Got myself a Surface Pro for when I'm on the road

samsen wrote in post #15688461
Wow. Full fledged Win OS on tab...
I guess now Microsoft is finally getting that long waited revenge from hurt they got from ipad!
Now I need to check under the coach and start collecting all the pennies... It is very temptating.

I'm typing this from a Lenovo Tablet 2, which is also a full fledged Windows OS on a tablet. AND...the Lenovo is both thinner and lighter than an iPad, and gets 9-10 hours of battery life. It's Atom based so not as powerful as Surface Pro, but for me, all day battery life is more important than raw power.

CincyTriGuy wrote in post #15688671
I'm typing this from a Lenovo Tablet 2, which is also a full fledged Windows OS on a tablet. AND...the Lenovo is both thinner and lighter than an iPad, and gets 9-10 hours of battery life. It's Atom based so not as powerful as Surface Pro, but for me, all day battery life is more important than raw power.

Wow, you're right, it's a bit thinner and about 8% lighter than the iPad. It's also a lot thinner and lighter than the MS Surface, although not nearly as capable. Even though it only has 2GB RAM, if it at least had a 128GB HDD I'd probably have one on order. Thankfully I held off upgrading my iPad 1st gen ... I had the 3rd gen for a few days last year but returned it since I was disappointed about how small an upgrade it was from the one I had. I could care less about the retina screen, cameras, Facetime, etc.

MS also went the right direction by providing a digitizer type screen that accepts a proper Wacom style pen instead of only providing a capacitive screen option. The most use I get from my iPad is note taking using Pen Ultimate however having to write ... inaccurately ... with your finger (because the capacitive style pens are awful) isn't great. The capacitive only screens are fine for an iPod, but a really poor choice for a tablet IMO.

Does a Surface Pro run the full version of Google Earth? I plan my landscape trips and plot pins, etc, all over and need the extra 2GB cache that isn't available on any of the mobile/app versions of Google Earth. Which is still why I'm running a very aged netbook since it has Win7 installed. I'd love to replace it with something a little newer and faster.

rparchen wrote in post #15692081
Does a Surface Pro run the full version of Google Earth?

Surface pro runs the full version of everything... its running same OS as a Desktop Windows8 machine.

Thanks David. That is what I thought as well but wanted to confirm. I was reading some reviews (may have been for the RT) about people waiting for a Google Earth app to come out so figured it was worth asking.

Merlin_AZ wrote in post #15688349
I have a Windows 8 Atom tablet, and as far as I know, you can't install to the cards.
Data only.

You can install apps to the sd card. One trick is to format the card and mount it using a NTFS folder instead of a drive letter.

See http://winsupersite.co​m …braries-metro-apps-144658

This also addresses the issue of unable to add music, photos, etc to the libraries (surface rt or pro).

Trent Gillespie wrote in post #15685223
So.... I can't say I've ever jumped on a Microsoft product right after its release, but the Surface Pro looked great on paper, so I gave it a shot. I must say... after a month of using it, I'm impressed. I actually sold both the iPad and the ultrabook. Having just used it on a destination wedding to Mexico, being able to edit some shots on the flight home was awesome. I put a few photos online before the bride even landed. Not saying I couldn't have done it with an ultrabook, but its nice to have something light and with wacom functionality. Brushing with a mouse on an airplane is nearly impossible.

I put a short video on YouTube for those of you interested.

http://www.gillphotos.​com …-review-for-photographers

Thanks for starting the thread. I've had my Pro for about a week and am thrilled to have the ability to run my programs on this form factor. I do a lot of traveling and being able to leave the laptop home is great. I do have a question though. I've been running an Eyefi card in my 5D3 with Shutter Snitch on the iPad. Its been great to preview shots with clients in the spot. How can you do something similar on the Surface? What do you use?

Another question - anyone running calibration software? I created a profile using SpyderElite and its helped but I'm not sure this is the best approach.

jase1125 wrote in post #15694634
You can install apps to the sd card. One trick is to format the card and mount it using a NTFS folder instead of a drive letter.

See http://winsupersite.co​m …braries-metro-apps-144658

This also addresses the issue of unable to add music, photos, etc to the libraries (surface rt or pro).

I saw that a while back, but never thought doing it would run apps fast enough to be useful. I guess I'll consider it if space becomes tighter.

I think I'll be adding a Win8 tablet later in the spring. The surface & surface pro are both nice but not as well spec'ed as I would like.

I'll probably keep my iPad 3 since it does so many things well, but I'm waiting for the Lenovo Helix:

http://www.lenovo.com …/thinkpad/think​pad-helix/

Stone 13 wrote in post #15697188
I think I'll be adding a Win8 tablet later in the spring. The surface & surface pro are both nice but not as well spec'ed as I would like.

I'll probably keep my iPad 3 since it does so many things well, but I'm waiting for the Lenovo Helix:

http://www.lenovo.com …/thinkpad/think​pad-helix/

I would avoid the Atom base tablets if you intend to use either photoshop or Lightroom. It'll be too slow.

lsquare wrote in post #15697286
I would avoid the Atom base tablets if you intend to use either photoshop or Lightroom. It'll be too slow.

The Helix is not Atom based, It has options for either Core i5 or i7, up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. It will be the most powerful Win 8 tablet on the market when released and up to 10hrs of battery life with the keyboard dock.

Check the link

Stone 13 wrote in post #15698144
The Helix is not Atom based, It has options for either Core i5 or i7, up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. It will be the most powerful Win 8 tablet on the market when released and up to 10hrs of battery life with the keyboard dock.

Check the link

Looks like one heck of a machine which will blow the Surface out of the water! Count me in!

Stone 13 wrote in post #15697188
I think I'll be adding a Win8 tablet later in the spring. The surface & surface pro are both nice but not as well spec'ed as I would like.

I'll probably keep my iPad 3 since it does so many things well, but I'm waiting for the Lenovo Helix:

http://www.lenovo.com …/thinkpad/think​pad-helix/

Whoa! The Helix is going to be pricey! $1499 for a base model? I hate to think what a fully-loaded configuration will be. Unless a person really needed the tablet functionality, one might be better off to get something like a Thinkpad X230.

I have the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga - which is roughly $1k for the laptop.

Core i5, 4-8gb ram, SSD, touchscreen IPS display, the whole screen rotates around and works like a pure tablet or you can use it the same as a traditional ultrabook.

I've been running the trial for CS6 creative suite, and it works beautifully. The programs run smoothly with little hesitation, and the IPS screen is awesome. I finally took some time over the past week or two to catch up on my past several months of trips, as I travel to Europe once a month. While I'm mostly an amateur with photoshop, I was able to work between Bridge, ACR and Photoshop quite nicely, processed a few HDRs, and run through edits nicely.

I'd add the Yoga onto a list of the Windows 8 best-of laptop/tablet hybrids.

jemanner wrote in post #15698174
Looks like one heck of a machine which will blow the Surface out of the water! Count me in!

And by the specs it's still lighter and thinner than the Surface Pro.