Which Surface Pro 3 model should I buy?

[Ryou-kun]

Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

I am a community college student trying to finish my basic while pursing my career for Computer Science/Software Engineer.
Few months ago, I bought an iPad Air and Adnoit Jot Touch Pro and GoodNote 4 App. I was using it to take handwritten notes because I don't want to carry ton of papers or spirals with me and want to carry less and be mobile, however, I made a big mistake on buying iPad Air and third party stylus and app. The stylus and app always get into conflict with each other. It gets annoying and frustrating.
Now, the reason I went for iPad Air is because iPad is pretty good at conserving battery when at sleep mode.

Fast forward today, Black Friday is right around the corner, and I know my dad need a tablet so I thought I could give him my iPad Air and buy a note taking tablet. I was considering Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1/Pro 12.2, but I realize it isn't worth due to 16:9/16:10 ratio that is so awkward to write in portrait mode. I also want the best out of a handwritten note taking tablet then I came into conclusion of Surface Pro 3.
I could jump with Surface Pro 1 w/ Power Cover but the weight will bother me a lot, so I drop that idea and skip Surface Pro 2 and went for Surface Pro 3.
However, I can't decide on the Surface Pro 3 model from its base model (i3/4GB/64GB) to i5/8GB/256GB SSD, the i7 is useless because it is dual core rather quad core.

Which Surface Pro 3 model I should choose: i3/4GB/64GB, i5/4GB/128GB or i5/8GB/256GB SSD?
I will be buying it from either Best Buy with its up to $150 dollar off on i5/4GB/128GB or higher or Microsoft Website with its Education Discount.
What I will be using for is mainly handwritten note taking tablet with its "Pen," which I am not a big fan of requiring Quadruple A's battery, read eText/eBooks, checking emails, surfing the internet, social medias, listening to music (maybe but not important) and Steam. I could careless about games because I own a gaming PC, so I don't need it. I could add that I might installed Visual Studio C++ 2012 Express on it. Whether I program it or not, it really depend if it is worth it.
The i3/4GB/64GB is cheaper and "possibly" fit my needs, but I can't help it when I might need extra horsepower. That is where i5/4GB/128GB come in, but I realize if I am going to spend that much. I might as well go for i5/8GB/256GB but again it is pretty expensive.
Now, I won't be using VMWare/VirtualBox or anything like that.
I am just worried about the RAM part because I don't know how well Windows 8.1 handle it. I had bad experience with 4GB RAM, so I don't know if I should bump my budget to 8GB RAM or I keep 4GB it.

I know this is pretty long to read, but I need your opinions/thoughts about it.
Thank you.

 

[Darthbobcat]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

I would say that aside from (possibly, I'm not an expert on it) Visual Studios, your needs would be well fit by the i3 model. I have an i5, and it gets the job done with 4 GB of RAM. Either one would do the job for you, especially with the use case you laid out. If you're worried about performance, probably i5.

And was your prior Windows 8.1 experience on a machine with a Hard Disk Drive or a Solid State? On a Hard Disk, I definitely agree that 4 GB of RAM isn't enough. On a solid state, I've had good luck with a Toshiba Encore 2 with 1 GB of RAM.

 

[stephen_az]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

I am a community college student trying to finish my basic while pursing my career for Computer Science/Software Engineer.
Few months ago, I bought an iPad Air and Adnoit Jot Touch Pro and GoodNote 4 App. I was using it to take handwritten notes because I don't want to carry ton of papers or spirals with me and want to carry less and be mobile, however, I made a big mistake on buying iPad Air and third party stylus and app. The stylus and app always get into conflict with each other. It gets annoying and frustrating.
Now, the reason I went for iPad Air is because iPad is pretty good at conserving battery when at sleep mode.

Fast forward today, Black Friday is right around the corner, and I know my dad need a tablet so I thought I could give him my iPad Air and buy a note taking tablet. I was considering Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1/Pro 12.2, but I realize it isn't worth due to 16:9/16:10 ratio that is so awkward to write in portrait mode. I also want the best out of a handwritten note taking tablet then I came into conclusion of Surface Pro 3.
I could jump with Surface Pro 1 w/ Power Cover but the weight will bother me a lot, so I drop that idea and skip Surface Pro 2 and went for Surface Pro 3.
However, I can't decide on the Surface Pro 3 model from its base model (i3/4GB/64GB) to i5/8GB/256GB SSD, the i7 is useless because it is dual core rather quad core.

