[Real Users] My Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Review

[RumoredNow]

Who has a Surface Pro 4?

Are you happy you got it? Why? Why not?

What's the good, the bad and the ugly? How long have you had it and what do you think?

Put your User Review here to help others. The more detail the better, we really appreciate hearing how it performs in the field.

Looking forward to seeing this thread fill up with SP4 goodness!!!

 

[i-am-andrew]

In short, the SP4 is a great device, beautiful screen, excellent pen implementation and it's obviously very mobile and powerful.

However it has some big problems which prevent me from recommending it:
- Battery life is terrible, generally 5 hours tops for any real-world use even with very dim screen brightness
- CPU management not brilliant so expect the fan to come on sometimes but post Windows 10 Anniversary Update expect it to come on even more (I have an i5)
- Also post Anniversary Update, my SP4 has a distracting noise from the CPU

Ultimately I don't think it's value for money and I would wait for the next version (though don't hold your breath that any of these problems will be resolved) or look at a different device. My wife's Surface 3 is brilliant for battery life, easily get 8 hours+ with the screen even brighter than my SP4, no fan, no heat, generally just more reliable. Only problem is, it's noticeably slower even for web browsing!

 

[decider]

IMO, I get very good battery life. I can get at least 7 hours or more

 

[kristalsoldier]

I just bought my SP4 (its been just about a week if not a day or two shy). Yes, I know it is rather late in the day, but you really have to blame MS for this. I bought the SP3 when it was first released in the US and Canada. Bought mine from Toronto on release day! And, it has worked perfectly for me - till now that is. Over the last few weeks I noticed a yellow band forming on the left edge of the screen and it was spreading quite disconcertingly quickly. So, where I was trying to defer buying a new Surface Pro till the 5th edition, I just could not take the chance and so bought an i5/ 8GB/ 256 GB. Spec-wise this is an improvement from my SP3 (i5/4GB/128GB). The thing is I had already bought the Type Cover 4 and the Surface Pen and Dock and was using it with my SP3.

Deciding to buy was a bit difficult but only because I have been reading the reviews and the multitude of problems that have apparently plagued the SP4 and the SB since their release. But I think buying the SP4 with the imminent release of the AU was a relatively good call + that firmware!!!

So, I brought back the SP4 and proceeded to set things up. Right at the start two things caught my attention. Naturally, the screen, which is gorgeous!!! And second, is the absence of that Windows button on the bezel. Good start!

The machine came with TH2 installed which proceeded to update itself. Some of the updates failed so I reenrolled back into the Insiders' Program and joined the Release Preview ring and updated which went off well. All other updates and set up went well.

But I noticed two things - the first was the battery meter (task bar) was not showing the charge rates. On the advice of a forum friend, I uninstalled and reinstalled the relevant driver and now things are working ok. The other thing was the mSD card. I had put in a 64GB card (now replaced with a 128GB card). It shows up all right but unlike in the SP3, F: shows up under the C: tree rather than as an independent drive (which is how the external drives connected through the Dock show up). I was a bit confused by this initially and instead of asking around I needlessly reset the device again. And then I was told that that is how it appears in the SP4 which is indeed a change from the SP3.

As for the device. It is brilliant. This means that MS has worked to bring the device into its own particularly with that firmware update. It is noticeably quicker than the SP3 - at least to me. I have a lot more headroom where RAM is concerned and when combined with Onedrive, I am now not looking over my shoulder where storage is concerned. I have been taking the SP4 out regularly to see how it performs on battery and I have to say that contra the original reports, my experience has been very good, that is to say closely comparable to the SP3. In effect, I notice that I get about 8-8.5 hours of battery life. During this time, I am connected to a mobile hotspot (my phone) and I usually have Edge, Xodo (with at least 2 or 3 large PDFs open), Mail, Calendar, Telegram, and at least two word documents open.

Cortana seems to be performing well by showing me missed calls and incoming messages on the machine.

The SP4 has only gotten warm and I have heard the fans coming on just a few times and everytime it was when the machine was updating and installing things. Other than that, the SP4 has been cool as a cucumber (which is not what the SP3 was under similar loads).

All in all, I am enjoying the SP4. In my experience, it is a tight little machine with immense potential which I fully intend to exploit. In short, as of now, I am happy with the SP4.

Updating:....

 

[Breuklen]

I'm skeptical of battery life after a couple enthusiasts complained about earlier versions. And fan noise would drive me crazy. So, probably a pass.

 

[fury2g]

Thanks!

 

[badelhas]

Thanks for all your opinion, guys. In your opinion, is the i5 CPU version much better than the cheaper m3 version?

Cheers

 

[RUGGLES99]

I have the M3 and it is pretty fantastic, and I'm a Mac guy with a 2015 MBP and a 2015 rMB. I seem to be using the SP4 M3 more and enjoy it more. I think all those whining about issues probably need more experience and updating, or are just trolling..

 

[rtwright68]

Picked up the M3/4GB/128GB SP4 at Best Buy in December for $699 (including the signature keyboard cover). Had to buy a pen, which happened to be on sale also.

So far, I am very happy with it. I have a game laptop that I use for that purpose and for video editing. I use the SP4 every night while sitting on my recliner, no need to fire up the monster laptop to do general tasks:

1) Web browsing (mostly Chrome, trying like heck to use Edge)
2) Office 2016 apps (Outlook with two email accounts, Excel, Word, PowerPoint
3) Microsoft's Remote Desktop Preview app (which handles the DPI scaling) to connect to work servers

Love the size, the lack of moving parts, and the very light weight. Was not too sure about the "lapability" or the keyboard cover, but I have had ZERO issues using it wherever I roam.

