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alatreille

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Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« on: June 25, 2015, 04:50:05 pm »

Hi all,

I'm at a point where I need a more portable laptop (than my 15inch workstation).  The purpose of this machine is to use on site tethered running Capture 1 Pro, and then in the evening sort and complete minor processing/sorting in preparation for final work back at the studio.

I'm not a mac user, but the 13inch macbook air or macbook pro have the approx specs I'd like.

I'm after at
    - 12-14" screen
    - expandable storage (via msata slot or SD card)
    - 16gigs of ram (if possible-most seem to have 8)
    - really good battery life!
    - good monitor - it doesn't need to be touch enabled. 
    - i7 is preferable.

The Surface Pro 3 and the Lenovo Yoga both seem to fit the bill other than the RAM.

I'm wondering if people have gone through the same decision process, and if they have, which way did they go, or did they find something else.

Cheers

Andrew
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Hans Kruse

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2015, 04:58:20 pm »

If the MacBook Pro 13" (which has the great screen) fits your requirements then get that and eventually run Windows on it if you don't like OSX.

alatreille

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2015, 05:02:19 pm »

Thanks Hans,

I should have said, I haven't owned a piece of apple equipment since I had a Mac+
I'm not feeling like I want one either.  I'd prefer to stick in the PC world if possible.

But this has crossed my mind as a last resort.

Cheers

Andrew

If the MacBook Pro 13" (which has the great screen) fits your requirements then get that and eventually run Windows on it if you don't like OSX.

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Hans Kruse

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2015, 05:15:14 pm »

No problem :)

On my side I haven't used a Windows laptop since 2009. I have looked several times but they all lack the elegance of the MacBook's IMO (and I got rid of my desktop too). Dell has their XPS series which seems to come the closest to the MacBooks.

armand

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2015, 11:20:07 pm »

I bought my wife a Surface Pro 3 which I'm using when going on a trip for backup and some LR work. It's the i5 as I've heard that when plugged in at least the i7 gets thermal throttled.
Never used it for tethering.
It seems decently powerful for LR although the previews will take some time. Finesse adjustments in LR sliders via touch screen (probably the same in CO) are a little finicky without a mouse. The keyboard cover works well.
Battery is so so. I don't have specifics but worse than I expected; that might not that bad but the annoying part is that in hibernation loses way more than it should. I'm not sure if it's my configuration (or maybe the antivirus, I need to try without) but I know of other people who had significantly better experiences.
The fan hits very often, much more than I expected; outside it's probably ok, indoor in a quieter room it's annoying.
Screen seems good and I've read it's pretty accurate with calibration, didn't bother with this one.
I got an adapter for the single USB port which gives you a card reader and 2 USB but it blocks the power connector, hopefully there is something better out there, didn't have time to look again.


I've also used a Yoga in identical circumstances and it's not that bad. It's not a tablet though even if you convert to one, so ergonomics are different. Battery life seemed better despite reports of otherwise but that might be a suboptimal sample of my Surface. Power it's probably similar. Didn't really hear much of the fan.
It already has a card reader and 2 USB as I can recall. Not sure how good the screen is, as far as I can remember it is worse than the Surface.

andyptak

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2015, 07:35:04 am »

I got a little Toshiba about a year ago and love it. Not as light as the MBA but very light with good battery life. It's 8mb RAM which I find plenty for LR and C1. What sold me on it was i7 processor and an Express Card slot for my Firewire connection. I put in an SSD and it's plenty fast enough for all of my tethering and, like you, my evening session for ingestion and basic editing and processing while I'm on location.

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BernardLanguillier

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2015, 05:03:46 am »

Although I am a heavy Mac user (Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac mini, ipad,...), I find the Surface 3 to be un-matched in the Apple world.

I am currently considering buying one to control in the field a motorized pano-head.

Cheers,
Bernard

armand

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2015, 09:28:57 am »

Although I am a heavy Mac user (Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac mini, ipad,...), I find the Surface 3 to be un-matched in the Apple world.

I am currently considering buying one to control in the field a motorized pano-head.

Cheers,
Bernard


I would wait for the 4th version to get rid of that stupid fan (similar to the newest MacBook); if they get a little better battery life then would be quite good, as the screen is good and the detachable keyboard makes it quite flexible.

BernardLanguillier

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2015, 09:29:01 pm »

I would wait for the 4th version to get rid of that stupid fan (similar to the newest MacBook); if they get a little better battery life then would be quite good, as the screen is good and the detachable keyboard makes it quite flexible.

Thanks for the tip, I was not aware of a fan problem.

Cheers,
Bernard

armand

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2015, 10:11:07 pm »

I don't know if it's generalized or just with some batches but on ours the fans starts and works loud enough to be annoying even during web browsing, very often. It's just the i5. Outdoors it might not be that much of an issue unless it's quiet.

BernardLanguillier

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2015, 05:01:25 am »

I don't know if it's generalized or just with some batches but on ours the fans starts and works loud enough to be annoying even during web browsing, very often. It's just the i5. Outdoors it might not be that much of an issue unless it's quiet.

Clear, thanks!

Cheers,
Bernard

alatreille

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Re:
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2015, 01:32:45 am »

I've just seen the hp x360 spectre.

Anyone got any thoughts/experiences on this?
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armand

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2015, 05:21:54 pm »

New stuff out, the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. Or you just get the Surface Pro 3 at a discount (win 10 improved the fan problem I described above).

armand

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #13 on: October 09, 2015, 11:10:27 pm »

more new stuff, take a look at the new Dell XPS - for your case the 13" fits the bill although the 15" looks very good also.

alatreille

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2015, 07:29:26 pm »

Thanks Armand.
I will have a look at the new Dell offerings.

Cheers

AL
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overdub

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Re: Surface Pro 3 or Lenovo Yoga
« Reply #15 on: October 14, 2015, 12:00:31 am »

@alatreille  I bought the hp spectre with an i5 and 8gb ram to replace an aging macbook pro.  I use it only in the field while tethered (for viewing and backup), then shift everything back to a mac pro to process.  I didn't want/need another macbook pro, just something to view images on and to have a redundant copy while shooting tethered in the field.  The biggest con on the spectre: the screen. Even though I was hoping to use it in tablet mode and thus be able to angle it away from direct sunlight, I literally couldn't see the image on the screen at noon in Florida (and it is way too glossy).  On the plus side, the battery lasts a long time, about 6 or 7 hours while shooting (dimming the screen when not using it and including in that 6 or 7 hours the time when I close the laptop while moving between locations).  I had thought that having a touchscreen would make things simpler, but Adobe just isn't there yet with the interface, so I use it only as a laptop, not as a tablet.  This is my first Windows work machine in a while and I debated long and hard about moving away from Apple for my field machine; in the end I picked the spectre because of it's specs: it was at least $500-$700 cheaper than a relatively equivalent mac and had that touchscreen!  In the end, I am sorry that I got it.  I feel now that I should have sprung for an Air, despite the lower screen resolution.  I've had software crashes on the Spectre  (thanks Canon) that I never had on the macbook pro and had to reboot while the client and I waiting for the image to show up on the screen.  I am NOT an apple fanboy (these are just tools, after all) but I do regret getting the spectre.  If I had to get another windows machine, I wold likely go with the small, lightweight Dell with the small bezel (can't remember the name)---the only thing it lacks is the touchscreen and the tablet mode, but I find that as a practical matter I use neither of those features.
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