The Surface Pro 4 - Replacing My Surface 3

[Andy_Elvis11]

Hey folks!

I'm just wondering if I could grab a little bit of user feedback!

I currently work with a Surface 3 (I use it for work, but it's being taken from me at the end of the month, i'm gutted) - but a Pro 4 has been in the pipeline for a while for me.

I'm by trade a filmmaker -
I was considering using it as a mobile editing machine, however I've got other people and other equipment to do that with, so it's not really an issue. Basically, my usage will be pretty much storyboarding, writing, note-taking - and connecting to other devices to mirror content. I'd like the idea of using After Effects to maybe crack out a few different motion graphic titles, premiere for any miniscule editing (as I say, I have another system for these) - and probably a lot of photoshop. Editing & creating whatever I'm needed to basically, i'm actually starting to get a lot into photography a lot now as I can take cameras out from our studio, so probably a lot of RAW images. At Home i'm likely to connect my SP4 to the new dock with 2 x displays (nothing fancy, just a little more screen real estate). I'm not likely to be away from power - I know there's a few battery / sleep issues at the moment but i'm likely just to wire it in 80% of the time.

I've basically settled for an i5 - I don't think the M3 will cut the photoshop work i'm likely to do. I'm just umming and arring with the amount of RAM to have - 4gb or 8gb. I'll throw in a 128gb SD card to Storage isn't really an issue (everything is on hard - disks or cloud).

Originally I was looking at an i7 16gb, however i've come to my senses and realised that although nice, probably a little bit overkill!

If anyone's in the same boat, or has the same kind of usage, i'd love to be able to hear a little bit more on how it's performed for you.

 

[stephenamick]

Interesting post.

I'm also a filmmaker (I write and direct TV commercials, mainly.) I've been using the SP4 (the i5 8GB first, now the i7 16GB), and I absolutely love it. Oh, and it's my first EVER Windows machine. Seriously. My first computer was an Apple IIe back in 1980-something. I haven't used a PC one day in my life since, until I bought the SP4.

My experiences? Sure, there are a few bugs here and there. But at least none of the bugs I've found are serious enough to be deal-breakers for me. As far as which model to get, I'd say the i5 is probably good enough. I like a bit of overkill with my machines, so the i7 suits me fine.

Last week I fired up Premiere CC to edit a rough cut of a new TV spot for one of our clients. We shot the footage on the Alexa (2K 23.98fps), and I was able to edit the RAW Alexa files at 1/2 res in Premiere. Our DIT created ProResLT transcodes of all the files, and those played back at full resolution. (No effects on either sequence, of course.) So depending on exactly what format you shoot and edit, you should be able to use the SP4 just how you're thinking.

Honestly, this is the first piece of PC hardware that I've held and thought, "Apple should have made this." As someone who's been a Mac disciple for 30 years, I'd say Microsoft is heading in the right direction.

 

[Andy_Elvis11]

Nice to find another filmmaker!

We've literally just got ourselves an Alexa! Had a bit of a cash influx and got ourselves that an a set of ultra primes which is always good (and exciting!) - we've all been RED shooters for a while, really looking forward to shooting with it!

But I digress

My other Machine is actually a MBP-r, i7 quad, 8GB ram (1st gen) - it's pretty beat up, cracked apple logo, faulty GPU, faltering battery life, but it chugs on happy as Larry....and this is the thing, I know that practically that's always going to be the more powerful system and that's where I'll be doing the main bulk of my own editing, and the main bulk of my after effects... It's just do I need all that power just in case on a SP4, or do I opt for a cheaper i5?

My idea is to use it as my main computer - So I guess there'sa factor of longevity there - (but I'm such a tech geek i'll probably end up wanting to get a SP6/7 when they begin to exist) and use it essentially as my pre-production tool. I've been using my Surface 3 for Adobe story, and it's just brilliant chucking that in a bag and having it here or there, rather than lugging around a 15 in laptop.

But if the i7 on the Pro 4 can handle 2k RAW, then that's seriously impressive!

 

[Smithy London]

Morning Andy,
Don't know where in the world you are, but here in London the Surface Pro 3 is offered at big discounts (1/3 off) now.
I hadn't really looked at the surface range since 2013 when Windows RT was hopeless for me.
I purchased a Surface Pro 4 i7 8GB 256 last week and have been so impressed I bought a discounted Pro 3 i5 8GB 256 also as the discounts were good!
The Surface Pro is amazing but not without a few issues. Its a little thinner than the Pro 3 and doesn't feel quite so robust.
The Pro 4 screen is stunning, but they all seem to suffer from light bleed issues at the moment - where as my Pro 3 is perfect
The screen on the 3 is very good, great in fact - the higher resolution on the 4 is stunning.
The Pro 4 runs slightly cooler when pushed, but neither get too hot to hold and generally run cool.
The keyboard and pen from the Pro 4 are backward compatible with the Pro 3 and the Pro 4 pen magnetically clips to the Pro 3 properly!
The Pro 4 is a stunning bit of kit, but it does have a few bugs that will be ironed out with updates going forward.
Mine has crashed a couple of times running videos, where as my Pro 3 has been totally stable.
Depends what you want, but I am tempted to say, buy the Pro 3 at the discounts being offered and get it with the Pro 4 keyboard etc.
The Pro 4 is a stunning machine, but its not a huge upgrade from the Pro 3 which is rock solid!

 

[zkyevolved]

If I could afford or justify the cost of the 8gb model, I would go for it. I think the difference between the i5 and the i7 isn't that beneficial if you aren't going to use it often enough for taxing tasks. If you say that your SP4 is going to be your MAIN machine, I'd say go for the i7, but since it's a secondary one, I think exporting taking a little longer will be OK hehe.