I'm trying to decide on either the Surface Pro 4 or the Surface Book. Input from anyone with experience with either would be helpful.

Thanks

Well this does not answer your question but: I use the Surface Pro 3 and love it. Runs BIAB with no issues.

Thanks jazzmandan, If it runs on the SP 3 the SP 4 should do just fine.

Here is a great YT vid about this. Check out this guy's other vids, he has a whole series on the SP 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpZdl9rn8ms

The Pro 4 should be that much better.

As for the Book, the performance is virtually identical to the Pro 4. Where they differ is in the overall concept. The Book is a laptop first with a detachable tablet but very low battery life when it's detached, and it has more USB ports and maybe better graphics, while the Pro 4 is a tablet first that you can add the keyboard to so it can act like a laptop.

There are lots of YT vids comparing the two.

Bob

Ditto the SP3. There are great prices these days, and aside from a minuscule amount of extra screen real estate, and a tad more resolution, the 4 doesn't offer anything revolutionary. Also, the SP 3 has a "Windows button" hard wired into the screen itself. That may not seem like a big deal, but I find it indispensable.

The Book is all but worthless as a tablet. All the smarts are built into the keyboard part (like the USB PORT!!!!)

I bought the SP4 keyboard cover and stylus (both compatible with the 3) , and am more than happy.

Whichever Surface model you get, check out the music writing program, StaffPad. Not sure how it integrates with BIAB, but it's great notation technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PgKyqE3RU

Staffpad is why I'm 99% sure I'm getting an SP 3 and I'll also pick up the SP 4 keyboard, stylus and Dock.

Btw, from what I've seen the SP 4 actually does have better performance because the CPU is next gen from the 3 and has much better power management but still the 3 is pretty good anyway. I don't know I might spring for a 4 but a 3 is definitely good value right now.

I've posted about how I need to upgrade my desktop pc but from what I've seen and read the Surface can replace it with the Dock.

Also, my other project is to finally digitize all of my real books and other charts for gigs. Android emulators seem to work great so all those apps should also run fine on the Surface.

The the last and final piece of my personal puzzle I just found out about the other day. Wireless Display. I'm using my new Sharp Aquos 60" 4K TV that was my Xmas present to myself as my computer monitor and I'm running a 25 foot HDMI cable right now and the TV looks just awesome. I can't describe just how great this thing looks. Text is perfect. Sharp, clear, no jaggies, it's great and it's because of the upconversion tech. It's taking a standard HD signal from my basic mobo video chip and upping it to 4K. I can only imagine what a true 4K signal must look like on this TV. Then, to be able to have a Surface sitting with me running Biab or a DAW and wirelessly driving the TV is one killer app. Then, I'll really be clamoring for Biab to be touch enabled. Until then I have my bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

I didn't know how powerful these SP's were until I started researching them these last few weeks. One Surface can handle all of my PC home studio and gigging needs. Very impressive.

Bob

Staffpad works MUCH better on the video than in Real Life .

It IS pretty cool, but unless you are a pretty meticulous copyist with a real pencil, it's not as easy as it appears on the Promotional materials.

BTW, I have converted all my legally purchased Kindle fakebooks to .PDF on my Surface. The Windows 10 PDF reader is actually very efficient, and can load multiple Eb/Bb versions into memory for easy switching. Some of them even converted working index pages with hyperlinks to the correct tunes.

No doubt Staffpad isn't as easy as it looks but I am a pretty good copyist. Writing out music is a precise activity otherwise the players will stop buying you beers...

Bob

Many thanks to all for your input. About the Surface book being useless as a tab. I was surprised to find out that you can detach the screen portion, turn it around, and then re-attach. Doing this makes it thicker than a tablet but you have the much longer battery life and all the ports you have in conventional laptop mode.

Thanks again

Don Stapleson

For what its worth .. we have a couple people at work in the Creative department (graphics/video) and one programmer that are utilizing SP3's. With these users (running various Adobe products and Visual Studio at the same time) none have complained.
The graphic users are happily running multiple large monitors from it. Three monitors at a time and they like it.
On the other side,
the programmer is banging on resources developing/testing web apps; seems pretty dang reliable.

In a nutshell, I been hankering for one lately too.

Didn't know that, that's cool. Just when I told myself you don't need to spend that much anyway, you find that the weakness isn't so much.

Bob

How do you convert Kindle to .pdf? I'd love to be able to do that.

Thanks
Don Stapleson

To convert from Kindle to PDF, you might want to check out Calibre, as well as this link that discusses how to do it with some different tools (including Calibre).

Thanks John

It's not REALLY simple, but you can figure it out. Some Kindle formats are protected, and need some DRM-stripping plug-ins for Calibre. http://www.howtogeek.com/162994/how-to-strip-the-drm-from-your-kindle-ebooks-for-cross-device-enjoyment-and-archiving/