I’m looking to replace my Macbook and iPad and quite like the looks and portability of the Surface Pro 4.

It’s only really used for internet browsing, watching videos and a small amount of work on Word and Excel, nothing too strenuous.
If it’s anything like my Macbook it’ll get used now and again for some playing about with Gopro footage but again, nothing particularly taxing on the machine.

I’ve seen a really good deal on the i5 128Gb model complete with keyboard, pen and mouse so I’m tempted to grab it while I can.
Sadly there’s no deals on the bigger i5 256Gb/8Gb models so that’s not really an option for me.
As they’re so cheap I could easily pick up a Micro SD card and stick any videos and photo’s on this to keep space free on the SSD.

Has anyone used the i5 model with the 128Gb SSD and 4Gb RAM?
Does it perform reasonably well?

I can’t comment on the performance of that exact model but a friend has recently done the same of ditching the ipad and macbook and hasn’t looked back. He loves his Surface pro 4.

There is a new one due April time apparently which may explain some offers popping up now.

There is a new one due April time apparently which may explain some offers popping up now.

I was thinking about going for the new model when it’s launched but having seen that Microsoft just increased prices across the board by 15% last week I think it’d be fair to say that the new model will be out of my budget.
Seems to be the case that everything is going up in price now which isn’t great 🙁

I have one. Seems to perform well enough that I don’t notice having to wait for anything to happen, which is all you can ask for.

It was slightly slow (but only slightly) when I was using Adobe Lightroom, but then I realised I had all my RAW files stored on the SD card! Given that it was impressive. All in all a very nice bit of kit.

Tablet mode is great for train/plane/sofa surfing, I use it a lot – but then it’s also a real laptop whenever I have a table. The fact it’s full Windows and works well as both a tablet and laptop is a stroke of genius imo.

Ok so perhaps not 100% perfect in tablet mode as whilst Windows works nicely like this, some traditional apps are a little fiddly. But you’re not likely to find this out unless you’re installing them. And in any case – just flip the keyboard out and you’re away. In laptop mode the touchpad is goregous to use as well.

If you are selling the MacBook let me know what it is as I may be interested.

battery life is a bit poor and its a pain in the hoop to balance on your lap but apart from that it’s ok.

I went for a Lenovo Yoga 2 instead even though it was a bit older.

battery life is a bit poor

Depends what you mean. Since the latest updates (which have helped), I can get 6-7 hours from it. It does drop through the floor when you start working it harder though.

I don’t have a problem with it on my lap. It’s not as comfortable as a laptop when in laptop mode, but it’s still fine. For stability snap the keyboard onto the lower part of the screen; but for table use don’t. But for lap usage I don’t bother with the keyboard usually anway. Tablet mode brings the whole thing closer which makes the screen look bigger of course.

I’ve seen a really good deal on the i5 128Gb model complete with keyboard, pen and mouse so I’m tempted to grab it while I can.

Where’s that?

I have one and have had for about a year. While not perfect (no machines are), I find it bang on for what I do (a lot of writing and, of course, posting on here), and would not go back to a conventional laptop or simple tablet.

I would not want to lose out on any of the functionality I have with the Surface Pro.

I’ve seen a really good deal on the i5 128Gb model complete with keyboard, pen and mouse so I’m tempted to grab it while I can.

Where’s that?

The deal was at Heathrow Airport.

^^ so does that mean no VAT and you shouldn’t bring it back into the UK 😉

No, sadly not as I’m not leaving the EU.
I work there though so might try and talk them into giving me a staff discount 😀

I have a Surface Pro 4 with an Intel i5 and 8GB of RAM as my work laptop and a late 2013 Macbook Pro with 16GB of RAM and an Intel i7. I also have an iPad Pro.

While I mainly use my Macbook for editing my photography work (keep in mind I’m editing 20MB+ RAW files) I do use my Surface to do the same from time to time. Not surprisingly the Macbook Pro creams the Surface in this regard; the Surface is noticeably slower and it is v ery frustrating in that respect. I only ever use it when I’m travelling with work and have taken my camera with me.

In other respects, I also utterly loath and detest my Surface and that’s not jut becuase it’s not a Mac. Compared to a regular laptop running Windows, the Surface is garbage.

