Engineering: Surface Pro 3 vs. Macbook Pro?

Student Lounge College Life
1

Hi all,

I want to get a high quality, durable, and efficient laptop for the next 4 years of my journey. Currently, I am using my HS issued Lenovo T410 (been ~5 years). While my laptop still functions, I cannot say it runs smoothly as before and my battery life is just atrocious even after my new replacement battery.

So I have been researching to see which laptop fits my needs. I plan to study Computer Engineering or Industrial & Operational Engineering in college. Regardless of what I choose, I will be in the engineering discipline.

I have narrowed my options down to 2 – Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 (256 GB, 4th gen i5, 8GB RAM) OR Apple’s Macbook Pro 13’ with Retina display (256 GB, i5, 8GB RAM).

Surface Pro 3 has recently came into my radar as it supports touch screen (mainly note-taking abilities), and can also serve as a fat tablet. I was originally planning to get a MBP, which seems like a staple of college-bound freshmen these days. To be honest, I am leaning more so on the SP3.

Another issue to consider is the fact that Microsoft is planning to release a new Surface Pro 4 latter part of this year. Would it be a mistake to purchase a SP3 now?

I added up the cost for both and here it is as follows:

SP3: Total of $1361.89 after educational discount (including keyboard & other accessories)
MBPR: Total of $1,499 after educational discount

As you can see, it really does not differ by much. I am willing to spend between $1500 - $2000.

If you have any solid inputs, especially if you are familiar with engineering & college usages in general, it would be greatly appreciated. I want to have as much feedback as possible before investing 2 grand on a machine.

Thanks for your time! :smiley:

2

The SP4 should be released in the next couple of months, most certainly before next school year. The new broadwell chip probably won’t make much of a difference in daily usage (better graphics, slightly better battery life, but not much).
But it might come with some other cool features, so you could either get the SP4 for around the same price you listed above, or the SP3 for cheaper.
For that matter, Apple will probably be releasing its new macbooks before next fall as well, so your best bet might be to wait and see what they come out with.

SP4 rumors (July release):
http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/75872/20150225/microsoft-surface-pro-4-release-date.htm
New MBP (Probably June, maybe September):
http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/75912/20150225/macbook-pro-2015-release-date.htm

3

Why do you do this. I don’t know if I can wait 4 months!

4

The Surface Pro 4 will likely use an updated Broadwell chip, which will offer substantially more graphics performance and marginal CPU improvements (mostly due to improved clocks, with a couple of small design tweaks) over the Haswell chip that the Pro 3 uses. Battery life will probably be a bit better as well.

I’m also interested to see what screen they use. The Pro 3 has an IPS (PLS, to be exact) LCD. It’ll be a real treat if they use Quantum dots for the panel :slight_smile:

5

I’m just hoping for improved battery life and an even better keyboard. I really hope they have the option of either core m or the dual/quad core option, because from the current lineup of core m products, it looks like it favors form over function

6

@ccggp101‌

If Microsoft were to change what panel they were using for the screen, battery life could be MUCH better. The current one is very good, but one with Quantum dots will be better and more efficient (meaning better battery life).

7

So is waiting worth the battery life & other minor improvements?

8

@viphan‌

I’d say that it isn’t, especially if the wait is a few months.

9

I’ll be getting the MBP, but any advice between 13 vs 15 inch for a ECE/CS major?

10

make sure you use your student discount… or get it cheap from ebay.

check slickdeals or tech bargain.

  1. is lighter. 15 is more for leaving at home. if you need to haul it around i say go for 13.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

http://slickdeals.net/f/7892633-new-apple-macbook-pro-latest-2015-mf839ll-a-intel-i5-13-3-retina-display-128gb-8g-1-099-on-ebay?v=1&src=SiteSearch

longer you wait cheaper it will be. there should be aback to school sale.

11

Thanks for the advice – the one I’m planning to get is with 16 GB RAM and 256 SSD.