Column

Finally, a Tablet That Can Replace a Laptop!

Finally, a tablet that can replace a laptop. Much as lawyers love their iPads – and they are great for surfing, e-mailing and presenting evidence in court – they are not true laptop replacements when it comes to business productivity. This is the next true war – consumer tablets have reached a saturation point and consumers are not replacing them as fast as manufacturers had hoped.

Always in search of profits, the major manufacturers have finally come to recognize that the enterprise table market is hot hot hot for any company that can get the technology and the security right.

While we attended the ABA Annual Meeting in Boston, we had a chance to visit a Microsoft store and test drive the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. To put it mildly, we were both impressed and left the store discussing when we would buy them and with what configurations.

The only thing that irritates us is that the keyboard is “optional” (not if you want to work) and carries an additional charge of $129.99. That aside, we loved it – more information from Microsoft may be found here.

Business-grade tablets, those that can truly replace a laptop, are quickly becoming the next big thing in solo and small firm technology as well as in the general marketplace. We are being bombarded with questions on this topic at our CLEs. Everyone is looking for a laptop replacement.

Happily, you can now leave your 4.5 pound laptop and clunky travel bag at home when you need to hit the road.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is truly a laptop replacement and has received some glowing reviews, which certainly could not be said of the preceding two generations of the Surface. The tablet boasts a 12” display with a resolution of 2160×1440. The 4th generation Intel Core processor (i3, i5, i7) is the same processor that you will find in your laptop computer system, and provides this tablet with more than enough horsepower to run your business applications smoothly. The tablet comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro, which means that you can load and run any of your necessary business software –allowing users to get the same functionality out of this device as they can out of their laptop – at just a fraction of the weight!

The device can be configured with 4 or 8GB of memory and anywhere from 64 to 512GB of storage space. There’s a USB 3.0 port (unlike the iPad) and you can increase storage space by utilizing the microSD card capability. For network connectivity, this device comes with a wireless adapter supporting 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. It has both a front and rear facing camera, as well as a stereo microphone perfect for video-conferencing. We would recommend that you give serious consideration to the 8GB memory, 256GB storage, i7 unit.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet can be purchased online from Microsoft’s webstore (www.microsoft.com) or from your local electronics retailer starting at $799.

The authors are the President and Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., a legal technology, information security and digital forensics firm based in Fairfax, VA.

Comments

  1. Have you an opinion btwn the Surface Pro and the Samsung Galaxy 3?