The next Surface 4 (2016) - early rumors and thoughts!

Haden Blau

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In what way does the Surface 3 underperforms?


The main performance difference I notice with the Surface 3 with Windows 10 is battery life. While I'd say on 8.1 it lived up to their "all day" battery life claim. It no longer lasts through the day. No big deal since I much prefer Windows 10, but on the Surface 4 that's the main thing I want improved. Battery life and charge time.
 

jack69453

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It will use emmc again unfortunately; however the sequential read speed goes from 140MBps to 250MBps, and the write goes from 50MBps to 90MBps with emmc 5.0. So we will see a nice boost in storage speed. Would be nice if it had a M.2 SATA port, but I don't believe the intel chipset supports that. In either case this will be cheaper.
 
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Steve Adams

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I started using mine at 6:15 am, its now 5:15 pm and I have 56% battery life and 4hr and 46min on the time remaining. That's pretty well ALL DAY battery. Its awesome. I am sure they will stuff a bigger battery in the surface 4.
 

kelton

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I'm surprised no one is discussing RAM. Good grief, computers with fixed RAM should be 8gb or more. That stuff is cheap these days. (at least offer the option)
 

WillysJeepMan

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I hope that Microsoft decides to revert back to a proprietary port for charging rather than use USB. That would be a step in getting me interesting in upgrading from my Surface 2.
 

WillysJeepMan

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Now I'm the opposite. I like the fact that I can use portable chargers for long trips where I can't easily on my Surface 2
Fair enough. I bought a Surface Pro charger for my Surface 2 that I take with me when traveling... not only does it charge faster than the USB charging on the Surface 3 but since it has an additional USB port on the block, I can simultaneously charge my Surface *and* my smartphone. I only take one charger with me. :grin:
 

GizmoEV

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I hope that Microsoft decides to revert back to a proprietary port for charging rather than use USB. That would be a step in getting me interesting in upgrading from my Surface 2.
I do miss the 80% charge in 60 min of the Lumia 2520. For the Surface 3 I wish they would have put in a USB-C rather than the micro-USB port. Maybe even allowed higher voltage charging to speed things up.
 

cygnus11

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magnetic charging is a must. I am so scared of the surface 3 micro usb charger.

I agree. Charging using that USB port is making me nervous. I had a phone whose charging port got so loose over time that it was literally impossible to charge it. I hope that doesn't happen to the Surface 3. Wireless charging would also be a nice option. I have that on my Galaxy Note 5 and it is really convenient.
 

prlundberg

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Yeah, I accidentally put the charger in the display port a couple weeks ago and bent a pin, so I'm guessing my display port won't work anymore (I have never used it). It's a poor design for several reasons.

Ideally, I'd prefer a standardized magnetic connector with USB on the other end.
 

bmbvideo

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Here's what I'd like to see for the Surface 4.

First off, based on the changes to the SP4, I think we will see a slightly larger screen and smaller bezels (probably moving from 10.8 to 11 inches, if I had to guess), and an upgraded typecover 4 with better keys and trackpad. I LOVE the SP4's typecover.

The things I'd like to see are...
  • a move to USB type-C - one for charging, and a second that can be used to attach a hub for more ports. This would allow it to be...
  • Thinner and lighter. I'd love it if they could hit a weight of only 1lb with this generation. But this doesn't come at the cost of...
  • Battery life. Keep it the same as it is today, or better yet, improve upon it.
  • I'd also like to see it move from Intel Atom to an Intel Core M chip, and move from eMMC storage to an SSD.
  • Speaking of storage, it'd be cool to see the base model have 4GB ram, and for there to be an option to have the storage go up to 265GB SSD.
  • And finally, give it a multi-position kick stand like the SP3 and SP4.

All that while keeping the same price tag, and I'd be sold.
 

dstrauss

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I hope that Microsoft decides to revert back to a proprietary port for charging rather than use USB. That would be a step in getting me interesting in upgrading from my Surface 2.

