Design, display, Surface Pen and Type Cover
It’s almost as if Microsoft was aware that, if it was so very close to making good on its quest to thwart the laptop with the Surface Pro 3, the firm would surely ace it on the fourth try.
The proof? Almost every change about the Surface Pro 4 seems to subtly improve upon the existing blueprint. It’s iterative design executed nigh flawlessly.
From shaving down the thickness while boosting the screen size within the same dimensions to vastly improving the Type Cover through seemingly minor changes, Microsoft Devices team lead Panos Panay and his team have clearly taken every bit of feedback to heart. And the result is Microsoft’s most refined piece of hardware yet.
Recent developments
Despite designing a downright top-of-the-line tablet, not all has been peachy for Microsoft and its customers lately. For example, as of this writing, device owners are still reporting issues in which the tablet draws too much power while in sleep mode.
Microsoft’s answer? Set them to hibernate when the power button is pressed until a fix comes through after the New Year. (Should be any day now, then?)
A new set of fixes for the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book came through recently (January 30), though none of them addressed these power issues. What the patches do solve are problems with battery charging, 5GHz Wi-Fi stability and speeds and keyboard detection, to name a few.
Kicking off 2016, the company began a free replacement program for AC power cords that had been reported to be a fire hazard. And now, despite its troubles, Microsoft’s Surface devices are the only 2-in-1 tablets seeing strong shipments in a tablet market that’s arguably in a downward spiral.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has made good on another promise, releasing the 1TB versions of its latest Surface devices for a fittingly mighty sum.
Now, let’s discuss Microsoft’s winning kit design already, shall we?
Design and display
Perhaps the most obvious way in which this year’s Surface Pro model is iterative is its looks. The same all-magnesium, unibody casing is still here, though the “Surface” logo has been replaced in favor of Microsoft’s new logo in chrome.
Microsoft managed to up the device’s screen size by a few hairs, from the 2014 model’s straight 12 inches to this year’s 12.3 inches, without affecting its footprint at all. That is, unless you count the Redmond firm shaving over half a millimeter off of its thickness, from 9.1mm to 8.4mm this year – all while maintaining support for full-fat mobile processors.
How did they do it?
For one, Microsoft’s product team decided it was time the capacitive Windows button said goodbye, especially with Windows 10 providing easy access to the Start menu, thus the extra room for that three tenths of an inch.
Secondly, the team managed to bring the display’s optical stack – the series of sensors, diodes and pixels beneath the glass – even closer to the glass this time around, a key point of Microsoft’s trademarked PixelSense screen technology. This helped the firm bring the slate’s thickness down by half a millimeter.
The idea here is to bring the sensor elements of the touchscreen as close to your finger or Surface Pen as possible, and it works awfully well. The display is incredibly responsive to touch, and the further sensitivity it brings to the stylus experience is huge. In tandem with the new Surface Pen, the screen detects 1,024 levels of pressure, even during a single stroke.
Now, let’s talk pixels. Even though it really didn’t have to, Microsoft went and boosted the Surface Pro’s resolution from 2,160 x 1,440 (216 ppi, or pixels per inch) in the old model to 2,736 x 1,824. That makes for a huge 267 ppi put forth by the Surface Pro 4, which blows its main rival, the MacBook Air (128 ppi for the 13-inch), out of the water and narrowly edges out Apple’s new, 12.9-inch iPad Pro at 264 ppi.
But more importantly, the new screen proves to be far more luminous and more color accurate than the Surface Pro 3 display at all brightness levels, as you can clearly see. That’s bound to be a key selling point for creative folks, namely artists and designers that have yet to leave the Wacom tablet and calibrated monitor combo behind.
For the rest of us, it simply means more realistic-looking movies and more vibrant photos and games. However, considering Microsoft kept to its rare 3:2 aspect ratio to best emulate the notepad experience for the stylus users, you’ll see even thicker black bars sandwiching your favorite films in 16:9 – and even more so for those in 21:9, or widescreen format.
