Get Surface Pro 4 or wait for Surface Pro 5 or iPad Pro

[GOG]

One of my main purpose for the tablet is do note taking and reading without having to recharge during the day. Based on the reviews, SP4 can't last 7 hrs (including sleep+ serious work). So it completely fall out of requirement.

How much improvement do you guys think future firmware update will bring?

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

They have been making improvements and though it still isn't where some people would like it to be I can get more than 7 hours frequently. My low has been 5 hours and my high is around 10. If you plan to wait for the Pro 5 it may be quite a wait and you would be missing out on what I feel is a fantastic product.

 

[GOG]

Welcome to the forum

They have been making improvements and though it still isn't where some people would like it to be I can get more than 7 hours frequently. My low has been 5 hours and my high is around 10. If you plan to wait for the Pro 5 it may be quite a wait and you would be missing out on what I feel is a fantastic product.

Thanks for your input. I hear conflicting result on how i7 vs i5 perform in terms of battery life. Some say i7 would re-scale itself to i5 life if you do i5 level of work. On the other hand, online reviews show even by idling: i5 have better battery life than i7. Do you know what's going on?

 

[GreyFox7]

Which model do you have? It's had to predict what improvements MS will make however alternate power profile configuration can increase battery life with corresponding drops performance.

 

[GOG]

Which model do you have? It's had to predict what improvements MS will make however alternate power profile configuration can increase battery life with corresponding drops performance.

I am looking at the two models: i5/8GB/256GB and i7/8GB/256GB.

 

[leeshor]

It would make sense, everything being equal, which it rarely is, that the i7 would consume more battery, at least a little. It really all depends on the apps and how you use them along with other tweaks. In a pinch I've been able to get 10 hours from my SP4. But like I said, no 2 people will likely have the same results.

 

[GreyFox7]

So reading would be PDFs? and Note Taking in OneNote with the Pen or Keyboard? Just trying to determine typical usage. If you're doing the same work now can you describe it?

 

[jnjroach]

Another option is the Surface 3 which gives much better battery life.

 

[GOG]

So reading would be PDFs? and Note Taking in OneNote with the Pen or Keyboard? Just trying to determine typical usage. If you're doing the same work now can you describe it?

Yes. I will be reading PDFs and taking notes with the pen. At the moment, I am reading PDFs using my laptop. But my laptop has poor battery life. It's why I am looking at surface pro to begin with.

 

[GOG]

Another option is the Surface 3 which gives much better battery life.

It's appealing but it only has 128 memory and it's pretty slow. Wouldn't iPad Pro be better?

 

[sharpuser]

Actually, for the money, a Surface Pro 3 with a Surface Pro 4 Type Cover / fingerprint reader and Surface Pro 4 pen is a great combination.

I have a Surface Book on the other side of the room I'm in right now. But I have this trusty little fantastic Surface Pro 3 getting my attention - typed this on it.

 

[leeshor]

It's appealing but it only has 128 memory and it's pretty slow. Wouldn't iPad Pro be better?

You are talking about 2 totally different platforms. If the iPad Pro will do everything you need then maybe that's the way to go. 128GB of storage isn't that bad when you have the cloud and a microSD card to add to it. Anything with a microSD card has an infinite amount of available storage.