Now I'm the opposite. I like the fact that I can use portable chargers for long trips where I can't easily on my Surface 2

USB-3 Type C; both your prayers will be answered...
 

Steve Adams

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A smaller bezel would not work very well for handling. You would always be hitting stuff on the screen. I think the bezel and size are fine. If you want bigger screen...Go for the pro. the only thing I would really want is a mag charger. Everything else is perfect right now. I find the kickstand positions are fine.
 

3earnhardt3

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Have there been any new Atom releases lately? I doubt we will see a new Surface until there is a significant reason to do so. I would rather them continue to sell the S3 at a discount while they focus on the Surface Phone.
 

Steve Adams

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That's probably whats happening. There is really no reason to upgrade it anyways yet. People really need to cool their jets with the new device every 6 months thing. The S3 is an awesome piece of tech that kills all the ipad/android offerings now. Even with our lowly little s3. There is so much more you can do with an S3 than a computer/tablet/etc.
 

Imaculum

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My dream spec for the Surface 4 would be:

Core-M processor - ditch the Atom completely or keep it in the base model and higher models use Core-M. The Skylake Core-M CPUs seem to be very impressive.
2x USB-C ports
1x USB 3 port
Full size SD card slot
Improved keyboard and larger trackpad with better feel (much like the improvements that were made to the Surface Pro 4 keyboard/trackpad compared to the Pro 3's).
Magnetic stylus (so it sticks to the side of the screen)
Reduced screen bezel and increased display resolution. Keep the form factor of the device the same size.
Any reduction in weight but battery life maintained or increased is always welcome :)
Windows Hello looks cool but I haven't been able to try it on a computer yet.
Ditch the 2Gb ram option. 4Gb minimum even on base model.
8Gb ram option, along with storage capacity going up to 256/512Gb.

Basically, Microsoft can you please apply the same improvements you did for the Pro devices, add an extra USB port or two and have a Core-M, 8Gb ram, 256Gb storage configuration. That spec with the stylus would be lovely for editing images on the go. I really like Windows 10 and combined with the above spec it would be my portable computer heaven ;)
 

Smithy London

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I bought a Surface pro 4 a couple of weeks ago and have been seriously impressed by how "slick" the device has been. I bought the i7 256gb 8gb version and coming from a Macbook Pro 13 have been delighted with it. I believe for the earlier adopters there were some glitches, but I have had none on that device. In fact I have been so impressed, I went out and bought the i5 Surface Pro 3 and the 4gb 128gb Surface 3. Both the Surface and the Pro 3 are being heavily discounted here in London over the Xmas period (i5 Pro 3 with 33% off and surface with 18% off) and all models are preinstalled with Windows 10.
The Pro models are super slick and very fast. I bought the Surface 3 for personal travelling and holidays. I am a tech guy and the idea of having a full on PC in a tablet the size of an iPad 4 is VERY appealing indeed. Unlike the pro versions, I didn't bother with the keyboard and will only use it as a touch screen. I bought the 128gb version and added a fast 128gb SD card. Yes compared to the Pros, its not slick or super fast... but it boots up quickly and is great to use. I have done some light video and photo editing and it didn't feel slow at all. It plays Grand Theft Auto from the Windows store flawlessly and it also runs my Android emulator and games without a hitch.
The Surface is really aimed at students who want a great device on a budget and who don't need high processing power. It was launched only 8months ago and you don't think they fully tested it with Windows 10?
This device for me, is neither slow or very fast... its totally adequate for 95% of everything I do, in an awesome package size! I appreciate the fanless system and the USB charging.
If it had a intel core M processor in it... I am sure I would love it a little more.... but also it would have been way more expensive!

I have only seen a couple of minor issues with mine... Once when I charged it overnight with it switched off, it failed to charge... I have since installed the full surface 3 driver pack and not seen an issue there since. Secondly, very occasionally on boot up the touch screen keyboard service fails to run and I needed to reboot.

No other issues, oh and I get around 7 hours battery life too!
 

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