Surface Pro 3 for photo processing while traveling

[haven]

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com...o-3-review-the-ultimate-outdoor-co-1645988630

Here's an article describing/touting* a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and Windows Phone for traveling. The author is a photographer, and says he uses the desktop Adobe products to process photos on the go.


* I say touting since more and more online authors are paid by sponsoring companies to write promotional pieces under the guise of editorial content. In this case, it does appear that the author has used a Surface Pro while traveling. It's less clear if he were paid by Microsoft to do so.

 

[kojackJKU]

The perfect solution for on the go editing for professionals. All the power of a laptop, in a tablet package with an included wacom pen. Its the best tablet made in the market, and even better in the pro 3 version with the bigger screen.

For the traveler who just wants to do normal editing of their photos, the many RT tablets are great too, as they still work like a windows based computer, so you can plug various periferals into them and they just work. I have a 2 tb hd, canon printer, and card reader all pluged into my asus vivotab RT when I am editing photos from my cameras and nokia.

The photr app is awesome, and easy to use with a great amount of power behind it.

 

[robgendreau]

I thought about going this route, especially for using Lightroom on the go without having to mess with Lightroom Mobile which is rather crippled. And there are some smoking good deals on Windows tablets now. Just make sure there's enough memory and power to use the Windows software you want (don't expect to go full on Photoshop, in other words).

But I ultimately went with a Samsung Android tablet instead. There are SO many good Android and iOS apps for photos, and they already are optimized for tablets. Some Windows stuff is sort of jack-of-all-trades, and while great on the desktop, isn't what I need traveling. At least on a tablet. And I also wanted to use the tablet a lot for navigation, and in that arena the Android selection was definitely more to my liking than Windows. Certainly YMMV; I already have a Windows netbook so if I really need Lightroom I'm set. But if I had say a Mac at home, I'd maybe buy a Windows tablet instead since then I could use Office, which is often bundled at a great price. And in all it wouldn't be tons more expensive than Parallels or Fusion with Windows 8.1.

 

[kojackJKU]

The difference between most windows tablets and the surface pro, is the pro has full blown computer internals, not mobile guts. The surface pro 3 will work just as good, no, better than any laptop at photo processing. Plus you have a full blown pen interface as well, included with the system. There is no comparison in IOS or android to this SP3. Like comparing a hyundai accent to a ferarri. Thats about how close it is.

 

[lysol]

Just be careful with the performance throttling on the Pro 3's. More specifically the CPU throttling. The problem is that when the CPU heats up past the threshhold (let's say 90C), it is throttled back which is fine in most instances. The problem is that it keeps going down, and down, and down, and down, until it's about 60C before it is allowed to heat back up again. This is more notorious with the i5 & i7 chips (more-so the i7) than the i3. What should really happen is when it reaches say 90C, it should throttle back until the temps come down to maybe 80C and then allowed to rise again. The funny thing is that some people are stating better performance out of the i5 over the i7 because it runs slightly cooler hence the throttling is less which means that because it doesn't throttle as much, it runs at a higher average speed... lol.

I believe the issue is in the processor chip itself. it's not a desktop grade i3, i5, i7 processor. It's a notebook grade processor so I assume the smaller form factor results in lower limitation in the heat/longevity area. Some people have had great success keeping their Pro 3 i7 cool buy simply using a USB fan plugged into the Pro 3 and pointing it at the intake vents on the back. I wonder if someone will make a dock for these with a high power fan in the back.... hmmmm.....

 

[nwoods]

The surface pro 3 will work just as good, no, better than any laptop at photo processing.

Easy there buddy, you're starting to foam at the mouth a bit

Perhaps you meant tablet, and that would probably be a true statement, but certainly not better than every laptop available today!

 

[kojackJKU]

I did mean every laptop. considering you can undock the sp3 from the keyboard and use it as a graphic stylus/interface, much more usefull than ANY laptop, it comes with a I7 processor with 512gb of storage and 8gb of ram. NO other tablet has that, and no other laptop has the pen/detachable monitor interface that is the best way to interface with graphics. I find it way easier to cut and select with a pen vs. trying to trace with a mouse. And no, I am not foaming at the mouth. Just stating facts. No laptop has the pen/interface that the sp3 has, and the yoga is so bulky in tablet form as are other flip models. Apple does not even have a touch model laptop so they are left in the dust.

 

[nwoods]

I agree to a certain point that the touchscreen is pretty nice, used with a stylus, but it's not a very smooth interaction. It's not the same as the touchscreen on say, an iPad. It's just not quite as....native? I don't know how to explain it really. It feels like an overlay, instead of instinctual.

Plus, the high resolution, yet relatively small 12" screen on the Surface makes it hard for me to really dig into a photo. I HAVE a Surface 3 Pro (i5 proc) at work that I use regularly (but not daily), and I far prefer the 15" screen size on my rMBP. I do not have photoshop on the Surface, but I do on my rMBP. Adobe did a smart thing with the Retina version of Photoshop, where it runs the screen at full 2880x1800 resolution, but scales up all the controls, menus, buttons and icons as if it was running at 1600px resolution. It's the best of both worlds, because 8mb images can display in full size, but you can still manipulate the controls without squinting. I also find my rMBP runs a lot cooler than the Surface, and the touchpad on the Mac is peerless. The Surface has a decent touchpad, but its a coarse, unpolished, distant cousin compared to the touchpad on the rMBP.

I haven't done any benchmark comparisons between the Surface 3 Pro and my 2013 15" rMBP, but hands down, the perception of speed is decidedly in the Mac's favor. Anything from opening apps, opening large images, to saving changes to files. The Mac feels much snappier. Let's also not forget that the integrated Intel graphics card is no where near as solid as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory that comes on the Mac, which means that videos render fast without ANY lag or stutter. 4K Video's on the Surface are not nearly as seamless an experience, even on the same WiFi network.

Is the Surface 3 a great machine, yes, but it's still a compromise compared to a full size high end laptop with respect to heavy duty tasks like photo or video processing. Plus, for $100, I can add a wacom tablet to the mac

 

[kojackJKU]

Funny, wacom desgined and impemented the SP3, also, if you had the I7 SP3 it would be much speedier in the graphics department. Adobe and microsoft have teamed up now for the new photoshop, So I can guarantee that photoshop will flow awesome on it. Ipad is so far behind the surface (any version) I dont even compare the two.

 

[nwoods]

Ipad is so far behind the surface (any version) I dont even compare the two.

You might have misunderstood my comment. I was talking specifically about the touch interface. It doesn't feel as natural on a Surface as it does on the iPad. Conversely, using a stylus on the Surface does feel more natural than it does on my iPad.

 

[kojackJKU]

the stylus in the package has one huge advantage. thin tip, I hate those stylus' that have the big fat rubber tips. On any tablet. Other thing I like about the surface is the palm detection when using the stylus, no mis hits from your hand, only the stylus activates the touch interface.

 

[kojackJKU]

Woo hoo, I just ordered 2 surface pro 3s for my wife and I for Christmas. I got the 256gb i5 model with 8gb ram, and she got the 64gb version with 4 gb. I need the extra power to run photo editing. I love the fact that I have the stylus now for doing editing chores and the bigger screen than my asus tablet will come in very handy as well.

cant wait to get them now. I got her the black keyboard and I got the cyan. I will pick up the others as well as 2 docking stations to use as full desktop computers at home. Going to be awesome if my asus vivotab is any indication. We love our tablets now but I wanted the larger square'er screen and extra processing of full windows pro instead of RT.