Reviews

Review: Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Design, display, Surface Pen and Type Cover

Update: Microsoft has brought its Surface Pro 4 Type Cover with Fingerprint ID to the UK and Australia. Previously only available in the US, it lets you pay for things securely online and log into the machine with a finger press. Continue reading our Surface Pro 4 review below to find out more.

Plus, we have our very first hint toward a would-be Surface Pro 5. Read on for the latest.

Original review follows…

It’s almost as if Microsoft predicted that, if it was so very close to making good on its mission to overthrow the laptop with the Surface Pro 3, the firm would surely win it on the fourth go.

The proof? Almost every change about the Surface Pro 4 seems to subtly upgrade the existing blueprint. It’s iterative design executed nigh flawlessly.

From trimming the profile while upping the display size within the same frame to vastly upgrading the Type Cover through what look like minor improvements, Microsoft Devices team lead Panos Panay and his crew have clearly taken every bit of feedback to heart. And the result is Microsoft’s most refined piece of gear yet.

Recent developments

Despite crafting a downright top-of-the-line tablet, not all has been rosy for Microsoft and its fans lately. Take that, as of this writing, device owners are still citing issues in which the slate draws too much power while in sleep mode as an example.

Microsoft’s retort? Set them to hibernate when the power button is pressed until a fix comes through after the New Year. (Should be any day now, right?)

A new set of fixes for the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book arrived over a month ago (January 30), though none solved these power issues. What the patches manage to fix are issues with battery charging, 5GHz Wi-Fi reliability and throughput and keyboard cover detection, to name a few.

Kicking off 2016, the company started a free replacement program for AC power cords that had been reported to be a fire hazard. And now, despite its troubles, Microsoft’s Surface devices are the only 2-in-1s seeing strong shipments in a tablet market that’s been in better shape.

In fact, Microsoft cited “exceptional demand” as the main problem in getting certain Surface Pro 4 units out to customers in the UK when talking to CRN. (Plus, Microsoft’s dealing with a renewed uptick in demand from the US Department of Defense.)

Meanwhile, Microsoft has made good on another promise, releasing the 1TB models of its latest Surface devices for a fittingly mighty sum.

And now, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that the second wave of Redstone, the codename for the next major Windows 10 updates, could have been pushed as far as Spring 2017 to align with an upcoming hardware launch. So, it may be way longer than we anticipated before we see a fifth Surface Pro.

Finally, let’s discuss Microsoft’s winning hardware design already, shall we?

Design and display

Perhaps the most obvious way in which this year’s Surface Pro model is iterative is its looks. The same all-magnesium, unibody casing is still here, though the “Surface” logo has been replaced in favor of Microsoft’s new logo in chrome.

Microsoft managed to up the device’s screen size by a few hairs, from the 2014 model’s straight 12 inches to this year’s 12.3 inches, without affecting its footprint at all. That is, unless you count the Redmond firm shaving over half a millimeter off of its thickness, from 9.1mm to 8.4mm this year – all while maintaining support for full-fat mobile processors.

How did they do it?

For one, Microsoft’s product team decided it was time the capacitive Windows button said goodbye, especially with Windows 10 providing easy access to the Start menu, thus the extra room for that three tenths of an inch.

Secondly, the team managed to bring the display’s optical stack – the series of sensors, diodes and pixels beneath the glass – even closer to the glass this time around, a key point of Microsoft’s trademarked PixelSense screen technology. This helped the firm bring the slate’s thickness down by half a millimeter.

The idea here is to bring the sensor elements of the touchscreen as close to your finger or Surface Pen as possible, and it works awfully well. The display is incredibly responsive to touch, and the further sensitivity it brings to the stylus experience is huge. In tandem with the new Surface Pen, the screen detects 1,024 levels of pressure, even during a single stroke.

Now, let’s talk pixels. Even though it really didn’t have to, Microsoft went and boosted the Surface Pro’s resolution from 2,160 x 1,440 (216 ppi, or pixels per inch) in the old model to 2,736 x 1,824. That makes for a huge 267 ppi put forth by the Surface Pro 4, which blows its main rival, the MacBook Air (128 ppi for the 13-inch), out of the water and narrowly edges out Apple’s new, 12.9-inch iPad Pro at 264 ppi.

