After going on vacation for a week and lugging around my huge and heavy HP laptop (that's not a dig against HP... I ordered a huge and heavy laptop on purpose), I decided it was time to sacrifice screen size and performance and get something smaller, lighter and more modern.
I decided I'd give the Surface Pro 4 a try and also see how I liked the Surface Book. Honestly, I came into this figuring I'd want the SB as it's more of a laptop and the SP4 is more of a tablet. The SB I purchased (from Amazon) was a certified refurbished model because I saved about $300. Unfortunately, the one I got didn't look like it had been refurbished... it just looked like a return. And it had some pretty severe problems. Fortunately, the return process was a breeze and I was able to order a new one that ended up being the same price as the refurb, so I'll still get to play around with it.
I was pretty disappointed... I came into this assuming I'd want the SB and was only testing the SP4 on a whim. So, I was stuck with the SP4 and my old laptop and I decided the best thing to do would be to pretend my old laptop didn't exist and use the SP4 exclusively when I wasn't at my desk.
My old laptop is a 17.3" laptop with an i7 quad-core CPU running at 2.2Ghz and has 8GB RAM. It also has a 2GB discreet AMD Radeon graphics card and can share another 4GB with the OS. I even installed an SSD for the operating system. In all, it's a great performer. So, moving to what I figured amounts to a glorified tablet, I was prepared for making some compromises.
Well, the SP4 made me look pretty stupid. This thing is incredible.
The first thing you'll notice is the packaging. It's sleek and designed to impress... and it does. Your first impression will be that this is going to be a wonderful experience.
Once you see the SP4 itself, you'll be more impressed. It's a very minimalist design, but it's gorgeous. And solid. It feels great in your hands.
The AC adapter itself even looks good. And one thing it has that I absolutely dearly love is a built-in USB port for charging an accessory. I had no idea how handy that would be. You know how sometimes there will be something incredibly minor and unimportant, but it makes you unreasonably happy? Like you're being stupid? Yeah.. that little USB port does that.
There's one thing everyone complains about, and rightfully so - the keyboard/cover is sold separately. I purchased this when I bought the SP4, so I had them the same day. But, you really, really do need it. And it's worth it - but, it would just be so much better if MS bundled it with the SP4.
Booting this up took no time at all and I could tell it was downloading and applying patches, but that was just due to notifications - the performance didn't suffer and you won't notice it.
The first thing I did was run some benchmarks and came away thoroughly impressed. You will be surprised at how fast this thing is. Granted, I got a model with the i7, but still - it's a just a tablet, right? No.. it's WAY more than that. Be prepared for this to perform better than your desktop.
I've owned several tablets and have always been left vaguely disappointed. It's kind of one of those things where you think it's kind of cool, and then just really wished you could find a use for it other than playing silly games. In general, tablets have always just sat around collecting dust.
One of my biggest frustrations with tablets in general is the lack of any kind of meaningful ability to use peripherals. I'm an IT guy and I need to be able to have a wired network adapter from time to time. And I need to have a serial adapter quite often. And I constantly need to be able to work with a flash drive. And there are other things that crop up when I'm troubleshooting a network or system.
Because this runs Windows 10 and has a USB port, I have all the flexibility I need. I finally found a tablet that is useful to me.
The display is beautiful. The colors are vibrant, and everything is crisp and sharp.
I also have the MS Arc Touch mouse (Surface Edition) and it's a great little addition to the family.
I haven't used the pen yet, so no clue how it performs.
I've read reviews where the SP4 got marked down for not being very well-suited for using it on your lap because of how the built-in stand works. Honestly, it does look like it would be pretty uncomfortable... I mean, it's a very thin piece of metal that looks like it would dig into your thighs. However, it doesn't. I mean, the SP4 is so light, there is no weight pressing down. I've used it on my lap quite often and you don't notice it's there.
My SB arrives tomorrow. It had better be something special. After having the SP4, I'm going to be pretty hard to impress.
| Standing screen display size | 12.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 2736x1824 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2736x1824 pixels |
| Processor | 3.4 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Wireless Type | 802.11abg |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 10 Hours |
