iPad Pro or Surface Pro? What's best for me?
Alright, so here's the run down: I'm basically at a stand still with my digital art since my laptop died about 2 years ago, I'd really love to continue my digital art since it's also helpful in my current job, but I think I want to transition to something a bit easier to deal with while still being portable (while as my laptop was portable, having my huge wacom tablet that needed plugged in to it and sat somewhere didn't really make it easy for out-of-house digital doodling)
This is why I am now looking into an iPad Pro or a Surface Pro, but I'm not so sure, mostly on the Surface side, on which I should really go with and I'm hoping people who have them can give me their opinions.
Quite frankly I'm personally leaning more towards the iPad right now for price, quality, and I follow many instagram artist who use it so I've been more exposed to the quality it allows.
My boyfriend though suggested that I look into a surface, and though I've spent time looking into it, reading it's specs on the website and such, but I certainly haven't gotten the exposure to the kind of artwork quality it can provide so it's hard for me to judge from a quality standpoint what it is capable of.
So can any one with either of these products tell me your experience in digital art with which one you have?
Though it would be nice to occasionally do some web browsing that are easiest done on a desktop or laptop it isn't of priority. Basically I'm looking for a new drawing tablet and since I need a new system anyways I feel it is in my best interest right now to get a device like the iPad or Surface - if there are other suggestions let me here 'em!
Quick list rundown:
Portable - I want to draw wherever I am, the car, work, the bar, at home, anywhere I could take a paper and pencil
Stylus
Affordable -though by all means it seems I'm spending probably 1k to get a tablet and stylus at least. Anything more than 1.5k is absolutely way too much in my book right now!
Quality
Memory -this is loose. I just don't want to get something that will fill up too fast with digital work.
This purchase will not be happening until Black Friday/ Cyber Monday or after. I'm hoping I can get one of these products on a sale, I just want to educate myself and know what to look for and what I should be after when these sales roll around (assuming they are offered, if not - then that's where buying sometime between then and Christmas will happen)
Input is greatly appreciated, if you have questions to help better identify what would be best for me please do ask! Also open to direct notes if you think it would be easiest to discuss there!
Thank you all in advance!
This is why I am now looking into an iPad Pro or a Surface Pro, but I'm not so sure, mostly on the Surface side, on which I should really go with and I'm hoping people who have them can give me their opinions.
Quite frankly I'm personally leaning more towards the iPad right now for price, quality, and I follow many instagram artist who use it so I've been more exposed to the quality it allows.
My boyfriend though suggested that I look into a surface, and though I've spent time looking into it, reading it's specs on the website and such, but I certainly haven't gotten the exposure to the kind of artwork quality it can provide so it's hard for me to judge from a quality standpoint what it is capable of.
So can any one with either of these products tell me your experience in digital art with which one you have?
Though it would be nice to occasionally do some web browsing that are easiest done on a desktop or laptop it isn't of priority. Basically I'm looking for a new drawing tablet and since I need a new system anyways I feel it is in my best interest right now to get a device like the iPad or Surface - if there are other suggestions let me here 'em!
Quick list rundown:
Portable - I want to draw wherever I am, the car, work, the bar, at home, anywhere I could take a paper and pencil
Stylus
Affordable -though by all means it seems I'm spending probably 1k to get a tablet and stylus at least. Anything more than 1.5k is absolutely way too much in my book right now!
Quality
Memory -this is loose. I just don't want to get something that will fill up too fast with digital work.
This purchase will not be happening until Black Friday/ Cyber Monday or after. I'm hoping I can get one of these products on a sale, I just want to educate myself and know what to look for and what I should be after when these sales roll around (assuming they are offered, if not - then that's where buying sometime between then and Christmas will happen)
Input is greatly appreciated, if you have questions to help better identify what would be best for me please do ask! Also open to direct notes if you think it would be easiest to discuss there!
Thank you all in advance!
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I bought a Refurbished Surface Pro 3, paid extra to up warranty for 2 Years. 1250.00 cost including warranty fee.
