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Microsoft Surface Pro 4 announced: "better in nearly every way" (The Verge)

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Hatty

Member
They Microsoft'd it:

5IvYFKy.png

Americans have special fingerprints don't you know
 
I picked up the base line Surface Pro 3 w/ 64GB storage and i3 processor for $630 and a type cover for $110. Clearly the type cover is going back for the new one, but do people think it's worth $270 to upgrade to the baseline Surface Pro 4? How's the m3 compared to the i3? $270 more in cost sounds a bit hard to justify. What do people think?

Core i3 clocks only up to 1.5GHz. Core m3 clocks up to 2.2GHz and is Skylake. Base SP4 destroys base SP3. IMO, worth $270 difference.
 
Core i3 clocks only up to 1.5GHz. Core m3 clocks up to 2.2GHz and is Skylake. Base SP4 destroys base SP3. IMO, worth $270 difference.

Even if the usage is just for web browsing and MS Office, like OneNote? It's not really mine, so I haven't really used it to know how it feels. This is for my wife and using at work.
 
Even if the usage is just for web browsing and MS Office, like OneNote? It's not really mine, so I haven't really used it to know how it feels. This is for my wife and using at work.

I don't think so. Its only worth the upgrade if you're a heavy user I think. But then you'd probably want the i5 for a bit more. The surface pro 3 baseline can flawlessly run edge and photoshop or programs like word at the same time for me, so there's no real reason to upgrade right now even if the m3 is better. I'll get the pen though.
 

Nephix

Member
Holy hell the i5/256/8 is supposedly going to be in the region of $1700 around these parts. :(

Any word on UK pricing yet?
 
Core i3 clocks only up to 1.5GHz. Core m3 clocks up to 2.2GHz and is Skylake. Base SP4 destroys base SP3. IMO, worth $270 difference.

Awaitng your discerning breakdown of the drawing capabilities of this thing. I might have skimmed over, but has it returned to Wacom digitizers, or is it still NTrig?
 
Core i3 clocks only up to 1.5GHz. Core m3 clocks up to 2.2GHz and is Skylake. Base SP4 destroys base SP3. IMO, worth $270 difference.
Would the m3 be enough for something like GNS3, Visual Studio and Virtual Box? I'm asking because i know nothing about the m3.
 
Awaitng your discerning breakdown of the drawing capabilities of this thing. I might have skimmed over, but has it returned to Wacom digitizers, or is it still NTrig?

From what I understand the pen doesn't support tilt, but it has greatly reduced force to beginning of mark compared to previous models and latency is equal to the best products available.
 
Would the m3 be enough for something like GNS3, Visual Studio and Virtual Box? I'm asking because i know nothing about the m3.

Core m3 behaves much like Core i5 until it's thermal limit is reached. SP4 has a giant fan, so I think it will be perform pretty darn well.

Awaitng your discerning breakdown of the drawing capabilities of this thing. I might have skimmed over, but has it returned to Wacom digitizers, or is it still NTrig?

N-Trig. I'm pretty sure it's still DuoSense 2 tech from SP3, but now without the Bluetooth OneNote launcher nonsense.

Also I believe the new firmware allows 1024 levels of pressure. This would be on the controller chip on the touch board, so SP4 pen would work @256 lvls on SP3, and if I'm correct SP3 pen will also give you 1024 levels on PS4.
 

sant

Member
$1,700 for i5 and 8GB hurts, don't think its worth it. Not to mention the type cover on top of that
 

Dead

well not really...yet
Wondering how the fan and cooling will be improved in real world use

SP3 has insane fan noise and terrible heating issues for me when doing anything other than simple office work
 

madmook

Member
Wonder if the low end M3 model (4.5 watt TDP vs 15 watt i5/7) will get much better battery life. If it can get like 11+ hours web browsing, I might be tempted.
 

dLMN8R

Member
Practically speaking, the fingerprint thing makes sense I think.

The fingerprint reader only makes sense for people buying the Type Cover 4 with a Surface Pro 3, right? Surface Pro 4 has the Hello camera so you don't need a fingerprint reader.


I don't know the sales breakdown, but if Surface Pro 3 is primarily just in the US wouldn't it make sense to only sell the fingerprint reader version in the US?
 

diaspora

Member
Practically speaking, the fingerprint thing makes sense I think.

The fingerprint reader only makes sense for people buying the Type Cover 4 with a Surface Pro 3, right? Surface Pro 4 has the Hello camera so you don't need a fingerprint reader.


