Before I purchased the Surface pro 3, I was using the following devices:
- Dell Precision M4600 laptop (workstation, mostly used for work)
- Apple iPad (first generation, mostly used for occasional browsing)
So the challenge: will the surface replace both of these. For that, I would have to buy a fairly powerful surface. It came down to the following version:
- i5 processor
- 8GB ram
- 256 GB SSD
The i5 is for most of my use as powerful as the i7 in the M4600. I would rarely use the quad core capabilities. The 8GB ram is sufficient for most tasks (except Virtual machine use). The 256 GB SSD was the biggest issue. But the 512GB version was just too expensive, and would still not suffice. So to compensate, I’m carrying a 2TB USB 3.0 hard drive.