I have a 8 core processor, 16 GB RAM, and 12 TB of storage on my desktop PC. And the Surface Pro machines (Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 4) have replaced it as my primary PC. I stricly use my desktop PC now for video rendering and video games (as well as downloading).
All my work is now on the Surface Pro machines because of the pen and the color accuracy (which is extremely important for what I do) as well as the form factor. That work include Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Photoshop, Camera Raw, Illustrator, Office 2016, Visual Studio, ABBYY Finereader as well as a number of medical applications. I also do Premiere when I have to edit on the go (though I prefer that for the 3-monitor desktop setup with big monitors).
I laughed at a post regarding the Surface Pro 4 "inferior screen technology". Industry pundits almost universally laud the amazing SP4 display. DisplayMate, who's very business is screen calibration and picture quality has rated SP4 one of the best screens out there and rated higher than Apple's best iPad Pro (which is actually rated lower than iPad Air 2):
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Display Technology Shoot-Out
excerpts:
With the latest fourth generation Surface Pro 4, Microsoft has produced another excellent professional grade high performance display for Windows that breaks a number of LCD Tablet performance records. In fact, based on our extensive lab tests and measurements, the Surface Pro 4 has one of the very best and most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS. It joins near the top of a small set of Tablets that have excellent top tier displays – for professionals that need a very accurate and high performance display for their work, and for consumers that want and appreciate a really nice and beautiful display.
The display on the Surface Pro 4 is actually a major upgrade and enhancement to the already excellent display on the Surface Pro 3, with significantly higher screen resolution (2736x1824 to 2160x1440), 24 percent higher Pixels Per Inch (267 to 216 ppi), and 60 percent more total pixels (5.0 to 3.1 million). In addition, every display performance metric has been improved over the already excellent Surface Pro 3, including the display’s Maximum Brightness, Contrast Ratio, Absolute Color Accuracy, Viewing Angle Performance, and with lower screen Reflectance, resulting in much better performance in Ambient Light.
Display Sharpness and Sub-Pixel Rendering
The display’s 2736x1824 pixel resolution has 5.0 Mega Pixels, 2.4 times the number of pixels on an HDTV, but on a 12.3 inch screen. The screen’s 267 pixels per inch (ppi) is Excellent for a full size Tablet, a trifle higher than the 264 ppi for the Apple iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro (so the Surface Pro 4 is what Apple classifies as a Retina Display), but slightly lower than the record high 287 ppi for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 inch Tablet. The larger the screen the further away its typical viewing distance. The Surface Pro 4 pixels are not resolved with normal 20/20 Vision at viewing distances of 13 inches or more, so the display appears perfectly sharp for typical viewing distances of 16 inches or more. In addition, the Surface Pro 4 uses Sub-Pixel Rendering (called ClearType in Microsoft’s implementation) that significantly improves the visual sharpness of text over standard Pixel Rendering that is used in most mobile displays. For black and white and gray images with sub-pixel rendering, there is up to a factor of 3 improvement in image sharpness.
Color Gamut and Absolute Color Accuracy
The Surface Pro 4 has the most accurate on-screen colors of any Tablet display that we have ever measured for the sRGB/Rec.709 Standard that is used for virtually all current consumer content for digital cameras, HDTVs, the internet, and computers, including photos, videos, and movies. The Color Gamut is 102 percent, very close to the Standard Gamut as shown in this Figure. The Average Absolute Color Accuracy over the entire Color Gamut is an Excellent 1.9 JNCD, which is typically visually indistinguishable from perfect. It is the most color accurate display that we have ever measured for a Tablet. The Maximum Color Error of 4.1 JNCD is larger, but it is centered on Blue, which is less visually important as explained in this article. See this Figure for an explanation and visual definition of JNCD and the Color Accuracy Figures showing the measured Color Errors. See the Color Accuracy section, the Color Gamut Figure, and the Color Accuracy Figures for measurements and details.
