Windows Tablet Advice

[AB]

We're fully Mac in the office but one of our suppliers has developed some software that only runs on Windows. For demo purposes I need it to be portable so I'm looking at the Surface Pro but I don't want to spend the equivalent of a high end iPad for something we might use once a month.

With a circa £500 budget and not needing to run anything intensive software wise, what would you be buying?

Thanks

[RizzoTheRat]

Can't help with specific tablets, and not tried Win10 on one, but having had a Dell tablet running Windows 8 a few years ago I, I would advise you get a Bluetooth keyboard to go with it. I found windows a nightmare to try and use on a touch screen only device compared to Android, and a cheap keyboard with a build in tracker pad made a massive difference.

[bristolracer]

If its just occasional use then what about a plain old laptop?

Better battery life than a windows tablet
Better connectivity,ethernet,usb,wifi etc
Better durability,more likely to withstand a knock
Mostly upgradeable with better memory and hard drives.

[Lucas Ayde]

AB said:

We're fully Mac in the office but one of our suppliers has developed some software that only runs on Windows. For demo purposes I need it to be portable so I'm looking at the Surface Pro but I don't want to spend the equivalent of a high end iPad for something we might use once a month.

With a circa £500 budget and not needing to run anything intensive software wise, what would you be buying?

Thanks

Surface Go is cheap and a nice bit of hardware design/construction. Pretty low spec though for a Windows machine. For undemanding applications it would be fine.

[mikef]

Will the software run on Windows in a VM on the Mac (Virtualbox, parallels, etc)?

[colin79666]

mikef said:

Will the software run on Windows in a VM on the Mac (Virtualbox, parallels, etc)?

Problem with this is M1 Macs can’t run x86/64 Windows VMs.

As above Surface Go 2 isn’t too bad provided the app doesn’t have big power requirements.

[mikef]

colin79666 said:

Problem with this is M1 Macs can’t run x86/64 Windows VMs.

They don't need to, only a Windows for ARM VM and the x86 apps run in the built-in emulator

Edited by mikef on Friday 12th November 15:30

[xeny]

Getting the ARM windows licence as an insider? Not sure I'd want to go there for something I'd be using for commercial demos.

Surface Go is tolerable if you must have a tablet, but if you don't need touch I'd far rather have a "proper" laptop, and you'll get more powerful hardware for the money. Why choose to demo software on a not terribly fast machine?

[zippy3x]

Refurbished Surface Pro 6 £515

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/d/surface-pro-6-ce...

might need to add the snap on keyboard if the app is not touch friendly (~£130)

[sgrimshaw]

You don't say what the spec needs to be, I've had a few Linx Windows tablets which ran better than expected.
Linx have gone, but there are others on Amazon

Eg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HY8X46F/ref=redir_m...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHUWI-1920x1200-Processor...

Edited by sgrimshaw on Saturday 13th November 08:31

[sgrimshaw]

Take a look at SVP, some of the Lenovo's they have might do the trick

https://www.svp.co.uk/computing/laptops.html

[AB]

Surface Pro 6 has just arrived with a keyboard and a charger. I’ve managed to get it on my home wifi network and I’m looking at a screen that has a recycle bin and a shortcut to Microsoft Edge.

25 years ago I’d be searching for SouthPark login noises.

Now i haven’t got a clue where to start.

Edit: I’ve blown the budget. Back to my iPad.

[Lucas Ayde]

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/microsoft-surface...