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New Surface Pro (2017) Official Thread

convergent

Active Member
I have had the nSP for a few days now and wanted to exchange experiences with others here. As background, I bought a SP4 about a month before the new one was announced and returned it, so had some experience with it, but not a lot. I bought the i5/8G/256G model.

Pen - the new pen on the nSP feels much better to me than the SP4. It is very fluid and feels much more like a natural paper/pen experience. I intend to use OneNote with pen a lot, and for this purpose its improved over SP4 and the experience is great. Everyone seems to be testing for squiggly diagonal lines. I'm not seeing a problem with this. I tried about 100 lines and got a 2 to mess up... seemed like a glitch or something. But in normal use I've not had a problem with diagonal lines. So loving the new pen.

Keyboard - I don't see a big different from the old one in typing. The feel of it is kind of nice and soft when carrying it around folded up; but I think it will get dirty so time will tell. The good thing is it can easily be replaced. The one area I've had some trouble is the touchpad. It seems like its more hit or miss with me than the SP4. Not had enough experience to know if its just a bad unit, or retraining myself on it. Its not terrible, but have had a few cases that seemed like it wasn't synced with me.

Weight/Feel - It doesn't feel any lighter to me, which is not surprising. But a lot of people said it did, so wanted to share my opinion. It is more comfortable to hold in hand in tablet mode. I found that after a few minutes the SP4 was uncomfortable to hold... kind of cutting into the hands. The nSP I don't feel that way.

Speed - Seems plenty fast for what I'm doing... MS Office, Firefox, Lightroom, etc.. I'm not doing anything heavy duty. It is nice that there is no fan and is totally silent.

Heat - I have not really pushed it so far, but it seems to not get as warm as the SP4. I need to do some Lightroom rendering to verify; as that is probably the worst thing I do with it. So I don't know for sure on this yet.

Battery life - Seems like its getting much better battery life. It has a slider to emphasize battery life of performance and it seems to work fine on the most battery life setting. I have mostly had it on the one up from that though.

Windows Hello - For some reason this has been terrible. I've retrained it four times and it still fails 95% of the time. On the SP4, it was good 95% of the time. Hopefully this is just a firmware issue... I'm getting tired of using the PIN to get in.

Display - I don't see a big difference in the display from the SP4. One thing I have noticed is that there is some brightness switching that seems odd. When I'm in tablet mode and hit Start and then select all programs, the screen abruptly dims for no apparent reason. Doesn't seem like it should do that.

Ports - I'm happy with the ports the nSP has. I have no need for USB-C, and I do need DisplayPort and USB-A; so I'm not in the , no "USB-C, no way" camp.

That's all I can think of right now. I still haven't a lot of configuring and usage testing to do. I'm traveling tomorrow, so will give me a chance to try it out on a plane, in a several day meeting, etc..
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Making this thread the Official Thread until we get the new Forum. Please post Surface Pro 2017 Items Here for now...

Thanks,
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I'm using the i5/8/256 SP 2017 with the Cobalt Blue Type Cover which looks like the dark blue and dark teal Type Covers had a love child from the Gen4 devices :)

This one drives my 4K at 60Hz without issue and have had no issues.

I'm using the old pen as the new one was Out of Stack in out Business In Store Purchase. Inking is working well and smoothly.

Apps are running correctly, running Office 365 Pro Plus Insider Fast, Drawboard PDF mainly...

Here is my current setup docked at my desk:

20170619_104256.jpg
 

Exhile

Member
Nice setup jnjroach. You got the Surface dial, arc mouse, and natural keyboard altogether. The only thing missing is the pen.
 

Floswen

New Member
Hey guys, since you have the new Surface Pro (2017), could you do a little test for me please?

I would want to know if the Flickering Brightness issue has been addressed, or is it still present on the surface 5? If someone wants to try, it is very easy, go in a dark room, without any light at all, then set the brightness to 0%, then wait a few minutes.
The Sp4 in this situation was alternating between two level of britghness very quickly and it was very annoying...
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
My Surface Pro is back in the box now lol, until my Type Cover is delivered next week... can't be arsed using just half the experience! I'd rather wait and enjoy it altogether.

I must concur that Windows Hello seems terrible. I don't usually use any kind of log in credentials as it's only me that uses it at home! But thought I'd check it anyway, but that'll be promptly switched off for good!
 

Marcusf

New Member
Hi, I just recieved my new SP with i7 and it seem to be broken already, the fan is at Its maximum at all times. I installed Windows updates and tried to reinstall the computer. Do you know any solution to this or do i have to return it to where i bought it?
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you've got to return that... most of the reviews I read were sent the i7 model and they all posted positive comments about the fan hardly ever coming on!
 
OP
convergent

convergent

Active Member
Hi, I just recieved my new SP with i7 and it seem to be broken already, the fan is at Its maximum at all times. I installed Windows updates and tried to reinstall the computer. Do you know any solution to this or do i have to return it to where i bought it?

If you did a full reset (reload Windows 10 to out of the box state) and its still doing it, then it sounds like its hardware.
 
OP
convergent

convergent

Active Member
This is my setup. I use the SP for OneNote App pen notes, and also use the Windows 10 Email App there too, because I like to use it with touch. Everything else is on the big screen, which is an Asus 24" 4K. The nSP is tilted on the dock. Sometimes I flip it around and use it landscape mode too. The keyboard is a Logitech K810. The mouse is a cheap USB fob attached model, but I intend to get the new Arc mouse when its available to complete the package. Not sure why Microsoft doesn't also make a compact bluetooth keyboard.

On the right side of the desk I have another 4K display connected to a Mac Mini with keyboard and trackpad.




image1.JPG
 
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