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MobileSheets on a Surface Laptop Studio and Surface devices in general
#1
I bought the new Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio the day they started shipping 3 weeks ago, and I wanted to report that MobileSheets runs great on it. It comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, and it works great with that, too.

One of the nice things about the Surface series of laptops and tablets is that they all have a 3:2 screen ratio. This is closer to the aspect ratio of paper, which is 8.5" X 11" here in America. The new laptop has a 14.4" screen which is 8" X 12". If you display an 8.5" X 11" piece of paper on it, the image is 10.3" tall, which uses most of the screen. If you trim off the left and right margins, it comes even closer to using the whole screen. This also holds true for A4 paper, though the dimensions are slightly different. A4 paper is slightly taller and not as wide as American paper. It will come even closer to using the whole screen.

But here's the point. Almost all laptops nowadays are 16:9 ratio. In fact, I haven't found any laptops other than the Surface with a 3:2 ratio screen. The screen on the Laptop Studio, as I said, is 14.4", which is 8" X 12". Let's compare that to a 16:9 ratio screen. A 16:9 screen that's about 8" on the short dimension is a 16" screen. It will be about 8" X 14". This means that if you display a piece of paper on that, the image won't be any larger than it is on the 14.4" 3:2 screen. It will just have a larger area of the screen that's not used.

It you trim off the left and right margins, a piece of paper fits even better on a 3:2 screen, but still not bigger on a 16:9 screen.

It is possible to stretch the music in the long dimension so that it fits a 16:9 screen, but IMHO, that doesn't really make it more readable. It just makes it look odd. YMMV

So... the surface computers are more compact than normal laptops that display the same size image. However, they are a bit on the pricey side. The cheapest laptop studio is around $1500, and the most expensive one is about $3100. The Surface Pro 8 starts at $1100 and goes up to around $2300. The screen is 10.3", which has a smaller image, but the ratio is 3:2, so the same logic applies. A 16:9 ratio screen would have to be 14" to have the same size image of a piece of paper.

Sorry for all the math. I'm a retired engineer.
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#2
Hello wthalliii,

I am using a MS Surface Pro 7 since a couple of months and I must say, I'm really happy with it. Both, as a handy convertible for low level PC work with the snap-on keyboard (couch surfing, writing forum replies like this one, etc), but especially with MobileSheets Pro (with the MS pen and a BlueTooth foot pedal).

I'm located in Europe, so my primary paper size is A4, which matches nicely with the screen dimensions of the Surface Pro 4.
Nevertheless, I still cut off most of the white border space from the sheets, simply to make the best usage of the screen estate.

Yes, it is a bit pricey, but still cheaper than a compareable Apple iPad. And, as for me, I don't have any gadgets from the Apple universe, just Android and MS-Windows, so I can stay with an already known ecosystem.
The screen quality is very good, but the battery drain might be a challenge for longer sessions. So you shouldn't forget to bring the power supply and have a mains socket nearby.

Before the surface, I used an Android tablet. But it was hard to find one with >10" screen for a reasonable price.
And I had to realize, that the support with OS updates on those tablets is very limited.
For the MS Surface I think that there are good chances to get OS updates for quite some years.

At performances, I bring an old Samsung 10" Andriod with me, with the latest backup of the MobileSheets DB from my Surface, just for redundancy, in case of ...

Long story short:
Yes, the Surface is a bit pricey, but I think it is worth the money and the best alternative to an iPad, especially when using it with MobileSheets Pro.

Regards,
Andreas
Andreas
---------------------------------
MS Surface Pro7, Win10;  Samsung 10" tablet, Android;   MouKey foot pedal
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#3
I am using Mobilesheets on a Surface pro 3 (Released June 2014)and it runs and works really well.
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