Microsoft Surface Pro 4 announced: "better in nearly every way" (The Verge)

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Bryko said:
Does anyone do any programming/development work on a Surface? My Macbook screen got a little fucked, so I'm thinking of getting one of these as a secondary device for programming, notetaking, and web browsing, as they seem a bit more portable. Not concerned with gaming or anything too intensive. Does the keyboard do the job well enough? Can I get away with one of the older models?
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For visual studio coding it's almost perfect, specially 2015 which added touch support for scrolling text.

I even did some engineer work on my SP3, on a industrial project using Unity, and the SP3 had no problems either running the editor or the application, once we built a nice big UI with touch support it became even a great way of showing the software in presentations and stuff.
 
Got the Shakes said:
i5 SP4 here. I noticed that I lost like 10% of my battery charge overnight after doing an actual shutdown (start menu>power>shut down). My Surface is maybe 5 weeks old. Something to be concerned about, or just a poor job of Windows calculating the battery charge percentage?
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Windows is shut at calculating battery percentage in my experience, I wouldn't worry.

Bryko said:
Does anyone do any programming/development work on a Surface? My Macbook screen got a little fucked, so I'm thinking of getting one of these as a secondary device for programming, notetaking, and web browsing, as they seem a bit more portable. Not concerned with gaming or anything too intensive. Does the keyboard do the job well enough? Can I get away with one of the older models?
Click to expand...

I use a pro 3 for programming. It works perfectly fine. I'd say go with atleast the Pro 3 though.
 
Polarburr said:
Considering selling my 15' MBPro to get this. Hmmm. Thoughts? :)
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This is exactly what I'm struggling with now. Hard to swallow selling a powerful machine to get it, but I really overbought on the Pro, and it's too big and heavy to be practical as a portable machine. I don't play any PC games, so the horsepower is pretty moot of a point for me.
 
I was going to get the surface book after the holidays but i may need the extra storage. I run Photoshop, illustrator, Dreamweaver, visual studio, and sharepoint designer work so i think have the 256gig will be better as i wont have to worry about saving too much space. I can also install steam with some simple 2d indie titles. Last summer we rented a small condo down the shore i was surfing the internet with my phone and wow was that awful. I mean just doing it the entire weekend. So having this will be a win win for both work and play. I am look at the core i5 with 8 gigs of ram, and 256gig storage. With the warranty and the keyboard it will run me $1,577.99.


Does the new keyboard have a backlight? I do find that helpful actually.
 
tiredheadcrab said:
I was going to get the surface book after the holidays but i may need the extra storage. I run Photoshop, illustrator, Dreamweaver, visual studio, and sharepoint designer work so i think have the 256gig will be better as i wont have to worry about saving too much space. I can also install steam with some simple 2d indie titles. Last summer we rented a small condo down the shore i was surfing the internet with my phone and wow was that awful. I mean just doing it the entire weekend. So having this will be a win win for both work and play. I am look at the core i5 with 8 gigs of ram, and 256gig storage. With the warranty and the keyboard it will run me $1,577.99.


Does the new keyboard have a backlight? I do find that helpful actually.
Click to expand...

Yep. Hard to see in this picture but:

sp4-5-670x382.jpg
 
tiredheadcrab said:
Nah i can see it in that picture. I was wondering if it was the also the regular keyboard or the new one with the finger print sensor on it. Thanks!
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You were asking about the Surface BOOK yet you say regular keyboard as if you were talking about a Surface PRO 4.

Steelyuhas said:
What activates that and is there a settings menu for it (can't find anything with a search)?
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Press the F2 key on the type cover. If you have the top row set up as Fn keys (Fn + Caps Lock), you need to press the Fn key first to activate it.

F1 key lowers the light brightness.
 
Windows 10 is the worst operating system I have ever used. My computer has frozen four times today, and these display driver crashes have started acting up again. I would pay $50 for a downgrade to Windows 8.1.
 
Apath said:
Windows 10 is the worst operating system I have ever used. My computer has frozen four times today, and these display driver crashes have started acting up again. I would pay $50 for a downgrade to Windows 8.1.
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Thank God I haven't downgraded to W10. My SP2 is rock solid with 8.1... except when attaching the Type Cover makes it reboot D:
 
NeOak said:
Thank God I haven't downgraded to W10. My SP2 is rock solid with 8.1... except when attaching the Type Cover makes it reboot D:
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Yep, I've kept my SP2 on 8.1. Well, that's not completely true: after "upgrading" to 10 with it, the battery life plummeted, glitches kept happening, and frequent crashes became a thing. I reformatted it and it just so happened to reset the device to Windows 8, which also happened to fix every one of those issues. It is now what I use when I need reliability. My SP2 having Windows 8.1 is also why I have not sold it yet.

Seriously, I had less issues with Windows ME.
 
