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whats the difference?

sterger

New Member
hi, i have been surfing the forum trying to search for an answer. Can anyone enlighten me whats the main difference i will see when using between a SP4 m3 4gb ram vs a SP4 I5 4gb ram. im torn between the two and not sure which to get, i'll only use it to do work which means, only using browser word and excel at the same time.
 

leeshor

Well-Known Member
Welcome to the forum

The SP4 is simply more powerful. If you don't see yourself doing any more than that in the future the M3 should be fine. The biggest mistake I have seen people do when making a computer purchase is not planning for what they may find a use for in the future. Always plan on doing more down the road.
 

Telstar1948

Active Member
You may want to check some of the battery tests making their appearances recently, but it's sounding like the i5 is getting a little better battery life than the m3.
 

Seneleron

Active Member
The Core M is an ultra lower powered fanless design. Good for web surfing and other light duty tasks. As has been stated above, it's relatively less powerful than the i5, and does not get any significant battery life gains (from preliminary testing). For the price difference between the 4 gig i5 and the Core M, [m3] I can't really give you any good reason to opt for the m3 unless you're absolutely dead set on a silent device.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
OP
S

sterger

New Member
Okay! thanks alot people! I was considering M3 because of the battery life ( which i thought would be longer since there is no fan), would probably go for the i5 one now instead! shall wait for more review since it is only coming out on the 19th nov for my country. Appreciate it! Cheers
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
It does seem counter intuitive that in this modern version of the Tortoise and the Hare the Hare wins.
Although I suspect this is all about system tuning choices MS made and they opted for performance over power efficiency in the m3 implementation. Perhaps in the future they will make available an UltraLowPower profile in addition to the Balanced Profile. Until it happens though I would not plan on it happening.

You can turn off power using features yourself and eek out 11+ hours of Web browsing usage with the m3. I don't have an i5 so cant speak to how far you can stretch that one.

The m3 is Cool and Silent as the night with SP3 i5 class performance which the iPad Pro wishes it had.

The m3 demolishes the S3 Atom performance although the S3 rules on size and weight and holdability. You'll not what to hold the SP4 for long same as with an SP3.

Battery Life:
Anyone out there with a SP4 Core M model to share battery life experiences? | Page 3 | Microsoft Surface Forums
 
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