Dell Venue 11 or Surface 2 Pro

EnderXi

EnderXi

EnderXi

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30 Mar 2009
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So i want to replace my work laptop with a tablet running windows 8.1 pro, I like the look of the dell mainly for the replaceable battery but the processor it has (4300y) seems to be much lower in spec than the 4200u that the surface pro 2 has.

This is my dilemma which one to choose, I am a IT consultant so have to use windows and i need it to be able to run VMware workstation as well as a number of design and planning tools as well as the whole office suite.

My plan is to have a docking station at my office that i connect it into and have dual monitors (there is a startech USB dock with dual monitor support and USB 3.0 which is what im going to go with) and a extra power supply.

so what do you guys think?
 
I have the Surface Pro 2 (128GB ssd, 4GB RAM model) and I'm currently at parents for holiday (so don't have access to my big rig) and my rMBP was in for repair so I had to rely on my Surface Pro 2 for everything. I had it plugged into my Dell U2713H, and it ran a couple of debian VM's in VM workstation without any issues.

I find while it isn't a tablet or a laptop and without the direct advantages of either, it sort of fits in between and does everything well (not perfect though). I think if you got the 8GB ram version it would be more than adequate for your uses.
 
I am thinking on the 8GB version, I have my workstation at home for anything I need power to do as well as access to several ESXi hosts which i can use if i need to run anything more powerful.

I just dont want to have to carry around the huge laptop anymore (three year old Lenovo) i think the tablet form factor plus a proper dock should do all I need it too and make life easier when travelling.

Thanks for the info.
 
Ziddon said:
Anyone got any exp of the Surface pro 2 pen?
I have a Hp 2710p and use a lot for PShop work. Feeling an upgrade.
Click to expand...

I use the pen for a lot of notes/graphs for my degree and think its great, very responsive and accurate. Unfortunately, I'm no artist so can't really comment on how it performs for drawing but watching some videos on youtube it looks pretty good.
 
Surely you can get a much more powerful laptop for the price and they are not at all difficult to carry around?

I had a Surface 2 and it bricked itself on the first Windows update.
 
The i5-based Venue 11 Pro's are on backorder because of 'engineering problems'. There are too many firmware issues with them at the moment (Sleep, resume, general crashing), plus general incompatibility with the tablet dock video outputs.

Dell expect the issues to be resolved by summer.
 
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