I'm trying to find a laptop that offers decent graphics performance on a budget (probably an AMD one) that I can use for drawing with a pen tablet, I have a cheap Wacom tablet that I could plug into it and I'd be using it for school. Are there any laptops that cost significantly less than the Pro 3 yet offer good graphics performance (enough for programs like photoshop, clip studio paint etc.)
Probably not the only thing that comes close to that Surface Pro 3 is a Dell Venue 11 Pro, They have Intel Atom chip models (which you'd be surprised that little Baytrail atom can hold its own for non I-Series chip. my only issue with it is that i wish the atom models had 4gigs of ram instead of 2gigs) and Haswell i5 and i7 Models. those in my opinion come close, well in some cases i will argue its a bit better for the money but that's me.
Here it is on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Venue-i5-4210Y-Windows-Professional/dp/B00KEAY56G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410988184&sr=8-2&keywords=Dell+Venue+11+Pro
I can definitely vouch for the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga. Girlfriend is a Design/Business student and loves it.
Wacom pen is great, and as far as I'm aware you can use any wacom pen you want with it(they just obviously wont mount) and draw directly onto the screen rather than having to use the tablet. Assuming you have something like the Wacom Bamboo, this would be a significant upgrade just because you can see what you're drawing under the pen.
The thing is nice and light, but built solid...it's a thinkpad.
Unless many new things have come out it'll probably be your best bet, we decided it was the best for her after a long search, but this was earlier this year. So watch out of new models/competitor devices.
It doesn't have dedicated graphics, but neither does the surface or likely anything else you're probably looking at, but intel graphics should be fine for graphics programs.
Great device(i not-so-secretly want one). Only issue she had was the wifi acting up, and requiring a restart a few times in the first month she had, but i think drivers must have sorted it.
http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/yoga-series/
Look into the Sony Vaio TAP. Its a Atom base processor system. But VAIO bit the bullet and is no longer owned by Sony. I have seen old stock at my local electronics retailer for as little as 400.00. marked down.
Asus has their transformer windows for half the price of the surface pro 3 but it only has 32 bit OS and 2Gb of ram.
For the price i would get the Asus Flip, 4th gen I3 and 6Gb of ram. there are a few touch screen AMD 2 in 1 but none have a tablet like mode, the closest is the lenovo Flex (similar to their intel Yoga series, but half the price)