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

Status
Not open for further replies.
Left my SP4 in sleep mode for three hours from 100%
Down to 91%, so that's about 3% loss per hour.

.. actually it may have shut down in that time, I dunno, because when I hit the power button it had the SURFACE screen, though it went fast than usual.
 
Left my SP4 in sleep mode for three hours from 100%
Down to 91%, so that's about 3% loss per hour.

.. actually it may have shut down in that time, I dunno, because when I hit the power button it had the SURFACE screen, though it went fast than usual.
The default on battery power is to hibernate after 120 or 180 minutes of sleep (not at home to check).
 
Someone over on Reddit found that disabling Windows Hello significantly helps battery life in sleep mode. Would make sense as to why reviewers did not report these issues. Worth a shot I guess. Hoping a lot of these things are ironed out by the time my i7 arrives.
 
Save for some software bugs I'm hoping get cleared up, I'm enjoying this upgrade from my Surface Pro 3. I'm using this as a laptop AND desktop replacement. I game on my consoles these days, so I'm not concerned with gaming on this machine at all.

Coming from my SP3, everything is snappier, faster, and I'm loving the Windows Hello and pen experience as well. The new Surface Dock is particularly great too, though I had an initial issue of my monitor not always showing up when everything was plugged in. I did an update for the system firmware and some Windows 10 cumulative fixes, and so far so good.

The power of this system for Multitasking is what's most surprising though. For example, on one monitor I have the Watch ESPN app streaming, PowerPoint and Excel on my main monitor, and Word along with Outlook on my Surface's screen. Everything moves fluidly without a hint of stutter or lag.

Highly recommended from my perspective, and using the SP3 as any barometer, Microsoft will continue supporting this machine regularly with updates and optimizations. I'm not going to touch Microsoft Edge with a 10-foot pole until I read enough impressions indicating it's ready for primetime.

Below is my little setup, and this is the cleanest PC setup I've ever had. I feel like I'm in the future, where one device can morph into several different ones depending on what I need: Desktop, Laptop, Clipboard, Movie Player, etc.)

fsOywEa.jpg
 
Purexed said:
Purexed setup

This is a nice setup. I had thought about this. Seems like a good time to plunge in. MSFT should definitely run with this as the optimal windows 10 experience if they aren't already.
 
Save for some software bugs I'm hoping get cleared up, I'm enjoying this upgrade from my Surface Pro 3. I'm using this as a laptop AND desktop replacement. I game on my consoles these days, so I'm not concerned with gaming on this machine at all.

Coming from my SP3, everything is snappier, faster, and I'm loving the Windows Hello and pen experience as well. The new Surface Dock is particularly great too, though I had an initial issue of my monitor not always showing up when everything was plugged in. I did an update for the system firmware and some Windows 10 cumulative fixes, and so far so good.

The power of this system for Multitasking is what's most surprising though. For example, on one monitor I have the Watch ESPN app streaming, PowerPoint and Excel on my main monitor, and Word along with Outlook on my Surface's screen. Everything moves fluidly without a hint of stutter or lag.

Highly recommended from my perspective, and using the SP3 as any barometer, Microsoft will continue supporting this machine regularly with updates and optimizations. I'm not going to touch Microsoft Edge with a 10-foot pole until I read enough impressions indicating it's ready for primetime.

Below is my little setup, and this is the cleanest PC setup I've ever had. I feel like I'm in the future, where one device can morph into several different ones depending on what I need: Desktop, Laptop, Clipboard, Movie Player, etc.)

fsOywEa.jpg

Was this setup any worse with the pro 3 you had
 
Do you have HyperV enabled? That's causing flickering right now, so if you can live without it for the short term disable it until it's fixed.

I'm off to read about this, but do I need HyperV to run a couple of local virtual machines? I'm coming from a different environment and this is a new term for me. I'll be trying out Virtualbox first, but will likely pick VMWare.

Edi: Seems it's a silly question.. So apparently if Hyper-V was working properly I could use that instead of VMWare. I've got a bunch of virtual machines that were created with VM Fusion Pro so I need to figure out my options.
 
Has anyone tried returning something purchased from the Microsoft online store to a physical store? I just tried to return my Surface Pro 4 to the San Francisco store and the employee said since the purchase was from the online store it would take 5-6 weeks before I get my money back.
 
