Microsoft Surface 3 or Dell XPS

[doug2500]

I'm slowly getting more fed up with old laptops and am tempted to go expensive with a surface laptop 3 or XPS, both highly rated by which, especially the surface even though the spec isn't that high with an i5 processor, 8GB and 256 ssd and few ports.

I think this spec is enough for me, web browsing multiple tabs probably being the biggest drain. No gaming or photo and video editing but maybe some streaming etc. Ideally it would be i7, 16GB and 512ssd but that's another few hundred pounds, and my eyes are watering already.

Does anyone have any comments, especially on the surface 3 which is a bit of a dark horse as I've never seen one or heard of anyone with one, yet they seem very highly rated by those that do. Or at least those that review online. Which also have them as the most reliable and fault free laptops available which is worth something.

Thanks

[Howard]

As a test because you are obviously able to afford the best, why not buy a Chromebook for a couple of hundred pounds.

You will find that it is the fastest laptop imaginable. ( I use my Acer to view Netflix, Prime and iPlayer, connected to my widescreen TV. And for surfing the web and day to day tasks it is fine).

Then have a go with a thousand pound model and see if you can find any benefit. Who knows, you might be able to save a bob or two?

regards

Howard

[doug2500]

Thanks for the input but I've discounted a chromebook due to rural living and patchy internet, just not being a 'cloud' person (I have trust issues around storage / probably an age thing even though I'm not that old!) and desire to have office documents stored on the computer, and probably office itself.

[SalvorHardin]

Thanks for the input but I've discounted a chromebook due to rural living and patchy internet, just not being a 'cloud' person (I have trust issues around storage / probably an age thing even though I'm not that old!) and desire to have office documents stored on the computer, and probably office itself.

Chromebooks have USB ports and can take SD cards (and micro SD cards). You can store your documents on these and keep them off the cloud. Nowadays USB and SD memory is so cheap that there's far less need for the multi-terabyte hard drives that used to come as standard with desktops.

My primary computer is a relatively cheap Dell 2-in-1 laptop with a 256GB solid state drive. I mostly use it for internet stuff, Excel, Word and reading PDF files (mostly annual reports). It's good enough for everything except gaming and heavy graphics work (neither of which I do) . I've put a 512GB micro SD card in it for onboard backups and routinely back up everything daily on a variety of USB drives.

I've been thinking of getting an ASUS laptop as a backup, rather than a Chromebook (do I really want Google to spy on me that much?). The cheaper ones are around £200 on Amazon, they run Windows 10S and have USB ports and SD card slots.

[GeoffF100]

The hardware spec you are describing seems massive overkill for what you want to do, even with Windows. People here get good performance with much cheaper machines. It is easy to get the wrong impression if you have a laptop with a mechanical hard drive, weighed down with a third party virus checker and goodness knows what else. A Chromebook will be faster with the same hardware because it is running Linux rather than Windows, and it will be harder to install performance sapping rubbish on it.

[servodude]

I reckon the Dell will last you longer
But I wouldn't swap my Surface book (first gen) for one

I do have a Latitude 13 that's still in daily use after 10 years I think (only had memory upgraded), and I rate the build quality and repairability of Dell

but the surface book is just great fun to use (I use the pen a lot) and perfect for carrying about
- when it dies I'll take it apart so I can whinge about not being able to fix it

-sd

[barchid]

Geoff
I agree with you re chromebooks, I've been using them for about 8 years now, very fast, very reliable & cheap, also light & sturdy for travelling.
I understand Doug when he mentions poor broadband but that is an issue with any system and most CB's have the capacity to store plenty of records on the micro sd card that you'd likely need to use.
Google drive is now so much better than a few years ago, free to use with great functionality, for silver surfers such as myself I can not recommend it & CB's highly enough.
My current Acer with full HD screen is a delight to use for you tube, market monitoring, podcasts, streaming; also is light and cheap.

[Infrasonic]

The 'offline' issue with Google Drive, Chromebooks, Android et al is much less than it used to be, even without the local external storage capability that also now exists.
It isn't 100%, but for most practical purposes you'll get by without a problem. MS office file compatibility is also miles better, bar macros.

With the containerised Android app. and Linux capability you can be pretty independent of the Google OS + Drive lock in whenever you need to be.
One reason I waited until recently to buy a CB was that and the Linux functionality being up to speed to have another totally FOSS option. If you combine with encrypted DNS and/or trustworthy VPN than you'll have a less tin foil hat susceptible option to run in parallel to the Google 'Octopus' (which is the actual default name of my Chrome OS automated Google Drive backup... ).