Surface Pro 2 or MacBook Air 11"

Since you already have windows at home and are familiar with it, I would vote fror the Surface Pro.

 

I have a current Air 13" and I got a Surface Pro for my daughter. If I weren't invested in Mac for my work computers, I'd get the surface pro for myself. It's a great machine.

Gordon

 

From everything I've read, the Surface Pro 2 would be excellent for mobile work etc. As pointed out, as you have Windows already, there's no extra learning curve required, other than getting rid of the Windows 8 horrid user interface. I run a Gigabyte tablet that is no where near as powerful as the Surface Pro and it's still usable, albeit slow, for Lightroom, Photoshop etc.

 

Another benefit of the Pro if you're a Windows guy is OneDrive (aka SkyDrive). I have it connected on my laptop, Surface and Win Phone. All my photos and catalogue backup are all sync'd to OneDrive. This means I can work from anywhere (I don't travel with my laptop, it's essentially a home desktop) and all my photos are nice and safe in the cloud, though I do also a regular local HDD backup.

I know this is possible with other services/platforms, but damn is it seamless with OneDrive on Win devices.

 

Wow, things must be changing in the realm of computers. Everyone has recommended the surface pro. I'm kind of out of the loop in the computer world these days, but a couple years ago Microsoft was stumbling bad with consumer products (aside from the Xbox) and enterprise was what was keeping them afloat.

Oh, and I'm a Mac guy... get the Macbook Air!!:smile:

 

Well, if you don't want to switch out to all-mac, and you like the touchscreen interface, the Surface Pro seems like a no-brainer. And to be honest, the Mac Air screens are nowhere near as good as an IPS panel on a good tablet (iPad Air, Surface, whatever). It's the one major weakness. Now, if they keep the battery life, weight and price the same and add a retina screen (or other IPS screen with better viewing angles and decent color fidelity) in their next gen machines, I'll be all over that.

I don't see myself replacing my macbook air for on-the-move use, however; when I'm around, I'm typing (a lot), and almost always typing with the thing on my lap. And the Surface Pro's weird flippy stand thing does not seem like it's a practical solution to that type of use. Plus I don't like windows 8 and I love my Mac OS microcosmos  

 

I have used a Surface Pro (first model) for a while to edit photos and really like it.
However it is not the same as using a dedicated digitizer. The is a difference in accuracy and Lightroom is as tablet unfriendly as software can get.
That said I never liked to low resolution screen of the MacBook Air 11 (and the 13" MacBook Pro is even worse). The just is not enough real estate for the image and tools at 1366x768.
It would have to be at least a 13" Air or 15" MacBook Pro.

 

MAC - Apple rules! Yes I am biased.

 

A Retina display on the MBAs would make them a lot more compelling.

 

I'm using three MacBook Pros at home for various tasks and would still recommend the SP2 for your use case.

You're already invested in a Windows environment, so compatibility and synchronisation capabilities exist without moving to a third-party/additional solution. And as mentioned, there will be little in the way of a learning curve moving to a completely different OS (changing up your workflow every time you switch between systems will be a time killer, too).

If you absolutely must have a keyboard, attaching a Type Cover won't take much. Otherwise, you can the SP2 with only two points of contact (two hands) whereas the MBA calls for three (two hands and a...surface).

The SP2 has stylus support which no doubt would be a boon as well.

And until such time the MBA gets a 'Retina' display, the pixel density on the SP2 is king. Even if the MBA had a higher resolution, you'll be torn between a crisper looking screen or more screen real estate which will render everything teeny-tiny.

I bet my two cents on the Surface.

 

Has the battery life improved on the Surface Pro? I bought a ARM-based Surface for work and while I enjoy working with it, the battery life just doesn't begin to compare with Apple tablets and from what I hear, the Air as well.

 

The MacBook 13 inch actually has better battery life, the smaller one is about the same as the iPad

 

There are other options available like: http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4887#sp. I have the first version of the Gigabyte, the S1080, and it's an excellent tablet. The one thing that separates the Gigabyte tablets from just about every other one are the extensive number of ports, and the fact that you can actually open the device up and change some of the internal components. It's very handy to be able to swap the drives, for example, if you want to upgrade.

 

Around October Apple is coming out with a 12" retina Macbook Air. The 13" retina Macbook Pro is available right now from the Apple refurbished store for $1269 with 8GB of RAM and a 256 SSD .

Tablets don't have the RAM or processing speed needed for serious photographic and video work so I steer clear of them.

 

I wouldn't call the Gigabyte I mentioned exactly shabby when it comes to serious image processing and many use the Surface Pro for just that sort of work.

 

The current Air and Surface Pro use the same processors and ram. The Air hhas a bigger battery, that's all.

Gordon

p.s stylus use in LR sux but is da bomb in Photoshop.

 

Well, it's rumoured that they'll come back in a 12" form factor. Until announced it's all hearsay and conjecture.

And as a comparison...

[table]
[tr][td] [/td][td]SP2[/td][td]MBA11[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]CPU[/td][td]1.9GHz i5[/td][td]1.3GHz i5[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]RAM[/td][td]8GB[/td][td]8GB[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Screen[/td][td]10.6", 1920x1080[/td][td]11.6", 1366x768[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Storage[/td][td]256GB[/td][td]256GB[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Price (AU)[/td][td]1469[/td][td]1469[/td][/tr]
[/table]​

I'd question based on specifications that the MBA is more suitable than the SP2.

 

Aside from screen size and resolution, most spec comparisons are kind of pointless when they run different OS, regardless of what the marketing department wants you to think.

 

Well, LR runs faster on the Surface Pro in our houshold than my 13" MA.

Gordon