Over the past few weeks I delved into the pros and cons of almost every laptop available for sale through my local Best Buy, Staples, and various other computer stores, and was able to narrow down my next purchase to these top two contenders:
The HP Spectre x360 and the Microsoft Surface Pro 4
I've done an unboxing of the HP Spectre x360 previously, click here for it. Today we'll talk about the Surface Pro 4.
A laptop is suppose to fit your needs. Gamers buy powerful laptops with all the bells and whistle so it can run all the latest graphics without overheating. A desk jockey would look for portable, but the slightly less powerful, to crank out the office documents in no time quick, placing more emphasis on the quietness and aesthetics.
Naturally, as an office worker, this would explain why my top choices are both ultra portable laptops, made for the person who are always doing work in different locations and has to lug a laptop everywhere. Ever try carrying one of those heavy gaming laptop around in your satchel? It's like deadlifting with your neck. No thanks.
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a good laptop/tablet hybrid. The marketing behind the Surface is to become your ultimate tablet companion that gives you all the benefits of using it like a tablet. But also the moment you attach the flip cover keyboard, it can easily be used as a powerful laptop.
It's arguably one of the lightest tablet 2-in-1 on the market right now, coming in at only 1.73lbs. Testing it out in one arm as a notepad, it's surprisingly light and isn't awkward to handle like most 2-in-1 that usually come bulky. Based on my experience, the Surface Pro 4 is the only device that actually felt the closest to a 1:1 pad and pen experience. Even the stylus has a "HB" tip which is rubberized, making your strokes on the glass screen feel gritty like a pencil does on paper.
The screen comes with a high resolution 2736 x 1824, which admittedly a little bit awkward when playing most widescreen movies, due to the fact that it's a little more square. The square-ness will leave you with the two black bars across the top and bottom in full screen mode. However, it didn't bother me much because the high pixel density in this 12.3" screen makes up for it by giving crisp colorful display during video playback.
Another good thing to note about the SP4 is that this device seems to be built directly for the document juggler - such as a student or professional. Equipped with two cameras, the backside 8 mega-pixel can scan and instantly crop your documents with ease through OneNote, and while the front 5 mega-pixel camera can shoot up to 1080p 30fps for your skyping or video recording needs. It was refreshing to see that the camera quality weren't the low grade choppy ones where it looked like it was taken from an old Nokia.
Something I discovered with the SP4 is that it's able to handle multiple connected Bluetooth devices, which to me has always been a rare occurrence with other laptops. I found myself running out of Bluetooth devices to connect to it when I managed to connect a keyboard, pen, and mouse to it!
Lacking input/output ports:
One of the biggest let down of this device is the lack of different types of ports available. It has 1 headphone jack, 1 USB 3.0, and 1 Mini-display port. So buying additional adapters to work with all your own gear is going to add up to the total cost of owning this machine (around $50 Canadian dollars for each adapter). You can also spend an additional $260 CAD for a dock that has all the ports you need, which connects through the charging port.
Poor battery life:
SP4 comes with a 39.5 Wh battery, which is smaller than it's predecessor SP3, but Microsoft claims that it will last 9 hours during use. But even with the lower energy consuming i5 processor, I couldn't get anywhere close to 9 hours with normal mixed use - YouTube, web browsing, and documents. Instead I recorded about 5-6 hours out of a single charge and had to keep an eye on the battery bar all the time, which left me feeling not confident leaving the charger at home during the day.
Storage read/write speeds:
Under a CrystalDiskMark speed test of the 256GB solid state hard-drive in the model I tested, the results were a little weird. There were drastic difference in read/write speeds performances, which gave me a head scratch. With a premium price that you pay for the SP4, you'd expect read and write to be over 1000 MB/s on both read and write.
The HP Spectre x360 and the Microsoft Surface Pro 4
I've done an unboxing of the HP Spectre x360 previously, click here for it. Today we'll talk about the Surface Pro 4.
A laptop is suppose to fit your needs. Gamers buy powerful laptops with all the bells and whistle so it can run all the latest graphics without overheating. A desk jockey would look for portable, but the slightly less powerful, to crank out the office documents in no time quick, placing more emphasis on the quietness and aesthetics.
Naturally, as an office worker, this would explain why my top choices are both ultra portable laptops, made for the person who are always doing work in different locations and has to lug a laptop everywhere. Ever try carrying one of those heavy gaming laptop around in your satchel? It's like deadlifting with your neck. No thanks.
