Thoughts on using a Microsoft Surface pro for Stata work?

Question

I have a constrained computer choice to make and one of the candidates I am interested in is a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. It is “loaded” as far as it goes (i7 processor, 16G RAM, 512G SSD, windows 10) but I don’t know if anything “tablet-y” about it might be a barrier to full-blown Stata use (and R as well).

Other possibilities are MacBook Pro (which I used to use a few years ago but have heard about problems with “hard” keyboard and sticky keys, also worry about engineered obselescence w/Apple and less-than-optimal MS Office software implementation and support), and a Dell Latitude (which is perfectly fine, if a bit boring to contemplate).

Any experiences/thoughts appreciated.

Jason Ward

Answer 1

For years I have worked at least partly on a Surface Pro 3 and used both Stata and R without any problems.
The only "tablet-y" things which might put you off is (1) the screen size, and (2) it's not really comfortable to work with the computer on your lap for a long time. But regarding the software I had no issues at all.
(Switched now to a Surface Laptop, however.)

Comments

Agreed, it is a computer in the form factor of a tablet. Does everything.