Already having slight buyers remorse with my yoga 700. It's fine as a relatively light laptop with skylake i7, SSD etc. But although it has a fancy 350 degree hinge, it's just too bulky to use in tablet mode, and the screen isn't nice to touch (too much drag on it). it was half the price of even an i5 SP4 though.
 
I'm thinking of moving from an iPad Air 2 to a Surface Pro 4, lately I've been finding that I can't perform the tasks I want to on my iPad and end up having to go to my desktop computer more and more. I just can't decide between the i5 4/128 or i5 8/256, what model did you guys end up going with, any regrets?
 
centracore said:
I'm thinking of moving from an iPad Air 2 to a Surface Pro 4, lately I've been finding that I can't perform the tasks I want to on my iPad and end up having to go to my desktop computer more and more. I just can't decide between the i5 4/128 or i5 8/256, what model did you guys end up going with, any regrets?
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what do you do with your computer?

I do light Photoshop tasks and some other general stuff and the m3 version is perfect.
 
centracore said:
I'm thinking of moving from an iPad Air 2 to a Surface Pro 4, lately I've been finding that I can't perform the tasks I want to on my iPad and end up having to go to my desktop computer more and more. I just can't decide between the i5 4/128 or i5 8/256, what model did you guys end up going with, any regrets?
Click to expand...

It really depends on your use case. I have i5 8/256 but I do graphics work so I need the extra RAM.

The 4/128 should be fine for most tasks though and I'd still be able to do lighter graphics work on it.
 
BossDarkseid said:
I like the idea for the portability but would any of these be suitable for word, flash pro and that sort of thing?
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More than fine for word. Keyboard is decent - you can always use with a separate keyboard at home for longer sessions if you feel the type cover isn't quite up to it.
 
So I got one of these and have been using for about a week now, an i5/8gb/256gb. Amazing device, I'm thinking it might permanently replace my 13" rMBP on a daily basis, despite the rMBP having double its specs in everything (including battery life). It's just that handy.

I haven't ran in the common issues like driver crashes or freezes or things like that, but I do have one really annoying issue that I don't know the source of. If it's a device issue with my particular Surface then I need to know so I can replace it immediately.

Basically it's this:

https://youtu.be/vasfvKbV47g

When I'm using the Netflix app the taskbar and the subtitles as well as the video itself do this sort of weird shift/flicker. If I full screen the video then it becomes more frequent on the video itself. This only happens in horizontal orientation. It does it regardless of brightness setting, whether it's charging or on battery.

Does anyone know what might be the cause?
 
StudioTan said:
It really depends on your use case. I have i5 8/256 but I do graphics work so I need the extra RAM.

The 4/128 should be fine for most tasks though and I'd still be able to do lighter graphics work on it.
Click to expand...
I've been really impressed with my 4gb/128gb model, tbh, and use it exclusively for graphics work. I was prepared to return it and upgrade, but it has served really well with 600dpi painted images. The 8gb is better though, undoubtedly.
 
NeOak said:
You were asking about the Surface BOOK yet you say regular keyboard as if you were talking about a Surface PRO 4.



Press the F2 key on the type cover. If you have the top row set up as Fn keys (Fn + Caps Lock), you need to press the Fn key first to activate it.

F1 key lowers the light brightness.
Click to expand...

Yeah you are right I keep thinking Surface book because thats the one i originally wanted. So yeah getting the Surface pro 4. I get the i5 with 8gigs of ram and a 256gig storage.
 
mrklaw said:
Already having slight buyers remorse with my yoga 700. It's fine as a relatively light laptop with skylake i7, SSD etc. But although it has a fancy 350 degree hinge, it's just too bulky to use in tablet mode, and the screen isn't nice to touch (too much drag on it). it was half the price of even an i5 SP4 though.
Click to expand...

You can reduce the friction of scrolling in the registry on pretty much any touch device.

Edit: Play with the numbers in places like here w/ Touch HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch and be sure to make a back up if you don't like this or there's undesirable effects on battery life.
 
TheLaughingStock said:
You can reduce the friction of scrolling in the registry on pretty much any touch device.

Edit: Play with the numbers in places like here w/ Touch HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWispTouch and be sure to make a back up if you don't like this or there's undesirable effects on battery life.
Click to expand...

The physical glass on the screen isn't as slick as my iPad or my old SP3. It makes my finger stutter across it as it slips and then grabs. Quite unpleasant
 
NinjaMouse said:
This is exactly what I'm struggling with now. Hard to swallow selling a powerful machine to get it, but I really overbought on the Pro, and it's too big and heavy to be practical as a portable machine. I don't play any PC games, so the horsepower is pretty moot of a point for me.
Click to expand...

you and I are in the exact same boat. I traded my Pro 13' for the Pro 15' with my dad. Then I realized the screen was waaay too big to carry around. All I do is use FB, browse sites and watch Youtube vids. It's something I'm considering. What have you decided?
 
