they had to use Haswell .. it won't surprise me to see an SP3 with upgraded chips around the holidays.

Broadwell is a major step forward, much bigger than what we saw with Haswell... they are going down to 14nm which allows their Y chips to run at 4.5W TDP , that is huge..

Just look at what Asus presented at Computex last week..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXUmFcFbzpY

So imagine what Microsoft can do with this chip..

We are too close to Broadwell to spent 1k + on a Haswell based machine.. if it was a year away, I would say go for the Sp3, but its only a few months away.

The question is how fast would Microsoft adopt the new tech from Intel..

I am holding off until a broadwell surface pro with LTE


My only issue that even with Broadwell we won't se DDR4 memory .. I guess we will have to wait until Skylake for that

This is wrong. Broadwell is just another incremental step that is marginally better. The device in the video is running a lower power Broadwell chipset that is basically the newer version intel Atom. It is slower than the 4th gen i3 processor in the SP3.

The ultrabook line for the Broadwell chips will NOT be in devices this sleek because they will still require fans (not to mention that unless they switch to something other than USB which prohibits a device this thin). Of course they will be fast, have better battery life, and have better graphics capability. Light users will only be able to detect a difference in battery life...so unless you plan on using the machine to game or render, no reason to wait.

 

[jaimeastin]

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

I know want her to have a good solution and the thing here is no just about the money, but the overall solution.

The easiy thing is get a new ssd and let her have it for a bit. If all is cool, no worries down the line...get her a small tablet or the surface which she did like mind you...

Now if the laptop proves to be fast, but heavy /overkill this is where the surface pro 3 comes in. I plan to get the the i5/128 to replace my xps13. I am a developer and have many computers and devices... I always buy for mw even when I am buying for others...that has began to change though...i try not to buy one thing for all... I get the tool for the job. In the past few months, I sold my nexus 7, Mac mini, gave away my production/dev e1505, and now selling my xps13 and surface 2... Only want to own 3 computers outside of work of course...those being my xps8300 desktop, dell venue pro 8, and the surface pro 3.

Storage is the last thing I worry about... 64gb is the least needed when you can expand storage... Bur seriously, only people who worry about storage are ones jack of all trading things... I have terabytes of storage on my servers and gigabytes of cloud storage all accessible from any one of my devices...

To bring all of this home... Your girl likes the surface 2... It rally may be all she wants. Don't cloud her vision, lol. My girl works in IT too and I was so hard to buy her an iPad mini a couple years ago... Mind you, she had an iPad 1 and I sold my iPad 2 for the first surface. I got it anyhow... She is not computer novice and wanted the iPad for media consumption. My lil bro loves that iPad 2.. Still...

Just don't think this too far ages or hard. Fix up her laptop if that is really an option...i know for a fact that it will work, but will be replaced eventually cause it is heavy and not the trend.

The i3 with 64GB is entry and kinda limited, but can work... Get a micro SD and auto save all media to the card one can eve. Install applications on the card.

I am starting with the i5... I will not be doing the 9-5 on this device, but I could... That is not what it am getting it for. It and the dell venue pro will replace my surface 2 @ns laptop..

 

[jaimeastin]

I swear there's always a few cornballs on every thread. Troll somewhere else.

Lol!

You know way more than we do a s you are processing the decision the way you do.

All our opinions are doing is given your more options and knowledge... You may chose not to use any recommendation here or combine a few, but that is what I respect.

At least you aren't just taking your girl light my and giving her any old thing... Now with all that said, don't take it too far, lol.

I tell my girl all the time, I don't care what you want... Just tell me and I will make it happen... Sometimes i research too long, lol. My friend was buying his wife a car and he was doing a lot of research... All she wanted was a feature or two and fell in love with every car they saw... He knew better and knew her better cause when it came to problems /complain time... Who was she going to??? Exactly.

You know your girl and how important it is to get her the right solution.

To end, I personally think that if she wants a surface to be a laptop. Replacement, the i5 128 will be the best way to go... Especially for her, it will be future proof if her requirements are low... You don't have to worry with some kluge work around it rule to handle storage... You just want it to work.

Upgrading her laptop will work the best quickly because she knows it... But it will not satisfy the long term. She will want a tablet solution (that is if she was serious). All you wout have done was put monybinto the laptop and it go no where... Third option... Fix the laptop and get her the surface 2 or other small tablet. She wants the laptop foe school or work...the rest of the time it will be fun aba browsing... The surface 3 or laptop will be more of a pain to use foe those things...

Point is, the solution may not be a one device win.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Thanks. I want calling everyone a cornball. Just the dudes with the sarcastic remarks.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

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.

That is technically true but there are times in a product's lifecycle that are more advantageous to buy than others. Some understand this, most don't.

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

I agree.

 

[James8561]

yes! honestly even though I want the SP3 very much I absolutely believe in waiting for v4.0
it will have the latest broadwell CPUs and even better battery life. let's face it, double digit battery life is needed in order to ensure that a heavy work day can be run on one charge and this usage scenario last for at least 4 years. (battery degrades over time).

 

[JamesPTao]

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?

What about the surface pro 2. Full windows as well. Good screen and device. Will still be as fast (probably faster than she needs). And with the discounted price you could probably deck it out compared to the surface pro 3.

 

[kevinn206]

I would wait given that she's still a year away from returning to school. I have a 7-year-old laptop with the Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz that's getting a bit long in the tooth. It cost me about $1300 back then. I wouldn't mind spending about $1200 to last me another seven years, but I really want the SP4. Let's hope MS is able to skip Broadwell and go directly to Skylake.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

What about the surface pro 2. Full windows as well. Good screen and device. Will still be as fast (probably faster than she needs). And with the discounted price you could probably deck it out compared to the surface pro 3.

Do you have the surface pro 2?

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

yes! honestly even though I want the SP3 very much I absolutely believe in waiting for v4.0

it will have the latest broadwell CPUs and even better battery life. let's face it, double digit battery life is needed in order to ensure that a heavy work day can be run on one charge and this usage scenario last for at least 4 years. (battery degrades over time).

They throw in LTE and I'd get one myself lol

 

[kevinn206]

I am concerned about the integrated battery though. How long do these last? Heat is the biggest threat to lithium ion batteries. It's a common trend now with these tablets and ultrabooks with integrated batteries. How much would it cost to change the battery?

 

[Elitis]

I fix airplanes for a living. It's all a matter of cost and effort for me. Not ability. If it's easy and doesn't cost too much I'd take the plunge but if it requires too much work then I may pass on it. I've seen the other surface breakdowns and they're definitely not worth the effort and cost. But right now it's just a thought. I just don't understand why I have to have a new processor to get a better hard drive. Those components are not dependent on each other.

Never said you had to have a new processor. I simply stated that you probably could, if you really wanted to make her laptop seem brand new. The new processor would simply add to the experience. As I said, get an SSD and a copy of Windows 8(.1), and you'll be golden.

 

[Christopher Lindsay]

Never said you had to have a new processor. I simply stated that you probably could, if you really wanted to make her laptop seem brand new. The new processor would simply add to the experience. As I said, get an SSD and a copy of Windows 8(.1), and you'll be golden.

I want even talking about you bro. Microsoft makes you update processor to get more hard drive space on the surface.