It’s a fair concern for folks that watch plenty of movies and TV on a tablet. But fear not, workers, for you’re the very reason Microsoft made this decision. The 3:2 aspect ratio is wider and shorter than 4:3, but taller and slightly more narrow than 16:9, the most common aspect ratio for TV and desktop (and laptop) screens today. The result is a middle ground between the two that is ideal for both photo and design or drafting work, wherein 3:2 is much more common, as well as getting computational work done, given the extra vertical space.
Surface Pen and Type Cover
To best make use of that extra space, Microsoft has given its Surface Pen and Type Cover accessories some serious upgrades. In addition to the aforementioned 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, the new-and-included Surface Pen is redesigned to feel more like a pencil. The stylus now has one flat side, as if a Number 2 pencil had all but two of its angles rounded off.
The reason for this is two fold. For one, this stylus is even more comfortable to hold than the last as a result – your index finger rests just above the main function button on the flat end. Secondly, this surface (no pun intended) is coated with thin, powerful strip magnets that allow it to cling onto the tablet’s left side. The age of stylus loops is over.
The Pen also sports a new, and actually functional, eraser button up top that not only does what it says on the tin, but offers up three unique use cases. In addition to opening OneNote with a single press, the button now takes a screenshot and then opens OneNote with a double press. Finally, a long press summons Cortana to answer to your every whim.
Microsoft seems to have expertly weighted the Surface Pen to make it feel not much heavier than your average clickable pen, despite all of the tech inside. Plus, now that Microsoft offers additional pen tips right out of the box only sweetens the pot.
Coupled with Microsoft’s PixelSense display, the duo makes for the best stylus experience I’ve had on a tablet yet for as little as I’m wont to use it. Now, I’m no artist or designer, but between the superb palm detection and the accuracy and nuance of the Pen tracking, the Surface Pro 4 looks to have Microsoft’s best shot at luring in that crowd yet.
Sorry, artsy folk, but these improvements almost pale in comparison with the Redmond firm’s new-and-still-not-included Type Cover. This time around, Microsoft managed to greatly widen the spacing between the keys for a chiclet-style approach. What this does is make keeping track of which keys your fingers are on by feel much easier, and it allows for each key to be individually backlit.
The new Type Cover is also slightly thicker and far more rigid than before, allowing for deeper key travel and punchier feedback – not to mention a sturdier, quieter surface to type on – that brings it so much closer to the true laptop keyboard. Panay’s team also managed to widen the touchpad and coat it in glass rather than plastic.
These two huge improvements make a world of difference in answering the question of whether Microsoft’s tablet can replace your laptop. The Surface Pro 3’s keyboard cover was excruciatingly close to honestly providing a laptop-level typing experience. Now, the new Type Cover has all but closed that gap.
Kane Fulton also contributed to this review
Specifications and value
With Microsoft so bullish on perfecting its vision of the tablet takeover, you better believe that the firm would stack it up against the inspiration for Ultrabooks, Apple’s MacBook Air, yet again. (Though, Microsoft seems to have dropped the iPad comparison altogether this time around.)
And unsurprisingly, as far as dimensions are concerned, the Surface Pro 4 is indeed more portable than the 13-inch MacBook Air, if only due to its smaller screen. Microsoft’s slate comes in at 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.33 inches (W x D x H), or 292.10 x 201.42 x 8.4mm, meanwhile Apple’s leading laptop measures 11.8 x 7.56 x 0.68 inches (32.5 x 22.7 x 1.7cm). Naturally, the Surface Pro 4’s 1.73 pounds (786g) is far lighter than the 2.96-pound (1.35kg) MacBook Air’s weight on your back.
