Good morning,
I bought a Surface Pro 4 about a week ago (the Core m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD model) with a Signature Type Cover about a week ago (yes, it was the awesome Best Buy sale) and I've been using it steadily since then. I thought I'd give some of my thoughts about it.
First impressions were incredible. It was really nicely and professionally packaged (I was really impressed) and honestly a lot of fun to just, well, unbox and set up. The Signature Type Cover feels (and...smells?) awesome and the typing experience is far beyond what I initially expected. The trackpad is easily the best I've ever used. I'm still not quite used to the smooth, cool glass texture. The tablet itself is so well built and feels great in hand. There's no creaking, nothing feels out of place and everything is just cared for. The team that designed this product really cared about getting it right. Booting it up and setting it up was effortless and fast, and the display blew me away. It's smaller than I'm used to but absolutely the best display I've had the pleasure of owning myself. Overall, first impressions were near heavenly. But of course, that honeymoon-like feeling is expected for almost any new, shiny device, right?
Well, honestly, nothing much changed as I used it over the next week. The keyboard is still awesome to use, the effortless way I can detach and slide into Tablet Mode is always satisfying, and I've had zero issues with performance. The Surface Pro 4 comfortably handles everything I've been throwing at it (I've only had slight stuttering with lots of tabs/apps open and one bug involving Windows Hello that required a restart), despite a large part of me still wishing I could've gotten 8GB of RAM with my Core m3. Build quality is still outstanding (I would hope) and the kickstand is brilliant. I was afraid it'd feel fragile, like I could break it in half with the slightest wrong move, but it actually has a very solid, reassuring strength to it. It feels great to use, and I can't see myself ever getting a tablet without a kickstand now. Windows Hello is a joy to use and I can't see myself ever wanting to use a computer without it again (I had one instance where I booted up and immediately starting putting in my pin while Windows Hello was "getting ready" and my entire computer froze--but a quick restart fixed the issue and I haven't been able to reproduce it). When my Surface Pen arrived, everything only got more awesome. I love using the Pen. The handwriting feature is great (I actually used the Pen to write the first paragraph before attaching the Type Cover) and it helps me keep my screen smudge-free (more on that later). The weight, feel, and build quality of the Pen all scream "quality" and it's the perfect partner for my Surface Pro 4. My girlfriend especially loves using it to draw and was actually amazed at what she could do with it after only using it for ten minutes. Battery life has also been great. I've been using this thing a lot to write, watch movies/videos, listen to music, record and submit Feedback, keeping up on news, managing my emails, and just exploring the things my Surface can do over the last week, and I've only had to plug it in three times. I'm comfortably getting at least six hours of screen on time with brightness set to automatic and not really trying to manage battery life. I've noticed that the battery prediction is actually a little conservative, and that I can get more out of this device than Windows 10 believes.
So, the hardware game is great, but what about software? Well, I immediately jumped onto the Release Preview (I'll leave Fast Ring to my non-daily driver computers for now, thank you very much) and I've had zero issues. There have been slight stutters occasionally when I really push this thing (I booted up the computer right after I pulled it off the charger with about a dozen apps open, including an intensive art-focused app, and it paused for a few seconds to catch up with itself), and there are some animation issues (that are present with any Windows 10 computer), but other than that it's been marvelous. It's stable, feels reliable, and I'm never stuck waiting for the software to catch up with what the Surface can do. Even rotating the screen while simultaneously switching back and forth from Tablet Mode (even with a bunch of apps open) never poses a problem. The Surface Pro 4 feels like what it is: a high-end, high-performance computer.
