Is the Surface Pro powerful enough to program with?

[Haadi]

Hi everyone

I am really impressed with the style and beauty of hte SP and eager to buy one, but my question is "can the surface be my pc/android programing device?" I really love the tablet style and portability cuz I'm MBA student and since the Slate pc 7 was released in 2011, I decided to buy one of these touchy paddy things with wacom stylus to work with more accuracy especially in designing programs and alike, but I could'nt afford buying one becuace of the money. Now that I have the money to spend that much as the surface costs I want to know is it a good choice for programmers? Or should I buy a mac book air or powerful laptop instead? Not that high power.... If it does have the minimum standard power to be used as programmer machine it's okay then!
Remember stylus and portability is everything to me!
BTW is the SP battery as powerful as macbook air's? I mean the lifetime...is it 2-3 year lifetime battery?

Thanks in advance.

Srry for my english!

[Haadi]

You guys any idea?

[kraize]

It has an i5 core processor, so decide for yourself. I don't program on mine, so I can't say, but it definitely seems powerful enough. Also, no one knows what the lifetime of the battery is because it hasn't even been out that long.

[jnjroach]

The Surface Pro is for all extensive purposes an Ultrabook Class Machine (it can't be called an Ultrabook because it uses a Marvell Wireless Chipset) in a tablet form factor, it has pretty much the same specs as the Samsung Series 9 and 7 Ultrabooks, ASUS Zenbook and the rest (with the exception that some offer upgrades to an i7 and larger SSDs).

[Haadi]

Thanks a lot man

[Haadi]

Thanks, so it's good for Autodesk and 3d designing program too?!

[visualj]

Sure is. I use it for Windows development.

I have Visual Studio 2012 and SQL Server 2012 installed. Works great. Used it on a flight from MSP to SLC and on to Reno last week, and had no issues with battery either. It actually runs cooler with these running than running any game app.

I also have Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements installed. Granted, I haven't used the premiere much, but it runs. Elements runs great for photo editing.



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[Mesosphere]

I think your question has basically been answered, but just to pile on here =) ... If you think the mac book air is able to handle your needs as you indicated, the surface pro has almost identical specs in terms of processor, memory, etc.

[granyte]

I have been using my surface pro as my c++ development machine for the last 3 weeks using vs2010 and it works perfectly the only complaint is that depending on the amount of library and sdk required you might run out of storage space

[Haadi]

I think your question has basically been answered, but just to pile on here =) ... If you think the mac book air is able to handle your needs as you indicated, the surface pro has almost identical specs in terms of processor, memory, etc.

Tnx in ADV.