Now, how about how Microsoft’s latest measures up against one of the best 2-in-1 laptops since, well, the Surface Pro 3? The 13.3-inch HP Spectre x360 measures a way beefier 12.79 x 8.6 x 0.63 inches (32.4 x 21.8 x 1.6cm) and weighs 3.26 pounds (1.47 kg). It’s just one of the cons with hybrids that go into it laptop-first.
Now, let’s see whether Surface Pro 4 can still play ball when it comes to value. Here’s the Surface Pro 4 configuration that Microsoft provided techradar for review:
Spec sheet
- CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-6300U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 3GHz with Turbo Boost)
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR3
- Screen: 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824 PixelSense display (Contrast ratio: 1,300:1, 100% sRGB color, 10-point multi-touch, 3:2 aspect ratio)
- Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe 3.0)
- Ports: 1x USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort, microSD card reader (UHS-I), headphone/mic jack
- Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2 x 2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0 (Low Energy)
- Cameras: 8MP rear-facing, auto-focus camera (1080p HD); 5MP front-facing, 1080p HD camera
- Weight: 1.73 pounds
- Size: 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.36 inches (W x D x H)
What you see here is the slightly-higher-than-mid-range version of the Surface Pro 4, which will set you back a cool $1,299 (£1,079, AU$1,999) – and that’s before picking up a $129 (£109, AU$199) Type Cover. That said, it would be smart to go with either this model or the one just below it, with the same Core i5 and half the RAM and storage, for $999 (£849, AU$1,499).
The entry-level Surface Pro 4 comes housing an Intel Core m3 processor, rather than the undoubtedly snappier, updated Intel Core i3 (it ran Haswell-generation Core i3 last year), and the same amount of storage and memory. Plus, at $899 (£749, AU$1,349), asks for $100 more than the baseline Pro 3 did at launch.
Frankly, it’s not a great value, and – oddly enough – Microsoft hides the option to purchase the Core m3 version outright behind a “Configure Your Device” button on its US web store.
But what about the Apple’s notebook? For the same price as the Surface Pro 4 configuration listed out above, you could get a 13-inch MacBook Air with a dual-core, 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 6000, 128GB of PCIe flash storage and 8GB of RAM.
It’s by no means an apples to apples comparison, of course. The Pro 4 has a 12.3-inch, Retina-rivaling touchscreen, while the MacBook Air has a barely HD, 13.3-inch touch-free screen. Apple’s laptop offers more ports and longer battery life, while Microsoft’s tablet comes with a stylus and rivals most Ultrabooks once its Type Cover is attached. I could go on.
Now, the Spectre x360 makes for an easier comparison, and on paper does seem to stretch your dollar a lot further. For the same price as the Surface Pro 4 unit in question, you could buy HP’s leading Ultrabook complete with a current, dual-core Intel Core i7 chip – not i5 – with Intel HD Graphics 520. This package matches the Surface for RAM and storage, meanwhile tripling its USB ports and claiming to last two hours longer on a charge.
Then again, it’s thicker, it’s heavier and is by no means could or should it be a tablet replacement in the way that the Surface Pro 4 can be a laptop replacement. As it turns out, the Surface Pro line still has so few, if any, worthy direct comparisons.
So, is the Surface Pro 4 worthy of opening your wallet? That’s a more difficult question to answer, because – from the new keyboard cover to the stylus improvements – everything that you can’t quantify about the device is exactly what makes it so worthwhile.
Performance and battery life
Focused a bit more on being a laptop-lapsing, portable productivity device than even before, it’s a bit easier this time around to compare the Surface Pro 4’s performance with some key rivals.
Since receiving a replacement review unit from Microsoft that I’m told is free of the battery issues that marred the first, the below numbers are closer to what you should experience with your own Surface Pro 4.
