Switching from MacOS to Windows on a laptop: my thoughts (in progress)

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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Backstory

I've used a Macbook since 2013 as my main work machine, starting with a 13 inch model, and then in 2017 I bought a specced out 15 inch model to do the heavy lifting in video and photo editing.

2.9 GHz i7
RX 560
512GB SSD
​
Monster machine and feels quicker than my desktop for main tasks. However, it's gone through a number of repairs for keyboard, and during one repair Apple managed to break the logic board. All in about £2500 spent on it (AppleCare+, leather case)

Before getting the 15 inch, I did try out an Alienware 15 R3, but QC sucked and Dell expected me to replace a broken HDD myself. I then tried an XPS 15, and similar problems. Just felt cheap.

Now

I bought a Surface Book 2 the other day (thanks to taking a year out of uni to earn some cash and take a break), since my girlfriend has been using her iPad pro and Apple pencil for taking notes in lectures.

Its the 15 inch with an i7, GTX 1060 and 16GB of RAM.

Here are my initial thoughts:

Surface Pen and OneNote is AWESOME for note taking.



Because the display can detach from the hinge, and be reconnected backwards, the display can be place on a table faced upwards with the main battery connected. 15 inch screen is awesome.

I don't miss the trackpad from Mac. In fact, I would go as far as to say I prefer the one on the Surface. Since the switch to such a large trackpad, I've had a fair few accidental touches on my Macbook, and lots of acceleration issues when scrolling. Gestures aren't quite as nice, but then there's a touchscreen ;)

Display is ace. Aspect ratio, pixel density, colours, brightness. Awesome. Touchscreen is used WAY more than I thought it would. Auto brightness is pants - it seems to be affected by the content on the display - with darker content, the screen dims, and as soon as it shows bright content, it creeps back up again. Very distracting.

Build is fab. Hinge wobbles a little bit, and moves a little too easily.

Keyboard is well, it's not really a fair comparison - the butterfly switches are pants.

I'm amazed how polished Windows feels on the Surface. Scaling is nearly there - still some apps that don't like it. Not as fluid as MacOS, stutters etc, but it's much better than it was 2 years ago, even.

Edge is a very good browser, but YouTube is so damn slow on it. So damn slow. Might try the app instead and continue to use Edge.

Battery life seems about on par with the Macbook for general browsing, but it's very early days. Good improvement compared to the XPS 15 I had for about a week, which was very inconsistent - some days I could get a whole day of work and browsing, and then some. Others, it'd die before 18:00.


I'll keep this thread updated somewhat regularly with my thoughts. So far, I'm really keen on it. Not quite at the point where I want to sell my Mac, but not far off.
 

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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Destination said:
Is the same thing in version 3 not available in about a week?
Did you get a good discount?
Click to expand...

Not from what I can see - they haven't refreshed the Surface Book, only the laptop.

The book I specifically wanted due to the detachable display :)

I paid £1650, which is fairly decent for the 15 inch i7 model. Best price I could get through education discount was £2K
 

Django x2

Django x2

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I've been using a SB2 for well over a year and it's pretty solid. The hinge is designed to have that flex in it, it's exactly how a fulcrum hinge should work.

Worth getting a dock as the standard SB power supply wasn't beefy enough to run the gfx with all the options ticked all of the time. They might have addressed that though, but it was certainly one of the issues I faced. Scaling in 1809 has had some tweaks. Head to the property of the app and select system as the scaling management, as opposed to application, that fixes 99pc of issues.

Also, for a free SB2, head to any major airport duty free where they secure the laptops using the Kensington lock on the keyboard. Simply detach the screen and place in hand luggage. There is no algorithmic handshake between screen and keyboard so you could pay £200 for a keyboard on eBay and attach your freshly acquired screen...*


*Not advocating, but hilarious none the less :D
 

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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Django x2 said:
I've been using a SB2 for well over a year and it's pretty solid. The hinge is designed to have that flex in it, it's exactly how a fulcrum hinge should work.

Worth getting a dock as the standard SB power supply wasn't beefy enough to run the gfx with all the options ticked all of the time. They might have addressed that though, but it was certainly one of the issues I faced. Scaling in 1809 has had some tweaks. Head to the property of the app and select system as the scaling management, as opposed to application, that fixes 99pc of issues.

Also, for a free SB2, head to any major airport duty free where they secure the laptops using the Kensington lock on the keyboard. Simply detach the screen and place in hand luggage. There is no algorithmic handshake between screen and keyboard so you could pay £200 for a keyboard on eBay and attach your freshly acquired screen...*


*Not advocating, but hilarious none the less :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip on scaling - I’ll look into that

I haven’t spent enough time yet to see if there are any power issues, but which dock do you use? The actual surface one?
 

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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The pre installed Office stuff has been a nightmare - completely managed to break itself yesterday, and then, for some reason, the language defaulted to Arabic. I then began the journey of trying to actually trying to uninstall it...

An hour of Googling and: https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...rom-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8

It's a "click to run" version, so you can't uninstall it via normal methods (control panel etc). This tool works wonders, however.
 

jpaul

jpaul

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How is the pen compared to the IPad then ? the surface pro one, was also great (guess they use the same tech), I also used the oneNote ocr.

MrRockliffe said:
but YouTube is so damn slow on it
Click to expand...
it's being h/w accelerated though on gfx vs integrated ? ... I haven't tried the edge beta replacement yet.
hopefully there is an effective auto-play off mechanism ( this bugs me with chrome - need to open a thread )

It's passively cooled ?

what do you use for backup's in a university scenario ?
 

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

MrRockliffe

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jpaul said:
How is the pen compared to the IPad then ? the surface pro one, was also great (guess they use the same tech), I also used the oneNote ocr.


it's being h/w accelerated though on gfx vs integrated ? ... I haven't tried the edge beta replacement yet.
hopefully there is an effective auto-play off mechanism ( this bugs me with chrome - need to open a thread )

It's passively cooled ?

what do you use for backup's in a university scenario ?
Click to expand...

Pen is awesome, much better for writing IMO compared to Apple Pencil.

The issue with YouTube is page rendering and loading times; from memory, it's because Google slow YouTube down on anything other than Chrome. Same issue on my Mac with Safari. Utterly useless and limited to 1080p.

The system is actively cooled but pretty quiet.

The biggest drawback for me is the 256GB storage. Long story short, Amazon lost my warehouse purchase (a used 512GB model), so I got another off a local sale for a decent price, but smaller storage.

I think I can get around this with an external drive, and the fact I've got a decent desktop at home with a 6700K/GTX 1080/16GB etc. Even so, some of the programmes I use are quite large, so not much free space atm.

Very versatile system though.
 
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