Logos 8 :Microsoft Surface Go or Pro

Hi,

I used to have a Surface Pro back several years ago, and run an earlier version of Logos. I’m thinking of moving back to the Surface family from the iPad Pro 12.9, and wondered what experiences anyone had found using Logos on the Surface Pro, or the Surface Go. I’m wondering if the Go is too low powered, and perhaps too small a screen to get a good Logos experience. Also, I quite like the idea of the Surface Pro M3 being fanless, as with the iPad Pro I often use it to hold my preaching notes at the lectern on a Sunday morning, or during funerals, and wouldn’t want the distraction of the fan noise potentially kicking in at just the wrong moment, but again I am not sure if the M3 is powerful enough for a good Logos 8 experience.

I wouldn’t be using the Surface, Pro or Go, for my main study and sermon prep, as I would be using the iMac at my desk for that, but would mainly want it for reading and searching or Word studies on the move, if I was at conferences, bible studies etc. and maybe for OneNote use for note taking, but I wouldn’t want it to be painfully slow either. I suppose the main multitasking might be Logos and OneNote, or Word and PowerPoint during a sermon. I suppose the other thing would be whether the offline capabilities of the windows version of Logos would be as good or better than the iPad, with key resources downloaded, or whether it would be severely crippled when I was in non wi-fi spaces at conferences or Bible studies.

Sorry for all the questions, but I don’t want to make an expensive mistake, and really am grateful for any advice anyone could give me.

Blessings

Duncan

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Comments

Bill Anderson

Duncan,

Check out the following thread that has my review of the Surface Go. https://community.logos.com/forums/t/171444.aspx?PageIndex=1

Mark

I think you should look at the Lenovo Thinkpad x1 tablet. I have logos running on it and find it far better than the Surface Pro which my son has and is running logos on.

Duncan Campbell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1047900#Comment_1047900

Thanks for the replies.

Reading that thread Bill, I’m thinking the Go might be slower performance than I would want.

Does anyone know what the M3 Surface Pro is like at running Logos 8, it seems to only come with 4gb ram, with no 8gb option.

Thanks

Duncan

Graham Owen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1047932#Comment_1047932

Reading that thread Bill, I’m thinking the Go might be slower performance than I would want.

I guess the problem with performance is that it is an odd mix of objective and subjective observations. For Logos the objective factors would include items like speed of indexing and searching the subjective would include responsiveness.

Based on my experience using Logos on a Surface Go using the 8.4 support for managing the resources on the device my personal observations are:

1 - yes objectively the Surface Go is slower than my main system especially indexing even on a reduced library.

2 - subjectively in use the system is surprisingly responsive and for most tasks I don't notice the difference.

To add the context I am actually using the Surface Go more than I expected, this is not a performance thing though this is just that for me the immediacy of a Tablet style device with the full functionality of Logos works.

Downside that I see is the extra administration. While limiting the library has its benefits it does require a bit of planning and thought. For me making sure that all of the right resources are there is still a work in progress. Like many others I have accumulated a lot of resources that are occasionally useful but are not my primary or preferred sources and for me not having these on the Surface Go definitely improves the user experience. That they remain accessible "in the Cloud" is a great improvement over hiding them.

I am licensed for 15,000 resources and have downloaded nearly 1,200 to the Surface GO leaving me with 75GB free. Before 8.4 was available I knew that the Surface GO would not hold my library on the SSD so I did not consider it. I know that an SD install is possible but it was not an option that I wanted to consider.

My take on the Surface GO is its a great solution if you want or need full function Logos on a tablet format device, can manage the performance issues like indexing and either have a small/medium library or are prepared to manage the size of a larger library.

Duncan Campbell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1047939#Comment_1047939

Thanks Graham

William Breshears

Duncan,

I am running on a Surface Pro, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD (tablet mode, 175% scale). Also run on Lenovo laptop with the hi-res screen at 150% scale. I have 1750+ resources downloaded on both. I have not noticed an appreciable difference between them. Most annoying issue is the SPro does not go to full screen when opening a layout from the home screen (have to minimize, then re-select Logos to get full screen). Hovering over hyperlinks with a stylus is useful.

The initial install on the SPro indexed in a couple minutes. Took longer to download resources on high-speed Cox Internet than to index.

I have a iPad Pro and a Samsung tablet (too many toys per my wife). The SPro experience is better than either of them. One of my most-used layouts has 2 rows of 4 tiles. The smaller screen on the SPro vs Lenovo makes the tiles smaller than I prefer, but still usable. I ended up creating layouts just for the SPro.

Hank

Duncan Campbell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1048370#Comment_1048370

That’s helpful, thanks William.

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1048370#Comment_1048370

I have a iPad Pro and a Samsung tablet (too many toys per my wife). The SPro experience is better than either of them. One of my most-used layouts has 2 rows of 4 tiles. The smaller screen on the SPro vs Lenovo makes the tiles smaller than I prefer, but still usable. I ended up creating layouts just for the SPro.

This opinion is GOLD [*] because it is based on real experience on all three platforms! The forums get many opinions from Surface FanBoys (I admit I am one) and Apple FanBoys (I own an iOS device but admit I am not a fan), but Hank's opinion seems to me to be good advice.