But it can't be all good, can it? Well, no, I do have problems. Most of them are little hardware issues that are by no means a deal breaker. The Surface Pen quite happily prevents you from easily opening the kickstand with your left hand when it's attached to your Surface (a very minor annoyance), for one. Okay, so that's nitpicking, but that's what I have to do to find issues with this device. The screen is VERY prone to fingerprints (I actually carry a cleaning cloth around with me now, something I didn't expect I'd need to do), which motivates me to use the Surface Pen far more than my own fingers. But this brings up another issue. The Surface Pen is amazing, but it's unable to accomplish gestures like opening the Action Center with a swipe or expanding/collapsing the Taskbar in Tablet Mode, or opening Task View with a swipe. Again, not a big deal, but it means I occasionally have to bring in my hands when I'd rather just use the Pen. The screen is very reflective, so beware of that if you plan to use it outside. The screen gets bright, but not quite bright enough. I do wish you could force the screen to higher nits, but it's acceptable 99% of the time. Finally, automatic brightness isn't particularly reliable. It'll occasionally and randomly go far darker or lighter than the situation actually calls for, forcing me to scramble for the Action Center to manually fix the issue. It's not a constant issue (it's fine now), but it is there. Also, I wish the Type Cover had full arrow keys, not the crippled up/down keys that every ultrabook goes for these days.
If none of those very tiny issues are deal breakers for you, I highly recommend the Surface Pro 4. It's absolutely gorgeous, and is built just as well as it looks, and performs just as well as it's built, and makes me just as happy and productive as it performs. It's a great experience, and tiny annoyances don't stop me from thinking I'm never going to leave the Surface line for another computer. It's worth every penny I spent on it. So, what are you waiting for? Go buy it.
A couple of other notes:
The speakers are loud and clear, but I've heard better. Let's just put it this way...they're great for a tablet, but they're not going to make you put away the headphones or dedicated speaker if you're thank kind of person.
The keyboard backlighting is great, and something I wouldn't have expected in something so thin. The keys aren't individually lit, but I can't complain when I'm comfortably typing on something that's half as thick as my phone.
"Hey Cortana" is awesome. Enough said.
Tablet Mode isn't as bad of an experience as some people make it out to be. I can see areas that can be improved, definitely, but it's certainly usable. And even enjoyable. At the very least it provides a far better touch experience than the desktop view.
I bought a Surface Pro 4 about a week ago (the Core m3, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD model) with a Signature Type Cover about a week ago (yes, it was the awesome Best Buy sale) and I've been using it steadily since then. I thought I'd give some of my thoughts about it.
First impressions were incredible. It was really nicely and professionally packaged (I was really impressed) and honestly a lot of fun to just, well, unbox and set up. The Signature Type Cover feels (and...smells?) awesome and the typing experience is far beyond what I initially expected. The trackpad is easily the best I've ever used. I'm still not quite used to the smooth, cool glass texture. The tablet itself is so well built and feels great in hand. There's no creaking, nothing feels out of place and everything is just cared for. The team that designed this product really cared about getting it right. Booting it up and setting it up was effortless and fast, and the display blew me away. It's smaller than I'm used to but absolutely the best display I've had the pleasure of owning myself. Overall, first impressions were near heavenly. But of course, that honeymoon-like feeling is expected for almost any new, shiny device, right?
Well, honestly, nothing much changed as I used it over the next week. The keyboard is still awesome to use, the effortless way I can detach and slide into Tablet Mode is always satisfying, and I've had zero issues with performance. The Surface Pro 4 comfortably handles everything I've been throwing at it (I've only had slight stuttering with lots of tabs/apps open and one bug involving Windows Hello that required a restart), despite a large part of me still wishing I could've gotten 8GB of RAM with my Core m3. Build quality is still outstanding (I would hope) and the kickstand is brilliant. I was afraid it'd feel fragile, like I could break it in half with the slightest wrong move, but it actually has a very solid, reassuring strength to it. It feels great to use, and I can't see myself ever getting a tablet without a kickstand now. Windows Hello is a joy to use and I can't see myself ever wanting to use a computer without it again (I had one instance where I booted up and immediately starting putting in my pin while Windows Hello was "getting ready" and my entire computer froze--but a quick restart fixed the issue and I haven't been able to reproduce it). When my Surface Pen arrived, everything only got more awesome. I love using the Pen. The handwriting feature is great (I actually used the Pen to write the first paragraph before attaching the Type Cover) and it helps me keep my screen smudge-free (more on that later). The weight, feel, and build quality of the Pen all scream "quality" and it's the perfect partner for my Surface Pro 4. My girlfriend especially loves using it to draw and was actually amazed at what she could do with it after only using it for ten minutes. Battery life has also been great. I've been using this thing a lot to write, watch movies/videos, listen to music, record and submit Feedback, keeping up on news, managing my emails, and just exploring the things my Surface can do over the last week, and I've only had to plug it in three times. I'm comfortably getting at least six hours of screen on time with brightness set to automatic and not really trying to manage battery life. I've noticed that the battery prediction is actually a little conservative, and that I can get more out of this device than Windows 10 believes.
