I’m thinking about grabbing a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 on Black Friday.
I already have a Wacom intuos, but I think it would be nice to also have a tablet (w/stylus) that I can bring to work with me to model and tinker in my spare moments.
The screen size is small, but it also can be connected to external monitors and keyboards via USB, turning it into a regular workstation.
Anyone have experience with this machine? Any downsides you know of?
I picked up a Surface Pro 3 years ago thinking it’d be great for sculpting on the go. My biggest gripe was not having buttons on the side to use as modifier keys. There’s software that puts these buttons on the screen, and that works for some, but I personally didn’t find it enjoyable.
Slightly deviating from the main question, but related:
I’ve had a Wacom Cintiq a few years ago (attached to the iMac I was working on back then), thinking it would be the ultimate companion for sculpting.
I had a similar experience as @cgCody: the experience was not as comfortable as I hoped. Stupid things like my hand obscuring a part of the screen started to bother me, and because I had a large Cintiq I also started developing RSI in my arm.
I also hated the crappy on-screen keyboard, but that’s probably better on a Surface Pro.
Now I’ve got a medium size Wacom Intuos Pro, and love it.
I also had a Cintiq back in the day for 2D artwork, but I didn’t like feel of drawing on the slick “glassy” surface, so I sold it and got the Intuos.
Good point about having the hand obscure part of the surface. That’s an important consideration, because the Surface Pro has such a small screen.
Given that, I just instead might get a regular laptop and a small drawing tablet to tote along with it. I think I can get both for considerably less cost than the Surface Pro, especially considering how inexpensive drawing tablets are these days.
Thanks for that valuable insight. 
My thoughts exactly: a small, portable drawing tablet attached to a regular laptop would be a better choice.
Yep, that’s another thing I hadn’t considered – if I’m using the screen to sculpt, I won’t have convenient access to keyboard shortcuts.
Thanks guys. Saved me $$ and regret.
BA is an insights goldmine! 
Hah, and I thought I was the only crazy person that ‘down graded’ to an Intuos. My 22HD has been sitting in its box for the last year. Finally decided to try and offload it, but it’s value is a hard ask, cash wise, for a used item.
Both one of those recently. It has six keys, they’re enough, for sculpting I have ctrl - shift - pen pressure for intensity, and right mouse key for changing size, or a key for F.
Not having buttons could be possible, but at the price of having the soft key on the pen calling a sort of uber-menu for making all your choices… doable, but at the price of getting slowed and losing pen experience…
Those with big surfaces… really not needed, I think… the more the space, the larger you have to draw… unconfortable to me…
I bought SP3 w/o keyboard, tackled with only a pen for some time,
but then simply bought a 4port USB hub and a miniDP-DP cable (~$20 both)
can attach a standard keyboard, a mouse, a tablet and a large monitor as needed
after years of use I still find it more than enough for concept sketching, architectural planning, modeling and presentations when around & on site
I was still on Facebook back when I sold the Cintiq, and had a lot of ‘friends’ there, so I could relatively easily find someone who was interested, and sold it for a very reasonable price. So there’s an advantage of being part of Facebook after all, next to the multiple disadvantages that made me leave it (as well as Instagram). 
My problem is that I sorta, kinda talked the two friends that inquired about it, out of wanting one, with my personal bias. I’m the absolute worst salesman. 
I just bought a surface pro x and i can’t used Blender on it. And my Oculus rift s doesn’t seem to be compatible ether. Researching into it a few days ago i saw people using vr with old surface tablets and also using Blender from over two to three years ago. im getting openGL 3.3 and SSE 4.2 support error messages. Im a novice when it comes to drivers, PC’s and processors so i guess i will get a laptop.
It would be great to find a portable laptop/tablet which can run blender, be used for Drawing/sculpting in VR and 2D hand drawing onto a screen with a pen. guess it too much to ask at the moment.
Any suggestions welcome?
Thanks
Nevermind, it has an Arm chip - Intel emulation and driver support sucks balls! Total waste of money unless you’re a management type who needs a swanky device with good battery life. Really, get something else, any gaming laptop for that type of money is going to be 10x better…
Surface pro x is a waste of money. If you want real applications to work you need the surface pro 6 or 7.
I use a Wacom Express Key remote for modifiers/primary shortcuts when I use my SP2 while away from my main computer. It’s a pretty good combo.
I am still not pleased with the MS stylus and the screen parallax can be annoying but if you work with a Wacom one is used to it. I prefer an iPad for sketching to be quite honest. But if you want to also 3D model a surface is pretty good. While expensive those are good devices.
Omg why did you buy a modern surface RT ? The x uses RAM chips and hardly any software is optimized for that. I would honestly give it back.
Also surface and VR googles are a funny combination, I would like to see if the rift really would work with a surface.
I just got the ASUS - 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i5 (9th gen) - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 - 512GB Solid State Drive.
It gives me:
i5 processor 9th gen - 4 cores, 8 threads, 2.4 gigahertz (base) plus Turboboost. (That’s better than the “recommended” for Blender 2.81, but less than the “optimal”)…
8 gig ram (better than the “minimum”, but less than the “recommended”)…
NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with 4 gig ram (4 gigs = exactly the “recommended”, less than the “optimal”)…
…and a solid state drive, which (as I understand it) is faster.
(Have a look at the “minimum”, “recommended” and “optimal” hardware specs for Blender here: https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/ …)
So far I’m pretty happy with the Asus. Runs Blender 2.81 with no hitches.
I have a Wacom tablet, but I also ordered a cheap off-brand drawing tablet (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078YR2MTF) as well as a portable monitor (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RGPCQG1) for when I’m on the go. (Haven’t tested these items yet.)
All that for less than the cost of a Surface Pro 6.
If you want a few more insights into what you should get, have a look at my other thread here: Please help me choose my new laptop (or desktop) for Blendering …
Good luck!
Yeah, because the Pro X is the ARM based rev of the Surface line. It only supports 32-bit Win32 apps through emulation, and then only does so jankily. If you’re absolutely insistent on getting a tablet, opt for the Surface Pro 7, since it uses a proper x86 processor that can run Blender natively.
Though I’d follow what’s been advised above, and consider getting a stout laptop, and pairing it with a small Wacom or XP-Pen tablet. I had an SP4 for awhile, and it was…okay. It could handle lower end Blender tasks well enough, but you’ll find it bogging down on you pretty quicklike once the poly count starts getting a little high. That, and the stark reality that Blender isn’t designed to be touch friendly at all, makes a Surface Pro a pretty middling device for what you’re wanting to do.
Yea i had know idea the pro x was so different. I thought Blender would work just like the rest.
I was hoping the surface would upgrade from my old ipad and work with blender. The screen is great on it.
I dont really want to take an ipad and a pc laptop away with me for the weekend etc.
Hi Chris,
I’m an ex iPad user, and my only laptop is a cheap Chromebook, so it’s better to ask advice to the Blenderheads in this thread who’ve got experience using Blender on a tablet or laptop.
Good luck!