@jleves
If you were looking for one
sole machine, would you get this laptop? If not, what direction would you go in? Given the price points, which option would you take? Is getting the 16gb model worth the extra $600? I mean, that's a nice desktop you could put together on your own. Or the latest no contract mobile phone.
A comparable 13" Macbook Pro (16gb/512gb/i7) would cost $2200. But that doesn't haven't tablet functionality nor dGPU. Note: I don't have a tablet anymore either. So bonus in that regard.
Given my back of the napkin review above, what do you think? Note: I couldn't really test the performance, as there's only one machine in the store, no chair to sit, and usually people waiting to check it out. Nor is there much high intensive software installed on it either.
This is a tough choice based on what I remember your requirements are (portability is important to you so you were focusing on 13" displays; you want to be able to run photoshop with good performance; this will be your primary machine, you would like to have a pen - correct me if those aren't correct).
As I see it, these are your best options (I'm not including macbook because I don't know much about it and I have no interest in running ios or running windows on it when I can find a better solution for windows for less money):
Surface Pro 4, i7-6650U 2 core 2.2GHz/3.4GHz 15 Watt, Iris Graphics 540, 48 EUs, 16GB, 512GB SSD, 2.4lbs (with keyboard) $2,329 ($1729 w/ 8GB, 256GB SSD - my choice, more later)
Surface Book, i7-6600U 2 core 2.6GHz/3.4GHz 15 Watt, HD 520 Graphics, 24 EUs + nvidia GPU 2MB, 16GB, 512GB SSD, 3.5 lbs, $2,699
Dell XPS 13, i7-6500U 2 core 2.5GHz/3.1GHz 15 Watt, HD 520 Graphics, 24 EUs, 16GB, 512GB, 2.9lbs, $1,999
Dell XPS 15, i7-6700HQ 4 core 2.6GHz/3.5GHz, 45 Watt, HD 530 Graphics, 24EUs + nvidia GTX 960M 2GB, 16GB, 512GB SSD, 4.4lbs, $1,699
Let's rule out the Surface Pro 4 - this is your primary machine and while the keyboard has gotten better, I don't think you would be happy with the screen size or keyboard as a primary machine. But it does have the best Intel graphics at the high end with Iris. That's why I'm getting it - the graphics and it's not my primary. I have a desktop for high end stuff and storing lots of stuff (plus a NAS) and I have last generation XPS15 for my mobile device.
The Surface Book with the discrete nvidia is interesting but it's a mid range mobile graphics card with 1GB of memory. You are going to stress a mid range Maxwell gpu with only 1GB of memory if you're pushing the limits of photoshop. It's expensive. It has the ability to be a good tablet and has a pen.
The XPS 13 gets excellent reviews, is very portable, but is never going to be mistaken for a high performance or graphic rendering machine. It's somewhat expensive and it has no pen. It's quite portable.
The XPS 15 is the powerhouse here. It's got a non touch screen, it's got a lower res display (although I think 1920x1080 is fine - I have no idea why they don't make a 3840x2160 with 16GB and 512 SSD), no pen and is kinda heavy - but remember 4.4lbs with this high end power was unheard of 5 years ago. With the biggest battery and lower res screen, the huge battery should last a long time even with the 45wattt CPU and discrete graphics.
So it comes down to choices you have to make. Is the 1lb less weight, pen and ability to make it a tablet important enough to spend an extra $1000? Is performance the most important thing realizing 4.4lbs isn't really that much? You need to weigh your requirements and decide on the trade offs (because there is no perfect machine for you). Performance vs Pen vs Tablet vs Weight vs Price. Your math will be different than mine.
Oh - the extra memory and SSD. I don't think the extra 8GB of memory will make a lot of difference on any of these, but if it's your primary machine for the next 3 to 5 years, I think you will need or at least be happy you got the extra 256GB of storage. 512GB of storage for a primary 5 year machine seems the minimum for me. And none of them seem to come with 512GB SSD and 8GB of storage because that would definitely be my choice. If you don't mind putting a lot of stuff in the cloud realizing you need to be connected to access things, 256GB and 8GB will be fine. I'm just not sure you want to lock into having everything in the cloud.
At the very least, if it was going to be my primary machine, I would wait for the professional reviews of the Surface Book to come out before I would plop down $2,700. Make sure it doesn't throttle, get too hot, get too loud or is just a general lump of crap. I think it will measure up, but I wouldn't pre-order.
Hope this helped you sort things out.
