Surface Product as a Student?

I currently have a 17 inch Alienware laptop. I love everything about it except for the form factor. This thing is awful to lug around campus. I don’t really know what I expected :stuck_out_tongue:

What I am trying to say is buying that was a 2000 dollar mistake. One I will never forget. Now I need something more portable so I can actually do school work.

I am a computer engineering student, so I am taking a combination of CS classes and EE classes, with core math/science courses sprinkled in. I have been really attracted to the idea of using a Microsoft Surface product to replace my Alienware.

Is it really practical to use the Surface Pen and OneNote in class to take notes? Is there anything else I should be considering?

I’m a CS student also and I use a surface pro 3 as my laptop no problems. In my lecture hall if I looked there are actually plenty of people using surfaces. Taking notes with one note and the pen on the other hand I really don’t like. I still prefer the feel of good old pen and paper.

Edit: Surface products are expensive though and there’s probably alot of other dedicated laptops/Ultrabooks that would be much cheaper and do a similar amount of things that you need it to do.

Its not for everyone, but I’ve used a similar solution in a HP Spectre X360 13 inch with an active digitizer and stylus. I quite like it for use in class, but as Nacho said it isn’t for everyone. If you’re not one for the pen and OneNote solution, I’d really recommend a proper laptop over a tablet and keyboard case solution. Its a cool solution if you can really get a lot out of the pen, but otherwise having a solid hinge is preferable to me. I like the X360 because it’s a solid hinge that goes all the way around into a tablet formfactor. The Dell XPS 13 2 in 1 is also very close to my X360 and the new X360 in functionality, but the XPS hasn’t been updated to 8th gen cpus and it uses the lower wattage skews at that.

Thanks for the info guys. I still have some thinking to do. I’ve also got to see if I can sell this alienware to someone.

I am really leaning towards the first gen Surface Book. It has the battery life I am looking for, and the specs I am looking for, at a decent price.

256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Core i5, and the discrete NVIDIA GPU in the keyboard component all for under $1000.

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It is surprisingly convenient for note taking, if your gonna get a Surface product for note taking, I reckon you could splash on a refurbished Surface Pro 2 or 3 at a discount.

There are other non-Surface products too these days that have pen support, one example is the HP Envy x360s, some of the new ones that have 8th Gen Intel/Raven Ridge support pens. I can’t vouch for the quality of those products though I am giving the Envy x360 a chance myself as an upgrade from the Surface Pro. Besides I plan on running Linux on that system although until Kernel 4.15 comes out it will only be experimental.

Really? I am pretty sure that the new Envy x360s support Pen capabilities, I was looking at a few SKUs, the one with the FX 9830P didn’t have Pen support but 8th Gen Intel and R5 2500U models did (I can confirm this myself since I saw the laptop at Best Buy). Why wouldn’t the newer Specters have it?

So according to the Googles, there’s some mis information and I was wrong. There are a couple of posts on HP’s forums about this and also this reddit thread:

The OP went on to edit that reddit post as he was informed that the spectre is compatible, but doesn’t ship with the necessary software (sounds very HP to me)…


Editing my original post with this in mind.

EE major; my loadout is deadtree notebooks for writing down notes, and a refurb ultrabook (UX305F) for group projects and in-class CS things. I don’t like taking notes with the laptop, and while I haven’t tried the surface, I figure that, best case, it’s as good as deadtree, but for a few hundred instead of maybe $20 a semester.

On the UX305F: the CPU is weak af, because ultrabook, but it’s enough for what I need in a laptop. I’m glad I have a desktop to come home to. 8 Gb of ram is enough to run a VM if you need to for a CS class or something. It’s a good laptop.

Thinkpad

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If for strict note-taking use, maybe an iPad Pro or Pixel C… if you aren’t looking to rekt your wallet, then get a good 10 inch tablet and get a Adonit Stylus.

I don’t recommend Microsoft tablets simply because at this day and age Microsoft has basically made the their tablets irrelevant (no app support, only onenote for note-taking and so on) but because you already have a Laptop with Windows, chances are you are going to use the tablet less since the laptop has more power.

TL;DR, keep the laptop for work that requires a lot of power (chances are you going to need it eventually) and keep the tablet for basic use for note-taking and maybe some typing with a Bluetooth keyboard.

I speak from experience… my professor made us do some projects with VMs and hypervisors… I had to do the work at home and not in class cause my laptop was a dual-core. and my desktop had the horsepower I needed.

Check out Eve V, it’s a surface book with better specs yet significantly cheaper.

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If you like writing instead of typing sure, the only difference between a surface and a notebook is that everything you write will be stored electronically.

Depends on the lecture hall, in some of my uni’s lecture halls (chem and math halls), the desks are tiny so post people put it in their lap. Some people are fine some don’t like how top heavy the surface is in their lap.

If your uni’s lecture halls have long tables like the ones in my uni’s CS buildings, surface might not be too bad. It really depends on your situation.

Do know that people have reported having issues with the surface, the ease to take it a part and try to fix it will be hard.

I have a Surface Pro 3 and I really like it for school. However, I don’t take note on it as I greatly prefer pen and paper for that. But just for the versality of it, being able to use it as a laptop, or a tablet when you do readings, and the light and compact form, it’s pretty much the best on-the-go laptop for me. Almost don’t take any place in my bag so I can bring it everywhere, even during trip when I use my small shoulder bag.