Advice for new portable device?

[The Past]

Hey folks, I fear my 2012 Nexus 7 is finally about to kick the bucket, and I'm planning to get something better for my birthday+Christmas. Problem is I don't know what to trust that won't cost an arm and a leg.

The main reason I got it was to draw, write, and check the forums and IRC while relaxing in and outside the house. Sadly, the touchscreen isn't as sensitive (or big enough imo) for drawing as I hoped and the touch-keyboard is irritating to type with. Plus it's laggy as all heck and glitches out at random. It's basically turned into a glorified mp3 player and news reader at this point, and it's not bad in that area, but it's certainly not what I spent like $250 dollars for back then.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 look very interesting, but I'm not sure it's worth the expense with all the trouble they seem to have (according to Amazon reviews). It's like twice more expensive than my desktop was!

The Pro 3 is about half the price now, but it has the same problems and probably more given it's an older model, and that has me worried.

Buying "smart" devices makes me nervous to begin with because they update things so damn quick nowadays, I never know how long until whatever I buy becomes an obsolete laggy mess (like my Nexus). Buying older and/or used models is even worse.

So, what should I try getting? Anything about as good as the Surface Pros but cheaper? Any other devices I should give a try? I'd like something that can handle light PC gaming use as well, if possible.

[guest22811]

5 words.
DO. NOT. GET. A. SURFACE.


I've already gone through 4 of them!


I guess I'll just list reasons not to get one of these pieces of crap.


- You can't get any repairs.
- The damn pen is extremely pricy and the nibs wear out too fast
- Extremely fragile screen. Many of my friends have duct tape bordering their screen due to cracks.
- The surface has an extremely short battery life. By extremely, I mean about 2 hours. If you want to use it for longer, you need to turn the brightness down until you nearly can't see.
- I *REGRET* GETTING A SURFACE
- The screen doesn't stand up itself, you need to use the propping thing behind it which is EXTREMELY annoying because for eg. If you're sitting with it on your lap it can accidentally collapse and the laptop will obviously break
- The screen sometimes stays on when you close the screen, which drains your battery without you knowing.
- The laptop never charges properly. The power plug is in, but it says 'not charging'


There you go.


I suggest you save up for a cintiq. It's basically a device designed for drawing.
Or at least, get a laptop and a graphics tablet.

[Ventus Fall]

I've had experience with two tablets; One was cheap and wasn't a proper drawing tablet. The other was a Cintiq and it still works after so many years. They have great customer service too. There are large expensive ones, and smaller cheaper ones.
I believe they even have small tablet-like designs now too. Since these are new, they would be more expensive, but Cintiq has thus far been really good to me.

As Euharmonics stated Cintiq has been made to draw with. They have been designed for artists of all trades. (Drawing, animating, 3D modelling, etc.)
I would suggest you call in Cintiq, tell them what you're looking for, and see what idea's they come up with. I would also suggest looking on their site to see if you find anything yourself and perhaps add to the conversation when you call them.

[Timmy Fox]

5 words.
DO. NOT. GET. A. SURFACE.


I've already gone through 4 of them!


I guess I'll just list reasons not to get one of these pieces of crap.


- You can't get any repairs.
- The damn pen is extremely pricy and the nibs wear out too fast
- Extremely fragile screen. Many of my friends have duct tape bordering their screen due to cracks.
- The surface has an extremely short battery life. By extremely, I mean about 2 hours. If you want to use it for longer, you need to turn the brightness down until you nearly can't see.
- I *REGRET* GETTING A SURFACE
- The screen doesn't stand up itself, you need to use the propping thing behind it which is EXTREMELY annoying because for eg. If you're sitting with it on your lap it can accidentally collapse and the laptop will obviously break
- The screen sometimes stays on when you close the screen, which drains your battery without you knowing.
- The laptop never charges properly. The power plug is in, but it says 'not charging'


There you go.


I suggest you save up for a cintiq. It's basically a device designed for drawing.
Or at least, get a laptop and a graphics tablet.

Can't speak from own experience but my brother has the Surface Pro 3 and is seemingly very happy with it. Don't think he uses the pen very much but he's never really mentioned any negative things about it. I know he was considering the Pro 4 as well but decided to stick with his Pro 3 for now.

Otherwise unless you need a screen to draw on directly I could also suggest just getting a decent and lightweight laptop and pair it with something like an Intuos Pro tablet.

[The Past]

I was leaning toward a Surface Pro 3 since it's cheaper and not much different from a Pro 4.

I'm not looking for just a drawing tablet, remember, I'm looking for basically a decent portable all-in-one. Nothing extremely powerful, but something I can multitask with while in bed and outside. Drawing, typing, Skype, browsing websites, maybe some lightweight gaming. But I also want something that won't become a paperweight in a couple years.

[Ventus Fall]

I believe they even have small tablet-like designs now too. Since these are new, they would be more expensive, but Cintiq has thus far been really good to me.

I should have explained further, these tablet things are like computers as well. So it's not just a drawing tablet, but they are made with that intention, so it's high quality and good service from a company which has epxerience with this and has this as its main goal, as well as combining drawing + laptop stuff.
I think the series is called Companion. It's been around for a while, but I think since a year or so they updated with newer models as well.

Sorry I can't help much with regards to the Surface Pro stuff ^^;

[guest22811]

Smaller tablets are cheaper, actually.
I 110% suggest getting a Wacom tablet.
Don't buy from Huion, it didn't last for a year for me.


I gotta admit the surface's resolution is extremely great though.

[Ventus Fall]

Smaller tablets are cheaper, actually.

The (small) tablets I was referring to are different from tablets such as Bamboo and Intuos, as they also function as a laptop and have an OS on it and everything. You can choose which OS you want on it as well, they have different specs and whatnot for each Companion Tablet they have.
So they're not really cheap compared to a small tablet like a Bamboo or such, but they do provide also the laptop part.