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surface pro or 15" macbook pro?

I recently picked up the microsoft 2017 surface pro i7 512 16gb model and its very powerful but I cant help but shake my lust for a new macbook pro. I have a 2012 model. Since then I have grown closer to windows and PC game on my major pc (I have a poweful gaming laptop also)

What is gafs thoughts?
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Never Surface Pro. Surface Book or Surface Laptop, maybe, but I would never recommend the standard Surface line to anyone. Amazing concept, but terrible execution and full of problems.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
As someone who has had five or six Apple laptops since they went Intel, and whom also owns a SP4 and thinks the Surface Laptop is the sexiest laptop on the market, I feel fair and balanced to provide a suggestion.

Let's first start with what should be obvious: they're both great devices. Arguably, you're comparing the two best laptops on the market, period.

It truly just boils down to the form factor and OS you prefer. Obviously, pen and touch support - and a tablet form factor - can be supremely beneficial in certain use cases and give the nod to the SP. However, as a laptop - and always a laptop - the MBP is unquestionably better - it's gonna have much stronger "lapability" and it's more usable on small workspaces (like a plane's seat tray).

OS is truly preference. You say you're into gaming - but the SP has integrated graphics and isn't going to be playing anything other than old Source games or indies at respectable framerates/settings. The 15" MBP offers a 560 GPU - which is far from even "good," but it can handle some more modern stuff like LoL, Overwatch, etc at 1080p low/medium settings.

Build quality is great on both, but the MBP's screen is a good bit better, IMO. Better color accuracy once I calibrated both; and definitely brighter (500+ nits vs below 400). MBP has better touchpad, too. I think the MBP feels more solid. However, the SP is lighter, which is an advantage, and both keyboards are merely okay - so wash, there.

I got the 15" 2017 MBP mainly because I wanted the best 15" screen I could find, which I firmly believe is the one Apple offers. That, and I just much more prefer OSX on mobile devices - things like PowerNap, sleep, battery longevity, trackpad functionality, and multi-full screen make it more pleasurable on the road... but most of that is subjective. I also wanted a quad core CPU that isn't as held back by voltage reqs - which really, MS offers nothing in that space. That may not be as important to you, though.

Ultimately, I think they're both great machines. If you want the tablet-y formfactor, touch/pen support, or a built-in USB-A port; well, Surface is the only way to go. But if none of those things matter, and you're okay bumping up to a 15" - I think the MBP is the much better device.

If you're only considering a 13" MBP, though; then arguably the decision is much tighter and I'd probably base it entirely on OS preference.

FINAL NOTE: Fwiw, I actually despise my wife's SP4. Literally nothing but sleep, wifi, and firmware problems. 10% of the time it should be fully charged it's dead as a fucking doornail. Awful. Terrible, terrible experience and I wouldn't recommend a SP4 to anyone. HOWEVER, supposedly the newest SP does not have these issues; and so the above arguments assume you'd be selecting that.
 
Kinda hard to say without more info on your wants.

Macbook is going to have great build quality and be really reliable. Personally, that's the main thing I care about in a laptop. But you seem to have multiple machines, so maybe you're looking for something more specific?
 

Owari

Member
The only way to tell is to figure out what would be best for you! What software are you using? Do you play games? What is your budget? If money isn't an option, max out a macbook and throw Windows 10 on there. If not, you would want to go with Surface, which will be the best bang for your buck if you don't care about OS X specific programs. It really all depends.

I'd go with the Surface Laptop over the Pro though. Get an iPad Pro if you want a tablet.
 

badb0y

Member
Having owned both of these products and a Surface Book within the past year it depends on how you use them.

The way I see it the Surface line of products are a jack-of-all trades kind of deal. As a tablet it's not going to be better than a iPad and as a laptop it's not going to be better than the MacBook Pro but as a device that has the ability to fill it does a decent job.
 

riotous

Banned
Depends on what you are doing with it.

But an MBP is super flexible (minus touchscreen) due to the ability to run Parallels.

*three finger swipes into windows*

*three finger swipes back*
 
I have a SP4 and used a MBP for several years. OSX updates never broke stuff for me, Win10 updates regular mess things up. I bought the SP4 assuming that a first party product would be tested properly for updates, but no such luck. So I'd go with the MBP if you've got the extra cash for it.

But I do like the flexibility of the SP4, and the hardware itself is solid. It's just too bad that Windows is so unreliable.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Never Surface Pro. Surface Book or Surface Laptop, maybe, but I would never recommend the standard Surface line to anyone. Amazing concept, but terrible execution and full of problems.



