Has Anyone Ditched Their Desktop For a Docked Surface?

[snakebitten]

I feel so much better now. Less inferior. lol
Still, very nice arsenal of computer weapons.

 

[Steve Adams]

I am doing this with our two surface 3s. My wife and I can then dock when needed. I am just trying to find a great 27" touchscreen monitor for us.

 

[freetail]

I've been using the SP3 in combination with an external monitor from the start (SP2 before that). The trouble was, I couldn't connect two displays (tried a media hub but that was useless) so resorted to a Philips UltraWide 21:9 screen instead (essentially, the size of two standard 4:3 monitors in one). With the ability to drag windows to half or quarter of the screen, it's a perfect solution with less cables and a tidier desk.

That said the new MS Dock comes with two MiniDP outputs, so you have even more options now, and the SP4 will display up to 4 screens. I tend to use the SP3 for the keyboard and use this for Outlook and other 'always open' apps, whilst the external monitor is used for things I'm working on in more detail (presentations, word docs, imaging, accounting, etc).

I received the new Dock today. It all works BUT I can't get the external monitor to work with it. I've called MS Support and they're looking into it but as yet, no solution. Has anyone else had this issue, especially with a ultra-wide monitor? Wondering if it's that? Monitor works fine when plugged in directly to the SP3, but through the Dock, I get nothing :-(

 

[KrayMat]

So glad I found this thread... been thinking about this for work. Right now I use a Lenovo 23" AIO i5/8 with another 21" monitor and a Surface 3 for construction plan mark ups with drawboard, and for meetings. I love the portability of the Surface 3, but it's not quite powerful enough. So then I'm thinking of replacing that with the SP4 m3, but why not replace everything with a SP4 i5/8.

So a touch screen monitor will work with the SP4 dock? It's not necessary, but I like having touch available on my big monitor.

 

[boltman2013]

Microsoft Surface Hub apps take advantage of the large screen, touch and ink input ...so does the SP with touch screens

 

[jdyer55]

Just saw this post and had to chime in with my pic from 2013! Been rocking the original Surface Pro with dual monitors as my only computer since then. I'm in construction so I don't need a lot of horsepower and love that I can just pick it up and go. I think I'm about due for an upgrade though. Would love a SP4 if I could get my company to pay for it!

 

[enmotio]

I have the M3 Surface Pro 4. I love it. An amazing device. When I saw Microsoft was going to give me $150 for the old RT, I went for it.

I hook it up at work directly to one of my monitors and connect the KVM to the USB port. Work great, but with one big caveat.

Has anyone had the issue with display scaling? If I am logged into the Surface and plug in the external display, the scaling is huge (150%) on the 1920x1200 monitor. Only if I log out of the Surface and then log back in, does the proper scaling for an external monitor kick in. And vice versa. If scaling looks normal on the external, everything becomes teeny tiny when I disconnect and look at the Surface display.

Is this a known bug or issue? Do I have to log off and on every time I connect and disconnect from an external display?

 

[apoc527]

Yes and no. At work, I use only the SP4 docked. At home, I have a gaming desktop.

 

[Ian Drake]

When my i7 sp4 gets here next week I'll be using it to replace my MBA (running win10) and my desktop. I got the dock and have a curved 40" 4K tv coming too.

The biggest issue is that I'll have to use the tv at 30hz for a month or two until the active DP -> HDMI 2.0 adapters (60hz) hit the market.

Odly, the 4K tv has the exact PPI as my current dual monitor setup, so I won't have to worry about screen scaling.

 

[Steve Adams]

Well,

We are using our dock, linked to a Logitech keyboard and mouse, a HP 2311xi IPS monitor and a couple of usb hubs. It works great. NO different than having a dedicated computer. But everything I am using right now is on my tablet too! its awesome.

 

[bitek]

Well,

We are using our dock, linked to a Logitech keyboard and mouse, a HP 2311xi IPS monitor and a couple of usb hubs. It works great. NO different than having a dedicated computer. But everything I am using right now is on my tablet too! its awesome.