The screen is just too small to be useable as a laptop. This size screen is lovely (for my uses) on the iPad Pro but that’s not a laptop. You just don’t have the same degree of accuracy for touch work on the Surface (rendering the touch screen useless) and when trying to work on it as a regular laptop with a mouse, it’s also just too small.

It only really makes sense when connected to a larger monitor at home.

Mine will regularly forget the monitor it’s connected to leading me to have to reconfigure it to the right resolution and arrangement.

It also has a nasty habit of going into some odd kind of sleep mode where it just fails to wake up or respond. I have to do a hard restart (you have to hold the power button down for something like 24 hours – oK maybe its two minutes but it feels like an eternity).

It’s noisy – the fan is constantly blowing.

You can’t really use it on your lap as it’s just not designed that way.

The pen is gash; you certainly can’t use it either as a mouse or as stylus to write notes with (like you can Apple Pen on the iPad Pro).

The tablet software is also pants. You don’t get a keyboard appear as soon as you want to type something like a URL. You have to select it from the bottom right.

But it looks lovely.

Compared to a regular laptop running Windows, the Surface is garbage

My experience is not the same as GTs! Screen is small, yes, but I knew that when I bought it – it says the size on the box 🙂 It makes perfect sense as an ultraportable, cos that’s what it is.

Sounds like yours has some problems GT – the fan almost never comes on on mine, I can use the pen just fine, and you can get the keyboard to appear automatically – it’s a setting. But that fan thing – it’s a red light that something’s not set up properly. I suspect that has something to do with your slowness too because I can edit raw files very nicely. I used to use LR on my work i7 quad core 16Gb SSD laptop, and I don’t notice the Surface being any slower.

I don’t know why people get something that’s clearly not working right and then just stare at it and complain instead of taking it back to the shop.

Make sure you have them fully up to date… There have been some big firmware improvements over time.

I switched to one because i was fed up of lugging 3kg+ of cad laptop round

good things

It weighs nowt

its as powreful as a HP zbook for autocad , word excel i even run siemens NX on it but not for doing heavy computational work (its not for that anyway) , the cad and drawings it copes with fine

it will do my CAD/CAM and even post process files for the cnc machines

you can buy an adapter to project wirelessly to a monitor or even your tv

you can buy an adapter to plug it into a monitor

it doesnt get hot on the bottom like a laptop whilst on full chat heavy usage

novelty pen lets you draw knobs on everything easily and quickly

bad

Keyboard is 100 quid

the wireless projection adapter can be laggy depending on the tv i found it costs 50 quid

plugging it in means the cable has to be light or it can pull the surface pro around

it has one usb port which if your using it with a mouse means no usb port
blutooth mouse drops out intermittently

BATTERY LIFE IS WOEFUL 3 hours is the best i have gotten , even just browsing the www on edge (which is supposed to be less powermad than chrome) i get 5 maybe 6 hours if the brightness is lowered

8gb ram model uses 3.5 gb just to run windows with some careful fettling you can get it down to 2.5-2.8

if the surface pro 5 comes with a proper graphics card in it i will be buying one if it doesnt however i will stick with it im pretty heavy on use and it copes well

the wireless projection adapter can be laggy depending on the tv i found it costs 50 quid

Most smart TVs have the adapter built in. To be fair, it wasn’t much cop on my parents’ TV though.

3 hours is the best i have gotten

As above – make sure it’s updated, and check nothing is running in the background that shouldn’t be. Took mine a while to settle down but it’s good now.

8gb ram model uses 3.5 gb just to run windows

Not exactly – most of that is cached files. Windows doesn’t see the point in having ram sat idle, so it pre-loads files you might want later. It’s not actually in use.

if the surface pro 5 comes with a proper graphics card in it i will be buying one

It’s called a Surface Book.

Not exactly – most of that is cached files. Windows doesn’t see the point in having ram sat idle, so it pre-loads files you might want later. It’s not actually in use.

with some careful fettling you can get it down to 2.5-2.8

yep no argument there, every firmware update and microsoft update is on it

no its a surface pro 5 , i looked at the surface book and for that money a dell precision with pretty much all the bells and whistles was on the cards or even slumming it an xps, plus i felt the surface book felt flimsy, is the wrong word it just didnt feel right whereas a macbook pro did maybe its the funny wedge shape it creates when closed, cant comment i dont own one

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/surface-pro-5-release-date-news-and-rumors-1316294 is what im on about some one said pascal might be an option in it (rumour) and if it is then the discrete graphics element makes this a pretty good bit of kit with minimal weight power etc , everything you like about the current pro 4 with extra graphics whats not to like?

but then im not actually sure what i do with it is the target audience though reading siemens might be ready to certify it so who knows.