Benchmarks
- 3DMark: Cloud Gate: 5,873; Sky Diver: 3,673; Fire Strike: 856
- Cinebench CPU: 305 points; Graphics: 37 fps
- Geekbench 3 Single Core: 3,135; Multi-Core: 6,649
- PCMark 8 Home: 2,406
- PCMark 8 Battery Life: 3 hours, 15 minutes
Every performance score here, save for PCMark 8 Home, shows a minor increase from the first unit I tested. It’s a good sign that the Surface Pro 4 was already operating at its peak, and that only the battery needed fixing.
The Surface Pro 4 has bested the HP Spectre x360 in almost every test by roughly 25%, save for losing by a hair to the device in the PCMark 8 Home test. As for the 13-inch MacBook Air, its multi-core Geekbench 3 (which tests CPUs primarily) score of 5,768 is plenty short of what the Surface achieved.
But ultimately, don’t expect to see a major difference between how any of these three machines perform day to day, save for the MacBook Air that will last much longer on a charge. If anything, you might get slightly better frame rates out of games played on the Surface Pro 4 than on the Spectre x360.
For instance, the Pro 4 runs Hearthstone (my go-to tablet testing game) without a hitch on its highest settings, even at an automatically-applied, adapted resolution. Plus, the color-calibrated display makes every element on the game’s interactive game boards that much more distracting.
Battery life
Now tested on pre-production hardware that I’m promised has been scrubbed of its battery woes, the Surface Pro 4 produced far better battery life results than before. Unfortunately, they’re still well below not only Microsoft’s own claims, but what choice rivals are able to put up.
While arguably the most harsh battery test in our lineup, PCMark 8 Home Battery saw the Pro 4 last 3 hours and 15 minutes, a marked 50% increase from before. Still, the Spectre x360 held out in that test for 4 hours and 38 minutes.
Microsoft’s tablet fared much better on our video playback loop test, with a result of 5 hours and 15 minutes. That’s just shy of 45 minutes longer than the initial result, and enough to last you on a coast-to-coast US flight. (Both tests were conducted at 50% brightness and with all lighting and radios off save for Wi-Fi.)
In a somewhat similar test, the MacBook Air was able to stream 1080p video over Wi-Fi for a whopping 13 hours and 24 minutes. Though, that’s thanks in large part to a far lower-resolution display and likely a larger battery.
Regardless, Microsoft promises up to 9 hours of video playback on a single charge, and these numbers simply aren’t close to that. Sure, these figures are far better than last year’s Surface Pro 3, despite the serious screen resolution bump, which should not be overlooked. But they still can’t hold a candle to neither Apple’s leading laptop nor its top tablet – much less comparable Windows-running hybrids.
Longevity, or lack thereof, then is about the only thing about the Surface Pro 4 that’s holding it back from truly, honestly replacing your laptop – or at least your MacBook Air specifically. Otherwise, the machine offers somewhat below-average lasting power.
Bundled software
Being a Microsoft-built and sold device, the Surface Pro 4 doesn’t come with any shady third-party software. Every Surface unit from here likely until the end of time will come packing OneNote, Microsoft’s new-and-improved note taking app for use with the included Surface Pen.
Other than that, this review unit came with room made available for Flipboard and the New York Times Crossword puzzle app. You could delete those as soon as you boot up the Surface Pro 4 for the first time, or you could give them a try.
Repairabilty
When you splash out a big wad of cash on a device like the Surface Pro 4, it’s only natural to want to know if it can be busted open and repaired, should the need arise. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s tablet isn’t very repair-friendly, earning a lowly 2 out of 10 from iFixit.
The website pointed to difficulties removing the Surface Pro 4’s display and battery, which are both held down with “very strong adhesive”, making removal not only difficult, but downright hazardous. On the plus side, iFixit found that its SSD was easy to remove and replace.
Verdict
Iterative isn’t generally a word you exclaim or say with pride when discussing the latest entry in a series of video games, movies or especially tech products. But smart iteration is exactly what the Surface Pro 4 needed to finally make good on Microsoft’s mission that tablets can be laptops, too, and the firm delivered just that in spades.
