About a year ago I asked if any users had tried Sonar on MS Surface Pro.  The response was limited.
 
This year MS has the full-blown Surface available with some impressive stats if you buy the highest end unit. 
 
I need to change out my computer and think that a portable system would be awesome.  So, I would like to know if anybody has experience with Sonar on the new Surface?
 
Regards,
Lance

I don't but if you go through with it, I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Yes, they look good if you need a mobile unit.  I haven't used one but the specs should be fine.  My biggest gripe would be the smallish touch screen (I like my 27 inch much better than a 21.5 so ...).
 
But yea, let us know if you go for it.

I'm intrigued by this as well. My laptop just died, so I need a new one. Not primarily for music production, but that would sure be nice for whiling away time in airport lounges and hotel rooms. So I did a little googling.
 
Interesting stuff here. They seem to take it seriously as an audio production platform. The tiny touchscreen would drive me nuts, though. I currently have two 22" monitors and sometimes it feels cramped. My now-retired laptop had a 17" screen and that felt small.
 
Here's a guy who ran ProTools on one. Both sources say they use ASIO4All, but nobody explains why. I can only assume they're using the computer's integrated audio. But again, why? He ran with a 512-sample buffer, but doesn't say if that was as low as he could go, or if he just picked a conservative value to start with.
 
Microsoft claims it's a legitimate audio platform, specifically mentioning ProTools, Ableton Live and Cubase. But there's a video of a guy using Reason that isn't selling me at all, watching him struggle with microscopic controls on plugins and two-fingered function keys. He's also using ASIO4All, even with an external USB interface.
 
Then there's the price. The Surface Pro 4 is $1000. Much less than I paid for my recently-deceased HP laptop, but a few years have passed since then and $1000 is now on the high side. Comparable laptops can be had for half that.
 
All in all, my admittedly minimal research has pretty much put me off the idea of a Surface Pro.

They sound good on paper but when you get to try them at the shop you may find it to be a very small package for a very large price. I thought iPads were over priced until I demo'd a Surface Pro. And yes, the screen is IMO too small for a touch screen DAW interface. I would need to attach some pointers to my finger tips for precise control.

This topic led me to a search for a possible replacement for my dead HP laptop that might also be capable of some audio stuff. I was pleasantly surprised by current prices. The new version of my old laptop is $700, which buys a faster CPU, twice the RAM and 4x the disk storage (but loses 1 USB and the VGA port). The old one was $3,000!
 
At the moment, I'm leaning toward this one from Acer.  $450 for a 17" display, 8GB RAM and 1TB drive. With a 2.2 GHz i5 I don't expect it to be a speed demon, but it's got all the features I need, in particular the large display.
 
I can't afford to spend much more than that. Well, actually, I can't afford anything at all. But I need it for my day job, so it's going on the credit card.

I've owned a couple Acer laptops and had great service from them. Once you get into the i5 and i7 series they often include a dedicated GPU from AMD or NVIDIA. The company is head-quartered in Texas.

Bit
I just changed my Laptop about 6 weeks ago and got an Acer Aspire V17 - extremely impressed so far with performance and build quality.
Mine is an i7, 16gb memory, two hard drives, 300gb system drive and 2 tb data drive.
I use it for work but I have also put my video editing software on it - Sony Music Studio Platinum (The old Vegas)
Really has no problems with that whatsoever so I'm sure Sonar would be a breeze
Nigel
 
 

I've had an Acer Aspire R14 'hybrid', convertible screen, for about 4 months now and really like it! Zippy i5, 8Gigs ram. A rather smallish touchscreen at 14". Using it musically record my Steinway grand piano in the living room. There I can also wifi to a 46" LG HD tv as a second monitor if need be.  No noise from the SSD drive. Record the piano; email the wav to the next room where the desktop 'recording studio' is or put it on a thumb drive and hike it over.
I'll put a rough sketch of the tune, or bass/drum tracks, and record the piano to that. Or record a midi piano part and record the rest of the tune and arrange just as I like it. Then put the completed arrangement on the Acer and record the final acoustic piano.
 
When not using it to record it's my tv in the bedroom! I cut tv cable a couple years ago. With this laptop and a Push2TV box, I can Netflix wireless to flatscreen in b'room. Brand new item when I bought it. About 7bills. 
 
http://livetrendlaptops.com/acer-aspire-r14-r5-471t-52ee-hybrid-laptop-review/