MS Surface or Ultrabook?

[nunzia]

To add to the comptuing questions here. I am thinking of getting a laptop kind of thing, but it has to be able to really work and have enough memory to be good with graphics, photo editing etc. I currently have a Dell Studio XPS and I don't know why, since it isn't that old, and I got what was supposed to be a heavy graphics abilitiy version, but it seems to bog down on editing and having some other small issues, but I don't think it's going to crash anytime soon. That said, I want a keyboard and enough power to be able to be used as my main computer if need be. I have a little netbook from when they first came out and I do not want a duplicate of that. I want to have Office on it and not have that overwhelm it.
Anyway..what is the difference between MS Surface and an ultrabook? Is the Surface just a tablet with a keyboard attached? Are ultrabooks as good as desktops for what they can do and who has the best version? I've been researching online and am just confused so any advice you techies could give would be apppreciated. We don't have a Best Buy to go check anything out..we have Walmart and Staples...period.

 

[Ginny Favers]

I am interested in this, too. I was thinking about getting the Surface Pro because it has MS Office, so I could use it as a tablet or a laptop. But that's all I know.

 

[Young]

What is your XPS' spec? It gives a clearer picture and benchmark so that your new purchase is better than what you currently have.

Ultrabook is a term Intel made for laptops that meet certain guidelines like battery life, thinness and so on. If the MS Surface meet all Intel's requirements, it can be called an ultrabook.

Ultrabooks can be a main computer if you aren't a power user. A coworker uses a macbook air and our job requires us to make powerpoints up to 50+ slides. It gets a little slow and heavy when it gets to that many slides. And that's just powerpoint.

If you're someone who types a lot, a surface may not be a good fit unless you use a bluetooth/wireless keyboard. Their gimmicky keyboard may not be comfortable for extensive typing.

 

[nunzia]

That was helpful! My XPS is a 7100..it sometimes bogs using PicMonkey and can slow down when flipping through pictures.I did pay for upgraded internet connection and that helped some, but still..it seems like it should perform better. I do a lot of pictures..not really heavy editing, just spruce things up on PicMonkey for blogs. I don't think I'd like a wonky keyboard if that is what the Surface has...The only store here with computing items is Staples and well, Walmart, so I guess I need to try and see them both in person. I'd like a lightweight laptop thing that clould fill in for my main computer if need be, but since it will be used a lot for traveling, want it smallish and light. Tough choices! I have a Fire and that is just not close to cutting it.

 

[Young]

I looked up picmonkey, and yes I think internet speed is what matters most since it's an online photo editor. You might want to consider an iPad Air or a Nexus 10 2 (coming soon) and use an offline photo editor for your photo editing needs. I don't know about iPad, but Android have many free awesome photo editing apps. I'm pretty sure iPad does as well.

I really doubt an ultrabook will be faster than your XPS since your XPS is pretty powerful. You'd have to at least buy a notebook with a previous generation (3) Intel Core i7-3635QM CPU or a current generation (4) Intel Core i7 4700MQ(2.40GHz) to do better than your XPS, but they're pretty big laptops. The smallest being 14".

The good news here is you use picmonkey that is online based. If what you need is a lightweight laptop with a comfortable keyboard to do picmonkey and other work stuff, you can choose your favorite ultrabook and know that it'll do the job.