Here is my setup. I do own Pro 3. Now my surface is target, laptop and desktop. All in one!

Love it. Try to do it with Apple lol

 

[smanmit2]

I just switched from MacBook Air. While surface pro 4 is great form factor it still requires refinement. Windows 10 is buggy especially after experiencing OS X and battery life is terrible when compared to 13 in air. Pen and display are plus for pro. Considering your usage, is I would wait till things settled down especially battery life.

 

[boltman2013]

I just switched from MacBook Air. While surface pro 4 is great form factor it still requires refinement. Windows 10 is buggy especially after experiencing OS X and battery life is terrible when compared to 13 in air. Pen and display are plus for pro. Considering your usage, is I would wait till things settled down especially battery life.

How is windows 10 buggy?

I don't see a single bug and I run it on three different machines. and also my Lumia 635

If windows 10 were buggy it would be across the board, so it more likely has to do with hardware match.

 

[RicKaysen]

I'm running Windows 10 on my desktop and the Surface 4. No bugs.

 

[Steve Adams]

How is windows 10 buggy?

I don't see a single bug and I run it on three different machines. and also my Lumia 635

If windows 10 were buggy it would be across the board, so it more likely has to do with hardware match.

That's just the last bit of apple comeing out of him! They are brainwashed to spurt stuff like that. Another week of using the SP4 should cure him of all that nonsense. I had apple products and nothing comes close to my battery life on my surface 3.

Plus I go look at an apple computer now, and touch the screen....nothing happens....funny how that works.

 

[Ian Drake]

Guys, I'm glad your SP4 works perfectly, but as I'm sure you've read many people are having issues with their SP4. I got my wife an i5 and it was pretty bad. I returned it for several reasons, but got an S3 with LTE and things were better. Still had an issue with speaker crackle that was settings related right out of the box.

I'd really like to track one of you guys down and see first hand how well your SP4 is running and do an audit of the system to see what the differences are. I suspect MS is using multiple hardware vendors for a bunch of components and some of them are misbehaving. I'm sure they could be fixed with software updates, but it's a bit disconcerting how bad my wife's SP4 ran fully updated, no apps, out of the box.

My i7 comes this week. Fingers crossed!

 

[RicKaysen]

Guys, I'm glad your SP4 works perfectly, but as I'm sure you've read many people are having issues with their SP4. I got my wife an i5 and it was pretty bad. I returned it for several reasons, but got an S3 with LTE and things were better. Still had an issue with speaker crackle that was settings related right out of the box.

I'd really like to track one of you guys down and see first hand how well your SP4 is running and do an audit of the system to see what the differences are. I suspect MS is using multiple hardware vendors for a bunch of components and some of them are misbehaving. I'm sure they could be fixed with software updates, but it's a bit disconcerting how bad my wife's SP4 ran fully updated, no apps, out of the box.

My i7 comes this week. Fingers crossed!

Any chance you're in my neck of the woods? I'm in NYC and would be happy to let you have a look at my Surface.

 

[Ian Drake]

Close, but Cape Cod is still about 5 hours away. Thanks though!

I'm really hoping the i7 release gap (oct 26th vs nov 20th) was spent getting the hardware/software combination right.

 

[RicKaysen]

I hope you have a good experience. I opted for the i5 and knew that would be plenty for my needs. There is a part of my brain that want s the best model of everything and if I held out for the i7, I'd about be going crazy with anticipation now......(I went to the flagship store on release day)

 

[rgc6789]

I'm trying to decide if I should go for the new dock and connect the SP4 to my monitor and keyboard. I don't do anything too graphics intensive, but light Photoshop and web surfing while pushing video out to my TV are routine. Will my i5/8/256 be enough?

I'm using that exact model with a Plugable USB 3.0 Docking Station. I have the Surface monitor as well as a 24" and a 46" monitor also attached. I ditched my laptop for the Surface 4, and other than being on my 3rd Surface because of hardware failures, the third one is working fine.