Why the Surface Pro 4
It's arguably one of the lightest tablet 2-in-1 on the market right now, coming in at only 1.73lbs. Testing it out in one arm as a notepad, it's surprisingly light and isn't awkward to handle like most 2-in-1 that usually come bulky. Based on my experience, the Surface Pro 4 is the only device that actually felt the closest to a 1:1 pad and pen experience. Even the stylus has a "HB" tip which is rubberized, making your strokes on the glass screen feel gritty like a pencil does on paper.
The screen comes with a high resolution 2736 x 1824, which admittedly a little bit awkward when playing most widescreen movies, due to the fact that it's a little more square. The square-ness will leave you with the two black bars across the top and bottom in full screen mode. However, it didn't bother me much because the high pixel density in this 12.3" screen makes up for it by giving crisp colorful display during video playback.
Another good thing to note about the SP4 is that this device seems to be built directly for the document juggler - such as a student or professional. Equipped with two cameras, the backside 8 mega-pixel can scan and instantly crop your documents with ease through OneNote, and while the front 5 mega-pixel camera can shoot up to 1080p 30fps for your skyping or video recording needs. It was refreshing to see that the camera quality weren't the low grade choppy ones where it looked like it was taken from an old Nokia.
Something I discovered with the SP4 is that it's able to handle multiple connected Bluetooth devices, which to me has always been a rare occurrence with other laptops. I found myself running out of Bluetooth devices to connect to it when I managed to connect a keyboard, pen, and mouse to it!
Against the Surface Pro 4
All-in-all the SP4 is a great choice if you're looking for that device that has it all and does it all. But because it tries to hit all the "sweet spots" it ultimately becomes the jack of all trades, master of none. There are some things about the SP4 that gives me the feeling of uncertainty. I'll talk about some of them.
Weird kickstand:
The fact that the kickstand holds the device up very well and takes up less surface real estate to keep it propped up in laptop mode, can be useful for small spaces like desks at school or on the food tray in an airplane. But when it comes to "lapability", it's very awkward to use with it on your legs when you're kicked up on a couch. I use my laptop on my couch 80% of the time when I'm home, so my experience with it was a little disappointing. The space you feel between the stand and the tablet on your legs sort of gets to you after a while and makes it feels flimsy. I felt as if I was trying to balance a photo frame on my leg. Also, the way the stand works, you never get a perfect 90 degrees angle with the screen and keyboard, causing you to position your head to look down on the screen more often.
The fact that the kickstand holds the device up very well and takes up less surface real estate to keep it propped up in laptop mode, can be useful for small spaces like desks at school or on the food tray in an airplane. But when it comes to "lapability", it's very awkward to use with it on your legs when you're kicked up on a couch. I use my laptop on my couch 80% of the time when I'm home, so my experience with it was a little disappointing. The space you feel between the stand and the tablet on your legs sort of gets to you after a while and makes it feels flimsy. I felt as if I was trying to balance a photo frame on my leg. Also, the way the stand works, you never get a perfect 90 degrees angle with the screen and keyboard, causing you to position your head to look down on the screen more often.
Lacking input/output ports:
One of the biggest let down of this device is the lack of different types of ports available. It has 1 headphone jack, 1 USB 3.0, and 1 Mini-display port. So buying additional adapters to work with all your own gear is going to add up to the total cost of owning this machine (around $50 Canadian dollars for each adapter). You can also spend an additional $260 CAD for a dock that has all the ports you need, which connects through the charging port.
Poor battery life:
SP4 comes with a 39.5 Wh battery, which is smaller than it's predecessor SP3, but Microsoft claims that it will last 9 hours during use. But even with the lower energy consuming i5 processor, I couldn't get anywhere close to 9 hours with normal mixed use - YouTube, web browsing, and documents. Instead I recorded about 5-6 hours out of a single charge and had to keep an eye on the battery bar all the time, which left me feeling not confident leaving the charger at home during the day.
Storage read/write speeds:
Under a CrystalDiskMark speed test of the 256GB solid state hard-drive in the model I tested, the results were a little weird. There were drastic difference in read/write speeds performances, which gave me a head scratch. With a premium price that you pay for the SP4, you'd expect read and write to be over 1000 MB/s on both read and write.
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