Ultrabook Or Surface Pro 6?

[Bullitt Five-Oh]

Du1point8 said:

Bullitt Five-Oh said:

Du1point8 said:

I paid £1100 for my Surface Pro and at that price Im happy.

How did you get it that cheap?

Missed this....

I bought a Surface Pro 4 16GB with 256GB HD, with docking station, Office 365 and keyboard for $2400 (20% off)... claimed the GST (9-10% back in airport) off it as I was in Sydney and Im usually a resident of UK, so now its circa $2200, I get paid £1 = $2 (even after referendum) so it cost me circa £1100 or so.

Luckily I was in Sydney and they have an MS Store.

1st one) I destroyed the graphics card when windows 10 said I should go beta... Got a replacement as it shouldnt recommend beta to anyone.
2nd one) I had screen wobble and it was quite bad, so another graphics card fried... Replaced.
3rd one) refused to update, crashed and then the keyboard stopped working... Replaced.
4th one) Broke in the MS Store and died when doing the initial update.

Explained Im leaving Sydney (I was) and I needing a fully working Surface Pro as I use it for business and was prepared to pay for an upgrade to Surface Pro 5.

5th one) This is the current one.... They couldnt give me the 256GB model as the Surface Pro 5 doesnt come in that and they didnt have any 512GB in stock, but would I take a 1TB model and due to the fact I had been through 4 others, this one was on the house and a free upgrade.

I was very lucky, fortunate and played the system well.

Very nice, although the issues you had with them not so much. Is the 5th gen more reliable then?

[Du1point8]

the 5th Gen is....

better at cooling, I did max out the fans several times/all the time on the 4th Gen...
battery is better.
I believe the CPU is a bit better.
The 1TB is supposed to be 2x 512GB m.2 boards, instead of a single 1TB board, but I have never looked that up.

Doesnt come with a pen so its a little annoying but the 4th Gen pen I kept and works fine.

Cant think of much more I noticed.

[giblet]

Some interesting replies and comments. I’ve already discounted the Chromebooks and the alternatices from the likes of HP.

I had a play about with the XPS13, Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Book 2 in a local John Lewis store on the weekend and I’m still undecided.

The build quality is good across all 3 devices. The standard keyboard cover on the Pro 6 felt alright to type on and the Book 2 seemed ok. All 3 are around the same price and the same spec - 8th gen i5, 8GB ram and 256GB SSD.

The Dell comes with onsite warranty whereas the Surface products are return to base. The last thing I want to is have to ship a device away and be without it for a while. That might end up being the dealbreaker with the Surface options!

[Du1point8]

giblet said:

Some interesting replies and comments. I’ve already discounted the Chromebooks and the alternatices from the likes of HP.

I had a play about with the XPS13, Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Book 2 in a local John Lewis store on the weekend and I’m still undecided.

The build quality is good across all 3 devices. The standard keyboard cover on the Pro 6 felt alright to type on and the Book 2 seemed ok. All 3 are around the same price and the same spec - 8th gen i5, 8GB ram and 256GB SSD.

The Dell comes with onsite warranty whereas the Surface products are return to base. The last thing I want to is have to ship a device away and be without it for a while. That might end up being the dealbreaker with the Surface options!

Unfortunately that is the issue.

US have lots of MS stores, Australia has one, I believe they are opening on in London soon on Regent St, but other than that its courier to fix it.

[Skrambles]

I'm also looking at these options for a new laptop to replace my i7/256gb Surface Pro 3.
The Surface has been great, but (i) it gets hot very quickly even when idling or doing Office, (ii) fans are virtually always running, hard, and they're noisy, (iii) the fold-out stand and keyboard are ok, but not great.

I was hoping to kill 2 birds with one stone and replace my ageing Macbook pro (15").

Looked at Lenovo x1 carbon extreme (15") and x1 carbon (14"), but quality control seems to be very patchy, tho their specs are amazing on paper, and they are awful for finger prints apparently.

Xps 13 is cracking - saw one in JL and was very impressed with the display. So, looks like a good option, but they've gone 100% usb-c and it would be good to have at least one old USB port.

Surface laptop 2 is a real possibility too - very nice screen and keyboard, though it would have to be the new black one, because the lighter colours look awful after a few months. Negative on this one is lack of connectivity.

Decisions, decisions ...

[Du1point8]

if you dont mind the issue with no support (yet), then the latest Surface Pros have solved the fan issue and are much more efficient.

[giblet]

Finally fisted the kumquat, went with a Dell XPS 13 9370 via the Dell outlet.

Pretty decent specs for the money at a smidge over £1200 with 3 years onsite warranty -

Intel® Core™ i7-8550U (Quad Core, up to 4.00 GHz, 8MB Cache, 15W)
16 GB Memory
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
13.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display, Silver machined aluminium

The specs are probably overkill for what I need but given that I last changed laptops 7 years ago this one should last for the same hopefully.