We liked
What immediately comes to mind when thinking of the Surface Pro 4’s, well, pros, is the vastly improved Type Cover. Using the Surface Pro 3’s Type Cover and moving onto the new hotness truly is like night and day, not to mention seeing them side by side. Largely through the improved Type Cover, the Surface Pro 4 can finally offer a nigh laptop-grade typing experience.
The improved resolution and new optical stack technology, PixelSense, coupled with 100% sRGB color, makes for one of the best displays I’ve ever seen or touched on a tablet. It might not be the best for movies, but for those looking to get things done, this screen is cream of the crop.
We disliked
The fact that the Type Cover is still sold separately, not even as part of a bundle, sure makes the whole “tablet that can replace your laptop” spiel a harder pill to swallow. Sure, Microsoft likely will make a killing on individual retail sales from the diehard fans, but what about the average Best Buy shopper seeing this and left confused when they realize the “laptop” portion of the offering requires an extra 100 or so bucks.
Speaking of which, the Surface Pro 4 comes in asking for more and offering less in its entry-level model than last year, which will be tough to overlook for the budget conscious. The power gap between the Core m3 chip and the Core i5 is wide enough that I’d recommend you not bother with the former. Furthermore, even after testing an updated unit, the Pro 4 battery life leaves a bit to be desired – despite improving upon the previous model.
Final verdict
So, has Microsoft finally done it? That depends on how considerable of a compromise you consider “somewhat below average” battery life. If that’s about the only thing that Redmond’s mission rides on, with the typing, tracking and penning experience vastly improved, then I’d consider the fourth go at it so narrow of a miss that you might be able to pass it for everything it does so well.
Even more so than the version before it, I could easily see the Surface Pro 4 becoming my daily driver, not to mention my comic book reader and Hearthstone and mobile movie machine (I’ll deal with the black bars). And that’s despite the arguably middling battery life, considering the screen resolution bump. If it can last for a whole cross-country flight, then that’s enough for me.
Microsoft seems to have captured and applied the best definition of ‘iteration’ to almost every end of the Surface Pro 4, making it well worth the wait for creative professionals, students and everyday folks alike. Is this finally the tablet to replace your laptop? That’s still debatable, though the Pro 4 has surmounted more of what’s running against it than ever before.
Top Brands
I have used it for one week. there are serious issues that need to be looked into. It hung twice, when I cold not even power it off or start it. After investing so much of money, it is a disappointment. Paying extra for a key bird is another negative factor. MS knows that you can not manage without a keyboard, as 30% of the screen is hidden with the existing keyboard, that's why they are selling it seperately
was this battery life test used with Windows Hello turned on or off?
We are buying Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 as meeting room control devices at work AND we are buying them without Type Covers. No, they should not be included. In fact, don't include the Pens either.
In the last one week, I have used it sparingly and it hung twice. It would not shout down and a loud buzzing sound was coming out of it. I am disappointed. Buying a keyboard which is sold separately is another is another negative factor. The present onscreen keyboard takes away 30% of the viewing area. MS knows that eventually you would have to buy a keyboard, so extra revenue for them
ok its a million times better than the ipad pro but atleast the ipad pro is more powerful than the rest of the ipads they have released in the past "apple's statement" to why you should buy the ipad pro
Microsoft customer service is horrible. Only worse experience you could experience is with Intuit. Next to Intuit, Microsoft looks like a champion, but that is only because Intuit is the most poorly run company on the planet by a landslide. Intuit is #1 on my list of most poorly run Fortune 500 companies. Microsoft #2. All airlines occupy my 3-10 spots on my top 10 list.
I've got an Apple for a head! And My hands are made of iPad Pros that you couldn't have bought!
I've got the "hub" for SP4 and as others have commented (see Microsoft's store comments or Amazon comments) it's buggy as heck.
To wit, on a 2nd monitor at 2560×1080 (miniDP to DP cable) Outlook, Word, and Excel scale, fine. But Powerpoint's ribbon is like 200% bigger not matter what I do.
