Replacing Vista: Where to go From Here

My Toshiba laptop is getting a little long in the tooth, and I have been throwing ideas around regarding what I should do to replace it and put the beast out to pasture (it's a sobering thought of irony, since the machine I typed this on is the one I am considering replacing!).

Anyway, I have had several thoughts, from nixing the laptop altogether and adding a couple of parts to my Dell desktop, to getting a completely different computer. I even at one point considered getting a 2-in-1, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro, HP x2 or x360. However, every time I try to reach a final decision, I always end up back at square one with no decision reached whatsoever.

At one point, I considered purchasing a Google Pixel device. The problem with that is both models that have been released have been Chromebooks, and after my experience with the Samsung 500c, I had just about sworn them off. That was until I saw an article for the Pixel C Tablet. Despite being an Android product, it at least doesn't stick you with Chrome and nothing else, and actually tries to be an every day use computing device.

Google's Pixel C Tablet. Introduced instead of a flagship Chromebook.

Well, today I saw a review for a couple of new Microsoft Surface devices. Now ordinarily, I would pretty much ignore news like this, and I have only ever considered purchasing a Surface tablet once. Just the fact that they only sell half of a computer with a starting price of $500 is pretty outrageous in my mind, but on the other hand, Apple sells the iPad for about that price, and technically speaking, since a person needs Team Viewer or another piece of Remote Desktop protocol software to do anything productive on it, it really only counts as 1/4 of a computer. On that note, it drives me nuts how quickly these have been adopted in the Enterprise market.

Anyway, I found the a fore-mentioned article in my Facebook news feed, and it was "click bait" at first sight. It seems as though every two years, Microsoft decides to upgrade their "flagship" (another overused word in the technology industry) tablet, just as Apple and Google do with their phones (although Apple and Samsung's cycle seems to be about six months anymore!--but that's beside the point).

I then take a look at the article, and discover that not only is Microsoft making a fourth Surface Pro tablet, but they are also making a (nearly) full-functioning laptop. Dubbed the "Surface Book," this thing has a sort of appeal that hasn't won me over on a new computer in a while. It also comes with Windows 10, and seems as though it will fit in a backpack without weighing a person down. 

Microsoft Surface Book. Announced today.

After seeing the article (and a picture similar to the above one to go with it), my interest is captivated. Sure, it doesn't have a DVD burner or other type of disc drive, but in this day and age, practically nobody needs one. Besides, if I did go with the parts option mentioned above, it would save some weight when toting around in between classes. 

All in all, the Surface Book seems like a real winner in mine (pun intended!). At some point after it is released, I feel as though I ought to go down to the Park Meadows Mall in Centennial and try it out. It looks as though it is a really solid device.