New Laptop what would you choose?

[Joshua Conner]

I am moving my copy of office 2010  I just dont like 2013.

[Jeff Zylstra]

I am moving my copy of office 2010  I just dont like 2013.

I don't like Office 2013 either.   Outlook 2013 is hard to read because there's no contrast on the screen, and I REALLY hate the licensing hassles.  Much prefer 2010.

[Ric]

Surface just doesnt work for me.  Screen is too small.  too few ports on it.  I am looking at the thinkpad x1 carbon right now.

I can understand that myself. Surface works well for casual use and typical portable tasks for me, but isn't quite the full laptop replacement yet. I hope it or something similar is by the time I'm ready to replace the Thinkpad I bought last year.

Jim,

I'm curious what the Surface Pro 3 lacks that a notebook has and you need?

I am a power user and Microsoft's tag line was proven true with me "The tablet that can replace your notebook"  and it did so in a week or less.

HD Space and screen size - the 3 is a little larger than the 2 I have, but still a bit small. My laptop is my home PC, so it has music and photos on it. Yes, I could use an external drive for that, and plug into an external monitor for larger screen size, but I get both in the same package with my Thinkpad. Remote access on my Surface is tough without a separate monitor since the remote's screen isn't full-size, making it even harder to see. Perhaps one difference between us Ric is where I use mine, too. I don't sit at a desk at home to use it - I'm in my LazyBoy chair, or even the bed in the evening if working late.

I'm guessing you have a ton of video or an amazingly large music library because I have 256GB in my Surface Pro 3 and still have about 40% free and that's after transferring all the music, videos and pictures (I have thousands of photos) that I have accumulated over the last 20 years or more.  I too use my surface at home on my recliner etc.  and find it the screen is plenty big for close up work. it's only when I use it in a desk environment that I want / need bigger screens. so the 21" LCD on my desk suits the bill just fine.

dang I loved my Dell Latitude for years but dropping down from 15 to 12 was not a big deal.  if you are conditioned to a huge notebook screen then I could see that being culture shock.  plus connecting remotely with different sized screens would be a PITA too.

Thanx for letting me know!

[Ric]

Surface just doesnt work for me.  Screen is too small.  too few ports on it.  I am looking at the thinkpad x1 carbon right now.

I can understand that myself. Surface works well for casual use and typical portable tasks for me, but isn't quite the full laptop replacement yet. I hope it or something similar is by the time I'm ready to replace the Thinkpad I bought last year.

Jim,

I'm curious what the Surface Pro 3 lacks that a notebook has and you need?

I am a power user and Microsoft's tag line was proven true with me "The tablet that can replace your notebook"  and it did so in a week or less.

HD Space and screen size - the 3 is a little larger than the 2 I have, but still a bit small. My laptop is my home PC, so it has music and photos on it. Yes, I could use an external drive for that, and plug into an external monitor for larger screen size, but I get both in the same package with my Thinkpad. Remote access on my Surface is tough without a separate monitor since the remote's screen isn't full-size, making it even harder to see. Perhaps one difference between us Ric is where I use mine, too. I don't sit at a desk at home to use it - I'm in my LazyBoy chair, or even the bed in the evening if working late.

I'm guessing you have a ton of video or an amazingly large music library because I have 256GB in my Surface Pro 3 and still have about 40% free and that's after transferring all the music, videos and pictures (I have thousands of photos) that I have accumulated over the last 20 years or more.  I too use my surface at home on my recliner etc.  and find it the screen is plenty big for close up work. it's only when I use it in a desk environment that I want / need bigger screens. so the 21" LCD on my desk suits the bill just fine.

dang I loved my Dell Latitude for years but dropping down from 15 to 12 was not a big deal.  if you are conditioned to a huge notebook screen then I could see that being culture shock.  plus connecting remotely with different sized screens would be a PITA too.

Thanx for letting me know!

BTW: the Surface P3 has a micro SD slot and reads up to 256GB.  once I start getting HD cramp I'll pick up an SD card and use that as a semi permanently installed D: drive

[Jim Jensen]

The Surface 2 only has a 10" screen. Maybe the 3 would be large enough. Haven't used one yet. My old laptop had a 256GB HD, which was nearly full. Not so much on it now, I don't think (a lot usually gets cleaned out when migrating), but I wanted 1 TB to make sure I wouldn't have that problem for a few years, especially if I get my own GoPro. I have a new DDSLR, so I'm bound to be eating HD space with that.

[Ric]

The Surface 2 only has a 10" screen. Maybe the 3 would be large enough. Haven't used one yet. My old laptop had a 256GB HD, which was nearly full. Not so much on it now, I don't think (a lot usually gets cleaned out when migrating), but I wanted 1 TB to make sure I wouldn't have that problem for a few years, especially if I get my own GoPro. I have a new DDSLR, so I'm bound to be eating HD space with that.

The 12" screen is nice - and big enough for me for moderate and some heavy use. 

You can get the Surface Pro 3 with up to 1/2 TB although it gets a bit pricy and then as I mentioned before it can handle a 256 GB micro SD card giving it a max storage capacity of .75 TB.   swapping out the micro SD's could help in the future too