Surface Pro 3 and PC Build or Macbook Pro for CS Major

Hello All,

I am a CS Major entering his junior year. I already have an ageing macbook (early 2009 w/SSD) that performs adequately, but I'm definitely feeling its age. I would love to get a Macbook Pro 15-in maxed out and keep that for a couple of years, but the Surface Pro 3's note-taking capabilities are seductive as well as its portability. I used to draw a lot as a kid, and occasionally doodle, and keep telling myself that I would be fine creating assets for any games I make in the future, and the pen would be awesome for that. I have always wanted to build my own PC, but lack of funds has kept me from doing so. My hobbies are video games and audio editing, so any PC Build would not be cheap.

Part of the problem is I love Visual Studio. As much as I would like vim/Eclipse to be my only editor, debugging is quick and painless in VS.

Sorry for the long post but here are my real questions that should help me decide.

1. I'm assuming Hyper-V isn't necessary for Android development, but helps. Did they ever patch that, or do you still have to restart for each mode?

2. What is it like developing on the Surface Pro 3 as far as build time and emulation?

3. How often has OneNote crashed for you? Part of my fear is having it crash when I'm taking notes.

4. What is the real battery life for an i5 256GB with windows 8.1/10? I've seen multiple reports of 2-9 hours.

5. There is apparently an adjustment period for SP3 to download updates and index things, causing the battery life to initially be shorter. Does this give me enough time to return it, if something is actually wrong with the battery life?

6. Is it painful to work in IDE's like Visual Studio and Unity with such a small screen? Like say 5 hours at a time?

7. Can OneNote keep up with a very fast lecture while not looking down when writing? Some of my profs leave very little breathing room for students.