Let me be real clear. I was not in favor of taking a replacement. The Microsoft store manager and techie were the ones that suggested it. They pushed it and even said the issues are not normal and should not occur on the SP4. I even showed the techie how to reproduce display driver crash....on an out of the box unit.
Convince me to buy the SP4 despite so many issues
- Thread starter jtcb
- Start date
Let me be real clear. I was not in favor of taking a replacement. The Microsoft store manager and techie were the ones that suggested it. They pushed it and even said the issues are not normal and should not occur on the SP4. I even showed the techie how to reproduce display driver crash....on an out of the box unit.
Foreverseeking
Member
lol, fair enough, sorry I didn't want to be accusative. Guess they really believe in the product, and can not believe that there may be general bugs in the system. I'm interested to see if todays update will increase stability of the system overall.
I am a SP fan.... love the product.... just do not understand how they can let these type of issues plague the product. I guess that is why I am not in sales
Jahx
New Member
Received mine today. (i5/8gb/256gb, which seems to be the most common configuration for productivity users) I updated it until it was unable to find any more updates. This took a bit. I made sure the battery was at 100%, brightness at 25% (I must be in some sort of minority, despite abysmal eyesight, indoors that is just right for the brightness level), cranked up an RDP session, half a dozen work related tabs on edge, outlook, and netflix - it indicated 9 hours and 20 minutes, I'm letting it run down to see how close that falls. This far no issues, no crashes etc, just buttery smooth performance and the sort of quality that inspires confidence. Here is to hoping nothing arises!
(Added bonus - connected to an external monitor via dp to dl-dvi adapter with no issues)
(Added bonus - connected to an external monitor via dp to dl-dvi adapter with no issues)
Some of the bugs which are happening will happen across all Skylake and W10 devices to varying degrees, so they're not unique to the SP4. But the SP$ has several common issues including poor microphones, boot failures if the keyboard is attached in certain orientations, screens which don't wake from sleep, Connected Sleep (aka "you can set it down and come back months later with no battery drain) which actually loses between 1 and 10% of the battery charge _per hour_, connectivity problems with some dock hardware, etc. Most of these have work-arounds, or may not matter to some people at all.
The reasons you want a SP4 don't really mesh with what the SP4 is good at, and I would tell you to get a less expensive laptop. Here's why: At the very top of your list for "why you want a SP4" should be
(a) You must have a digitizer/pen interface
(b) You value lightweight and portability above all else
Those are the strong suits of the SP4. If you eliminate those two items, there are several less expensive machines with better battery life, or bigger screens, connectivity options (SD/USB/HDMI/etc).
If you just want it for the shiny, you might be disappointed with the rough-around-the-edges software. If you aren't interested in spending hours online searching for work-arounds and fixes, it's probably not for you (though that may be true of Windows 10 in general, tbh). BUT - if you want the lightest full-pc on the market that has amazing color, great pen interface, and tablet functionality then this will probably serve you well.
The reasons you want a SP4 don't really mesh with what the SP4 is good at, and I would tell you to get a less expensive laptop. Here's why: At the very top of your list for "why you want a SP4" should be
(a) You must have a digitizer/pen interface
(b) You value lightweight and portability above all else
Those are the strong suits of the SP4. If you eliminate those two items, there are several less expensive machines with better battery life, or bigger screens, connectivity options (SD/USB/HDMI/etc).
If you just want it for the shiny, you might be disappointed with the rough-around-the-edges software. If you aren't interested in spending hours online searching for work-arounds and fixes, it's probably not for you (though that may be true of Windows 10 in general, tbh). BUT - if you want the lightest full-pc on the market that has amazing color, great pen interface, and tablet functionality then this will probably serve you well.
Jahx
New Member
"The reasons you want a SP4 don't really mesh with what the SP4 is good at, and I would tell you to get a less expensive laptop. Here's why: At the very top of your list for "why you want a SP4" should be
(a) You must have a digitizer/pen interface
(b) You value lightweight and portability above all else
Those are the strong suits of the SP4. If you eliminate those two items, there are several less expensive machines with better battery life, or bigger screens, connectivity options (SD/USB/HDMI/etc). "
A lot of truth in this. You can get a more powerful ultrabook for less money. I justified buying one because my consumption device (A lenovo Miix 8) died at the same time as laptop. I replaced two devices with one, although to be fair, I could have saved money by buying a new ultrabook and an atom tablet, although my media device would be much less powerful.
(a) You must have a digitizer/pen interface
(b) You value lightweight and portability above all else
Those are the strong suits of the SP4. If you eliminate those two items, there are several less expensive machines with better battery life, or bigger screens, connectivity options (SD/USB/HDMI/etc). "
A lot of truth in this. You can get a more powerful ultrabook for less money. I justified buying one because my consumption device (A lenovo Miix 8) died at the same time as laptop. I replaced two devices with one, although to be fair, I could have saved money by buying a new ultrabook and an atom tablet, although my media device would be much less powerful.