Silvard said:
So I got one of these and have been using for about a week now, an i5/8gb/256gb. Amazing device, I'm thinking it might permanently replace my 13" rMBP on a daily basis, despite the rMBP having double its specs in everything (including battery life). It's just that handy.

I haven't ran in the common issues like driver crashes or freezes or things like that, but I do have one really annoying issue that I don't know the source of. If it's a device issue with my particular Surface then I need to know so I can replace it immediately.

Basically it's this:

https://youtu.be/vasfvKbV47g

When I'm using the Netflix app the taskbar and the subtitles as well as the video itself do this sort of weird shift/flicker. If I full screen the video then it becomes more frequent on the video itself. This only happens in horizontal orientation. It does it regardless of brightness setting, whether it's charging or on battery.

Does anyone know what might be the cause?
Click to expand...

Do you use Hyper-V or have it installed? I know that caused flickering issues at launch, dunno if that was resolved yet or not. Disabling it resolves that particular issue.
 
Laws00 said:
I got my SP3.

I like it.

Anybody recommend any apps I should be using or get for the thing?
Click to expand...

Hitman Go was $0.10 during that Christmas sale. That's amazingly fun on my SP4. Otherwise, I'm treating mine like a laptop with success. I haven't found any amazing apps that really scream "Surface Pro!" Like an iPad does.

Speaking of which, it seems as though the iPad Pro is really falling short. I'm not saying I'm happy that that happened, but maybe that means the Pro 2 will turn around and go towards a laptop versus a big ass iPad.
 
Do all SP4's have backlight bleeding to some degree? Just want to know what I should do if mine were to have some when I receive it this Friday.
 
Yaari said:
Do all SP4's have backlight bleeding to some degree? Just want to know what I should do if mine were to have some when I receive it this Friday.
Click to expand...

I'd say so.I just got mine Saturday and its got some. Unnoticeable except on the boot screen. If you look in this thread and online you'll see its pretty common.
 
Polarburr said:
you and I are in the exact same boat. I traded my Pro 13' for the Pro 15' with my dad. Then I realized the screen was waaay too big to carry around. All I do is use FB, browse sites and watch Youtube vids. It's something I'm considering. What have you decided?
Click to expand...

I'll be honest, I haven't come to a hard conclusion yet. I've another day or two to decide (the return policy on the Surface, haha), I'm leaning heavily towards keeping the Surface. Being able to reasonably carry it with around the house as well as to/from work is pretty big. Also, aside from "console wars" type discussions, I'm not terribly excited about the direction that Apple has taken their products lately, so I have to figure out where my exit point for the Apple ecosystem is gonna be. This is looking like a pretty good jumping point..I'll report back in a few days. =)
 
NinjaMouse said:
I'll be honest, I haven't come to a hard conclusion yet. I've another day or two to decide (the return policy on the Surface, haha), I'm leaning heavily towards keeping the Surface. Being able to reasonably carry it with around the house as well as to/from work is pretty big. Also, aside from "console wars" type discussions, I'm not terribly excited about the direction that Apple has taken their products lately, so I have to figure out where my exit point for the Apple ecosystem is gonna be. This is looking like a pretty good jumping point..I'll report back in a few days. =)
Click to expand...

Wow. I agree with you completely on the apple exosysent part. Was a huge apple fan. Then things changed. I now own a nexus 6p and already considering a windows 10. Let me know what you decided and if you have any regrets. :)
 
NinjaMouse said:
I'll be honest, I haven't come to a hard conclusion yet. I've another day or two to decide (the return policy on the Surface, haha), I'm leaning heavily towards keeping the Surface. Being able to reasonably carry it with around the house as well as to/from work is pretty big. Also, aside from "console wars" type discussions, I'm not terribly excited about the direction that Apple has taken their products lately, so I have to figure out where my exit point for the Apple ecosystem is gonna be. This is looking like a pretty good jumping point..I'll report back in a few days. =)
Click to expand...

Futureman said:
You guys should just do what I did and keep your MBP and get a SP4 :)
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I've got an iPhone, iPad, rMBP, and now a SP4. The only way I'm super entrenched in the Apple ecosystem is with iOS apps. Other than that I use Office on my Mac and Surface and OneDrive to sync between the two. I use Adobe products like Dreamweaver on the Mac and Surface. I've found that both can co-exist in my life and I don't really feel like one ecosystem is fighting against the other.
 
Trying to use my SP4 at home as an HTPC via A/V Receiver -> Projector + Speakers is driving me fucking insane. Every time I plug it I get a different sound output, despite the sound panel showing the exact same setup.