But more importantly, the new screen proves to be far more luminous and more color accurate than the Surface Pro 3 display at all brightness levels, as you can clearly see. That’s bound to be a key selling point for creative folks, namely artists and designers that have yet to leave the Wacom tablet and calibrated monitor combo behind.

For the rest of us, it simply means more realistic-looking movies and more vibrant photos and games. However, considering Microsoft kept to its rare 3:2 aspect ratio to best emulate the notepad experience for the stylus users, you’ll see even thicker black bars sandwiching your favorite films in 16:9 – and even more so for those in 21:9, or widescreen format.

It’s a fair concern for folks that watch plenty of movies and TV on a tablet. But fear not, workers, for you’re the very reason Microsoft made this decision. The 3:2 aspect ratio is wider and shorter than 4:3, but taller and slightly more narrow than 16:9, the most common aspect ratio for TV and desktop (and laptop) screens today. The result is a middle ground between the two that is ideal for both photo and design or drafting work, wherein 3:2 is much more common, as well as getting computational work done, given the extra vertical space.

Surface Pen and Type Cover

To best make use of that extra space, Microsoft has given its Surface Pen and Type Cover accessories some serious upgrades. In addition to the aforementioned 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, the new-and-included Surface Pen is redesigned to feel more like a pencil. The stylus now has one flat side, as if a Number 2 pencil had all but two of its angles rounded off.

The reason for this is two fold. For one, this stylus is even more comfortable to hold than the last as a result – your index finger rests just above the main function button on the flat end. Secondly, this surface (no pun intended) is coated with thin, powerful strip magnets that allow it to cling onto the tablet’s left side. The age of stylus loops is over.

The Pen also sports a new, and actually functional, eraser button up top that not only does what it says on the tin, but offers up three unique use cases. In addition to opening OneNote with a single press, the button now takes a screenshot and then opens OneNote with a double press. Finally, a long press summons Cortana to answer to your every whim.

Microsoft seems to have expertly weighted the Surface Pen to make it feel not much heavier than your average clickable pen, despite all of the tech inside. Plus, now that Microsoft offers additional pen tips right out of the box only sweetens the pot.

Coupled with Microsoft’s PixelSense display, the duo makes for the best stylus experience I’ve had on a tablet yet for as little as I’m wont to use it. Now, I’m no artist or designer, but between the superb palm detection and the accuracy and nuance of the Pen tracking, the Surface Pro 4 looks to have Microsoft’s best shot at luring in that crowd yet.

Sorry, artsy folk, but these improvements almost pale in comparison with the Redmond firm’s new-and-still-not-included Type Cover. This time around, Microsoft managed to greatly widen the spacing between the keys for a chiclet-style approach. What this does is make keeping track of which keys your fingers are on by feel much easier, and it allows for each key to be individually backlit.

The new Type Cover is also slightly thicker and far more rigid than before, allowing for deeper key travel and punchier feedback – not to mention a sturdier, quieter surface to type on – that brings it so much closer to the true laptop keyboard. Panay’s team also managed to widen the touchpad and coat it in glass rather than plastic.

These two huge improvements make a world of difference in answering the question of whether Microsoft’s tablet can replace your laptop. The Surface Pro 3’s keyboard cover was excruciatingly close to honestly providing a laptop-level typing experience. Now, the new Type Cover has all but closed that gap.

Microsoft upgraded the Surface Pro 4’s Type Cover with biometric functionality. The Surface Pro 4 Type Cover with Fingerprint ID has gone on sale in the US and Australia at a cost of £135 (around $192 or AUS$258). The new keyboard cover, which is only available in black, uses Windows Hello to login to the Surface with a fingertip press. The scanner can also authorise app purchases from the Windows Store, and because the keyboard is backwards compatible, it can be used with the Surface Pro 3 too.

Kane Fulton also contributed to this review

Specifications and value

With Microsoft so bullish on perfecting its vision of the tablet takeover, you better believe that the firm would stack it up against the inspiration for Ultrabooks, Apple’s MacBook Air, yet again. (Though, Microsoft seems to have dropped the iPad comparison altogether this time around.)