Not sure if this is SP4, Windows 10, Office, or hub issue but there it is.
I get your point, and agree with it, but I think the idea is that the price of the SP4 whould already include the keyboard, at its current price. Which would be nice, but it's not going to happen.
Need to work with Adobe and Corel graphic apps for work but thanks =)
I think it's really a big iPod since it's not for making calls. People are essentially paying over $1000 for a biig iPod. Yikes.
You could always install a Linux distro on it…(I think, not actually checked that). Good luck with battery life though.
WORST PRODUCT EVER!!!!!! Run far, far away from this product! If you own it – return it!
I had a Surface Pro 3 for less than a year and it was malfunctioning and the Microsoft store couldn't fix it. Long story short they switched me into a Surface Pro 4 (I had to pay difference which I wasn't happy about because it was a huge inconvenience). I had the Pro 4 for not even two weeks when I started having problems with the screen freezing and going black when I was using the internet – not a bunch of pages, just checking emails. I had two lengthy phone calls in to their tech support. The first one because of the screen freezing and going black – which the tech couldn't resolve and didn't give me any sort of acceptable resolution. The second call was to try to deal with a now laptop not turning on but the keyboard being backlit like it was trying to turn on. It was sort of fixed but within a few days the laptop just wouldn't turn on any more at all. And I mean nothing, totally dead (and yes, the battery was charged). Took it to the Microsoft store and I was not surprised to see the large number of consumers all standing around waiting for tech support because everyone was having problems with their Surface Pro 4's. The guys beside me had even gone from a Pro 4 to a Surface Book and was in getting that replaced with a different Surface Book because it was also malfunctioning.
The icing on the cake was having to call back to the Microsoft store two days after I dropped the computer off because they couldn't seem to be bothered to call me to be told that they couldn't extract my files from the Pro 4. No doubt in my mind they didn't care and probably didn't really try. There are no words for how completely disgusted I am with the horrible product quality and terrible service – they don't even care that they just lost all my files. Literally everything is gone and I used my laptop daily for business and personal.
Anyone know if they solved the emi/shielding issue that is apparent on the Surface Pro 3, whereby the cursor disappears or behaves erratically. Solved by holding the kick stand, removing the charger or changing the location/surface that the Pro 3 is resting on.
Particularly annoying problem that many Surface Pro 3 users have witnessed/dealt with and posted to the MS Community forum. Bit of a pain/not sure how it can be addressed in the Pro 3 beyond the work arounds above. Just wondered if anyone has seen this in the Pro 4 or if MS came up with a fix in the design.
4k resolution on a device this small is massive overkill IMO, especially on a phone. I wouldn't want to pay extra for it on a 12 inch screen, much less on a 5" screen. Not to mention you slow down a device by making the resolution so much higher and it kills the battery life as well.
Microsoft customer service department is either very disorganised or liars. They are helpful only in making the sale, from that point on they don't care.
I ordered the wrong colour type cover by accident. I immediately got in contact with them and asked them to change it(within 10 mins). They said they couldn't change so they cancelled the order and made me a new order with the correct colour. Only this time they charged me the wrong price. They said they made a mistake and cancelled both orders and told me to order again.
When I try ordering again, the site tells me I can't order any more because I have reached some sort of limit. After calling them on the phone they tell me they will get in contact with me the next day. I don't hear from them. Two days later I find out that I have been charged for both type covers.
Ordering the surface pro 4, similar problem. There was an issue with my bank and so the order didn't go through initially(this is not Microsoft's fault, this is my bank being cautious). I call my bank, fix the problem and then call up Microsoft again to make sure everything is okay from their end. They say "don't worry, you don't have to do anything, it all gets done automatically." I call up Microsoft again two days later and the order still hasn't gone through.
Apparently there were some extra steps I needed to carry out, delaying the process further.