I don't know the sales breakdown, but if Surface Pro 3 is primarily just in the US wouldn't it make sense to only sell the fingerprint reader version in the US?

No? Why sell the Pro 3 at all outside the US? Wouldn't it make more sense to phase out the Type Cover 3 and replace it with the 4 including the fingerprint reader?
 

Aruarian Reflection

Chauffeur de la gdlk
Wonder if the low end M3 model (4.5 watt TDP vs 15 watt i5/7) will get much better battery life. If it can get like 11+ hours web browsing, I might be tempted.

Yeah I'm debating between the $900 and $1000 models. It would be nice to have 8 GB RAM but the price jump is too much.

Would the M3 be ok for Lightroom or should I go with i5?
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Probably a silly question, but what sort of performance improvement would I see going from a SP1 to the SP4 (maybe the 4 or 8 gig i5 version)? Is it possible to guesstimate the % improvement in graphics and processor speed? Like twice as fast, 150% improvement, something like that?
 

Hero

Member
I really want one, I've held out on Surface Pro specifically to wait for Win 10.

Any info on how light game will do on this? I.e. Hearthstone or League of Legends.
 

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
I really want one, I've held out on Surface Pro specifically to wait for Win 10.

Any info on how light game will do on this? I.e. Hearthstone or League of Legends.

I can play Dota 2 at low graphics on my surface pro 1, so I'm pretty sure this thing can run League and HS pretty well
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
I wanted to get a windows machine for browsing, gmail, and job hunting, but the pricing makes this hard. I would prefer an i5 with 8GB, but there is no option for 128GB. Your only option is 256GB which is $1299 without smart cover.

Geez, they sure make it hard to jump in :/
 

btrboyev

Member
Probably a silly question, but what sort of performance improvement would I see going from a SP1 to the SP4 (maybe the 4 or 8 gig i5 version)? Is it possible to guesstimate the % improvement in graphics and processor speed? Like twice as fast, 150% improvement, something like that?

You know you may not see everyday performance boosts, but it will definitely perform better and it's worth it for the battery improvement. The SP1 battery life is terrible...I only get around 3 hours with mine.
 

Maximo

Member
Anybody order theirs yet? What do you plan on using yours for?
I'm waiting it out to see performance comparisons to see of its worth getting a i7 over a i5, believe with the SP3 it didn't matter because of the performance throttling issues, but no idea how Intel's new chip performs.
Gonna get it for uni next year, light Indie gaming and some video editing. Guess I'll start saving now, was considering a Surface Book but man those prices..
 
My SP2 still runs fine with the exception of Windows 10 wreaking havoc on the firmware. My pen still becomes unresponsive upon waking it from sleep, and it still randomly gets hot and blasts the fan and drains the battery upon waking it from sleep.

On the one hand, that I'll be skipping two generations with a Pro 4 will be a really good upgrade. On the other, I really don't like on principle how I'm considering one partly because MS fucked up their own hardware with Win 10. I mean, do I want to reward them with more money for dropping the ball on support for their own hardware? What's to guarantee me that they won't do the same two years down the line for the Pro 4?

Anyway, that sounded way bitchier than I intended to be. The reveal was great and the whole package looks really amazing. If I end up getting one I'm sure I'll love it! Hell, the only reason why I started formulating those complaints is because the SP4 looks so good I actually want to ditch the jankiness of SP2 on Windows 10...
 
I really want to see a comparison of the latency on this stylus compared to the iPad Pro's. If it is not comparable then the inner-artist in me will probably make me buy an iPad Pro even though it is inferior in almost every other way.
 
Also I believe the new firmware allows 1024 levels of pressure. This would be on the controller chip on the touch board, so SP4 pen would work @256 lvls on SP3, and if I'm correct SP3 pen will also give you 1024 levels on PS4.

I really want to see a comparison of the latency on this stylus compared to the iPad Pro's. If it is not comparable then the inner-artist in me will probably make me buy an iPad Pro even though it is inferior in almost every other way.



It supports 1024 levels of pressure. The latency is dramatically improved as well, I've heard it described as the best in the industry. I don't know enough about digitizer tech to know if that is due to the stylus or the chip.
 

Luigiv

Member
Also I believe the new firmware allows 1024 levels of pressure. This would be on the controller chip on the touch board, so SP4 pen would work @256 lvls on SP3, and if I'm correct SP3 pen will also give you 1024 levels on PS4.

That isn't how it works at all. The pressure sensor is in the stylus not the screen. The touch controller chip has no effect on it all.

