Picked up a few things

[jrb363]

My Gen 1 Surface Pro just arrived today and I'm pretty excited to check it out! The screen is flawless, it's one owner and I got it shipped for $215. Not bad since it's the Intel i5 with 128GB SSD and 4GB Ram.

Since it's a bit older I picked this up to help out with battery life:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-5VX...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3454198

So for $275 I got a Gen 1 Surface Pro with great specs and an extended battery/cover/keyboard combo. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Really looking forward to checking out Windows 10 and seeing how well it translates to a touchscreen. I'm loving my 640 (secondary phone at the moment) and it inspired me to check out the Surface line.

 

[RohanRonQM]

The Power Keyboard will not work with the Surface Pro 4!

Posted via Universal Windows App on W10

 

[onlysublime]

You have pretty much the best possible machine for $275 in terms of features and specs. Too bad it wasn't the Surface Pro 2 which was a significant improvement (additional kickstand position, cooler running CPU that is lighter on the battery, etc.).

The power keyboard will help but the original Surface Pro will be pretty much chained to a wall outlet. The problem with the power keyboard is it's somewhat old so even if you bought it new, the battery is old because batteries age as soon as they leave the factory. And as batteries age, they hold less charge. I have the power keyboard with my Surface Pro 2 and it helps but it drains fairly quickly. Actually, the biggest advantage of the power keyboard is that it's extremely stiff and easy to type on.

The same age issue applies to the original Surface Pro as the internal battery is pretty old at this point.

Windows 10 works great as a touch OS. In some ways better than Windows 8.1, in some ways it's worse.

Edge works wonderfully as a touch browser (and it will be better once it has the swipe forward and backward of the Modern IE browser that was in 8.1). However, be warned that Edge kills the battery and runs the CPU hard. And some sites run sluggish in Edge (include Windows Central's forums). Once Edge reduces its CPU usage and gets its extensions support finished, it'll be a great browser. But right now, Edge is not the browser to use when you are solely on battery power.

 

[jrb363]

So, I may have gone a little crazy...

I enjoyed the Surface so much, and Windows 10 Pro, that I decided to jump in during the phone sale Microsoft had a few weeks ago. However, since I didn't need two phones I went the NIB resell route and got a brand new Lumia 950XL (with 2 free cases and an extra screen protector) for $380 shipped! I'm loving this phone!!! It's fast, powerful, has by far the best camera I've ever seen on a mobile phone and Windows 10 Mobile has been really impressive so far! (was running 8.1 Denim on my Lumia 640)

So, I've completely joined the MIcrosoft family for $655...or about $50 less than the 950XL would have cost me on its own.

 

[jrb363]

You have pretty much the best possible machine for $275 in terms of features and specs. Too bad it wasn't the Surface Pro 2 which was a significant improvement (additional kickstand position, cooler running CPU that is lighter on the battery, etc.).

The power keyboard will help but the original Surface Pro will be pretty much chained to a wall outlet. The problem with the power keyboard is it's somewhat old so even if you bought it new, the battery is old because batteries age as soon as they leave the factory. And as batteries age, they hold less charge. I have the power keyboard with my Surface Pro 2 and it helps but it drains fairly quickly. Actually, the biggest advantage of the power keyboard is that it's extremely stiff and easy to type on.

The same age issue applies to the original Surface Pro as the internal battery is pretty old at this point.

Windows 10 works great as a touch OS. In some ways better than Windows 8.1, in some ways it's worse.

Edge works wonderfully as a touch browser (and it will be better once it has the swipe forward and backward of the Modern IE browser that was in 8.1). However, be warned that Edge kills the battery and runs the CPU hard. And some sites run sluggish in Edge (include Windows Central's forums). Once Edge reduces its CPU usage and gets its extensions support finished, it'll be a great browser. But right now, Edge is not the browser to use when you are solely on battery power.

I have noticed that the battery life isn't stellar in the Surface on it's own however, with the Power Cover attached, I can get around 7-8 hours doing some pretty heavy web browsing and if I'm gaming (older titles of course) I can get between 4-5 hours with the back-light turned down. All-in-all I'm really impressed with the performance, especially considering the price I paid.

 

[onlysublime]

I still love my Surface Pro 2 (i5, 8 GB, 512GB) even though my main machine is now the Surface Pro 4 (i7, 8 GB, 256GB).

7-8 hours is pretty impressive. I like running full brightness which I know is a big battery killer, but the display is just so beautiful. I use both my Surface Pro machines hard (mostly Adobe software like Acrobat, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop) so there's no way I could get that amount of time on battery.

Enjoy! Also, there is a dedicated Surface Pro subforum as well as Surface Pro 2 subforum. Both of which have people that could better serve you than SP3 or SP4 users. The hardware is different that SP3/SP4 user advice may not apply to you. For example, SP and SP2 have Wacom pens which don't need pairing and don't need batteries while SP3/SP4 have N-Trig which is Bluetooth-based and needs a battery.