So, the hardware game is great, but what about software? Well, I immediately jumped onto the Release Preview (I'll leave Fast Ring to my non-daily driver computers for now, thank you very much) and I've had zero issues. There have been slight stutters occasionally when I really push this thing (I booted up the computer right after I pulled it off the charger with about a dozen apps open, including an intensive art-focused app, and it paused for a few seconds to catch up with itself), and there are some animation issues (that are present with any Windows 10 computer), but other than that it's been marvelous. It's stable, feels reliable, and I'm never stuck waiting for the software to catch up with what the Surface can do. Even rotating the screen while simultaneously switching back and forth from Tablet Mode (even with a bunch of apps open) never poses a problem. The Surface Pro 4 feels like what it is: a high-end, high-performance computer.
But it can't be all good, can it? Well, no, I do have problems. Most of them are little hardware issues that are by no means a deal breaker. The Surface Pen quite happily prevents you from easily opening the kickstand with your left hand when it's attached to your Surface (a very minor annoyance), for one. Okay, so that's nitpicking, but that's what I have to do to find issues with this device. The screen is VERY prone to fingerprints (I actually carry a cleaning cloth around with me now, something I didn't expect I'd need to do), which motivates me to use the Surface Pen far more than my own fingers. But this brings up another issue. The Surface Pen is amazing, but it's unable to accomplish gestures like opening the Action Center with a swipe or expanding/collapsing the Taskbar in Tablet Mode, or opening Task View with a swipe. Again, not a big deal, but it means I occasionally have to bring in my hands when I'd rather just use the Pen. The screen is very reflective, so beware of that if you plan to use it outside. The screen gets bright, but not quite bright enough. I do wish you could force the screen to higher nits, but it's acceptable 99% of the time. Finally, automatic brightness isn't particularly reliable. It'll occasionally and randomly go far darker or lighter than the situation actually calls for, forcing me to scramble for the Action Center to manually fix the issue. It's not a constant issue (it's fine now), but it is there. Also, I wish the Type Cover had full arrow keys, not the crippled up/down keys that every ultrabook goes for these days.
If none of those very tiny issues are deal breakers for you, I highly recommend the Surface Pro 4. It's absolutely gorgeous, and is built just as well as it looks, and performs just as well as it's built, and makes me just as happy and productive as it performs. It's a great experience, and tiny annoyances don't stop me from thinking I'm never going to leave the Surface line for another computer. It's worth every penny I spent on it. So, what are you waiting for? Go buy it.
A couple of other notes:
The speakers are loud and clear, but I've heard better. Let's just put it this way...they're great for a tablet, but they're not going to make you put away the headphones or dedicated speaker if you're thank kind of person.
The keyboard backlighting is great, and something I wouldn't have expected in something so thin. The keys aren't individually lit, but I can't complain when I'm comfortably typing on something that's half as thick as my phone.
"Hey Cortana" is awesome. Enough said.
Tablet Mode isn't as bad of an experience as some people make it out to be. I can see areas that can be improved, definitely, but it's certainly usable. And even enjoyable. At the very least it provides a far better touch experience than the desktop view.
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