Love it for work, but this is getting a bit ridiculous and I don't see any way of fixing this. Sometimes there's zero sound, sometimes sound comes only from the SP4, sometimes it's sound from both the SP4 and the speakers. The fuck.
 
Got the Shakes said:
I've got an iPhone, iPad, rMBP, and now a SP4. The only way I'm super entrenched in the Apple ecosystem is with iOS apps. Other than that I use Office on my Mac and Surface and OneDrive to sync between the two. I use Adobe products like Dreamweaver on the Mac and Surface. I've found that both can co-exist in my life and I don't really feel like one ecosystem is fighting against the other.
Click to expand...

Economics, player...only room in the budget for one of them.
 
Anyone got the SP4 to boot from PXE or USB? Trying to get Win10Enterprise on it so I can actually use it for work, but the damned thing just won't boot from any USB device.

Edit: got it to boot from USB when reformatting it to fat32. Still can't get my USB Ethernet adapter (Dlink that's worked fine on the Surface pro 2) to work tho.
 
Paganmoon said:
Anyone got the SP4 to boot from PXE or USB? Trying to get Win10Enterprise on it so I can actually use it for work, but the damned thing just won't boot from any USB device.

Edit: got it to boot from USB when reformatting it to fat32.
Click to expand...

Yeah UEFI needs FAT32 to boot successfully, it's in the spec.

Paganmoon said:
Still can't get my USB Ethernet adapter (Dlink that's worked fine on the Surface pro 2) to work tho.
Click to expand...

The only fully supported USB Ethernet for PXE boot on Surface is the official one.
 
Yaari said:
Do all SP4's have backlight bleeding to some degree? Just want to know what I should do if mine were to have some when I receive it this Friday.
Click to expand...

Anecdotally, my work colleague has just initiated a return/refund/repurchase on his SP4 he received yesterday. He really likes the device but there are stuck pixels and the backlight bleed along the bottom is quite distracting unless the light is down low. He said he could probably live with it but why should he when he paid so much?

I'm still tempted but i'm happy with my Samsung Note at the moment but i do keep checking SP4 prices and looking for deals on SP3 Pro too.
 
Is there a fix for the fan yet?
My i5 kicks in when on Skype for example and doesn't stop till I shutdown. Not doing anything else on it.

Also how hot to backs get, any way to turn on the complex cooling system?
 
mulac said:
Also how hot to backs get, any way to turn on the complex cooling system?
Click to expand...
It's not a fix, but I often remove the keyboard and attach it backwards, so in tablet mode I am holding the back with a soft case instead of warm metallic feeling.
 
EdwardTivrusky said:
Anecdotally, my work colleague has just initiated a return/refund/repurchase on his SP4 he received yesterday. He really likes the device but there are stuck pixels and the backlight bleed along the bottom is quite distracting unless the light is down low. He said he could probably live with it but why should he when he paid so much?

I'm still tempted but i'm happy with my Samsung Note at the moment but i do keep checking SP4 prices and looking for deals on SP3 Pro too.
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Understandable. They cost a lot.

Here's my device. No dead pixels but some backlight bleeding. It doesn't bother me and it sounds to me like they all have it to some degree. I find much worse examples by just googling
The room was pitch black when I took this shot.

http://i.imgur.com/Sq94M2p.jpg
 
Backlight bleeding (specially from the lower portion of the screen) has been a problem since the first generation. I love the Surface range, but it blows my mind that Microsoft hasn't fixed that yet. It's so incredibly annoying, but specially for its price range.

Maybe one day we'll get an OLED display and forget about it...
 
Yaari said:
Do all SP4's have backlight bleeding to some degree? Just want to know what I should do if mine were to have some when I receive it this Friday.
Click to expand...

Mine had some along the bottom edge. Fortunately it had enough other problems that I barely even cared. (Just a hint of sarcasm)
 
Funky Papa said:
Backlight bleeding (specially from the lower portion of the screen) has been a problem since the first generation. I love the Surface range, but it blows my mind that Microsoft hasn't fixed that yet. It's so incredibly annoying, but specially for its price range.

Maybe one day we'll get an OLED display and forget about it...
Click to expand...

OLED would put this device on master class level. I already have SP3 so held on getting the SP4 but if the next version has OLED screen it will be too hard to resist.
 
Does anyone notice how much longer it takes for the surface to boot when you have the keyboard attached but folded back? It stays on the initial boot screen with the Surface logo for maybe 20-30 seconds instead of 5 seconds like normal.

Pretty annoying.
 
Stupid question, but how far does that kickstand go? There seems to be a lot of resistance in mine and I don't want to break the thing.
 
Yaari said:
Stupid question, but how far does that kickstand go? There seems to be a lot of resistance in mine and I don't want to break the thing.
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surface-pro-3-review-kickstand.jpg


It's supposed to have resistance so it doesn't collapse.
 
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