I really feel like the first one is the sweet spot - $833 for a really good machine is tempting - but do I wand a dedicated GPU? Probably not going to do much gaming on it, do I need 16GB of RAM?
I’m just worried that I’ll have buyer remorse and wish I got more machine - thoughts?
The Verge is usually at about Fox News level of trustworthiness, but Consumer Reports appears to agree with them (I can’t find a link directly, they’re all paywalled).
Here’s the thing - the first several months after release were hell. But eventually Microsoft worked out all the bugs via updates and they are very reliable. But they have an overstock of returns from that dreadful period.
I watch Twit.tv and Paul Thurrott is a weekly panelist on Windows Weekly, and both he and host Leo LaPorte are now quite happy with their Surface Books.
That’s very reassuring - so back to the initial question - do I lay out the bucks for a high end version like the i7 w/ dGPU in the hopes I’ll get a few more years of use out of it or do I go cheap?
I work for one of the largest contract manufacturer’s in the world. You NEVER want to buy the lowest priced SKU. It’s a loss leader and corners are cut.
You also NEVER want to buy a product made in the first few months of production. They are getting the kinks out.
I would get the 6th Gen Intel Core i5, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM / dGPU – $1,144 simply because 128GB memory isn’t much and it’s not the entry SKU. I personally don’t see much need for a i7
Another vote for “what do you use it for?” Plus “What other computers do you have that may be part of your total IT picture?” and “How much local storage do you really need, vs. just being lazy / convenient and saving everything on every device?”
Late add/edit:
As an example, here’s my equipment and use case:
I have a refurb Surface 2 (not Pro) that cost me $125 18 months ago. The 25GB hard drive is 3/4ths free space. The whopping 2GB of RAM is rarely full so it rarely pages. It’s totally adequate for what I use it for: internet terminal and email client. Plus ordinary MS Office tasks and the occasional remote desktop sessions to other machines. Plus an e-reader for library books.
I have OneDrive and OneNote and use both heavily. But I manage the volume of stuff that gets downloaded so my long-term archives are in the cloud but not on this device. Work in process and some reference material is.
My machine is about 1/10th as potent as what you’re discussing. For about 1/10th the price. In the 3-ish years I’ve been using Surface 2s I’ve seen no tendency for them to become less able to keep up with my workloads.
YMMV of course. But this demonstrates that useful work (for some folk’s definition of useful) requires a lot less machine than you’re talking about.
A architect client of mine is using a Surface Pro 3 with an i5 and and 128 megs as her only computer. She primarily uses it as a tablet only when traveling between her home in Kansas City, where she has a dock and a 30" screen and her second home in Prague where she has another doc and a 27" screen. Both locations are equipped with keyboards, mice and nice, fast internet connections. She’s running Autocad, Sketchup and a raytracer/radiosity renderer called SU Podium.
She views the tablet mode as a convenient way to move her work from one place to the next, an occasional tool to tweak or present a job and a computer that TSA doesn’t even ask her to take out of her bag.
Like LSLGuy said, with a good internet connection, you’d be shocked at how little computer you’ll find yourself actually needing.
It’s off topic, but as of a week or so ago, you can’t leave tablets in the bag any more. They need to be put in still another separate container at the TSA checkpoint.