And unsurprisingly, as far as dimensions are concerned, the Surface Pro 4 is indeed more portable than the 13-inch MacBook Air, if only due to its smaller screen. Microsoft’s slate comes in at 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.33 inches (W x D x H), or 292.10 x 201.42 x 8.4mm, meanwhile Apple’s leading laptop measures 11.8 x 7.56 x 0.68 inches (32.5 x 22.7 x 1.7cm). Naturally, the Surface Pro 4’s 1.73 pounds (786g) is far lighter than the 2.96-pound (1.35kg) MacBook Air’s weight on your back.

Now, how about how Microsoft’s latest measures up against one of the best 2-in-1 laptops since, well, the Surface Pro 3? The 13.3-inch HP Spectre x360 measures a way beefier 12.79 x 8.6 x 0.63 inches (32.4 x 21.8 x 1.6cm) and weighs 3.26 pounds (1.47 kg). It’s just one of the cons with hybrids that go into it laptop-first.

Now, let’s see whether Surface Pro 4 can still play ball when it comes to value. Here’s the Surface Pro 4 configuration that Microsoft provided techradar for review:

Spec sheet

CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-6300U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 3GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
RAM: 8GB LPDDR3
Screen: 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824 PixelSense display (Contrast ratio: 1,300:1, 100% sRGB color, 10-point multi-touch, 3:2 aspect ratio)
Storage: 256GB SSD (PCIe 3.0)
Ports: 1x USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort, microSD card reader (UHS-I), headphone/mic jack
Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2 x 2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0 (Low Energy)
Cameras: 8MP rear-facing, auto-focus camera (1080p HD); 5MP front-facing, 1080p HD camera
Weight: 1.73 pounds
Size: 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.36 inches (W x D x H)

What you see here is the slightly-higher-than-mid-range version of the Surface Pro 4, which will set you back a cool $1,299 (£1,079, AU$1,999) – and that’s before picking up a $129 (£109, AU$199) Type Cover. That said, it would be smart to go with either this model or the one just below it, with the same Core i5 and half the RAM and storage, for $999 (£849, AU$1,499).

The entry-level Surface Pro 4 comes housing an Intel Core m3 processor, rather than the undoubtedly snappier, updated Intel Core i3 (it ran Haswell-generation Core i3 last year), and the same amount of storage and memory. Plus, at $899 (£749, AU$1,349), asks for $100 more than the baseline Pro 3 did at launch.

Frankly, it’s not a great value, and – oddly enough – Microsoft hides the option to purchase the Core m3 version outright behind a “Configure Your Device” button on its US web store.

But what about the Apple’s notebook? For the same price as the Surface Pro 4 configuration listed out above, you could get a 13-inch MacBook Air with a dual-core, 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 6000, 128GB of PCIe flash storage and 8GB of RAM.

It’s by no means an apples to apples comparison, of course. The Pro 4 has a 12.3-inch, Retina-rivaling touchscreen, while the MacBook Air has a barely HD, 13.3-inch touch-free screen. Apple’s laptop offers more ports and longer battery life, while Microsoft’s tablet comes with a stylus and rivals most Ultrabooks once its Type Cover is attached. I could go on.

Now, the Spectre x360 makes for an easier comparison, and on paper does seem to stretch your dollar a lot further. For the same price as the Surface Pro 4 unit in question, you could buy HP’s leading Ultrabook complete with a current, dual-core Intel Core i7 chip – not i5 – with Intel HD Graphics 520. This package matches the Surface for RAM and storage, meanwhile tripling its USB ports and claiming to last two hours longer on a charge.

Then again, it’s thicker, it’s heavier and is by no means could or should it be a tablet replacement in the way that the Surface Pro 4 can be a laptop replacement. As it turns out, the Surface Pro line still has so few, if any, worthy direct comparisons.

So, is the Surface Pro 4 worthy of opening your wallet? That’s a more difficult question to answer, because – from the new keyboard cover to the stylus improvements – everything that you can’t quantify about the device is exactly what makes it so worthwhile.

