MicrosoftSurface Pro 4 (256 GB, 8 GB RAM, Intel Core i7e)

Unfortunately I received this device without pen

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.

The surface pro 4 is a fast laptop; not a tablet.So far I like this device; I can't say I love it, but I already got used to it and I feel comfortable.The price is not bad by the way; at first I thought it was an expensive product. But if you look other products of similar caliber out there; you will find more expensive ones and some even have less to offer. You are technically just paying for the brand (hint: apple's new line of laptops, bear with me because I cannot say brand names here) not to name bunch of other brands that offer similar specs at very similar price, or even more expensive.Saying this let me list some of the pros and cons of the Surface Pro 4Pros:- It is super portable and versatile; I literally use it as my notebook to take notes for College Chemistry class. It is easy to detach the keyboard and convert it to a writing or reading platform.-It is fast!! Fast is what I like. Meaning; it loads fast when it wakes up and even at startup. It loads programs and apps fast. That's why I said is a fast laptop (I explain, why laptop later)-Battery life is good. Before you shoot me for saying this it really depends on how you view the SP4. As I said, I look at it more like a laptop than a tablet. And you know that most laptops out there Achilles' heel is their battery life. By the way is good to note that microsoft advertises the SP4 as having 10 hours of video streaming battery life; that is just not true.-Sometimes I use it as a tablet, something you cannot really do with other laptops; however, still it just doesn't feel like a real tablet. If I would have to do a rating of top 10 best tablets, the SP4 would not be in that list. But by saying that sometimes I use it as a tablet, like when my tablet has 0% charge for example, just shows how far the SP4's versatility can reach.-Has great audio and decent volume-Elegant designCons:-It has some bugs. I don't know if this has to do with the surface, or windows 10 or both; but it definetely has some bugs that I can live with; but I would like this device even more if those bugs were fixed. To name two for example. Google's chrome recent list when you right click on the icon doesn't work; it works for a while at the beginning, but then it stops working for ever and never comes back again, so everytime I right click the google chrome icon I don't even get a list of options. I had to deactivate that setting "show recently openned items in jump lists..." so that the right click on chrome would work.-Another bug is the surface pen. Everytime after the SP4 wakes up from sleep and I click the cap to open OneNote; it doesn't work. I try pressing for 30 seconds to re-syncronize and still doesn't work. It just works when it feels like. Microsoft that's something you guys defenitely need to fix.-Another bug is the Groove app for music; sometimes the music is playing but the loading icon keeps showing and you are unable to see the song's time.-SP4 still running while in sleep mode when it is plugged in. Yes! The SP4 actually still runs while in sleep mode; only when plugged in however; you will actually hear the fan running very fast. And thank god is only while plugged in; because if this problem also happened while in sleep mode and not plugged in I would have returned it already and rate it 1 star. To remedy this problem I reduced the hybernate time after sleep mode from "never" to "3 minutes" while plugged in. When it is not plugged in I left that setting at 2 hours.-Lack of apps. That's why this device falls even more under the category of laptop and not tablet. A tablet with no apps or very few apps is just not a tablet; period.Overall the surface pro 4 deserves a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. It is a good device and offers some nice and cool features, but is not the best thing ever either.Would I recommend it? Yes, if you are a student and need something portable and versatile for your college needs. I suppose is good for the office too. Game-wise; I saw some videos on YouTube that this devices performs fine on games that require a lot of GPU power too. I haven't try it myself though.

This would be a 5 star product for me except for the fact that after about 4 days use the screen kept going blank when I was on the internet or watching a "live chat" presentation. The only way to get it to work again was to hold the on/off button down until it turned off and then re start it. Needles to say this is unacceptable for any computer, much less a new $1500 one. I also noticed that when this was happening the back seemed hot and the fan was running continuously. I thought that maybe it was a one time deal, but it continued to occur so I decided to return it to Amazon.I have re-ordered another unit in hopes that I just got a bad one because I really like the size, weight and how it fits my needs. Let's hope the next one works.It's now march 27, 2016. I sent back my first Pro 4 and at the same time ordered another one so now I have $3000.00 tied up on my credit card. Anyway the second computer came in a couple of days so I went about setting it up again. This is the part I hate the most about changing computers. There is so much stuff to transfer and programs to load it gets annoying. Before I go on I should say that once Amazon received the first computer back, it took only a couple of days for the credit to show up on my cc account. So, good job on that Amazon.Now this computer is working great. I had a couple hiccups setting it up but I don't know if that was me or the computer. It locked up a couple of times and wouldn't recognize the keyboard but since then it is working great. I have done a few things on Photoshop and Lightroom and it does get warm on the back and the fan runs a lot, but it has handled everything I have done so far. The screen is a little smaller than I like for photo editing, but it works ok. I can attach it to my desktop monitor if I need to. The previous computer got really hot on the back side when streaming a video and then eventually the screen would go black and the only way to get going again was to reboot. I have streamed numerous videos and this one only gets warm in the back, so I have to think that something was not right internally on the first one.As far as usability, I love this thing. It is half the size of my Asus laptop and does everything it did and it is so much easier to transport. I love the tablet feature too. I have been using an Ipad mini and now I'm in love with the bigger screen of the Pro 4. I haven't used the pen function too much yet, but think that the drawing feature will prove valuable especially for my RV travel blog. I bought the extra surface dock and it is working out ok as I have two portable hard drives with photos attached to it.I am totally satisfied with this product and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a truly portable device that can actually replace your laptop. If I could, I would give it a 4.5 and not a 5 only because of the fact that it does appear that there are some bad units in circulation and the fact that I did have a few hiccups on setup causing the keyboard to lock up when coming out of sleep mode.