We have a Surface Book, a Pro 4, a MacBook Pro, an iMac and the Book is my go to for serious work. Every time. I have never had any meaningful issues beyond the odd driver, and it finally made me allergic to the fact that the MacBook Pro doesn't have a touch screen.

I'm not dismissing anyone's real problems with any machine, simply relating my experience.


For me the question would boil down to: Do I need touch/pen? And I would take the Book, no hesitation.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Also keep in mind that Windows still does not do well with scaling stuff on high DPI devices. Until they fix this, there will always be frustrations when using high-res smaller sized screens that you don't really get using a Mac.
 

eizarus

Banned
Never Surface Pro. Surface Book or Surface Laptop, maybe, but I would never recommend the standard Surface line to anyone. Amazing concept, but terrible execution and full of problems.
Can you elaborate? Thinking of selling my 2013 MBP for a Surface Pro. Seems the latest one is good.
 
Shouldn't this be Surfacebook vs Macbook.

Of the two you listed, Macbook is the clear choice, but then again what are you using it for, what programs do you use or want to use?
 

jtb

Banned
I trust Apple hardware and support way more than Microsoft, so I'd go with the MBP for peace of mind, if nothing else.
 

Micael

Member
If all you want is a laptop then the surface pro is not a good purchase (I have one), the surface pro only really shines if you want both a laptop and a tablet all in the same package, if not you are just paying more for less.
 
One nice thing about the MBP is that it'll have much higher resale value down the line. I have a 2013 rMBP and I could still get a nice chunk of change from selling it.

What are you going to be using it for though? If it's just web browsing and media consumption you might not want to spend $2k+ on a laptop.
 

nampad

Member
Well, do you want to use macOS? That seems to be the important point.
I think the Apple laptops are great but if you don't want macOS, there are cheaper alternatives.
 

Maedre

Banned
I used my pro 4 for a little over 1 1/2 years and switched to the MacBook Pro 15“.

I gained more battery life, more performance, more stability, a better display, and a better and predictable update system of the OS.

I would not change back. I am burned.
 

Khezu

Member
I recently got a surface 2017.

I haven't used it enough to recommend it, but it is a pretty novel thing.

First time I have enjoyed using a tablet to browse the internet, not sure if it's the screen or the kickstand or what, but It feels a lot more natural then any other tablet I have used.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Can you elaborate? Thinking of selling my 2013 MBP for a Surface Pro. Seems the latest one is good.

I only have experience with my brothers SP3 and a SP4 I got for work, but both had constant issues, particularly with DPI scaling of applications.

That's not to mention the god awful battery life, the constant thermal throttling (that's what happens when you don't have a fan), the weird issues with the thing not going into sleep mode consistently, and plenty of other seemingly random Windows 10 quirks I don't get on my desktop machines.

There wasn't a day that went by where I didn't have to face some kind of frustration when I had one for work. I swapped it for a laptop after a couple of months.

Primarily it was the DPI scaling issues that did it for me, personally. I just don't think Windows is ready to be used at anything but 100% scaling, and that's just impossible with 4K resolution screens that are 13" or smaller unless you have eagle eyes.
 

Micael

Member
Wow at the sp4 hate. Live mine. Blazing fast, super convenient and low profile.

It isn't very hard to see why some people might hate it, if you are using it as laptop or as a tablet there are straight up better options.
Where the SP gains is in being versatile and allowing you to use both in the same package, but as a single thing it isn't great, I mean typing on the surface pro without the keyboard is straight up garbage, just a terrible experience even when you compare it to writing on something with a much smaller form factor like a smartphone, the tablet mode isn't always detected, the start menu in tablet mode is also pretty trashy, when you just want a laptop the IOs on it are pretty bad and who wants to go around with dongles, especially when the form factor is one of the SP main advantages.

Doesn't help that microsoft isn't particularly great at supporting their products, I mean even recently they released an update that was disabling facial recognition on windows, and it took them several days to fix it, when they could have just easily launched an emergency patch rolling back the drivers.

Now don't take this the wrong way, I absolutely love my SP4, it is a very good bit of hardware, but that is because one day I might be at home doing some electrical modifications and need something small that I can put in a shelf somewhere so I can watch some netflix, the other I might be out in the middle of nowhere and need to run some windows only software, or I might be needing to take some notes on some database design and it is more practical to take a screenshot and draw on it, than to print it out and write on the paper.
It is very versatile and well put together, but it is also a whole lot crappier than a tablet and a laptop when it comes time to use it, while being expensive enough that you can buy both.

Also it really cannot be overstated how much people tend to use shit wrongly, the amount of people I know that use laptops as desktops, when laptops are absolutely atrocious desktops is sheer insanity.
 