The deal was at Heathrow Airport.

I think the same deal is also available online with microsoft

Battery life is the biggest problem with the Surface (and other devices of this type). My other worry with the Surface is the SSD is not replaceable. Given that they do wear out it may be an issue – I don’t know. It becomes more of an issue if you keep it full

For what you want it is probably just fine. You could get a Lenovo Miix device for around the same price but the screen and keyboard on the Surface are nicer. I use a miix 700 but have friends who use the Surface Pro 4. The Pro4 with 256/8 is a nice device but I’m happier with the price on my Miix

Seems odd to fit more power into a Surface Pro – there are limits to the form factor. It’s not a workstation.

I don’t know why people get something that’s clearly not working right and then just stare at it and complain instead of taking it back to the shop.

It’s work issue, which means the support will be even worse than if I’d got if from Dixons.

I think the same deal is also available online with microsoft

They were running that deal where it was £699 but they’ve got some at £599 at the moment which was what caught my eye. I guess they’re just clearing stock ready to make way for the new model. I’ll ask around tomorrow and see if they’re doing any deals on the 256Gb/8Gb model just in case.

Seems odd to fit more power into a Surface Pro – there are limits to the form factor. It’s not a workstation.

oh i agree wholeheartedly but its a lot less to lug about

It’s work issue, which means the support will be even worse than if I’d got if from Dixons.

I can help you with it, if you have admin rights. I can’t bear to see a good piece of hardware being abused by bad software. It’s entirely possible that your work has installed some kind of corporate crapware on it though.

I can help you with it, if you have admin rights. I can’t bear to see a good piece of hardware being abused by bad software. It’s entirely possible that your work has installed some kind of corporate crapware on it though

You sound like the guy to know with these things, I may have to pick your brain about it if I decide to get the Surface 😀

I know a little but I’m no Cougar 😉 I do have a SP4 though.

Bottom line is to remember that it’s an ultraportable tablet hybrid. I bought it because of the portability and because I wanted to be able to use it as a pad to replace the piles of scribbly paper we end up generating at work.

The thing is light, but the keyboard is a fair percentage of that. So if you are popping out and you know you don’t want to type a lot, you can leave the keyboard behind.

There seems to be a bit of development prompted by these things too. Adobe software now has a touch mode for tablet usage; there are also loads of Windows Pen apps appearing in the Store all the time.

I have one. My use is fairly similar to what you propose although it’s my work machine. Pretty modest requirements generally speaking. I went for an i7.

I’d echo a lot of comments above, except I have not had any real problems with mine.
– Its portability is the reason I got it but for any real desk work when I’m not out and about I like a proper monitor and then a keyboard and mouse as well, which I had both at home and work already as well as USB hubs. So once plugged in I lose the size and connection limitations
– Out and about I don’t mind it on the lap with a decent cover (mine’s an ESR folio)
– I’m happy with the keyboard. I got the fingerprint scanner one which was unnecessary
– I can’t remember ever hearing the fan
– I rarely use tablet mode except watching videos.

Cons:
– I like Windows Hello, But I struggle to get it to work consistently (probably not a SP4 gripe)
– As above battery life is only middling but it’s OK for me
– The screen is very small and I’ve got issues with some apps showing microscopic text but then that’s probably fixable and I wanted portability
– It was expensive

Even the more expensive aftermarket power adapters claiming to be originals tend to fail to charge my phone when the surface is plugged in. I’ve sent a few back.

Not a fan of Surfaces – I have the Surface 3 10″ which I picked up for a song from my old employer.

Nice hardware but a bit chunky for a tablet. Trying to use it as a sofa laptop is painful because of the external keyboard.

Windows is crap for tablets – not as intuitive as iPad or Android – God knows how annoying it is on a Pro Surface which is bigger and chunkier than mine.

My weapon of choice for sofa surfing is a HP 11″ Chromebook – light, great screen, good battery life and it is one solid unit rather than a floppy mess. Used at a desk it is ok though.