Comment by amerkhalid | Hacker News Reader

Comment by amerkhalid | Hacker News Reader

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I used Surface Pro 4 daily as my main machine. I returned it after a month because of it lack of lap-ability. I use laptops in bed, on couches, etc. While you can use SP4 with keyboard in lap, it is not as carefree as a laptop.

Now that it is gone, I miss it a lot. I bought new MacBook Pro 13 to replace SP4. While yes MBP is easier to use than SP4 in a lap but I didn't realized earlier that SP4 allowed me to use it in more situations.

For example, I took it with me to office and took notes on it in meetings. I would never take a laptop to a social event, but didn't feel bad about bringing SP4 to a friend's place. While it is too heavy to use for extended period of reading, it was still great light reading, especially of small PDFs or magazines.

As for dev work, the screen area was usually on smaller side but completely usable. I used Netbeans and SublimeText for most of my work. In Netbeans, I would close most of extra panes to increase editor's area.

Just in case you are interested, I was using Lightroom to edit photos on it too. Again I had to close side-panes when viewing photos. But I really loved editing photos on it because of touchscreen/pen.

Lastly, I am keeping MacBook Pro 13 for now but I came very close to returning and getting SP4 again. :(

For what it's worth, this is the exact reason i stopped using my surface pro 2(and tried and didn't buy a SP3/4).

I've had more than one surface, and quit using them every time because of how crappy they are to use on anything but a table. I've almost gone back a number of times for the reasons you mention, but know i would regret it at this point.

I find myself wishing the "book" and the "pro" were the same machine. Sometimes i just want a laptop, and sometimes the SP form factor is pretty awesome with how much thinner/lighter it is. It's never enough to get me back off of my MBP though.

Instead of getting another SP4, it sounds like the Surface Book would be a good fit for you. The tablet portion is actually lighter than the SP4 even though it's larger, and while the battery life of the tablet part alone isn't phenomenal, it's more than enough for a meeting or a bit of light reading.

It's expensive, but if you don't need the high-end models with the discrete GPU (and since you were fine with the SP4 I assume that's the case), it won't cost that much more.

I wanted to buy Surface Book but it seemed too big. And I really didn't like the hinge. With SP4 or MBP 13, I can slide it in my car seat pocket and it will be barely visible.

I mean, at some point you're going to have to make SOME compromise. It's not like you have to have the base with you at ALL times, but you are going to have to charge the thing at some point. Even with just the tablet portion you can get through a meeting or a good portion of a workday for just general browsing/non power-user functions.

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