To buffer I'll share my experience with the Surface Pro with you. I loved it. From the moment I picked up my reserved 128gb model up from best buy I was in love. Microsoft as a hardware company is doing everything right. They have an excellent example in that regard with Apple as an example. (See look I've complimented Apple!) The Surface Pro was fantastic, and my ONLY real complaints are what they addressed in the Surface Pro 2. That is: 1. Battery life, and 2. the ability to use it in your lap much better. Because of this I started looking at the x230.
I currently own a thinkpad x220t, which is last years tablet PC version of the x series. (A fantastic machine I've already talked about on this blog.) From my experience with the x series I knew that typing on it was second to none. Even though Lenovo swapped out the amazing keyboard that the thinkpad line has been known for since it's inception, I was drawn heavily to the x230.
My needs revolve around data entry mainly, and gaming. I either need to program something or I'm playing (surfing the web, or actually playing a game). What I had found on the surface pro with the type cover was that on a table or other flat surface it was top notch. One exception was the trackpad on the type cover. The trackstick found on the thinkpad line puts it to shame. Of course the pen and excellent touch calibration on the surface more than made up for that short coming. It was the times I didn't have a table that got me. I commute to work, and it can take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes one way. During that time working on projects and other thing via tethering, etc. was a huge benefit. It was however difficult to do using the Surface Pro, to the point of killing my ambition from the start. The x230 does suffer from this, as it's a traditional laptop.
In every way that matters to me, the x230 is competent. It currently has 16gb of RAM, has a 240gb intel SSD as the boot drive, and the factory 500gb hdd as the extra drive on the system. I got it with the fingerprint scanner as well. The ONLY complaint with the system is that it doesn't have the IPS lcd, which is a nit pick because the lack of it doesn't prevent me in the slightest for using it for what it was intended.
The problems then and the reason I have regrets? Well the surface pro even with the type cover attached (and it always was) was just far more portable. FAR MORE. The x230 is considered an ultraportable, but for someone who embraced the ultraportable PC far before the industry inflated the term using things like the OQO model 1 and 2 as well the Fujitsu P1510 series, it is large. There is no way you can take it with you in a stack of text books. And that is my main regret. For the one drawback the Pro had I should have kept it and just made it work.
However, the Surface Pro 2, as I mentioned, has addressed all of these short comings. So the question now is should I sell the x230 and move onto what I really wanted in the surface pro 2? The question is made complex with the annoucement of several competent low power pcs and incredible price points. The dell venue 8 pro starts at $299 and is the same size as a nexus 7.
The Surface Pro 2 with 8gb of RAM and a 256 SSD is $1300+ not including the type cover. One is nearly expendable and the other a well thought out one time calculated expense.
For now I've decided to keep the x230 and just compensate with the V8P. However in the a perfect world and one not so constrained by the needs of family (which are and always will be more important) I'd sell the x230 and get the surface pro 2.
The more I think about it... the more I know I'm probably going to make it happen.
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