Performance and battery life

Focused a bit more on being a laptop-lapsing, portable productivity device than even before, it’s a bit easier this time around to compare the Surface Pro 4’s performance with some key rivals.

Since receiving a replacement review unit from Microsoft that I’m told is free of the battery issues that marred the first, the below numbers are closer to what you should experience with your own Surface Pro 4.

Benchmarks

3DMark: Cloud Gate: 5,873; Sky Diver: 3,673; Fire Strike: 856
Cinebench CPU: 305 points; Graphics: 37 fps
Geekbench 3 Single Core: 3,135; Multi-Core: 6,649
PCMark 8 Home: 2,406
PCMark 8 Battery Life: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Every performance score here, save for PCMark 8 Home, shows a minor increase from the first unit I tested. It’s a good sign that the Surface Pro 4 was already operating at its peak, and that only the battery needed fixing.

The Surface Pro 4 has bested the HP Spectre x360 in almost every test by roughly 25%, save for losing by a hair to the device in the PCMark 8 Home test. As for the 13-inch MacBook Air, its multi-core Geekbench 3 (which tests CPUs primarily) score of 5,768 is plenty short of what the Surface achieved.

But ultimately, don’t expect to see a major difference between how any of these three machines perform day to day, save for the MacBook Air that will last much longer on a charge. If anything, you might get slightly better frame rates out of games played on the Surface Pro 4 than on the Spectre x360.

For instance, the Pro 4 runs Hearthstone (my go-to tablet testing game) without a hitch on its highest settings, even at an automatically-applied, adapted resolution. Plus, the color-calibrated display makes every element on the game’s interactive game boards that much more distracting.

Battery life

Now tested on pre-production hardware that I’m promised has been scrubbed of its battery woes, the Surface Pro 4 produced far better battery life results than before. Unfortunately, they’re still well below not only Microsoft’s own claims, but what choice rivals are able to put up.

While arguably the most harsh battery test in our lineup, PCMark 8 Home Battery saw the Pro 4 last 3 hours and 15 minutes, a marked 50% increase from before. Still, the Spectre x360 held out in that test for 4 hours and 38 minutes.

Microsoft’s tablet fared much better on our video playback loop test, with a result of 5 hours and 15 minutes. That’s just shy of 45 minutes longer than the initial result, and enough to last you on a coast-to-coast US flight. (Both tests were conducted at 50% brightness and with all lighting and radios off save for Wi-Fi.)

In a somewhat similar test, the MacBook Air was able to stream 1080p video over Wi-Fi for a whopping 13 hours and 24 minutes. Though, that’s thanks in large part to a far lower-resolution display and likely a larger battery.

Regardless, Microsoft promises up to 9 hours of video playback on a single charge, and these numbers simply aren’t close to that. Sure, these figures are far better than last year’s Surface Pro 3, despite the serious screen resolution bump, which should not be overlooked. But they still can’t hold a candle to neither Apple’s leading laptop nor its top tablet – much less comparable Windows-running hybrids.

Longevity, or lack thereof, then is about the only thing about the Surface Pro 4 that’s holding it back from truly, honestly replacing your laptop – or at least your MacBook Air specifically. Otherwise, the machine offers somewhat below-average lasting power.

Bundled software

Being a Microsoft-built and sold device, the Surface Pro 4 doesn’t come with any shady third-party software. Every Surface unit from here likely until the end of time will come packing OneNote, Microsoft’s new-and-improved note taking app for use with the included Surface Pen.

Other than that, this review unit came with room made available for Flipboard and the New York Times Crossword puzzle app. You could delete those as soon as you boot up the Surface Pro 4 for the first time, or you could give them a try.

Repairabilty

When you splash out a big wad of cash on a device like the Surface Pro 4, it’s only natural to want to know if it can be busted open and repaired, should the need arise. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s tablet isn’t very repair-friendly, earning a lowly 2 out of 10 from iFixit.

The website pointed to difficulties removing the Surface Pro 4’s display and battery, which are both held down with “very strong adhesive”, making removal not only difficult, but downright hazardous. On the plus side, iFixit found that its SSD was easy to remove and replace.

