Having SP4 i5/4GB right now. Should I buy the new SP or wait for the next one.

[Parin Kaewdeewong]

I'm using Surface Pro4 i5/4GB and am quite happy about it, except for 5-6 hours of battery life and a little lag when I open few apps and many tabs in Edge at the same time. Now I just saw the new Surface Pro, and I'm really tempted by their claim of 13.5 hours of video playback battery life (probably 9-10 hours in real usage), improved performance and fanless i5 design. However, I still have some concerns and questions.

1. Will i5 fanless design be good for the device in a long term? I always browse (>5 tabs and constantly change/open page) with Edge and use some few apps (Mail, Facebook, Skype, Word) at the same time, and my SP4 gets pretty hot often. If there is no fan, I'm afraid that the device would get too hot and damage internal components in a long term.

2. Will the performance be significantly improved? When I use my SP4 (browsing and apps, as I mentioned), sometimes the Start Menu, Action Center, and other apps get lag and this quite bothers me. Would 7th gen i5 solve this? Or would I have to move to i5/8GB?

3. I will be in college for this fall and will major in Chemistry and minor in Computer Science. Same question with the last one. Would I need i5/8GB one or just stick with i5/4GB?

3. Intel just announced that they are trying to push USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 in future CPUs, so I think it's likely that next Surface would have this port. Problem is that could come like in the late 2018 and the new SP is really tempting for me right now.

Personally I don't think I really need this port for now. I don't use multiple monitors. I don't need eGPU for now, as I already have PS4 and another laptop for gaming. But I'm not sure about the future if this port would become handy. (And using SP with GTX 1080 is pretty interesting for me in the future)

So should I buy the new Surface Pro (I'm planning to buy it in this September)? And if I should, should I buy 4GB RAM or 8GB one? Or should I just wait for the next one?

Thanks!

 

[ttsoldier]

Good post.

I currently have the i5/8gb/512GB SP4 and I too, am considering an "Upgrade".

The biggest factor for me is the battery life. I'm not happy with the battery life of the current SP4. I crave more.

I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible.

1)I am also concerned about the fanless i5. I use my SP4 to play DOTA2 in my free time and boy does this baby get hot with the fans whirring . We won't know for sure how it will hold up until we see some reviews.

2) Even with my i5/8GB, I get the same lag you are talking about. Will it be less on the newer model? Definitely. But will it be noticeable? Not sure. Is the OS optimized for the new hardware?

3)All depends on what programs you will be using. If you're doing note taking and using office programs, 4GB will be fine.

Seems like you already made up your mind on upgrading. Nothing is wrong with upgrading. I've had my surface pro 4 since the day it was released back in 2015 and i'm feeling for an upgrade. With respect to ram, it all boils down to your use. For the average user, 4GB ram is enough. More ram is required when you want to multi task more and use memory intensive programs.

If you're planning to be multi tasking a lot, switching between several programs, virtual desktops or even using RAM intensive programs, then you're going to be needing the 8GB. But if you're going to be using Edge, Skype and office, 4GB will suffice.

You also need to take in the cost factor. If the price difference is minimalistic between the 8gb and 4gb for you, then get it. There's nothing wrong with having more RAM

If the price difference is a stretch, hang back with the 4GB.

This is just my two cents.

 

[Parin Kaewdeewong]

Good post.

I currently have the i5/8gb/512GB SP4 and I too, am considering an "Upgrade".

The biggest factor for me is the battery life. I'm not happy with the battery life of the current SP4. I crave more.

I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible.

1)I am also concerned about the fanless i5. I use my SP4 to play DOTA2 in my free time and boy does this baby get hot with the fans whirring . We won't know for sure how it will hold up until we see some reviews.

2) Even with my i5/8GB, I get the same lag you are talking about. Will it be less on the newer model? Definitely. But will it be noticeable? Not sure. Is the OS optimized for the new hardware?

3)All depends on what programs you will be using. If you're doing note taking and using office programs, 4GB will be fine.

Seems like you already made up your mind on upgrading. Nothing is wrong with upgrading. I've had my surface pro 4 since the day it was released back in 2015 and i'm feeling for an upgrade. With respect to ram, it all boils down to your use. For the average user, 4GB ram is enough. More ram is required when you want to multi task more and use memory intensive programs.

If you're planning to be multi tasking a lot, switching between several programs, virtual desktops or even using RAM intensive programs, then you're going to be needing the 8GB. But if you're going to be using Edge, Skype and office, 4GB will suffice.

You also need to take in the cost factor. If the price difference is minimalistic between the 8gb and 4gb for you, then get it. There's nothing wrong with having more RAM

If the price difference is a stretch, hang back with the 4GB.

This is just my two cents.

Thanks for your opinion.

I pretty surprised that even i5/8GB suffers from Start Menu and Action Center lag. Now I think it is about Microsoft's job to optimize their OS then, because I just went back and noticed that when I use my SP4 I have 70-80% of RAM usage and the lag starts to happen. Have to wait for the better optimization in Fall Creators Update then.

And what do you think about future proofing Thunderbolt 3? How much is it versatile?

And what do you think about the m3 model?

 

[ttsoldier]

Thunderbolt 3? How much is it versatile?

No need. The average consumer does not know about USB Type c and thunderbolt. It will just cause confusion

And what do you think about the m3 model?

M3 model is nice. It's a great laptop for basic use. Again, simple office , emails and light web browsing would be fine with an M3 model.

I pretty surprised that even i5/8GB suffers from Start Menu and Action Center lag. Now I think it is about Microsoft's job to optimize their OS then, because I just went back and noticed that when I use my SP4 I have 70-80% of RAM usage and the lag starts to happen. Have to wait for the better optimization in Fall Creators Update then.

They are making improvements. It was bad in the Anniversary update but it got better in the Creators update.

I'm not sure if OS optimization was done, or it had to do with the fact that I did a fresh install from an ISO, but i noticed the difference.