[Gamely Lounges]

Hi all,

I'm on the fence about running down to my local store to grab a new surface pro (2017). The only thing that's holding me back is the idea that early releases of any physical product often have kinks that need to be fixed.

On the one hand, MS has been pumping out surface devices now for many years and this new one is similar to the SP4. On the OTHER hand, there are 800 new custom designed parts (per a Dan R article I just read).

So ... what would you do?
- stay at bay or
- run for new fun?

Thanks,
Gamely Lounges

[dirtyvu]

If you don't really need it, hold back. But if you could use it right away, go for it. Surface Pro 4 was one of the first Skylake machines out there and Skylake was a new architecture. So Surface had to live through updates and patches of a new processor and new chipset. I think that's why Apple took so so long to adopt Skylake. But Kaby Lake is a refinement of Skylake rather than a new architecture. Intel has tweaked it plenty so it should have less problems.

[convergent]

I reasoned that sense they didn't make any radical design changes, it should come out the door stable... and so I pulled the trigger. I did however by directly from Microsoft where they will take it back no questions asked in first 30 days. So if it is buggy, I can return it.

[DCW1000]

When the Pro was announced, I knew I would be a likely buyer at some point. I thought I would wait until later in the year so I could get an eSIM model, which sounded like a feature I would like to have even though I didn't see a burning need for it in my own usage patterns. Then I learned that Microsoft had an agreement to provide data services through Transatel and that their business model involved selling units of time or of data in a way that seemed to offer no price advantage over other data providers who offer reimbursement or carry-forward for unused gigs and minutes.

So with no reason to delay a purchase and a strong desire to upgrade an older Surface, I went out over the weekend and picked up the lest expensive i7 model available, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. i7s with more RAM and storage will be available at the end of the month, but I knew from experience that they would be both overkill for my needs and overpriced for just about everybody. I've been using it for four days and love it. I have experienced none of the problems mentioned by other early purchasers.

The now-or-later question should probably be answered based on personal psychology rather than anything inherent in the devices themselves. Fast-gratification people should just go get one and deal with any hiccups they may encounter. The more cautious should wait for three to six months, then buy one and deal with any hiccups they may encounter.

[anon(5327127)]

It uses an intel CPU with intel bits and bobs so, even though Microsoft has been doing this for awhile, the parts often lead to issues. It will always be a 50/50 for getting a solid unit as well. Maybe just decide and be brave!

[coolbreeze78]

Kinks? This is effectively the 5th revision of the hardware with a new processor. It's reached a fully mature design state, IMO.

I guess wait forever and buy something a week before you die a natural death? I know I'm being sarcastic, but there isn't anything wrong with purchasing the 2017 SP today. It's fine.

[Gamely Lounges]

Kinks? This is effectively the 5th revision of the hardware with a new processor. It's reached a fully mature design state, IMO.

I guess wait forever and buy something a week before you die a natural death? I know I'm being sarcastic, but there isn't anything wrong with purchasing the 2017 SP today. It's fine.

LOLZ.

I don't think so! :-)

I decided to just go for it. Have had it for maybe a week so far.
At this point I'm pretty pleased with the device. The biggest problem
I had with my SP4 was the miserable battery life.

I seem to be getting a fairly solid 7-8 hours (I've got my battery "power mode" setting somewhere around 40% of peak). It's plenty bright for normal usage. All-in-all: battery life is now apparently adequate.

At the moment I'm a very happy customer.

If I discover something is horribly wrong with my unit, then hopefully either BestBuy or MS will be able to help with exchange, etc.

The one thing I've seen happen so far is that the device suddenly decides to turn itself off (not sure if it is sleeping or hibernating or fully off). Fortunately it is so quick to turn on again that I haven't minded too much.

- Gamely Lounges

[Wevenhuis]

I am also still on the fence for the impulse buy. Three things make me wait.

-the well known bugs in launch devices. As far as I know every surface device has needed some bugfixes, driver and performance updates, usually most issues seem resolved after 2-3 months after launchdate, I think that is the sweetspot for a better out of the box experience.
-I'm on the fence with the upcoming LTE supported version. It is not clear if all surface pro "5" models will get it. I would also prefer Wifi AND LTE built in to manage my data caps. It is currently not clear if this is the case.
-Thirdly I think the upcoming creators fall update with cshell will have a better pc and tablet experience. So I'd rather wait for that milestone to pass first. So I think Christmas 2017will likely be the sweetspot where things come together for (hopefully) the best out of the box experience of hardware and software.

[Vasrias]

Btw. does anyone know if the LTE version will have the same Marvel wifi adapter with another LTE adapter or will it have a different network adapter with both? The only thing I really hate about my SP3 is the network connection and would like another adapter on the new SP.