The Surface Pro 4 falls short of greatness - that about sums it up! The SP4 is a brilliantly engineered piece of hardware, however, there are most definitely quality control problems and bugs that should have been caught before release. I've been working in IT for 15 years and I can honestly say, I would NOT recommend the SP4 to anyone (yet!).Here's my experience: The first SP4 I received was DOA - I was really bummed when I couldn't even get it to power up (even after charging for an hour and following the "two button" shutdown procedure in an attempt to resuscitate it). I took the dead SP4 to the closest Microsoft Store here in Atlanta and they swapped it, no questions. The 2nd SP4 I received had a 3" wide yellow tinted "band" running from the top to the bottom of the screen, just slightly to the right of the center of the screen - it was particularly obvious when viewing a window with a white background. From what I understand, this sort of thing is not uncommon - and can be due to the adhesive between the screen and top glass not having enough time to cure. In any event, with the amount of $$$$ paid, it was time for another trip to the Microsoft Store. They swapped it out again, but the store manager was a bit reluctant after 3 employees said they couldn't see anything wrong with the screen - which admittedly, in a brightly lit retail store, it's difficult to discern the difference, but moving a window from left to right across the screen plainly shows the issue. SO, the 3rd SP4 is much better in this regard, it still has a bit of a yellow tint on the far right hand side of the screen about 3/4" wide - I'll give it a bit of time to see if it improves, but it doesn't bode well (the third time is not the charm here...). The other disappointment with the screen is with the amount of backlight bleed at the top and bottom edges - it's not a new problem as it was present on several SP3s I've worked with but it's definitely more pronounced on the SP4, particularly when booting up and on mainly black/dark images (movies). While working in Windows, it's generally fine, just be aware - some have speculated this is due to switching over to IGZO screen technology.Aside from the screen issues I encountered, the hardware itself is amazing - the i7 is very fast and runs much cooler than its predecessor, the fan doesn't run as often, backside doesn't get as hot and it's not nearly as obnoxious as the fan in the SP3. Windows Hello logon with the built in infrared camera is wonderful. The speakers sound as good as the SP3. The magnetic pen mount on the left side is handy. The new Type Cover is a pleasure to use. The thinner chassis is nice, but probably not worth the reduction in battery size. The one glaring problem is that sleep (Connected Standy, Instant Go, whatever you want to call it) arrives in a broken state and won't be fixed until after the 1st of the new year (at least according to Microsoft). The fastest and easiest way to deal with it until Microsoft releases a fix is to disable Connected Standby in the registry (Google it - it's really easy) - once disabled, the SP4 hibernates instead - easy workaround and doesn't kill the battery. The new NVMe SSD (from Samsung) boots/resumes plenty fast, so it's not a hardship, just a very minor inconvenience. Many of the current software/driver issues stem from Intel and their new Skylake platform - as this is cutting edge technology, it's not surprising (but it is disappointing).Hope all of that info helps someone out! Here's to Microsoft and Intel getting their act together quickly!

I'm a college student who commute to campus so I was really looking for a device that would fit my needs as a student while being portable, thin, and light. The Surface Pro 4 checked all those requirements. The first thing you'll notice about this is how beautiful it is. The magnesium alloy not only looks good, but feels amazing in the hand. The device itself is light and feels great holding it as a tablet. Even with the type cover attached, the weight is still very much manageable. The screen is among the best out there, bright, sharp, and very color accurate. The device is fast enough for your daily needs and more. Don't let its size fool you. This device is more than capable enough of doing what you need to accomplish. You can even play some light games on here if you want to. Windows Hello on here is super accurate and fast. Don't bother buying the type cover with the fingerprint reader. Facial recognition to unlock is just as good. Tablet mode is superb, especially since i5 and i7 models include an excellent pen.Just a few downsides:-Windows 10 is still a little buggy on this device. Sometimes the camera will fail to start when using Windows Hello.-You only have one USB port on this device. That can cause issues when you want to use two USB ports at the same time. For example, I'm using a USB mouse but sometimes I want to plug in my flashdrive to transfer files. This means I have to take out my mouse to use my flashdrive which can be a pain. You can always use the type cover touch pad or a bluetooth mouse, or even just a buy a Surface Dock, but for the sake of convenience, I would have preferred Microsoft put in at least two USB ports on this device. A USB-C port would have been even better.-Battery is quite poor, especially on the higher end models with the i7, which I have. I average about 4 hours with normal use on this which is a big downside for someone who is on the go a lot and cannot plug the device on an outlet.But overall, I would recommend this to people looking for a laptop with an emphasis on portability and utility without sacrificing performance (if you think you won't have the cash to pay for a full price Surface Pro 5 which will come out soon, then get this)