If you have a powerful gaming laptop I don't know why would you buy a surface. Seems like a waste of Money to me. I would get the MacBook instead.
 

Future

Member
Do you need touch and a pen, but willing to sacrifice battery life. Do you want to live the tablet life?

Or do you want a solid laptop?

Can't go wrong with the MacBook Pro for just a good laptop. But if you like the idea of pens and touch go surface. I love my pro 3 and never had any real problems. Handwritten notes are excellent and love using t for that. Immediately attaching keyboard to get real work done is nice

Battery life is like 5 hrs with regular use though which is some shit right there. It makes the tablet part of it feel weak cuz I can't just pick it up on and off all day. Was considering the book for the extra battery, but eventually may just go ipad again for the couch tablet experience
 

Mrbob

Member
What are you using the device for? You say you have a powerful gaming laptop already, so is it only for productivity? Then get a Dell XPS 15. If you want something light but perhaps a little more power inside look at a Gigabyte Aero 15:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-15#kf

It's a striking balance between weight, screen, battery life, and power. I think it's one of the more interesting laptop designs. You could use it for productivity and gaming.

I'd disqualify the Surface Laptop due to MS decision to only include Windows 10 S instead of Windows 10 Home. So you are forced into the Windows 10 app store, no thanks.

If the choice is the Mac Book Pro or a surface pro, stick with the mac book pro. You already said you have a powerful Windows laptop.
 

Micael

Member
Battery life is like 5 hrs with regular use though which is some shit right there. It makes the tablet part of it feel weak cuz I can't just pick it up on and off all day. Was considering the book for the extra battery, but eventually may just go ipad again for the couch tablet experience

The battery life has been improving since the surface pro 3, it supposedly improved quite a bit on surface pro 2017 even.
 

harSon

Banned
Can't vouch for a Macbook Pro; but I have a Surface Pro 3 which is still chugging along nicely without any issues. I also have an XPS 13 from 2015 that's awesome, and I just recently purchased a Surface Laptop which I'd highly recommend too.
 
If TC wants a windows PC for everyday use I would recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad T470. Best non-gaming Laptop you can buy. Put in a 6 cell battery and will easily last almost 10 hours on one charge. And I am confident enough to say no Laptop can hang with the Thinkpad keyboard in this world. I have a 2 year old T450. And i Love it.
 
I got an incredible deal on a new 2017 15"MBP. Some thoughts:

- Build quality, materials and design is incredible. The thing looks and feels fantastic, and I'm sure it'll last a while.
- Best trackpad, period. It's huge, like as big as my 7+ in its entirety.
- Screen is gorgeous. Insanely bright, which is the defining factor against it's competitors. Although others have higher res, the MBP still wins it for me.
- Touchbar is nifty, but I'm not getting a ton of use out of it. Still cool to have, and in all fairness, I'm not trying to get the most out of it.
-Battery life is very good. 10+ hours w/ my light usage.
- Keyboard takes some getting used to, but I really like it now
- Best notebook speakers, period
- Performance is solid, although i haven't tried gaming.
- Being Apple, the customer service is unparalleled.
- Unparalleled resale value.
- Dongle life isn't bothering me, but your impact may vary

If you can afford it, go for it. At the price I got, it was a no brainer for me.
 

Kyoufu

Member
The device with the quad core CPU is the only sensible option IMO. I can't go back to a dual core CPU machine for my daily driver.
 

Micael

Member
Exactly, and I got my new MBP 15" for much less than 2200. Its like 2250 plus the free beats solo 3s right now

Well was talking about just the list price, since that goes both ways, amazon sells the surface pro for almost 200$ less.
Also you got the promo wrong you don't get the beats for free, they are paying you 150$ to take the beats of their hands XD.
 

Raguel

Member
I love my surface pro 4 i7 16 Gb Ram. Never had any trouble with it. No bugs. No glitches. Ran last gen games well and I use it for work daily, sometimes streaming multiple videos at once. It's a beast and I love its versatility and form factor. I got it for a great deal too during November so I've had this for almost a year. It's one of the best purchases I have ever made and I initially didn't even want one.
 
Kinda hard to say without more info on your wants.

Macbook is going to have great build quality and be really reliable. Personally, that's the main thing I care about in a laptop. But you seem to have multiple machines, so maybe you're looking for something more specific?

Im a teacher so I am a strange person who uses windows in work and teaching materials but one of the subjects I teach is film and thus media stuff is beneficial. I have an adobe licence so thats not a problem. I prefer the OS X but I am fully aware of the limitations of the software.
 
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