Leaning Towards a Surface Pro 3

colinizer Surface, Windows 8.1, , ,

I’m debating Surface Pro 3 vs. Lenovo Yoga Pro 2.  Perhaps this serves as input for others considering the Surface Pro 3.Also, one could probably apply this comparison for other Ultrabooks instead of the yoga.  Also, one could probably apply this comparison for other Ultrabooks.

 

image[17]Surface Pro 3 — side view with Type Cover

I’ve had a new desktop sitting in a box for a year that I’ve not got around to setting up (just using my old desktop occasionally).

I’m thinking of going the full laptop-only single device route (with some kind of backup device of course):

  • Docked in my office sitting down or at a standing (treadmill) desk

  • On the couch

  • On the plane

  • Perhaps other places in the house…

Currently for $1349 in Canada I can get either:

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 i5 256GB

or

Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 i7 256GB

Both with 8GB

I’ve had a Yoga Pro for the last 18 months and been very happy with it, with the minor inconvenience of no backlit keys.  Running out of disk space (with 128GB) is the main reason for this decision – it seems that update files slowly chew-up space and no amount of disk cleaning (or putting OneDrive files to online-only) helps and these modern laptops are not readily user-upgradable. 

Here are my personal pros/cons for this price level

Yoga Pro 2 Advantages

  • keyboard layout has proper home/pageup/pagedown/end on right (vs. Surface Pro function keys and page up/down not being active at the same time)

  • 13” (vs. 12”)

  • i7*

  • Lap-able hinge** (the Pro 3 is not lap-able for me)

* Can pay more on SP3 to eliminate this advantage

** Can use a lap tray or even clipboard with SP3 to counter-act this advantage – hoping that the considered stiff hinge keyboard emerges (esp. if it uses a battery for weight)

Surface Pro 3 Advantages

  • docking station available with easy connection (vs. USB socket wear with e.g. a Pluggable 3900)

  • light tablet form-factor available

  • pen – I like to doodle diagrams

  • heat dissipation away from lap

  • display port (vs. HDMI) for easy support of up to 3 external monitors

Having wasted some of my life in the last day looking at reviews, etc.  I’m leaning towards the Surface Pro 3.

I’ll make my decision by the end of next week.

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