I bought the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 to use specifically for work - I travel a lot for work, and hate carrying heavy laptops, plus a kindle, plus an iPad... its annoying. I was really really worried about this purchase and frankly, I figured if I was going to get it on Amazon, at least if I hated it, i could return it!! I have to tell you - this is... THEE BEST thing... I have bought for work... probably ever.
**Note: I bought the keyboard along with it. If you are going to use this as your primary laptop, I think its a MUST.
I use many large programs - design programs, office accounting software, large pivot table spreadsheets, product image libraries, etc etc... At first I had to have my IT guy do a few minor alterations to the settings of the computer. He disabled the sleep mode thats set as default in the unit (it kept going to sleep and shutting off when I left it for like 10 mins, which made it turning back on quite a wait... but easily fixed!) and also did some adjustments to RAM settings - again, nothing you can't do yourself pretty fast in the Settings menu.
After that - seriously - I was off to the races. While the memory size of the unit isnt big enough to hold massive storage files, its ok!!! Microsoft offers a cloud service AND I LOVE IT! You can set certain folders to be accessible "offline" meaning when you're not connected to wifi you can still have access to files that you may want to work on. Its great. We used Carbonite to back up our files anyway, and that was EXPENSIVE! So I ended up cancelling Carbonite and just buying more space on the Microsoft Cloud and its like $1 per month!!!
Anyway, day to day operations are fabulous - its fast as hell. Ive got Windows 10 on here, hated Windows 8 and this Surface tablet is really easy to maneuver and figure out where things are in Windows 10 (even for Windows 7 users... easy learning curve).
The Pros:
Extremely "smart" - whether you're using with a keyboard or as a "tablet" it knows when you're trying to "right click" which I was pretty impressed with. True story: I was getting my hair done mid-day and I had a report deadline, so I worked on the Surface in tablet mode, in an excel program, with the pen that comes with it. FABULOUS!!!!! Like, seriously!?! The thing knows what you're trying to do - copy/pasting cells, adding columns, working in pivot tables, complex algorithms, its great... no problem
Fabulous programs included and free apps: One of my favorite non-work apps / programs is the FreshPaint program which is literally a Paint program that mimics acrylic paints, watercolors, oil paints, pastels, colored pencils and you can set the type of canvas to work on. Surface knows whether you want a hard stroke or a soft stroke in paint, like touch sensitive.
Touch vs. Mouse function. You can easily use touch screen and mouse capabilities in tandem which sometimes comes in handy when working in a presentation.
The Pen - Oh man... I have to sign documents a lot and usually i've had to print them out, sign it, scan it and email it back. Now all I have to do is open the document, use the pen to sign, save it and send it back. No more scanning - YEYY!!! So great.
The Cons (and possible solutions to the Cons):
The power cord has a connection thats proprietary to Microsoft. So if I lose it, I have to buy another one from them. Said a different way, Its not chargeable by anything else thats available at say, Best Buy. Also you cannot use a USB portable powerbank to charge this thing. I was sort of bummed about that because I have some pretty cool power banks and sometimes if I have 2 meetings in a day, I dont have 3 hours to charge this thing to full. The folks at Microsoft told me that unfortunately the Surface is just way too powerful to be charged by a powerbank-sized device which is why it is what it is....
One USB input: This pisses me off. No HDMI!? Are you serious! So they want you to buy a brick-like device that has multiple USB inputs, and HDMI input and some other things... but its like over $100... I spent over $100 on the KEYBOARD. So--- I bought a USB-to-HDMI adaptor and its FABULOUS!!! No problems whatsoever. Many offices that I deal with have HDMI cables to plug into so I have to travel with this adaptor. It was about $40 and way smaller than Microsofts brick thing.
Protection - You MUST get a case. Seriously... if you're going to spend this level of $$ on a computer, get a case. I got a cute rose gold Kate Spade case from the Microsoft store and its still small enough to fit in my travel bags, and I know that its protected from the inevitable crushing of expensive devices that usually happens to me at least annually. **I also reluctantly.. but understandably, bought the 2 yr device protection subscription from Microsoft. If I break it they give me a new one for like $50 or something. Its like getting cell phone insurance. Plus any time you have an issue you can go into a Microsoft Store and theyll help you no matter how many times you need for free.
So now you're looking at maybe a $300-$400 extra spend on top of the unit itself. Still..... SERIOUSLY... its worth it. Its so so so so worth it.
Unless you're a graphic designer needing to work in large programs / extremely large file formats with multiple Adobe programs RUNNING, I'd certainly suggest this to any executive.
| Standing screen display size | 12.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2736x1824 pixels |
| Processor | 2.2 GHz core_m_family |
| RAM | 4 GB LPDDR4 |
| Hard Drive | 128 GB Flash Memory Solid State Drive |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11abg |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 9 Hours |