Finally caved, bought the low-end i5 model. Only awful thing so far is battery

Unplugged it at a full charge and it says 2 1/2 hours on battery saver. This can't be right.

Yeah, I just plugged mine in, but before it said 25% of battery (23 minutes) was remaining, which is insane.

How do I ensure all the updates have downloaded? Want to make sure it isn't causing the drain.
 
Finally caved, bought the low-end i5 model. Only awful thing so far is battery



Yeah, I just plugged mine in, but before it said 25% of battery (23 minutes) was remaining, which is insane.

How do I ensure all the updates have downloaded? Want to make sure it isn't causing the drain.

Go to settings and then updates and check it from there. I guess it's also downloading the firmware from Oct 23.
 
So I was sketching in Clip Paint Studio on my SP4.

Was using the eraser end of the pen (I love this) and then after I finished erasing... I instinctively brushed my hand against the screen to get rid of any debris.
... and then I realized what I had done, lol
 
I had a MacBook as well, the 9 hour estimate from Apple's page was very accurate for me. I get maybe 10-11 on an iPad, but very close to a MacBook. And notice it's not half of what's being advertised (like the Surface). MacBook Air gets even more. The MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro all run a full OS which according to you shouldn't be able to achieve the battery life of a iPad. Why can the MacBook and MacBook Air do that, and the MacBook Pro comes within an hour or two. But the SP4 due to its full OS can only get 5 hours max. I'm just trying to follow your logic.

Where exactly did I say that?
 
Man, so many problems with the type cover. I thought they would've all been sorted out since the Surface Pro 2, my last Surface, but I still get constant issues in which I have to re-connect it over and over or put it tot sleep to get it to work. Sometimes it's just certain keys that work, sometimes It's just the mouse not the keyboard, sometimes just the keyboard, etc. Soooo annoying :\ For the 5th generation device I thought it would be better...
 
Man, so many problems with the type cover. I thought they would've all been sorted out since the Surface Pro 2, my last Surface, but I still get constant issues in which I have to re-connect it over and over or put it tot sleep to get it to work. Sometimes it's just certain keys that work, sometimes It's just the mouse not the keyboard, sometimes just the keyboard, etc. Soooo annoying :\ For the 5th generation device I thought it would be better...

Did you get a new device, or just a new type cover? I haven't experienced this at all.
 
All models except i7 now showing as shipping on 12th November in the uk. Also PC world are shown the same date for hopefully retail availability. I might wait for John Lewis to get them in as they offer a 3 year warranty free. Ms doing a trade-in offer as well - £100 off if you trade in an old OG pad, or £150 for a surface RT (amongst others)

Wonder if they'll have any bundle deals or 10% off before the end of the year?
 
I found with the surface pro 3 that being in tablet mode made the battery last a lot longer than desktop depending on what you are doing app wise.
 
It might take a while for Windows to properly get the battery info. I've found Windows 10 is really bad at calculating battery life so far.

It's not bad, it just calculates remaining power based on how much you consumed in the last five to ten minutes. Which can be irritating at times, I've had the same problem.
 
People with battery draining issues should try to disable Windows Hello and see if it helps.

gonna do that....

Also I just changed it so hitting the power button puts the Surface into Hibernate. Takes a few seconds longer to start up but will be worth it if I'm not losing ~9% battery every hour while it's in my bag doing nothing.
 
Spent the weekend using Core i5, my thoughts so far

- Battery life was very all over the place. Appeared to improve once I got all the updates installed. Now Lasted pretty much all day Saturday, had windows hello enabled, kept wifi on in sleep, etc. In total I'd say about 6.5-7 hours. Still not close to the estimate, but pretty good for having streamed video and played games a bit during the day

- Fan only blowed while I downloaded a ton of games at the beginning (Steam, Battlenet, and Windows updates all simultaneously). Even then, it only came on for a bit.

- Experienced some video tearing/flickering via the Hulu app, but not when streaming through Chrome

- Was unable to properly use keyboard when waking from sleep once, worked after restarting.

-Windows hello works crazy well. Was not convinced since I tried face unlock when Android first launched it and it didn't work well.

Overall happy with the device, battery life is the only major downside right now.
 