Specks, SP3, 500 GIG HDD, I core 7, 8 GIGS Ram. Had overheat problems got replacement 3 times. Had problems they troubleshoot over Phone, they troubleshoot the works and told me if I still have issues I would have to get it replaced, recently it started freezing time.. and overheating issues. Got to call to get it replaced.
no More SP3 left so my odds are looking good for SP4, however checking their website there a are no sp4 with the same specks as mine, so I might End up with Surface Pro, the latest model... However that depends if the have any SP4 Reserved, if the do my odds are SP 4 if not Surface Pro... the specks of our SP4 is 500 Gig HDD, I core 7, 16 Gig Ram, price 900.00 traded in my sp3 with cracked screen for the discount.
How is this helping you, well the Surface Pro 3 served me well. I also have a SP4 in warranty. due to a cracked screen in my old SP3, paid replacement fee, tested out SP 4 its perfect, logger battery, however gets fairly hot, however not like SP3 which can get super hot at
Programs I use...
Art Rage, Awesome
Photoshop CC Works Awesome
illustrator CC Works Awesome
Ditched CC for Affinity Designer Why Because Their program is the finest and best hoofs down
If you can get a surface Pro 3 and exited warranty for another year. Your odds of a bump up look good, I know from Experience SP3 is Prone to overheat..
In regards to the apple tabled I only have experience with iPad 4 and only use Sketch Club
Sorry I was not much help. advice the more ram the smoother the program (8 and above)
Specks, SP3, 500 GIG HDD, I core 7, 8 GIGS Ram. Had overheat problems got replacement 3 times. Had problems they troubleshoot over Phone, they troubleshoot the works and told me if I still have issues I would have to get it replaced, recently it started freezing time.. and overheating issues. Got to call to get it replaced.
no More SP3 left so my odds are looking good for SP4, however checking their website there a are no sp4 with the same specks as mine, so I might End up with Surface Pro, the latest model... However that depends if the have any SP4 Reserved, if the do my odds are SP 4 if not Surface Pro... the specks of our SP4 is 500 Gig HDD, I core 7, 16 Gig Ram, price 900.00 traded in my sp3 with cracked screen for the discount.
How is this helping you, well the Surface Pro 3 served me well. I also have a SP4 in warranty. due to a cracked screen in my old SP3, paid replacement fee, tested out SP 4 its perfect, logger battery, however gets fairly hot, however not like SP3 which can get super hot at
Programs I use...
Art Rage, Awesome
Photoshop CC Works Awesome
illustrator CC Works Awesome
Ditched CC for Affinity Designer Why Because Their program is the finest and best hoofs down
If you can get a surface Pro 3 and exited warranty for another year. Your odds of a bump up look good, I know from Experience SP3 is Prone to overheat..
In regards to the apple tabled I only have experience with iPad 4 and only use Sketch Club
Sorry I was not much help. advice the more ram the smoother the program (8 and above)
If it were me I would go with the Surface (or comparable device) because it is a full computer and can run full "desktop" applications like the Adobe Creative Suite, Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool Sai, Fire Alpaca, etc... For me that is important because I rely on that software heavily. Having to use iOS apps would be limiting to me.
If that is not important to you, then your considerations might be different. Obviously there are some great art apps available on iOS, like ProCreate. Still, I would take a hard look at what's available for iOS, though, and make sure it works for what you're going to need it to do. Especially since it sounds like you're replacing a laptop that might have been your main machine, and also using it for work.
As far as the quality of art it can produce, that is entirely up to the artist! Obviously fantastic software (as mentioned above) is available to Surface users, so the quality of the art produced should not be hampered by the device itself, since we know both are functional. I think you're seeing more art tagged for the iPad because the type of user base it attracts, that are excited about what they're using. Consider the other digital art might be produced on a MacBook, or a Windows desktop, a Surface like device, an iMac... all the same--- its more about the skills of the user, and the capabilities of the software than the device.
One good thing about iOS apps, is that they are made with being on a mobile device in mind, and so the UI usually respects the fact that you want as much screen space as possible. The desktop apps are FINALLY starting to get that they're being run on tablet like device and giving you "tablet/touch" modes, and generally coming up with ways to get the UI out of the way so your page/artboard can be the star.
Also, if you plan to also (aside from art) use it as more of a tablet, to run nifty tablet apps, do reading, surfing, etc. That might push more toward the iPad side. As an art machine/general computing, I like the Windows devices, but as tablets, they're pretty blah. The UI is so-so, and the tablet oriented apps available in the Windows store is pretty lackluster compared to iOS.