Battery life is acceptable. I use it plugged in more than I don't at this point. Planning on using this as my main travel device instead of my work laptop, since I mainly connected to a remote desktop server for most of my work activities.

 

[sansome991]

i got 4-5 hours only. office use, i5, cable connected for internet. it is sad.

 

[dc9super80]

After using Macs for years, but currently frustrated with Apple, I vented my anger at Best Buy by getting a i7, 256GB, SP4 a few months ago. Love it. Without going into details, this the perfect device for me as a teacher. I will probably get the new one, whenever it comes, especially if I get more battery life with similar performance. It took me a few weeks to get into it, I think it was more of getting used to Windows and not so much the device but I don't regret my decision and, this form factor, not the SurfaceBook, or anything else, this Surface Pro is what i have been looking for (mostly a powerful laptop, but a pretty good tablet when I need it to be). I get about 6 hours media playback, up to 8 reading, and about 4 heavier work.

P.S. Still haven't found a convincing replacement for the Preview.app for PDFs.

 

[rdubmu]

I would check out drawboard

 

[rdubmu]

I have had the Original Surface Pro, Sp3 and now the SP4. The thing I like best about the pro4 is that I am getting around 7-8 hours of battery life just by using office apps, mostly excel and outlook and web browsing. I have to use chrome as with the latest insider I find edge unstable and it crashes.

 

[dc9super80]

Drawboard doesn't allow me to build PDFs. The Mac app Preview, is a simple light app, that allows to edit and crop images, screenshots, markup PDFs, building and rearrange PDFs pages, all in a built in, simple, light on resources free app. It is very convenient. That said, I found a replacement in the Chrome Web Store, I am heavy in the Google ecosystem so this works just fine. I think my problem is solved.

App: DocHub - [redacted]

 

[badMojo69]

I just picked up the m3 version. I had the i5 when they 1st came out but they were too buggy back then so I took it back. The m3 is great after I set up a new power plan I'm getting about 7 hours battery life and no heat. When I first got it it did nothing but stay hot.

All of that being said I'm nothing sure I'm going to keep it as it never has more than 55% memory available. I kinda knew this going into it, but I really don't want ever here a fan ever again. I have until the 15th of next month to make up my mind.


Update:2/26
It's going back and I'm going back to my Surface 3 (not pro) for now.
No real reason...I guess I just don't like it. Shame because I got it for a great price.
Just not enough of a great price to make me want to keep it.

 

[Keeptechcoolandsimple]

I've had the sp4 for about a year and i think i like it more now than i did when i first got it. the sp4 is my first hybrid machine and after the novelty of a hybrid wore off, i began to see real life benefits and more ingenious usage situations from having a design that can work as a laptop, tablet, drawing pad, etc from the same machine that uses a "full" os.

 

[Althie]

I have SP4 for almost a year now, at the beginning I entered the Preview Build (slow ring) but encountered so many problems I had to reset the device.

The main problems was the fan kicking when only browsing the net, but after the creators update the problem disappeared.

I use the i5/4Gb/128Gb, and i guess it works. I ran virtual machine on it for my studies, it worked.
But don't expect to run a lot of software on the 4Gb, I guess choosing 8Gb is recommended for the win10 pro.
I bought external HDD 1Tb, so storage is not a problem, especially since you can add SD card.

I read about people running games on the device, my experience is different. Usually involving the device getting so hot it shuts itself, that's after 15-20 min of gaming.

I didn't get the typecover but i do have a BT keyboard. The onscreen keyboard sucks, it doesn't get all the letters right, get "stuck" on certain letters, and is usually very slow to write.

I used the handwriting recognition but after a while stopped, it takes too much time, it's not like the feel with handwriting on the android platform. It really needs work.
Instead you got OneNote or the Nebo app, which work better, even though the OneNote needs work on hand rejection while working with the pen.

Mostly I like the device but I'm not accepting all the bugs in MS Windows, it ruins the experience using the device.
MSFT is known first of all for their OS, and it lacks a lot when using it on their premium product.

I'm encountering a lot of problems in Win10, I don't like to reset the SP4 so many times. I did it twice already, once due to a problem that made the screen flicker when the device got hot. I read about the hardware problems of the SP4 but I encountered only software problems.

The use of pen is perfect, but some drawing apps doesn't work to the expectation with some lags, when trying to zoom and pinch in, can't tell if it is because of the app or the Win build. The screen itself work absolutely great.

You can use the device without pen and keyboard (for non writing, drawing) but it fills the screen with fingerprints. I use screen protector from the start, still i need to clean the screen at least once a day.

I keep the device most of the time connected to the power so I don't know about battery life, I took it to college and it lasted the hours no problems, but we are talking about very light use, OneNote writing and that's it.

I love the screen, the speakers are quite good, not using it to blow the room, again talking about light use, web content and videos.

Surfing the net is wonderful, that is what I usually do on the device. Can open a lot of tabs (10+) without noticing a problem.
Used both Chrome and Edge at the same time, worked excellent. And then when used the mail app started getting error message about memory.
I don't know if it's connected to outlook, (365 Office came as bundle, I don't use it, I prefer the web apps right now) after a while started getting error about mail app file association, again it something to do with Windows but it is a product of MSFT.

Summary: SP4 is excellent product i wish the experience from the OS was different and then i could have said even better things about it.