Verdict

Iterative isn’t generally a word you exclaim or say with pride when discussing the latest entry in a series of video games, movies or especially tech products. But smart iteration is exactly what the Surface Pro 4 needed to finally make good on Microsoft’s mission that tablets can be laptops, too, and the firm delivered just that in spades.

We liked

What immediately comes to mind when thinking of the Surface Pro 4’s, well, pros, is the vastly improved Type Cover. Using the Surface Pro 3’s Type Cover and moving onto the new hotness truly is like night and day, not to mention seeing them side by side. Largely through the improved Type Cover, the Surface Pro 4 can finally offer a nigh laptop-grade typing experience.

The improved resolution and new optical stack technology, PixelSense, coupled with 100% sRGB color, makes for one of the best displays I’ve ever seen or touched on a tablet. It might not be the best for movies, but for those looking to get things done, this screen is cream of the crop.

We disliked

The fact that the Type Cover is still sold separately, not even as part of a bundle, sure makes the whole “tablet that can replace your laptop” spiel a harder pill to swallow. Sure, Microsoft likely will make a killing on individual retail sales from the diehard fans, but what about the average Best Buy shopper seeing this and left confused when they realize the “laptop” portion of the offering requires an extra 100 or so bucks.

Speaking of which, the Surface Pro 4 comes in asking for more and offering less in its entry-level model than last year, which will be tough to overlook for the budget conscious. The power gap between the Core m3 chip and the Core i5 is wide enough that I’d recommend you not bother with the former. Furthermore, even after testing an updated unit, the Pro 4 battery life leaves a bit to be desired – despite improving upon the previous model.

Final verdict

So, has Microsoft finally done it? That depends on how considerable of a compromise you consider “somewhat below average” battery life. If that’s about the only thing that Redmond’s mission rides on, with the typing, tracking and penning experience vastly improved, then I’d consider the fourth go at it so narrow of a miss that you might be able to pass it for everything it does so well.

Even more so than the version before it, I could easily see the Surface Pro 4 becoming my daily driver, not to mention my comic book reader and Hearthstone and mobile movie machine (I’ll deal with the black bars). And that’s despite the arguably middling battery life, considering the screen resolution bump. If it can last for a whole cross-country flight, then that’s enough for me.

Microsoft seems to have captured and applied the best definition of ‘iteration’ to almost every end of the Surface Pro 4, making it well worth the wait for creative professionals, students and everyday folks alike. Is this finally the tablet to replace your laptop? That’s still debatable, though the Pro 4 has surmounted more of what’s running against it than ever before.

Source: techradar.com

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Comments (25)

Glennie Keebler says:

March 8, 2016 at 10:57 pm

Microsoft customer service is horrible. Only worse experience you could experience is with Intuit. Next to Intuit, Microsoft looks like a champion, but that is only because Intuit is the most poorly run company on the planet by a landslide. Intuit is #1 on my list of most poorly run Fortune 500 companies. Microsoft #2. All airlines occupy my 3-10 spots on my top 10 list.

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Randy Kihn says:

March 9, 2016 at 12:00 am

It's extremely short sighted and naïve to tell everybody to avoid it just because you had problems. It really annoys me when people come up with that line. How would you like it if people were saying the same about your business just because there just happened to be a problem with a product or service your business offered? Things do go wrong, that's why we have warranties and consumer rights, otherwise they would not exist because they would not be necessary.
As for losing all your files, you run a business and don't have backups of your files? If that's the case it's almost criminal to blame somebody else for losing them.

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Amira Witting says:

March 9, 2016 at 12:33 am

I ordered the Surface Pro 4 with i7 & 16 gigs of ram. Sending it back after 3 weeks. What a p.o.s. this turd is. Crashes several times a day. No docking station, like they had for the Surface Pro 2. Processor is chasing it's own tail, constantly getting hot, causing the fan to kick in, machine starts hissing. Playing solitaire in airplane mode, battery is dead from full charge in under 2 hours. Only one USB port but I need two. Alt&tab causing me to hit tab twice sometimes but other times only once. Microsoft doesn't deserve my money. I have decided to continue running my business on the Surface Pro 2, which is good enough for that. For video processing, I intend to go buy an Apple machine and start the OS learning curve over completely. Microsoft: you guys are a bunch of idiots.