Full disclosure: I owned/used a Surface Pro 3 for years, and currently just got a Lenovo Flex 5* (which I love so much more!). So, I might be biased! I don't really want to sway you one way or the other, just really give you some food for thought so you can make the best decision for you.
(*Note: the Flex 5 is nice more for my specific needs, it's a full laptop though, and is not portable/tablety in the way a surface or an iPad would be - but that's what I wanted).
If that is not important to you, then your considerations might be different. Obviously there are some great art apps available on iOS, like ProCreate. Still, I would take a hard look at what's available for iOS, though, and make sure it works for what you're going to need it to do. Especially since it sounds like you're replacing a laptop that might have been your main machine, and also using it for work.
As far as the quality of art it can produce, that is entirely up to the artist! Obviously fantastic software (as mentioned above) is available to Surface users, so the quality of the art produced should not be hampered by the device itself, since we know both are functional. I think you're seeing more art tagged for the iPad because the type of user base it attracts, that are excited about what they're using. Consider the other digital art might be produced on a MacBook, or a Windows desktop, a Surface like device, an iMac... all the same--- its more about the skills of the user, and the capabilities of the software than the device.
One good thing about iOS apps, is that they are made with being on a mobile device in mind, and so the UI usually respects the fact that you want as much screen space as possible. The desktop apps are FINALLY starting to get that they're being run on tablet like device and giving you "tablet/touch" modes, and generally coming up with ways to get the UI out of the way so your page/artboard can be the star.
Also, if you plan to also (aside from art) use it as more of a tablet, to run nifty tablet apps, do reading, surfing, etc. That might push more toward the iPad side. As an art machine/general computing, I like the Windows devices, but as tablets, they're pretty blah. The UI is so-so, and the tablet oriented apps available in the Windows store is pretty lackluster compared to iOS.
Full disclosure: I owned/used a Surface Pro 3 for years, and currently just got a Lenovo Flex 5* (which I love so much more!). So, I might be biased! I don't really want to sway you one way or the other, just really give you some food for thought so you can make the best decision for you.
(*Note: the Flex 5 is nice more for my specific needs, it's a full laptop though, and is not portable/tablety in the way a surface or an iPad would be - but that's what I wanted).
No worries about sounding possibly biased, I figure if anything that's what I would get when asking for personal opinions since I figure not too many would probably work heavily with both!
With the consideration that the Surface would be able to support the adobe programs and Paint tool SAI (my love! so sad it can't be on Apple products) that is actually a rather significant influence in choice since I already know how to use those programs, and more or less interchangeably at that, that is very nice to have rather than possibly putting myself into a whole new layout style AND new art program that I would need to adapt to simultaneously -though quite frankly there are pros to doing it that way I must say.
Based on how you've said it, and I'm glad you described it as you did, I may want to lean more towards that more computer-esc machine. That being since I do enjoy sill playing some online pet site games, and I don't really do much with app's - I mean basically my phone I switch between facebook, snapchat, and instagram and I don't need a tablet for those sole reason because through my smart phone is good enough for me. So downloadable apps that are just time-killer games aren't really of much use to me and don't need to bet set as a priority.
Haha hopefully none of that sounds contradictory to what you've said. I mean my true main focus here is a drawing tablet with some benefits.
I greatly appreciate your detail in explanation! Thank you so much for your input
With the consideration that the Surface would be able to support the adobe programs and Paint tool SAI (my love! so sad it can't be on Apple products) that is actually a rather significant influence in choice since I already know how to use those programs, and more or less interchangeably at that, that is very nice to have rather than possibly putting myself into a whole new layout style AND new art program that I would need to adapt to simultaneously -though quite frankly there are pros to doing it that way I must say.
Based on how you've said it, and I'm glad you described it as you did, I may want to lean more towards that more computer-esc machine. That being since I do enjoy sill playing some online pet site games, and I don't really do much with app's - I mean basically my phone I switch between facebook, snapchat, and instagram and I don't need a tablet for those sole reason because through my smart phone is good enough for me. So downloadable apps that are just time-killer games aren't really of much use to me and don't need to bet set as a priority.
Haha hopefully none of that sounds contradictory to what you've said. I mean my true main focus here is a drawing tablet with some benefits.
I greatly appreciate your detail in explanation! Thank you so much for your input
You're very welcome! I hope whatever you end up getting works out great for you!