Which Surface Pro 3 model I should choose: i3/4GB/64GB, i5/4GB/128GB or i5/8GB/256GB SSD?
I will be buying it from either Best Buy with its up to $150 dollar off on i5/4GB/128GB or higher or Microsoft Website with its Education Discount.
What I will be using for is mainly handwritten note taking tablet with its "Pen," which I am not a big fan of requiring Quadruple A's battery, read eText/eBooks, checking emails, surfing the internet, social medias, listening to music (maybe but not important) and Steam. I could careless about games because I own a gaming PC, so I don't need it. I could add that I might installed Visual Studio C++ 2012 Express on it. Whether I program it or not, it really depend if it is worth it.
The i3/4GB/64GB is cheaper and "possibly" fit my needs, but I can't help it when I might need extra horsepower. That is where i5/4GB/128GB come in, but I realize if I am going to spend that much. I might as well go for i5/8GB/256GB but again it is pretty expensive.
Now, I won't be using VMWare/VirtualBox or anything like that.
I am just worried about the RAM part because I don't know how well Windows 8.1 handle it. I had bad experience with 4GB RAM, so I don't know if I should bump my budget to 8GB RAM or I keep 4GB it.

I know this is pretty long to read, but I need your opinions/thoughts about it.
Thank you.

Given what you describe, I would say by a process of elimination you should probably look at the 8GB i5. You may not need the extra storage but the RAM will be important. Even if you eliminate all things you won't do, a software engineer/programmer you are looking at intensive stuff. While Windows 8 handles the basics well on 4GB, I still see 8GB as minimum for intensive stuff. BTW, you might also want to check whether that version of Visual Studio disables connected standby....

 

[rynoa]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

Hi there,

I am a student also and I use the surface for the exact same things you described. I got the i3 model a few weeks ago, I love it! I also have a really good desktop PC at home that I did not look to replace, so I really didn't want to spend $1000+.

I would absolutely choose a surface over any tablet because you can actually get work done. In my opinion, tablets are only good for playing angry birds .

In terms of performance, I have no reason to complain. The i3 is plenty fast enough for my needs. Sometimes when I have large textbook pdf files, onenote, and maybe a browser open and I jump in between applications a lot, it does lag a bit. Lag as in it takes the surface a second to scroll in the pdf when I switch from onenote to acrobat, but then it works just fine, not a big deal really. A friend of mine has the i5 with 4GB and he tells me his sometimes slows down with multiple applications as well. I'm sure his is a little better than the i3, we haven't done a side by side comparison, but still. So if you want to completely avoid that, you will probably have to go for more RAM. In that case, you might also want to take a look at the lenovo yoga pro.

I actually run Matlab on it through a VMWare Horizon Client, not sure if that is the same program you are talking about. It works perfectly fine on the i3. I have not installed any real demanding software yet. I wouldn't go for the surface pro 2, the larger screen on the 3 is awesome and it is a very good format for reading textbooks and taking notes as it is almost the size of a sheet of paper.

In the end, I think it all depends on how much you want to spend. I'm real happy with my choice and glad I didn't spend more, the i3 is all I need.

Hope this helps!

 

[enthuz]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

Wow...MATLAB. I haven't used that program in a long time. You do make me think that I should look at a i5/256 for the wife. I would not hear the end of it if she sees lag. She deals with large spreadsheets with many windows open.

 

[rynoa]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

Wow...MATLAB. I haven't used that program in a long time. You do make me think that I should look at a i5/256 for the wife. I would not hear the end of it if she sees lag. She deals with large spreadsheets with many windows open.

You might want to if it fits the budget and she will want to use the surface as her main workhorse. I haven't really noticed any significant lags with office programs (but I don't use large spreadsheets), it is in my case really the pdfs, some of them have 800 pages. I'm also quite spoiled, my desktop has an i7, 32GB RAM and a SSD, so I didn't really know what the word "lag" meant anymore . Like I said, it lags for a second maybe, then it works fine until I switch again. So, it is not like it continuously lags. Still, for people allergic to any kind of lag looking to replace their laptop or desktop, I would definitely look at 8GB.

To me, the surface is just an addition to my desktop computer that I use for note taking and getting some work done while on campus. For people like me, the i3 is just fine I think. In any case, it outperforms any tablet on the market .

 

[enthuz]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

Yes, you are on point with her situation. It will be her main and only device for work. I'm just hoping that there are some more deals released for the holiday.

 

[James8561]

Re: Need help on buying a Surface Pro 3

pdf: are you using adobe reader touch? (the app version) I've never had that lag on me and I have thousand page textbooks
note taking: okay if you are using apps such as papyrus (excellent app btw), then I think it should be good. The active pen beats all other passive options on the market except for expensive cintiq tablets (Which were designed for graphics artist, not students). The only concerning point is that I use OneNote (because it auto sync with OneDrive on all my Windows devices and I can't live without that), it tends to crash a lot. I've had it crash up to 5 times in a 75-minute session. This could be a software conflict with my particular set up so IDK, but it's very annoying. Just one caveat you should know.

@enthuz: she seems to be a super power user. Might as well pony up for a Core i7 for her. Tell her that it's the fastest tablet on the planet for extra points