Producing high Absolute Color Accuracy is incredibly difficult because everything on the display has to be done just right. In addition, Microsoft itself individually calibrates every Surface Pro 4 display on the production line to optimize the Color Gamut and White Point. Color Accuracy is especially important for professional imaging applications when you must be sure of the on-screen image colors, when viewing photos from family and friends (because you often know exactly what they actually should look like), for some TV shows, movies, and sporting events with image content and colors that you are familiar with, and also for viewing online merchandise, so you have a very good idea of exactly what colors you are buying and are less likely to return them.
Display Contrast Ratio
The Display’s Maximum Contrast is the Ratio between its Peak White Brightness (Luminance) and its darkest Black Luminance, one of the more important measures of LCD performance quality. We measured the Black Luminance at 0.31 nits, giving the Surface Pro 4 a True Contrast Ratio of 1406, higher than Microsoft’s own specification of 1300, and among the highest we have ever measured for a mobile LCD display. Note that some manufacturers list a much higher (Dynamic) Contrast Ratio for their LCDs, but that is just meaningless marketing puffery. The Contrast Ratio changes with Viewing Angle, and the Surface Pro 4 has the highest we have ever measured for an LCD Tablet (see below).
Surface Pro 4 Conclusions: An Excellent Top Tier Display…
Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements on the display for the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft has produced an excellent professional grade high performance display for Windows that breaks a number of LCD Tablet performance records. In fact, the Surface Pro 4 has one of the very best and most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS. It joins near the top of a small set of Tablets that have excellent top tier displays – ideal for professionals that need a very accurate high performance display for their work, and for consumers that want and appreciate a really nice and beautiful display.
In addition, what is particularly significant and impressive is that Microsoft has systematically improved every display performance metric over the already excellent Surface Pro 3, including the display’s Maximum Brightness, Contrast Ratio, Absolute Color Accuracy, Viewing Angle Performance, and with lower screen Reflectance, resulting in much better performance in Ambient Light.
The Surface Pro 4 delivers uniformly consistent all around Top Tier display performance: it is only one of a few displays to ever to get all Green (Very Good to Excellent) Ratings in all test and measurement categories (except for Brightness variation with Viewing Angle, which is the case for all LCDs) since we started the Display Technology Shoot-Out article Series in 2006, an impressive achievement for a display. See the Shoot-Out Comparison Table for the detailed test and measurement results.
Most Accurate Colors
The Surface Pro 4 also has the most accurate on-screen colors of any Tablet display that we have ever measured for the sRGB/Rec.709 Standard that is used for virtually all current consumer content for digital cameras, HDTVs, the internet, and computers, including photos, videos, and movies. That is another impressive achievement because everything in the display has to perform just right in order to produce very accurate colors – it is the single most challenging and important performance characteristic for a display. The Average Absolute Color Accuracy for the Surface Pro 4 is an Excellent 1.9 JNCD, which is typically visually indistinguishable from perfect. It is the most color accurate display that we have ever measured for a Tablet. The Maximum Color Error of 4.1 JNCD is larger, but it is centered on Blue, which is less visually important as explained in this article. See the Color Accuracy section and Color Accuracy Figures for measurements and details.
Color Accuracy is especially important for professional imaging applications when you must be sure of the on-screen image colors, when viewing photos from family and friends (because you often know exactly what they actually should look like), for some TV shows, movies, and sporting events with image content and colors that you are familiar with, and also for viewing online merchandise, so you have a very good idea of exactly what colors you are buying and are less likely to return them.
There are many other applications that require or would benefit from much better Absolute Color Accuracy, such as in sales and marketing presentations, and especially in medical imaging, where it can improve diagnostic accuracy for doctors, hospitals and patients. For digital photography, the Surface Pro 4 is an excellent large mobile display that has much better picture quality and color accuracy than the camera's own display, for reviewing your photos as you are taking them or for showing them off.
There's a ton of professional information at this website beyond what I excerpted.
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