MTG: Three Days Without Apple — The Z Fold 8 and Surface Setup Hit Reality

Watch the video here: MTG: Three Days Without Apple : The Z Fold 8 and Surface Setup Hit Reality

Three days into the planned 30-day switch from Mac and iPhone to Windows and Android, the honeymoon period appears to be over.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Surface setup still looks interesting. It still has the potential to replace a collection of Apple devices. But once you stop admiring the kit and start trying to produce something with it, the little compromises begin to make themselves known.

Ports. File transfers. Audio. Battery life. Chargers.

None of these things sounds especially dramatic on its own. Put them together during a real production day, however, and you start asking the useful question:

Can the kit you already have, or can afford secondhand, make a workable production setup?

That is the question behind day three of Andrew’s experiment. It is not a completed review, and it is certainly not a universal recommendation. It is one person trying to get work done while using a Surface and Galaxy Z Fold 8 instead of his usual Apple setup.

The first problem: getting camera footage onto the Surface

The Surface was meant to be the portable editing station. That sounds straightforward enough until you try to move footage from cameras onto it.

The DJI and Sony cameras use SD cards. The Surface does not have a built-in SD card slot, so getting the footage across means relying on adapters, dongles and the ports that are available.

According to Andrew’s experience, that process was more awkward than expected. The Surface has USB-C ports and Microsoft’s own connection, but that does not necessarily make it a friction-free production machine.

This is the sort of issue that rarely appears in a product photograph. The laptop is sitting there looking perfectly capable. Then you have a camera card in one hand, a computer in the other and a growing collection of small accessories between them.

It is not a crisis. It is just annoying. And production workflows are often defeated by a long line of small annoyances rather than one spectacular failure.

Why the production moved to 1080p

The practical response was to change how the footage was recorded.

Andrew is now shooting the camera footage in 1080p at 24 frames per second, rather than working with larger files. The reason is simple: smaller files are easier to move from the cameras, easier to store and easier for the Surface to handle.

That change also forms part of the video’s little test. The finished video is uploaded at 4K, but the original footage was recorded at 1080p.

Andrew’s own workflow is to edit and export through Canva, then upscale the finished video to 4K. This is presented as a way of making the files more manageable during production while still producing a crisp-looking final upload.

It is not being offered as a magic solution for every creator. It is simply the compromise that currently makes sense for this particular setup.

And that is the important point. A production workflow does not always need to begin with the largest files, the highest setting or the most expensive machine. Sometimes it needs to begin with something that can be moved, edited and exported without the computer becoming a portable radiator.

The speakers are not exactly a selling point

The built-in speakers on both the Surface Pro and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 are another compromise.

Compared with the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro Andrew is used to, they sound thin. That matters when you are checking raw audio, watching footage or trying to make a judgement about the balance of a voiceover.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are a different story for casual listening. Andrew says they sound excellent, with clear mids and good bass.

They also switch automatically between Android and Windows, which is precisely the sort of convenience that makes an ecosystem feel useful. Move between the phone and the computer and the earbuds follow along without making a performance of it.

However, Bluetooth introduces a small delay. For ordinary listening, that is hardly worth mentioning. For frame-accurate voiceover editing, it becomes noticeable.

A fraction of a second is not much when listening to music. It is rather more significant when trying to line up spoken words with a video edit. For final checks, a wired connection is still needed somewhere in the process.

So the earbuds are excellent for listening, but not necessarily the final answer for precise editing.

Keeping the iPhone in the room

The move away from Apple is not quite as complete as it first sounds.

The iPhone 13 mini remains on Andrew’s desk. It is still being used for iMessage, Find My and Apple Tags.

That means the old device is now performing a very specific supporting role. It is not the main phone, but it keeps some Apple services available while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 handles the Android side of the experiment.

Microsoft Phone Link helps on the Windows side. It mirrors the Fold’s texts, calls and photos onto the Surface, bringing much of that phone activity onto the desktop.

This is useful, but it also highlights the difference between replacing a device and replacing an ecosystem. The hardware may be swapped relatively easily. The habits, messages, tracking services and small conveniences are harder to leave behind.

The experiment is therefore not simply “Android versus Apple”. It is more like a temporary negotiation between the two, with the iPhone still sitting there quietly doing jobs that Andrew is not yet ready to give up.

The charger is now part of the kit

The final major issue in this update is battery life.

The ARM-based Surface is described as fast enough for the work, but heavy file transfers and a long Canva rendering session drain the battery more quickly than Andrew remembers from using Apple silicon.

That changes the practical meaning of portability.

A device can be light enough to carry everywhere, but if the charger has to come along for every serious production session, the bag is not quite as free as it looked in the brochure.

Andrew’s conclusion at this point is clear: if the Surface is being used for a full production day, the charger cannot be left behind.

Again, this is not a declaration that the Surface is unusable. It is an observation from day three. The machine can do the work, but the way it does the work involves more attention to file sizes, rendering and power management than Andrew remembers from his Apple setup.

Does secondhand kit change the calculation?

The financial argument in the video is based on Andrew’s claims about prices he saw at Computer Exchange.

He says a B-grade Galaxy Z Fold 8 was available for roughly £1,300, with a stated five-year warranty, and that the laptop was roughly £550.

Those are claims made in the video, not independently verified facts in this article. Availability, condition and terms may change, so they should not be treated as a current buying guide.

The broader point is about whether refurbished or secondhand equipment changes the learning curve. If existing or affordable kit can produce the work, perhaps the question is not whether it matches Apple device-for-device. Perhaps the question is whether it is good enough for the job.

The repeated reference to a “£25,000 Apple tax” is Andrew’s shorthand and reaction to the pricing discussion across the ongoing videos. It is not a verified Apple product price established by this article.

What is being tested is whether a combination of a refurbished or secondhand phone, a Surface and the software already in use can form a sensible production setup without buying everything new.

The MTG verdict: stop waiting for perfect kit

After three days, the answer is neither a triumphant escape from Apple nor a return to the old setup.

The Z Fold 8 and Surface can work together. They can handle the production process. But the compromises are real:

• You may need adapters to move camera footage.
• Smaller 1080p files may make more sense for a lightweight workflow.
• The built-in speakers are not as satisfying as those on the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro.
• Bluetooth earbuds can introduce latency during precise editing.
• An iPhone may remain useful for Apple services.
• Heavy transfers and rendering can drain the Surface battery.
• The charger needs to be part of the production kit.

That is the practical MTG principle here: stop waiting for perfect kit and use what you already have.

Just be honest about what that involves. Ports matter. Audio matters. File handling matters. Battery life matters. The clever setup is not the one with the longest specification sheet. It is the one that lets you finish the work without spending the entire day negotiating with your equipment.

This is only day three of a 30-day experiment. Things may get easier. Or a different compromise may appear next week.

For now, Andrew is asking viewers whether they could tell the video was recorded in 1080p and then upscaled to 4K. He is also asking whether anyone else has used refurbished equipment to avoid paying full retail prices, and whether the trade-off was worth it.

The more useful question, perhaps, is this: do you need perfect kit, or do you need a setup that is good enough to get moving?

if anything I've said today struck a chord with you and you'd like a chat or if you have a particular challenge with energy, power & infrastructure, business generally or you might like to use the studio, drop me an email at andrew@aelhawley.com - if you've watched the video version of this blog you can drop a comment below and, I think I'm supposed to say like and subscribe but I won't. See you on Sunday in the field.. that to be clear, isnt my garden.