I’ve been looking for a new computer to do art stuff with. The only real requirement I have is to be able to work on big images and maybe once in a while it might edit video or run the aircrack suite.
So why is the surface pro x so interesting to me?
I know there’s a lot of stuff out, and with ryzen plowing as much as it is thru Intel’s market share, there should be enough available to be interesting now.
But… Dammit there’s still that 2% idiot in me that likes to play with weird ass devices. Plus I like hacker toys, I don’t rly think about computers the same as most people.
Equally, the SPX is built on some interesting hardware, and I’m really interested in 8 arm cores at 7 watts at 3ghz, like what? I’m also very interested in vsl2, but also in having a thing to hack on after my powerpc projects.
Hell no
Seriously. If you want a Tablet, just get an iPad Pro. Pen is Better, Apps are Better and Performance is leagues ahead.
If you want a windows Tablet (for what ever reason), get one of the x86 ones. Windows on Arm is still more or less a Tech Demo. It works for Browsing and Office stuff and that’s about it.
I personally own a Surface Pro 4 and it’s catching dust. To heavy to be a good Tablet, to small/hot to be a decent Laptop and more expensive than both. And i wouldn’t bet on being able to hack anything on the SPX. That thing is 100% locked down by MS.
If you want something ARM to hack on, maybe get one of the Pinebooks? They are pretty cheap.
So yeah:
Great Tablet: Ipad
Great Windows Machine: AMD Laptop
Something ARM to Hack on: Pinebook?
I don’t see a reason to spend a grand on something with no apps, no option to install another OS and inferior Performance when way better options are out there…
Probably right. I’ll have to wait for current surface rt status I guess till I can play with one, which sucks. I just wish there was something similar that was useable. Hell even wsl would be worth it, and I think you can install X and probably have stuff like krita.
What do you want from it? Do you want an ARM Tablet because the Architecture is interesting to you? Or do you want a Linux Tablet? Or is WSL the interesting Part?
No one says you can only buy stuff because it makes sense. If you think the SPX is just cool hardware, that can be reason enough to get it. I wouldn’t count on Krita in WSL through some X-Server using the pen properly though (if it’s interesting to you, i could test that part on my SP4)…
That’d be helpful. If you had time and wouldn’t mind, that’d be great.
I dunno why I want it. It has a nice display, being arm based it’ll be low heat and decent battery life, the processor is cool, and the only issue with linux running on it is there’s not enough hands on the device. It’d be neat if I could help somehow.
I have a feeling I’ll have to wait a few years tho. Maybe you’re right about the amd machines, though I’ve only rly seen one that’s interesting.
Fair enough. I can’t fault you for that. I don’t either. I hate how their Products aren’t repairable at all and are hella overpriced. But I can’t say the surface line is any better in that regard. Same for privacy. Apple might be the best of the worst in that regard.
My experience with the Surface Pro 4 has just been that it is a bad tablet and a bad laptop. But i might just not be the target audience. Lot’s of people at my company really like their surface devices and my wife says the pen is top notch.
Now for my X220/X230 tablet shill that no one asked for. It never dies, is more sturdy than a Nokia phone, and is more extendable than any laptop on the market (slice, dock, external gpu, ssd in the cd tray, msata drive, easy to find replacement parts/build)
Eh. I have an X230T. I need a much higher resolution screen and a way better processor. I already have the best SSD I can stuff in there and the fastest ram with the best timings I could find listed on thinkpad forums.
I’d go one better and say that if you want a tablet for drawing, get an iPad Air instead and keep the money you saved for a PC (or hell, a MacBook Air) as well (if you don’t already have).
Unless you’re bound to bigger than 11" tablet size… in which case iPad Pro.
Windows 10 on a tablet imho just sucks. I’ve run it on various Surface machines and the apps and the UI just can’t hold a candle to what is available on iOS.
The Apple Pencil isn’t a gimmick either, it feels WAY better to draw with than the shitty pen the microsoft machines come with. Weighted better, etc. It feels natural, rather than being given some shitty PC based stylus to draw with.
And yeah, even an iPad Air will likely be much faster than the Surface. It’s on par with the current iPad Pro due to being on the next generation architecture - the iPad Pro is due a refresh any day now.
I bought a Surface Pro X but returned it because one of my main use cases was note taking and MS have removed the ability to save from OneNote locally. Not even to local network drives. You MUST give your files to MS and use their OneDrive. That was a deal-breaker for me.
If that is not a problem for you then I otherwise found the Pro X a very good device. Very light, fast, good battery life. I haven’t used the Mac equivalent to comment on relative pen quality but I can say that the pen I bought with the Pro X was very good - quick, responsive, good pressure sensitivity. I only did some very light artwork with it for fun but was impressed. I don’t think it will let you down in this regard.
If they restored my ability to own my own data on it, I would buy it again quite happily. Most reviews I’ve seen of it focus on the negatives which are all “oh no! you can’t install program blah! not x86 yada…” But if it suits your actual requirements the hardware and OS are pretty good. Just check before purchase for any specific software you know you will need.
Well even if I could just like sideload krita or something. That’d be fine. I just want something somewhat up to date low power and secure over all. SPX seems a lot nicer than most other hardware out there, and I’ve tried a lot of solutions so far.
Should litux ever get cracked in, it’d be a good device for it. Should vm’s be useable, cool there’s another thing to try.
Atp I don’t really care about steam or any of that crap. That’s for my desktop. I’m trying to get ahead on some stuff, and annoyingly the tools that I have are way too limited. Hell I’m even looking at a pen to use with my phone. Better display and gpu than my 230T, would rather use it. Need a bigger screen than a Nord N10 tho.
And yes I have new tech lol. My desktop is literally built on vfio technologies. What is not new about that? Lol.
Like ooohhh noes I don’t have the newest gpu or whatever, but I still have a 3900x. Better than the 1920x I was originally looking at. Now THAT is outta date.