On top of that it's a hardware limit not software limit, you can't magically add more pressure levels to the old pen by using it on a new device (or even flashing it's firmware). The tip of the pen is connected to an analogue pressure sensor which is connected to an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC for short). This ADC converts the meaningless (to a computer) analogue single into an encoded digital signal that can then finally be sent wirelessly to the tablet. The limitation comes from the ADC. The old pen only has 256 pressure levels because it's fitted with an 8-bit ADC, the new pen needs a 10-bit ADC to have 1024 levels. There's no stepping around that with firmware or external hardware.

HGpNQqI.jpg
 

mulac

Member
I *really* want one of these as I'm currently rocking an old Samsung Android tablet that is quite frankly shocking in its badness.

However Australian Pricing and Availability will as usual be last on the list so will have to hold out.

Also having just built a new fancy gaming desktop pc the high-spec SP4 is VERY attractive for gaming on the sofa...
 
That isn't how it works at all. The pressure sensor is in the stylus not the screen. The touch controller chip has no effect on it all.

On top of that it's a hardware limit not software limit, you can't magically add more pressure levels to the old pen by using it on a new device (or even flashing it's firmware). The tip of the pen is connected to an analogue pressure sensor which is connected to an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC for short). This ADC converts the meaningless (to a computer) analogue single into an encoded digital signal that can then finally be sent wirelessly to the tablet. The limitation comes from the ADC. The old pen only has 256 pressure levels because it's fitted with an 8-bit ADC, the new pen needs a 10-bit ADC to have 1024 levels. There's no stepping around that with firmware or external hardware.

HGpNQqI.jpg

I can't confirm about N-Trig but Wacom does exactly what I describe with their digitizer variations. Simple firmware change that ups the pressure levels. The pen top feed analog value to the controller board. Firware can divide that up whatever levels you want. Wacom went from 256 levels in 2005 to 1024 levels in 2015 with the same UD seires digitizer board. The same pen from 2005 will give you 256 levels on old systems while give you 1024 levels on the new.
 

PensOwl

Banned
I can't believe they're still bundling the 8gb of ram with the 256 ssd for $1300. I got a surface pro 2 two years ago and the storage prices were the same. I really want to upgrade but I can't imagine paying $1000 to settle for 4gb of ram for the next few years. Dammit Microsoft.
 

strata8

Member
I can't believe they're still bundling the 4gb of ram with the 256 ssd for $1300. I got a surface pro 2 two years ago and the storage prices were the same. I really want to upgrade but I can't imagine paying $1000 to settle for 4gb of ram for the next few years. Dammit Microsoft.

Unless I'm mistaken it says 256GB/8GB for $1300 in the OP and the store?
 
It supports 1024 levels of pressure. The latency is dramatically improved as well, I've heard it described as the best in the industry. I don't know enough about digitizer tech to know if that is due to the stylus or the chip.

Latency is combination of many things. The only thing that was high latency about DuoSense 2 was the cursor hover lag, which is due to the low power that the pen top ends out to the screen to save AAAA battery life.
 

Aruarian Reflection

Chauffeur de la gdlk
The i5 / 4GB / 128GB model may be close to selling out. It's no longer one of the default choices on the pre-order page, but if you want it, you can still customize to get those specs
 

PensOwl

Banned
Unless I'm mistaken it says 256GB/8GB for $1300 in the OP and the store?

Oops yeah I meant 8gb/256gb. I really think an 8gb/128gb option should be available for $1000, the current pricing structure has been around far too long. I just can't justify spending $1000 on a device hamstrung by this tiny amount of memory in 2015.
 
Oops yeah I meant 8gb/256gb. I really think an 8gb/128gb option should be available for $1000, the current pricing structure has been around far too long. I just can't justify spending $1000 on a device hamstrung by this tiny amount of memory in 2015.

I got annoyed too but then I bought a 128gb microSD for like $70 and haven't got a single complaint since.
 
Latency is combination of many things. The only thing that was high latency about DuoSense 2 was the cursor hover lag, which is due to the low power that the pen top ends out to the screen to save AAAA battery life.

I honestly haven't used the SP3 at length so I can't comment on the previous implementation. I've just heard very positive things about the stylus performance on the new units.
 

PensOwl

Banned
I got annoyed too but then I bought a 128gb microSD for like $70 and haven't got a single complaint since.

I'm mainly referring to the ram. 4gb is just not enough, even at entry level. Given how aggressively MS is going at the air with the sp4, I guess it makes sense that they match it tit for tat in price but it still sucks.
 
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