4 ms·

Have you taken the Surface Book 2 for a spin? Pricey, but gives the MBP a good run for its money, and does a couple tricks the MBP cannot, such as having an ex

Have you taken the Surface Book 2 for a spin? Pricey, but gives the MBP a good run for its money, and does a couple tricks the MBP cannot, such as having an excellent touch/pen surface for a screen. Real ports, including SD card. The outstanding downside is, of course, the abominable Windows 10.

RussianCow 8y ago
I have, and to give Microsoft credit, it's the closest thing to a MBP I've ever used. That said, it still doesn't just quite feel as polished (the touchpad isn't as accurate, for one). But if I had to use a non-Apple laptop, I would probably go for a Surface Book.
garren 8y ago
How often do you rely on the touch screen? I know it seems like a naive question, but I have an older surface pro and I rarely used the touch screen. The machine itself was bulkier than an iPad or Nexus9, so I tended to use those instead for tooling around and mindless consumption. The surface pro was pretty much useless for actual work unless I had a second monitor, actual keyboard, and trackpad. I do native Windows dev for a living, but I have no urge to pick up a machine with a touch screen unless it's a tablet. Is a touch pen/surface actually useful in day to day work?
- abhorrence 8y ago
  The surface pro seemed designed to be a tablet that could also be your computer. The surface book is a laptop that can also be a tablet. This difference is really important for interaction. That said I feel like the digitizer is only really useful for taking notes that contain diagrams, or things like digital art. I also barely use my surface book, despite thinking it's one of the best alternatives to my beloved 2015 15" MBP.
- ardis__ 8y ago
  I have a touchscreen on my dell e7470. I use it daily and I wouldn't want to miss it. It's perfect for like web browsing, navigating diagrams, and presenting. It's not useful for actual coding itself, only for supporting activities. I only use the laptop monitor itself, as soon as a actual monitor becomes the primary monitor, the usefulness of a touchscreen declines massively.
- corey_moncure 8y ago
  I use the touch screen all the time. They made it very easy to do one important thing, they let you take a screenshot by pressing the pen eraser twice, and immediately begin annotating it by drawing right on top of it. For doing things like UI prototypes this is a huge booster. Someone sends me a test build or concept, and I can leap right into graphical annotation. Why waste time typing when unambiguous visual communication is this easy. As a pen input device it's at least as good as my Intuos2 which it replaced, plus you get to draw right on the screen. (I don't like the side button though, it requires too much force to press.)

RussianCow 8y ago

I have, and to give Microsoft credit, it's the closest thing to a MBP I've ever used. That said, it still doesn't just quite feel as polished (the touchpad isn't as accurate, for one). But if I had to use a non-Apple laptop, I would probably go for a Surface Book.

garren 8y ago

How often do you rely on the touch screen? I know it seems like a naive question, but I have an older surface pro and I rarely used the touch screen. The machine itself was bulkier than an iPad or Nexus9, so I tended to use those instead for tooling around and mindless consumption. The surface pro was pretty much useless for actual work unless I had a second monitor, actual keyboard, and trackpad. I do native Windows dev for a living, but I have no urge to pick up a machine with a touch screen unless it's a tablet. Is a touch pen/surface actually useful in day to day work?

abhorrence 8y ago
The surface pro seemed designed to be a tablet that could also be your computer. The surface book is a laptop that can also be a tablet. This difference is really important for interaction. That said I feel like the digitizer is only really useful for taking notes that contain diagrams, or things like digital art. I also barely use my surface book, despite thinking it's one of the best alternatives to my beloved 2015 15" MBP.
ardis__ 8y ago
I have a touchscreen on my dell e7470. I use it daily and I wouldn't want to miss it. It's perfect for like web browsing, navigating diagrams, and presenting. It's not useful for actual coding itself, only for supporting activities. I only use the laptop monitor itself, as soon as a actual monitor becomes the primary monitor, the usefulness of a touchscreen declines massively.
corey_moncure 8y ago
I use the touch screen all the time. They made it very easy to do one important thing, they let you take a screenshot by pressing the pen eraser twice, and immediately begin annotating it by drawing right on top of it. For doing things like UI prototypes this is a huge booster. Someone sends me a test build or concept, and I can leap right into graphical annotation. Why waste time typing when unambiguous visual communication is this easy. As a pen input device it's at least as good as my Intuos2 which it replaced, plus you get to draw right on the screen. (I don't like the side button though, it requires too much force to press.)