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Mrs. Malinda Stiedemann DDS says:

March 9, 2016 at 1:07 am

In my opinion, Microsoft really needs to focus on:

– A real battery that lasts a day of working (8~ actual hours of usage).
– A price point that is affordable (market share > profit, at least in the short/medium term!).
– Fewer moving parts like fans, hard drives, etc to improve reliability and reduce faults. When people are paying for a premium device, they want to know it will last and remain usable!
– Focus on improving the OS to a more stable and reliable version so that users have confidence in what the are using.

Extra power or more gadgets are not going to make me buy a Surface Pro 5, but the above certainly will!

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Pascale Berge says:

March 9, 2016 at 2:47 am

Had an SP3 that was pretty good but it got stolen. Waited for SP4 to replace it and had to return it. In addition to all the problems people have mentioned here (especially errors, lock-ups and very poor battery life), I felt that handwriting recognition (my favourite feature) works less well under Windows 10. I especially dislike the smaller input panel that can't be resized. From the volume of complaints online, I don't think these are isolated problems so l'm surprised (and disappointed) to read endless positive reviews online. They seem a bit misleading to me.

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Prof. Dayna Greenholt DDS says:

March 9, 2016 at 3:03 am

Not sure how a 1200+ device that it's sole exclusive purpose is portability gets about 3.5-4 hours of real life use on top of numerous other bugs and somehow manages to receives such high review scores. I'm beyond frustrated after spending this much money and getting average 3.5 hours of use out of it.

This review is disingenuous and downright misleading to people who are potentially looking to buy Surface Pro 4.

The only thing I'm thankful for is a 3 month return policy at Costco.

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Miss Sonya Blanda says:

March 9, 2016 at 3:24 am

Agreed. The price of the keyboard is ridiculous, but it wouldn't be such a point of contention if it was even half the price, and it still wouldn't be cheap at that. Let's not forget the Surface is a very expensive piece of kit to begin with, as good as it may be.

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Zackery Sawayn says:

March 9, 2016 at 4:11 am

Unfortunately for us, manufacturers think form > substance.

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Cesar Langosh says:

March 9, 2016 at 4:32 am

There is a huge population of people having these issues not just Theresa. She is just stating here experience and warning other of it so they can make their own decision.

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Destin Jakubowski says:

March 9, 2016 at 9:00 am

I've had a Surface pro 4, i7, 16GB, 512SSD for a few weeks now and am wondering if I've just wasted over AU$4,000 in buying it. As far as I am concerned it is close to unusable in the real world. The fan never stops running because the unit runs almost too hot to hold comfortably most of the time. I have the latest updates but CPU usage is almost always above 60% and often 90-100%. Because of the constant fan whine I cannot use a number of important apps that use recording because the fan whine masks the recording. These apps include Voice Recorder, Dragon Naturally Speaking, voice into OneNote, Cortana (I have to yell at it to hear!), video/sound recording, Skype conferencing, listening to music or watching video.Forget fancy specs and concerns about type covers – this fails on basic practical usability.

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Bonnie Roob says:

March 9, 2016 at 10:32 am

I work with the Geek Squad and We have seen a rash of these being returned lately all with hardware issues. Last 2 weeks alone we had to send out 5 with various hardware issues. This could be our store getting a bad batch but Im in a college town and students like me really enjoy the idea of a Surface, but the just don't survive long in the hands of most careless college students. I was really excited about purchasing the new Surface Pro 4 but have sense been soured by what I have seen happening to them. The Surface Book on the other hand has been fantastic!

