Surface Pro for Lightroom

r9jackson

Has anyone used a Surface Pro (2,3,4?) for Lightroom CC or Photoshop. Good, bad, ugly please. Thinking about replacing my laptop with a Surface Pro. I do my main processing on a beefed up PC with dual monitors and Wacom.

r9jackson

Bought a Surface Book
I didn't get any response to this thread, but decided to buy a Surface Book anyway. I've been using it about a month and don't see any real problems. After years on an Ipad Mini it is a real treat to have "real" USB ports and all the other accessories that go with a PC.
Lightroom and Photoshop run like a charm on the Book. I've installed On One 10 and Topaz with no problems. Corel Particleshop is a little fussy, but works well now (still working on updating to purchased brush packs).

I haven't used the pen all that much so far. The pen takes some getting used to and its not really comparable to a Wacom. The speed is fantastic. I have the 512 Gb, 16 Gb ram model. It boots phenomenally fast and uploading my SD cards are great (after Lightroom fixed their dumb import options). The battery life (with keyboard) is super. The Book is very light compared to my old ASUS laptop. Screen resolution is fantastic for photos. Color seems to be well tuned, but I will eventually look into profiling (if possible). Windows 10 took a little to get used to, but seems to work well and is reasonably stable (well as far as any Window product is).

sarasphotos

Thanks for this report. I've been drooling at the Surface Pro for quite some time now - I just have to wait for my current desktop to die or get so slow that I can't bear it.

One question - where do you store your catalog and photos? Are they all on the same 512 SSD or do you have an external drive?

Cheers,

Sara

r9jackson

Sorry for the late reply. I store the catalog on the internal ssd and store some working folders on the ssd, but the bulk of my photos are stored on a 2TB Western Digital My Passport Ultra. The external drive screams, its not ssd, but still is very fast. I had to send the first one I got back to WD, but they replaced it quickly and the new one is working great.
I have attached a big monitor through the mini-display port and it works just as good as my dektop. I'm not too sure about editing in Photoshop on the touchscreen. I haven't quite got the touch with the pen down as good as my Wacom on my desktop. I suspect that I could move the Wacom over to the Surface Book and it would work great.
The performance on the Book is phenomenal. I bought the dock, but ended up sending it back. I was not impressed with the speed of things connected to it and the price was so high it didn't seem worth it. I am using a USB hub and have all the ports I need with that.

sarasphotos

Randy,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. This sort of information is really helpful!

Cheers, Sara