I’ll probably wait and see what the next generation Surface Pro is like. If they improve the support I’ll probably give it a shot

[frisbee]

giblet said:

Finally fisted the kumquat, went with a Dell XPS 13 9370 via the Dell outlet.

Pretty decent specs for the money at a smidge over £1200 with 3 years onsite warranty -

Intel® Core™ i7-8550U (Quad Core, up to 4.00 GHz, 8MB Cache, 15W)
16 GB Memory
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
13.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display, Silver machined aluminium

The specs are probably overkill for what I need but given that I last changed laptops 7 years ago this one should last for the same hopefully.

I’ll probably wait and see what the next generation Surface Pro is like. If they improve the support I’ll probably give it a shot

I've been looking at a new laptop and the XPS is coming out favourite. I originally looked at gaming laptops, then macs and surface books.

My current one is 9-10 years old. Compared to my work lap top it isn't bad. Compared to my ipad it's dead slow.

The various new USB sockets are slightly confusing.

[Bullitt Five-Oh]

The new 2018 Asus Zenbooks are really tempting and sexy looking.

https://www.ultrabookreview.com/22186-2018-asus-ze...

[giblet]

frisbee said:

I've been looking at a new laptop and the XPS is coming out favourite. I originally looked at gaming laptops, then macs and surface books.

My current one is 9-10 years old. Compared to my work lap top it isn't bad. Compared to my ipad it's dead slow.

The various new USB sockets are slightly confusing.

My current laptop is a CHUNKY 17” Dell Insipron which is meant to be a desktop replacement. It’s done the job over the years.

I’ve got a set of USB C to A adapters so that should help with any old style devices.

[Du1point8]

giblet said:

Finally fisted the kumquat, went with a Dell XPS 13 9370 via the Dell outlet.

Pretty decent specs for the money at a smidge over £1200 with 3 years onsite warranty -

Intel® Core™ i7-8550U (Quad Core, up to 4.00 GHz, 8MB Cache, 15W)
16 GB Memory
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
13.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display, Silver machined aluminium

The specs are probably overkill for what I need but given that I last changed laptops 7 years ago this one should last for the same hopefully.

I’ll probably wait and see what the next generation Surface Pro is like. If they improve the support I’ll probably give it a shot

The improved support is waiting on these:

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2017/09/21/flagsh...

Its not that their current support is terrible, you just have to have the device courier away to another location currently... once the store opens you can go and get a decision and talk to the staff direct, their one in Sydney was very professional and turnaround was hours.

its just a shame that Apple has so many stores like this and MS has so few as it would be a game changer to the MS brand and the surface brand.

(yes I know they have 100 or so, but most are in US)

[giblet]

It’s the whole sending it away process that played a part me in going with Dell. My XPS will come with 3 years on site warranty, that’s considerably easier than shipping a device off and waiting for it to come back.

[DoubleByte]

giblet said:

Finally fisted the kumquat, went with a Dell XPS 13 9370 via the Dell outlet.

Pretty decent specs for the money at a smidge over £1200 with 3 years onsite warranty -

Intel® Core™ i7-8550U (Quad Core, up to 4.00 GHz, 8MB Cache, 15W)
16 GB Memory
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
13.3 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display, Silver machined aluminium

The specs are probably overkill for what I need but given that I last changed laptops 7 years ago this one should last for the same hopefully.

I’ll probably wait and see what the next generation Surface Pro is like. If they improve the support I’ll probably give it a shot

Same spec as mine that I also got from the outlet.

It's been ok for size, performance and battery. But the Killer wifi card is a bit suspect. I've kept my eye on the Killer website for driver updates and to be fair it's now working ok if not the strongest signal.

I use if for software dev and toyed with going for the 4K screen version if one came up on the outlet. But there's no point really when you work mainly in text editors of various kinds and I have no use for a touch screen.

Webcam is crap though both in terms of position and quality. My Surface Pro is the dogs by comparison.

Personally I like having 3 USB-C connections - I can plug anything in anywhere, well almost.

[giblet]

DoubleByte said:

Same spec as mine that I also got from the outlet.

It's been ok for size, performance and battery. But the Killer wifi card is a bit suspect. I've kept my eye on the Killer website for driver updates and to be fair it's now working ok if not the strongest signal.

I use if for software dev and toyed with going for the 4K screen version if one came up on the outlet. But there's no point really when you work mainly in text editors of various kinds and I have no use for a touch screen.

Webcam is crap though both in terms of position and quality. My Surface Pro is the dogs by comparison.

Personally I like having 3 USB-C connections - I can plug anything in anywhere, well almost.

I’ve read mixed reviews on the Killer WiFi but I’ll be sure to update the drivers. I have no real need for a touchscreen, the extra battery life is better for what I need.

Since it’ll be used mainly for work, boss has agreed to cover the cost so that’s a win.