[Closed] Surface Pro 4 - sensible alternative to laptop?

Will watch this thread with interest..
My gf wants a 12 inch 'tabtop' for work as she moves around a lot.
Have narrowed it down to a surface pro or a galaxy tabpro s, however, after playing with a surface 4 in a shop the other day, we noticed that the display model had the 'screen flicker' fault as well documented online.
Also, the surface 3 is going a good deal cheaper too.

Love mine. Screen size is fine for me but I only use it for Word, Excel, powerpoint and emails and internet. Use it as my primary work machine hooked up to a monitor and as a laptop when away from the office. It's not amazing when used on your lap due to the stand but it works. It's nice having something so portable and obviously being able to use it as a tablet is a nice to have feature too.

Do you have the keyboard too, Danbo? if so, how is it for prolonged typing?

I have a work issued Surface 4 which is brilliant in all ways except for the cost and the fact that you can't actually use it on your lap.

I also have a five year old toshiba laptop with a 15.6" wideangle screen. The surface has made me realise that when I have to spend my own money on a replacement for the toshiba it will be on a 13" slim ssd laptop for half the cost of a surface.

Depends on what you want to do.

Pros:

- Super portable
- Great in tablet mode for reading and surfing
- Works really well, no shiteware installed at all and no driver issues - mine is a recent model (oh except for the suggested screen brightness is sometimes a bit too bright)
- Pen is cool for some things like marking up documents
- Display is awesome
- Tablet mode is great when sitting on sofas etc. and also when flying
- Both portrait and landscape are useful at different times in tablet mode
- Windows Hello is cool

Cons:

- It's small (see pros) but then I am used to a big work laptop
- It's only ok on your lap with the keyboard out, but I find myself not bothering when seated and I use tablet mode a lot.
- Expensive for the spec
- One of my techie applications doesn't scale the icons properly so they look really small
- Battery life shortens a lot if you do heavy lifting with it.

Tips:

- I have the keyboard - it's excellent, no issues at all with it or the touchpad.
- When going for extended tablet mode usage detatch the keyboard rather than just fold it away
- When using it on your lap if you do want to type fold the keyboard into its raised position
- When using it on a table, lower the keyboard to the flat position
- Tablet mode brings the screen closer to you
- Surface 3 is plenty powerful enough for word and browsing, and as well as being cheap it's much lighter, and the smaller size makes easier to hold in tablet mode

the fact that you can't actually use it on your lap.

You can - I can see what you mean about it being less good than a normal laptop but it really hasn't bothered me - and I am fussy.

Main reason for getting one IMO is portability. And possibly the pen if you need it, cos it is awesome. My wife got her 3 so she could mark up her own work with the pen.

I use mine day in day out for all sorts (although not a huge gamer so cannot comment on that), I do use it quite a lot with a separate monitor as well.

Its certainly good enough as a laptop, a bit heavy to hold up & watch movies but ok if you rest it on something - including on my lap, although the stand is perhaps a little sharp on the knees

That's the caes with the lap stand yes. However there are lots of folding cases that cover the keyboard as well as the device, and they provide a flat base instead of the lap stand.

This kind of thing, but in every possible variation:

[img] [/img]

Great answers thanks. My main concern was screen size but no-one seems to struggle with that. I wanted the stylus and 13in laptops with stylus are also pricey because they tend to fold flat. I'd forgotten about the typing on the laptop issue as I used to have the bargain surface rt but this is being typed on an iPad without keyboard and it's ok.

Main use for me is being stuck in my rucksack when travelling so it works for that. For my daughter it is a homework machine but I suspect it is ok for that. For my wife she tends to read and markup work docs so it looks idea for that

My main concern was screen size but no-one seems to struggle with that

Well - it's small, but no smaller than many other ultra portable laptops. It's extremely high res, and by default everything is blown up 200% (standard Windows feature). If your eyes are good though you can reduce this and get more on the screen, but of course it comes out smaller.

Oh, another tip - when typing in tablet mode there's an autocorrect thing like phones have - but it doesn't work in all apps. Chrome is one in which it does not currently work.

I've a Surface Pro 3. I'd hapilly throw it under a bus. It does random things, the keyboard just stops responding on a regular basis, the first keyboard fell apart where it connects and it just stops responding at the slightest reasonable sized excel workbook.

Other than that, battery is good and handy when traveling. We're moving to the HP Elite tablets instead now.

I really miss having multiple usb ports, because once you've got a wifi mouse in the single one fitted, you're stuck, which when you want to get, say, a file off a usb memory stick etc is a real PITA.....

I've got a Surface Pro 3 as my business machine and it's great - plenty powerful enough for CAD etc, battery lasts ages, and very tough. I killed the keyboard eventually so got the Pro 4 keyboard for it which is much better.

Maxtorque, isn't there a bluetooth mouse option? But yes, that sounds like it could be annoying if not.

@maxtorque yeah - I use a bluetooth mouse though which helps.

But yes - view it as an ultraportable or as something with a built in graphics tablet. If you are an out and out laptop user, then don't.

That's what Surface Books are for. If you are minted..!

We went into PC world looking at £100 Linx tablets and wondering if we could stretch to the £400 Surface 3 if we got £100 cashback by upgrading my wife's phone. Sales assistant started trying hard to sell us a Surface Book at £1200. Er yeah, ok, we'll take two 🙄

Recently got a pro 4 and I'd echo most of the comments above. You do need the keyboard though, tablet mode isn't as slick as a dedicated Android tablet and you will come up against some minor niggles.
That being said, it's a spendy game when you factor in the extra £100 for that.