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Loyce Wunsch says:

March 9, 2016 at 10:32 am

WORST PRODUCT EVER!!!!!! Run far, far away from this product! If you own it – return it!
I had a Surface Pro 3 for less than a year and it was malfunctioning and the Microsoft store couldn't fix it. Long story short they switched me into a Surface Pro 4 (I had to pay difference which I wasn't happy about because it was a huge inconvenience). I had the Pro 4 for not even two weeks when I started having problems with the screen freezing and going black when I was using the internet – not a bunch of pages, just checking emails. I had two lengthy phone calls in to their tech support. The first one because of the screen freezing and going black – which the tech couldn't resolve and didn't give me any sort of acceptable resolution. The second call was to try to deal with a now laptop not turning on but the keyboard being backlit like it was trying to turn on. It was sort of fixed but within a few days the laptop just wouldn't turn on any more at all. And I mean nothing, totally dead (and yes, the battery was charged). Took it to the Microsoft store and I was not surprised to see the large number of consumers all standing around waiting for tech support because everyone was having problems with their Surface Pro 4's. The guys beside me had even gone from a Pro 4 to a Surface Book and was in getting that replaced with a different Surface Book because it was also malfunctioning.

The icing on the cake was having to call back to the Microsoft store two days after I dropped the computer off because they couldn't seem to be bothered to call me to be told that they couldn't extract my files from the Pro 4. No doubt in my mind they didn't care and probably didn't really try. There are no words for how completely disgusted I am with the horrible product quality and terrible service – they don't even care that they just lost all my files. Literally everything is gone and I used my laptop daily for business and personal.

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Mr. Ibrahim Wuckert says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:01 am

In the last one week, I have used it sparingly and it hung twice. It would not shout down and a loud buzzing sound was coming out of it. I am disappointed. Buying a keyboard which is sold separately is another is another negative factor. The present onscreen keyboard takes away 30% of the viewing area. MS knows that eventually you would have to buy a keyboard, so extra revenue for them

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Prof. Alberto Wiza Sr. says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:31 am

I have used it for one week. there are serious issues that need to be looked into. It hung twice, when I cold not even power it off or start it. After investing so much of money, it is a disappointment. Paying extra for a key bird is another negative factor. MS knows that you can not manage without a keyboard, as 30% of the screen is hidden with the existing keyboard, that's why they are selling it seperately

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Dewayne DuBuque DVM says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:38 am

how are you finding it?

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Miss Florine Morissette says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:48 am

I've got the "hub" for SP4 and as others have commented (see Microsoft's store comments or Amazon comments) it's buggy as heck.

To wit, on a 2nd monitor at 2560×1080 (miniDP to DP cable) Outlook, Word, and Excel scale, fine. But Powerpoint's ribbon is like 200% bigger not matter what I do.

Not sure if this is SP4, Windows 10, Office, or hub issue but there it is.

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Baylee Johnson says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:55 am

We are buying Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 as meeting room control devices at work AND we are buying them without Type Covers. No, they should not be included. In fact, don't include the Pens either.

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Alexa Schulist says:

March 9, 2016 at 11:57 am

its really hard to believe how many sites are saying the same thing. when i got the surface pro 3 first i used it without a type cover for the first few months and im using it with a bluetooth keyboard at the moment. and ive bought the first surface as well so if they did include the keyboards it would mean id have two type covers gathering dust. some bloggers cant think

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Delfina Harris says:

March 9, 2016 at 12:11 pm

You do realise this is NOT a phone?

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Alberto Kovacek says:

March 9, 2016 at 12:14 pm

Do tell, what has actually changed in this review? Your section on battery life still mentions the preproduction unit. I'm sure I've seen an "updated version" of this review previously.
When you update reviews it would be really good if you could put the updated parts in another colour or italics or something to give us some sort of confidence that you have actually updated it rather than rolled it out again to get more adverts in front of us.
Does this review have the improvements that the November windows 10 update provided? Being updated in December one might hope so.

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Dr. Ben Batz says:

March 9, 2016 at 1:14 pm

Absolutely hopeless

Took delivery in December, nothing but problems. I was upgrading from a SP3, and bought the i7 512 SSD 16GB RAM, basically the top spec at the time. So, very expensive. (Although I agree I have no idea why people are complaining about the separate keyboard price – it is simple arithmetic)

Lots of nice things, but it is more or less unuseable as the whole sleep / hibernate / wake functionality is random. I can un-dock from my desk, and go to a conference room, and have to hard re-boot with the 30 second power button in front of clients, plus re-start all my services.

My colleague has the same model, and has also had multiple basic problems – battery draining, video drivers problems causing black screens, etc. etc. etc.

