Microsoft Surface Pro (w/ REDCINE-X and more) - surprisingly great results

[Rob Anderson]

Rob, is the internal battery user interchangeable or is that a return to MicroSoft thing?

Return to Microsoft, same as MacBook Pros, iPhones, iPads, etc. Seems to be the 'new wave' of things. $99 gets you a 3 year warranty with Microsoft that even covers accidental drops.

 

[Elsie N]

For those not wirelessly challenged like myself, is there a current capability or even a future possibility of using the Surface as a wireless monitor for the Epic?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

iFixIt gives the Surface Pro a 1 out of 10 for repairability. And looking at their tear-down, OMG... FWIW, the iPad is a lot more serviceable! This is a whole different class of machine, it's essentially an i5 UltraBook without an attached keyboard, but even with that, I'm finding myself scratching my head with some of what I'm seeing.

 

[Rob Anderson]

For those not wirelessly challenged like myself, is there a current capability or even a future possibility of using the Surface as a wireless monitor for the Epic?

Sure. You already can with Teradek and similar solutions. But they're not terribly exciting. Let's see what RED does when those features finally start shipping.

 

[Rob Anderson]

iFixIt gives the Surface Pro a 1 out of 10 for repairability. And looking at their tear-down, OMG... FWIW, the iPad is a lot more serviceable! This is a whole different class of machine, it's essentially an i5 UltraBook without an attached keyboard, but even with that, I'm finding myself scratching my head with some of what I'm seeing.

This doesn't bug me at all. I can't repair my own iPad or iPhone anyway. Doesn't matter of it's a 3/10 or a 7/10. I still bring it to someone else to get it done and that 'someone' is usually the Apple Store who takes care of it no sweat.

I use cloud services, backup media, and generally treat these things like terminals. You drop data onto them (or access data with them), but I'm not walking around with my life stored on them. If I lost my Surface, iPad, and iPhone in one bang the biggest problem I'd have is picking up the phone and filing an insurance claim. If they're damaged, I've got Apple Care or Microsoft's (cheaper) protection plan. If you like to tinker with your gear a bit more, I guess repairability is a consideration, but for me and I'd fathom most other people, it's just not something to fret over. These companies seemed to have dealt with that problem very well.

 

[Andrew Allsbury]

Bought one of these last night to check out after reading this thread. This thing is awesome! I just rendered a 30s 1080p h264 with maximum render quality checked from a 4k timeline in PPro CS 5.5 in under 20m. I don't see how anyone could prefer an Android or iPad to this thing. I have a lot of experience with mobile tech and this thing screams!

 

[Elsie N]

Too bad the Surface Pro doesn't have nearly enough storage that it should.

Yeah, I wish it had enough extra storage to dump a 512 GB Redmag. Or at least had an eSATA port in addition to the single USB 3.0 to offload a Redmag onto an external drive. That would make for a neat way to offload footage for something other than a major shoot.

 

[Pablo Moreno]

Yep. It's a full Windows 8 computer, in touch screen tablet form. Runs Premiere Pro CS6 without a hiccup. Anything you can install on a "full blown" Windows 8 machine you can also install on this. Performance of course scales with hardware, but considering its size and portability, this thing is a little monster.

Hi Rob, hey, you stiil can run any of the 750,000 Android Apps with BlueStacks

 

[Raphael Varandas]

And what about Book air with TB? Just the touch factor makes the surface pro cooler or anything missed by me?

 

[Raphael Varandas]

Considering the price range...
Thanks for share Rob.

 

[Rob Anderson]

Yeah, I wish it had enough extra storage to dump a 512 GB Redmag. Or at least had an eSATA port in addition to the single USB 3.0 to offload a Redmag onto an external drive. That would make for a neat way to offload footage for something other than a major shoot.

USB 3.0 hub.

 

[Gary Paul Walker]

Yep. It's a full Windows 8 computer, in touch screen tablet form. Runs Premiere Pro CS6 without a hiccup. Anything you can install on a "full blown" Windows 8 machine you can also install on this. Performance of course scales with hardware, but considering its size and portability, this thing is a little monster.

thats good to know Rob! I think I might pick up one of these then and start roadtesting it - sick of lugging a big laptop around for offloading footage hehe

 

[Rob Anderson]

And what about Book air with TB? Just the touch factor makes the surface pro cooler or anything missed by me?

Sure. It's just the touch screen + tablet form... unless you also care about resolution (1920x1080 vs Air's 1366x768), or weight (.5 pound vs. Air's 2.38 pounds), or graphics (both have Intel HD 4000), or processor (both i5), or HD cameras (Surface Pro has x2), or price (Surface Pro is $999 versus $1099), or Windows 8, etc.

I don't know man... It's better, cheaper, lighter, touch-enabled (finger and/or stylus). Take your pick.

True price comparison:
Microsoft Surface Pro (128 GB @ 4GB RAM) w/ 3-year extended replacement plan including accidental liquid and drop damage = $1099. MacBook Air (128 GB @ 4GB RAM) with AppleCare (does not cover drops or liquid damage) = $1348.

 

[Elsie N]

USB 3.0 hub.

I'm under the impression that a hub to a single USB 3.0 connector only allows one direction transfer. i hope you are saying that I could input from my Redmag USB 3.0 reader and simultaneously output to a USB 3.0 external drive via the hub.


I wish RED would just put me out of my misery and make a standalone REDmag offload solution.

 

[Andrew M.]

Rob, any chance they will have 4G LTE soon for it?
What is the rumor on this?

Mean time I guess we use USB attached 4G radio?

 

[L. Langer]

Too bad the Surface Pro doesn't have nearly enough storage that it should.

You can upgrade it by swapping out the mSATA SSD with the one of your choice. However, it is time-consuming and requires labor that is above and beyond most people's ability to perform as the entire tablet must be disassembled to do it.

 

[Michel Rabe]

I wish RED would just put me out of my misery and make a standalone REDmag offload solution.

That would be great!

 

[Eric Santiago]

You can upgrade it by swapping out the mSATA SSD with the one of your choice. However, it is time-consuming and requires labor that is above and beyond most people's ability to perform as the entire tablet must be disassembled to do it.

According to iFix it, a rating of 1 of 10 suggests dont.

Something about a glue factory

 

[Leland Haushalter]

According to iFix it, a rating of 1 of 10 suggests dont.

Something about a glue factory

I've learned the hard way to stay away from Microsoft products...... zune.

 

[Michel Rabe]

Ah, cmon, half the pieces in a Retina MacBook are glued and noone's complaining there.