If the people on the customer service don't know the answer they need to learn to say "they don't know", at which point I attempt to find the answer else where. Instead they tell you a bunch of babble and misdirect you.
While they products themselves maybe good (I don't know yet, they still haven't sorted anything out), the customer service team is terrible, especially the online chat team. The online team need to go through some sort of course first to learn how to their job already.
You do realise this is NOT a phone?
I've had a Surface pro 4, i7, 16GB, 512SSD for a few weeks now and am wondering if I've just wasted over AU$4,000 in buying it. As far as I am concerned it is close to unusable in the real world. The fan never stops running because the unit runs almost too hot to hold comfortably most of the time. I have the latest updates but CPU usage is almost always above 60% and often 90-100%. Because of the constant fan whine I cannot use a number of important apps that use recording because the fan whine masks the recording. These apps include Voice Recorder, Dragon Naturally Speaking, voice into OneNote, Cortana (I have to yell at it to hear!), video/sound recording, Skype conferencing, listening to music or watching video.Forget fancy specs and concerns about type covers – this fails on basic practical usability.
The design of the Surface Pro 4 is expensive, you can't expect them to just hand you freebies. What you get with the base Surface Pro is expensive, because you're probably getting an identical motherboard, screen, and casing,etc.. it's not cheap. Their real margin is what they charge you between the devices IMO. Like going from the m3 to an i7, adding an additional 128gb of SSD, and 4Gb of RAM shouldn't come at a cost of an additional $700. 8gb of RAM to 16gm of RAM is $200 more? That's a lot of money for an 8gb RAM upgrade. 16gb of RAM can run you as low as $50 on a laptop. Either way, like others have said, if you already have a previous type cover, why would you want to buy one? I think a lot of people are underestimating how good the type cover really is, no way Microsoft can see this as something they wouldn't be upping their price on if they included it. It would get annoying to pay an additional $100+ everytime you got Surface if you already had a type cover and you're happy with it.
How is the fan noise? Was it ever too loud? Did you ever think wtf? What about this popping noise? Did you experience this problem?
Not sure how a 1200+ device that it's sole exclusive purpose is portability gets about 3.5-4 hours of real life use on top of numerous other bugs and somehow manages to receives such high review scores. I'm beyond frustrated after spending this much money and getting average 3.5 hours of use out of it.
This review is disingenuous and downright misleading to people who are potentially looking to buy Surface Pro 4.
The only thing I'm thankful for is a 3 month return policy at Costco.
I ordered the Surface Pro 4 with i7 & 16 gigs of ram. Sending it back after 3 weeks. What a p.o.s. this turd is. Crashes several times a day. No docking station, like they had for the Surface Pro 2. Processor is chasing it's own tail, constantly getting hot, causing the fan to kick in, machine starts hissing. Playing solitaire in airplane mode, battery is dead from full charge in under 2 hours. Only one USB port but I need two. Alt&tab causing me to hit tab twice sometimes but other times only once. Microsoft doesn't deserve my money. I have decided to continue running my business on the Surface Pro 2, which is good enough for that. For video processing, I intend to go buy an Apple machine and start the OS learning curve over completely. Microsoft: you guys are a bunch of idiots.
how are you finding it?
Disappointing that neither the Surface Pro and iPad Pro offer 4k recording like mobile phones, especially when a larger screen would make composing shots easier.
Nor does the Surface Pro have GPS – what's that about when location services and mapping are also standard features on phones?
I like the new smart-pens, and would buy either product if they included 4K and GPS.
Do tell, what has actually changed in this review? Your section on battery life still mentions the preproduction unit. I'm sure I've seen an "updated version" of this review previously.
When you update reviews it would be really good if you could put the updated parts in another colour or italics or something to give us some sort of confidence that you have actually updated it rather than rolled it out again to get more adverts in front of us.
Does this review have the improvements that the November windows 10 update provided? Being updated in December one might hope so.