Well I bought an i5 yesterday, and while installing Visual Studio I got a notification in the notification center saying there was a hard drive failure and I had to restart. Upon restarting it took about 30 minutes to see anything, then once I got the password screen and entered my password it would just see a flickering screen then nothing. Just a blank, back-lit screen.

I left it alone over night and this morning I finally got to sign in and see something, although now I can do anything in Windows. I can't open the start menu or any Windows features at all.

I really don't feel like driving to the MS store tonight, and I also have no desire to own a Surface anymore. What a horrible first experience :( I hope they give me a refund.
 
Just bought the i5 8gigs Ram 256SSD model the other from the MS Store with the essential bundle. Traded in my aging laptop and picked it up.

I am in freaking love with it! I am using the pen very frequently, which I am surprised that id do for daily browsing tasks

And even better incipio will be releasing actually good cases for it within the next few weeks. Ones that incorporate the stand into the case it seems as well.
 
Even though I've been complaining about the battery loss during sleep, I want to state that I LOVE my Surface Pro 4. I'm a digital artist and the pen is lovely, definitely improved in my view over the Pro 3 pen.

So I just tried Hibernate when hitting the power button. Typically I'm losing 8-9% per hour battery when in my bag at work. Just did hibernate for the past hour and.... from 9:15 AM to 10:15 AM it stayed at 87%!

Problem solved.
 
Well I bought an i5 yesterday, and while installing Visual Studio I got a notification in the notification center saying there was a hard drive failure and I had to restart. Upon restarting it took about 30 minutes to see anything, then once I got the password screen and entered my password it would just see a flickering screen then nothing. Just a blank, back-lit screen.

I left it alone over night and this morning I finally got to sign in and see something, although now I can do anything in Windows. I can't open the start menu or any Windows features at all.

I really don't feel like driving to the MS store tonight, and I also have no desire to own a Surface anymore. What a horrible first experience :( I hope they give me a refund.

Would you do this/feel the same way if it was an iphone/apple product?

Everyone gets a DOA product eventually or sometimes. You shouldn't be discouraged and return it before you can potentially use it.
 
Even though I've been complaining about the battery lose during sleep, I want to state that I LOVE my Surface Pro 4. I'm a digital artist and the pen is lovely, definitely improved in my view over the Pro 3 pen.

So I just tried Hibernate when hitting the power button. Typically I'm losing 8-9% battery when in my bag at work. Just did hibernate for the past hour and.... it stayed at 87% battery!

Problem solved.

Hitting power button puts in hibernate?


J hate putting things in sleep, so I have been shutting it down after using it.

Secondly go into privacy settings and turn off programs you don't frequently use that are allowed to run in the background.

Aka maps and other things.
 
Hitting power button puts in hibernate?


J hate putting things in sleep, so I have been shutting it down after using it.

You have to go into the Control Panel and choose what pressing the power button does. I chose the hibernate option as well and it seems to solve a lot of problems just putting it to sleep caused. Also changed the closing the lid setting to hibernate as well.
 
You have to go into the Control Panel and choose what pressing the power button does. I chose the hibernate option as well and it seems to solve a lot of problems just putting it to sleep caused. Also changed the closing the lid setting to hibernate as well.
Thanks! I will change the settings to that for sure. I did not know I could do that.
 
I know the Surface isn't a gaming device, but it would've been great if they somehow managed to include the receiver for the Xbox One controller.

The official dongle is huge.

pUnjUfD.jpg


https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/7493/xbox-one-wireless-adapter-for-windows

Yeah I have one and it is massive, even hooked up to my gaming PC. I just picked up my SP4 over the weekend and haven't had much time to mess around with it yet. I'm torn whether I want to have the massive adapter sticking out of it or to just connect the controller via a micro usb cable.
 
Hibernate for 3 hours now, I've checked every hour, and I've only lost 1% battery. MS should make this the default setting until they can come up with a competent sleep mode.
 
I've not been following this release. What has been the general user reaction to it? Vey good, mixed or negative?

Thinking of selling my Macbook Pro and iPad.
 
I've not been following this release. What has been the general user reaction to it? Vey good, mixed or negative?

Thinking of selling my Macbook Pro and iPad.

Do you feel like going from having the best device of each class to a master of none hybrid with the added bonus of hardware / software issues just so you can use one device instead? If so sign up!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom