1683

I ran the detached screen for a while after I got my Surface Book 2, but it never become part of my routine.

I do run the whole think in flipped mode though with the screen backwards covering up the keyboard. When the Surface Book is in a fixed position, like spending long periods on the kitchen table, it’s just nicer using a real keyboard, real mouse, and not having the built in keyboard in the way. Also when I’m actually using it for drawing, getting the keyboard out of the way is a must.

I think a rotating screen or something along those lines would probably work better for me than the current detachable.

1684

I just can’t imagine switching to a laptop without a touch screen. I use mine for digital art and for also for drawing on the laptop when teaching class. If the classroom is large or if the chalkboard is in an awkward place (such as behind the projection screen, where switching between computer projection and chalkboard is a several minute operation), being able to use the laptop as a projected virtual whiteboard works great.

I will admit after getting a real Cintiq pen display the Cintiq is much nicer for drawing. It’s a pain in the neck to move around though and it needs a computer to power it.

1685

Ahh sure, that’s another good reason. Totally valid.

1686

Yeah, anyone who didn’t care about the touch screen and the option to switch into tablet mode probably wouldn’t be considering a Surface over some normal laptop in the first place, so recommending a device that has neither is a really weird take.

Anyway, I get a lot of good use out of my SP7 and don’t really need an upgrade. Wouldn’t mind improvements in performance and battery life, but I’m not expecting any miracles.

1688

Dejin already said that, but yeah.

I guess if you aren’t an artist or pen user and feel strongly about touchscreens on laptops. I like them myself, find them surprisingly useful, but I would not even consider buying anything other than a Macbook Air right now.

1689

I’ve just got a work air and it is indeed very nice hardware, but it’s 50% heavier than the surface pro. Obviously the battery life is way better but other than that the superiority of the M1 doesn’t really count for much.

I fall into the hates macOS camp anyway, but even if the thing had windows on it I think the pro would fit me better

1690

Only if you don’t include the surface pro keyboard, which makes it a mediocre tablet rather than a nice laptop. If you don’t like MacOS then yeah, not an option. I prefer Windows myself, but the obvious hardware superiority would get me to choose the MBA.

1691

I’ve been using my iPad and OneNote to do this for a while now. There’s a little delay in what I write on the iPad but I can project the laptop and can move around with the iPad to write things. There’s probably a more elegant iPad solution, but it works for me.

1692

That is a fascinating approach that I would not have thought of!

I do love OneNote and use it all the time.

1693

SP8 is supposedly a 120hz display, so inking is smoother.

Also, Thunderbolt ports.

1694

I’d go for a Surface Go that doesn’t utterly suck.

When the IPad Mini is running circles around you, you have problems.

1695

The Pentium Gold chip in this new Go is reportedly a lot more powerful than the one in the last Go, which is encouraging.

But it’s still a Pentium Gold.

1696

I’ve seen a few articles about the SP8 lately, and this is one of the things that caught my eye. This means you could have one of those external graphics card docks, no? Or are those not a thing anymore?

Also the 120hrz refresh for better inking. Cool. Also, much thinner bezels.

Also, not mentioned yet, it’s supposed to have a pen-in-the-keyboard like the Surface Pro X. I was bummed they never ported that to the main line.

Of course, there’s no way I can afford one of these at launch, so my low-end (but reasonable battery life) SP5 will have to do.

1697

I might need to go look into this. I have Dejin’s use case and loved my Surface Pro 3 for it. I almost bought a Pro 7 last year but I started using a document camera instead and it worked ok. But in the back of my mind I was still thinking about the Surface. The the thing is I remember that there was a reason I wanted the Pro 7 instead of an X and now I need to figure out what that was.

1698

Using a touchscreen as a projected whiteboard was really amazing for me last year as a grade 2/3 teacher. Unfortunately it was with an HP Envy which didn’t have the greatest touchscreen. I could totally see myself using a SP for that use. But alas I’m doing JK/SK this year and my 5 year old non-touch XPS 13 is really hanging in there well so I’ll pass for at least another year.

1699

I have a surface laptop 3 (15” Intel core i7) and like it a bit, especially the size of the screen, keyboard, and 3:2 ratio, but the performance is awful unless I change it to high performance mode and thus it gets extremely hot. And even if I set it to power saving mode it barely gets 3-4 hours battery life.

Hopefully they catch up soon. The M1 is embarrassing everyone else.

1700

I disagree on the Macbook Air. I bought one for my wife last year. It’s… mostly fine? Except she hates the integrated webcam, and as she’s a therapist who sees clients online, she has to perch a USB cam on top. It costs $1450 for 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Meanwhile, I’ve been using this Lenovo Yoga with a cute fabric cover. Smaller and lighter , or at least a wash (same size screen), and it’s a convertible touch screen. She covets it. It costs $950 for a Ryzen 7/16GB/512GB SSD.

Maybe if either of us needed to spend extended time travelling or on battery the Air would show off its merits, but we’re almost always plugged in, so battery life isn’t really a concern.

1701

I have a base model SP7 and the front facing camera is surprisingly good.

1702

MS put a 1080p front-facing camera. A lot of companies do 720p. And MS sorta built it with Teams in mind, so video quality was a must.

1703

If Microsoft include Ryzen options in their latest range I think that would go a long way to closing the gap. intel just seem completely lost at the low power end of the market at the moment. (And not much better off at higher wattages either)

That’s the thing. The 3:2 aspect ratio and superior camera makes more difference in what I actually use the thing for than the vastly superior APU in the Air.