Some deals around, but yes it is costly. I got a manager special and some money off from work.

Type covers £90 on Amazon.

The other thing that is putting me off is the ssd isn't [i]easily[/i] changeable. I've had a couple of ssds die on me but I don't care too much as they are normally easy to replace and recover files from a backup. Windows 10 is very easy to get going again, especially if you use Office365. I guess this is the downside of being ultraportable though

Yeah I'd like a changeable SSD. I'd upgrade it to a bigger one for starters.

I've got a 64Gb MicroSD in mine, there's a handy concealed slot for permanent installation, but I'm not sure how long they'd last used as general storage. Mine just has pictures on it for editing when I'm out and about.

On the plus side, the lack of slots, flaps and openings I suspect contributes to the very solid feel of the device. It feels like a single solid slab of magic, rather than a load of components inside a case.

My Wife has a 13" Lenovo Yoga laptop/tablet thing for work & loves it.

I haven't used it so can't really comment, but she's not really bothered about technology in particular, but has commented on how good this thing is several times.

I have a Dell equivalent and I really like it. Yes, the screen is a bit smaller than my old laptop but I dock it to proper screens when at work but equally have happily spent days working on it off site with no issue. I should add that I have the keyboard dock/case as shown below as part of the package so use that when I'm going to have to do any significant typing or mouse-work.

For travelling it's great though - massively lighter than the laptop it replaced and you can comfortably use it on a plane if that's your thing.

[img] [/img]

Nemesis - XPS 12?

Latitude 12

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/latitude-7275-laptop/pd

Nice, but still not cheap eh.

No - provided by work but not cheap.

Sorry to jump in on this but what about the sensitivity of the screen for sketching and note taking? I had a brief go in the shop and wasn't sure but they may have had set it up wrongly?

I'm running a Surface 2 (the RT version!) and I think the whole format is brilliant. I keep looking for something to replace it with but it runs Office and the internet just fine so struggle to justify the cost of anything new.

Oh and Netflix is one of the few RT apps as well so I can use that too!

I have the keyboard for it and its absolutely fine for reasonably long typing sessions and the keyboards have only got better. Again - never had an issue with the size and again the screen has only got better as the line has matured.

If/when I do replace it though it'll probably be with the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book I think although the Dell XPS 13 (the new one) is very tempting also. Seriously has to be seen to be believed - 13" screen in a package barely bigger than the Pro 4 but without the convenience of going 'tablet'. Bloody lovely thing though.

Bear in mind also there are strong rumours of a Pro 5 due very soon and a Surface Book 2 so may be worth waiting it out?

Sorry to jump in on this but what about the sensitivity of the screen for sketching and note taking? I had a brief go in the shop and wasn't sure but they may have had set it up wrongly?

Sensitivity is configurable - but what was wrong with it exactly?

Lots of videos on youtube of people sketching with them - it seems to be a bit of a learning curve for people who've only drawn on paper but a lot of artists are embracing it.

Notetaking into OneNote works well, does palm rejection fine. I find I type faster than I write though so tend to do that, with just sketching the odd diagram.

For both applications, Microsoft sell a little kit of tips for the stylus which vary the friction on the screen, so you can try them out and see if you prefer a particular feel.

SP4 is £599 for the m3, £699 for the i5 (including type cover) at Microsoft Store and elsewhere for black friday, so a decent deal if anyone was after one.

£699 for the i5 (including type cover) at Microsoft Store

Holy crap, that's a hell of a deal. Less than I paid 👿

Or £740 with type cover and pen - now that really is very tempting.

Shame its only with the 128gb SSD though with no cheap option on the 256gb version

Surface Pro 4 always come with pen (or did). It's the Surface 3 that doens't.

The 128Gb not so much of an issue for me - I've got 64Gb of SD card in there if I want to stick photos on it. But I'll only keep the recent ones I want to work on - everything else will go on a NAS.

However I'd go for more RAM if you can - I'm annoyed I can't play some games with only 4Gb.

The pen is showing as an option on the 4gb/128gb version but standard on the 8gb/256gb one.

Because I want to run PS CC and LR CC then 8gb/256gb is pretty much the minimum spec I'd go for. That Dell XPS 13 i7 with 16gb/512gb is still sorely tempting though even at £1500!!

Yeah, the pen has been bundled and not at various times.

SP4 M3 version with type cover is £549 today on Amazon.

Three reasons to buy Surface Pro:

1) You want a tablet and laptop in one
2) You want the lightest option
3) You want the pen

I was more interested in 2, but turns out I actually really like 1. Although it's slightly lighter than the Dell there's not a lot in it (altough the SP4 is much cheaper - it might be the lightest option at that price with that power, haven't checked). The fact it's a tablet allows you to use it in lots more ways. On the sofa I put it on my knees and use the stand to prop it up more - this allows it to be closer to me, which is nice. Also I've used it in bed in portrait mode to read web documentation which is really nice. Also great for reading things on planes and so on. Also reviewing documents on planes is much better with the pen and portrait tablet mode. And when you get on a FGW train and the seats are too close for you to use a laptop properly - the Surface is perfect.

However if you don't travel with it, aren't interested in the flexibility, or don't want the pen, then I'd say don't get one.