Yeah, I'm amazed at the number of Mac converts (or attempted converts) on r/surface. The two machines (surface/mbp) are such wildly different machines for wildly different purposes. They CAN be used the same way, but the SP4 will always be inferior to a dedicated laptop that weighs twice as much if you'll never use a pen or touch.And if you have to have pen/touch input, there isn't a single OSX product out there...so there's no sense in even making the comparison. It's like comparing a convertible coupe to a minivan. You will never be able to put the top down on a minivan, and a coupe will never seat 7. Both are the perfect vehicle for certain, disparate, situations/needs/wants.
I'm one of those noobs that joined this forum in hopes of learning to love my SP4, in spite of it's blemishes. I'm not a native Windows user. I'm an Apple guy. I came over to Windows because I need a tablet running a full OS with pen input. After 30 years of computing, I have tendon issues that prevent me from using a mouse without extreme pain.
The first reason to consider SP4 is the pen interface. The second reason is it's ease of use as a tablet and/or a laptop. Productivity and content consumption are not mutually exclusive. You can do both with the Sp4 and do them well, in my opinion.
In the end, no one here can know if the SP4 is a good fit for you. Only you can answer that question and you do that like the rest of us... buy it...try it...and decide to keep it or return it based on your personal computing experience. Best wishes...
The first reason to consider SP4 is the pen interface. The second reason is it's ease of use as a tablet and/or a laptop. Productivity and content consumption are not mutually exclusive. You can do both with the Sp4 and do them well, in my opinion.
In the end, no one here can know if the SP4 is a good fit for you. Only you can answer that question and you do that like the rest of us... buy it...try it...and decide to keep it or return it based on your personal computing experience. Best wishes...
mikeheel
New Member
I've read the issues. Fortunately, I have escaped real issues thus far. Worst I've had is a video driver error a few times, but it never affected anything more than 1-2 seconds, if that. I have had mine for a week. Downloaded updates immediately. Also hit the updates yesterday as soon as they were out. Also downloaded better antivirus and shut down Windows Defender.
My impression so far: this thing absolutely rocks. I have an iPad mini, a first-gen Surface Pro, MBA, and ASUS laptop, and a Lenovo Miix 8. I'm also a bit of a geek and am usually the first person friends and family call for "tech support," although that is not my career field.
A few positives:
My impression so far: this thing absolutely rocks. I have an iPad mini, a first-gen Surface Pro, MBA, and ASUS laptop, and a Lenovo Miix 8. I'm also a bit of a geek and am usually the first person friends and family call for "tech support," although that is not my career field.
A few positives:
- Speed. I have the fairly popular i5 256GB/8GB version. It absolutely screams on virtually every task. Our IT guy loaded a few things on it for me at the office and was seriously impressed, and - as with most IT folks - he tends to be wary of new tech.
- Screen - Gorgeous. The tactile sensation is tremendous. But even more than that, the colors and resolution are just better than almost anything else out there.
- Portability - I actually first purchased the Surface Book, but I decided I preferred the SP4 due, in part, to how portable it is. It's quite an amazing thing to have a fully functioning high-end computer in a tablet.
- Function - As noted above, I have other devices I tend to use for consumption. The SP4 does those things well, too. On top of that, it is an excellent Win10 device.
- Keyboard - The new keyboard is incredible and is better than 90% of the laptop keyboards out there, IMO. The trackpad is better than the trackpad on about 99% of Windows laptops.
- Apps - While you can happily run any actual program out there, Windows still has not-so-great apps. I didn't buy this to play games on, though, so I'm quite content with that trade-off. Not everyone will be.
- Battery life - Battery life is ok, but I've been spoiled by the MBA and Miix 8, which both have tremendous battery life. It hasn't left me dry yet, but I have tempted fate with late-night use a time or two already.
- Reported driver and video issues. Fortunately, I have avoided these problems entirely to this point. MS has a history releasing products ahead of schedule and then patching them. They seem quicker about the fixes this time, and I'm quite satisfied in this regard.
I can't recommend the SP4 at this point. I've had a bunch of issues, starting with the fact that it takes about 2 minutes to boot if I have the keyboard connected. I also get the driver crash, periodic full crashes and the battery only lasts around 5 hours. Plus, the pen stopped opening OneNote. Worst of all is the MS support - I've spent many hours trying to fix this thing. They're horrible and every time I start from scratch. They still haven't figured out how to assign my Surface Complete the my replacement unit, after many calls. oh and the display driver just crashed while writing this
Precisely why this Apple guy (me), who never thought he'd come back to Windows, came back. The SP4 offers me something Apple can't. I was holding out for the iPad Pro until it was confirmed to be running iOS. I need a pen/touch interface with a full OS. Exactly what SP4 was designed to be.
The SP4 is a home run. Not an automatic home run but one that will prove itself to be a winner once the software issues are resolved.