Really poor, and must be fixable. Many thousand people in Redmond should be hanging their heads in shame at this high-end product having such fundamental flaws.

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Coby Jacobs says:

March 9, 2016 at 2:03 pm

It will continue while tech journalists exclaim how wonderful these devices are. Regrettably it applies to phones as well. I think a large part of the problem is that many people buying them don't use them fully, so don't come across the limitations. I've a friend with a samsung galaxy S6 who barely uses it as more than a phone. He can't type to save his life, has never browsed the Web on it, has no apps but those I've put on for him, yet was looking for an upgrade when his contract comes round for renewal!!! His laptop is my old one, 6 years old now, and pretty much all he does is read emails and do a bit of browsing.
If only I could design my own phone and convertible laptop, and get it made.

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Ms. Ciara Murazik says:

March 9, 2016 at 3:21 pm

Owned for 4 months, still wrought with annoying bugs and things that don't work right, though I'd bet most of it has Windows 10 to blame. Fortunately it restarts really quickly, because I have to do that all the time. Even seemingly simple tasks have required google to help troubleshoot.

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Rex Ritchie says:

March 9, 2016 at 3:55 pm

sad the SF isn't optimized….nice looking machine.. had one but returned it for a Miix 700, Checked for Bios bloatware(its lenovo, you never know) and all clear.

Unlike my SF….off the box the miix had no issues (must be lucky) runs cool and smooth, no keyboard glitches, or sleep issues. Battery life is way better, even after the MS firmware update.

For those who want something now, for multimedia, office work, and light Photoshop…get the miix 7. did i mention its fanless…so no super gaming or 4k editing.

Maybe the surface 5 will be better optimized, for those willing to wait, i say wait for ms to workout all the kinks on the 4.

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Rowan Gerhold says:

March 9, 2016 at 4:23 pm

The irony is that your response is exactly what you've accused me of – shortsighted and naive. I would not be surprised if you either work for Microsoft directly or are receiving some benefit(s) from them for posting. And I'm sure you will adamantly suggest it isn't true – as anyone who's on the payroll to give good reviews for a company discreetly would.

If you read the entire post I mentioned that the store was full of people also returning or having their SP4's "fixed" by the tech support. I was not the only person on the face of the planet having these issues. And judging by the recent comments by others there are plenty of issues with this product. If it was a one off I would have chalked it up to that – oh wait, I did when I originally had a problem with my SP3 and after multiple trips to the MS store I had to have it replaced with a SP4. But when the problems persisted on this brand new device and within two weeks of having a brand new laptop it was having issues it raised the question that maybe there's a larger problem with the product. Something that was confirmed by the 20 other people in the store all having the same issues with their SP4's. And that's just one store out of who knows how many.

As for the comment about people saying negative things about a business or it's product and services – yes, that comes with the territory of running a business. Any business. The difference between one business and another is whether they accept responsibility for the issues and provide good customer service to rectify the situation or not. In this case it has been an uphill battle dealing with Microsoft. Another difference is that when there are product issues some businesses will choose to pull the product and work hard to try to provide a solution whereas others, as I strongly suspect with Microsoft, will knowingly ignore the issue and continue to sell the product and then pretend they don't know what's going on. They might even try to blame third party vendors, as has also been the case in this situation. As an example, this method is a common practice with automobile manufacturers. They will deny, deny, deny until they are absolutely forced to admit there's a problem.

Finally, a warranty is only good if a company honours it. I have had nothing but problems trying to deal with this company. That is also explained in my original post. Yes, I still stand by my statement that this is the worst product ever and that people should avoid it. First off, because it has so many issues and because Microsoft's own techs finally admitted the SP4 has more problems than the SP3 did. Secondly, because their customer support – whether it's tech support, customer service, or dealing with store managers is horrible. I can outline every detail of how that experience has played out because I've experienced it firsthand. This is not the result of a one time visit to a store but the culmination of many hours over a multitude of store visits, emails, and phone calls with the company.

If I can help save someone the headache, hassle and stress I have been going through dealing with a faulty product and terrible customer service then at least it's worth it.

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