Microsoft surface 4 , to buy or not.

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#1745250 21-Mar-2017 16:20

dafman:

JayADee:
dafman:

Per my post above, I would not recommend the SP4 for lap use. It's great on a table, but just not comfortable on the couch.

On reliability, I opened a post some months back urging people not to buy the SP4 due to unreliable performance. I'm pleased to say that, following numerous firmware updates, the last few months have been issue free, so it looks like MS have got on top of their SP software issues (though it took them long enough).

Except my pen. :(

I've never used the pen, on either my previous SP3 Pro or my current SP4 Pro.

So am curious ...

JayADee and Mspec - what programs do you put the pen to use?

Onenote and powerpoint

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MikeAqua

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#1745251 21-Mar-2017 16:30

I have an SP3, for work. I love it. It's much more lap friendly than the SP2. S4 is very similar.

I use touch and keyboard cover on the couch if I have papers etc to write in the evening. No problems at all.

One criticism is that it's not very suitable for use on a small aircraft (e.g. Q300 or ATR).

Mike

Juicytree

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#1745295 21-Mar-2017 17:42

I use my pen all the time. I am company director and get lots of .pdf/s to read and mark up etc. I use the built in program 'Drawboard PDF' - I find it brilliant for making notes on the documents, highlighting, rotating and lots more.

I owned my Surface 4 for at least a year trying out several .pdf readers until I discovered I already had Drawboard pre-installed.

I use the pen for navigating most of the time instead of my 'fat' finger.

My surface is the i5, 8gb model and i've had no issues at all with it - it's just great for reading my magazines and newspapers on - love it to bits!

dafman

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#1745307 21-Mar-2017 18:39

Juicytree:

I use my pen all the time. I am company director and get lots of .pdf/s to read and mark up etc. I use the built in program 'Drawboard PDF' - I find it brilliant for making notes on the documents, highlighting, rotating and lots more.

I owned my Surface 4 for at least a year trying out several .pdf readers until I discovered I already had Drawboard pre-installed.

I use the pen for navigating most of the time instead of my 'fat' finger.

My surface is the i5, 8gb model and i've had no issues at all with it - it's just great for reading my magazines and newspapers on - love it to bits!

Thanks, just had a look at drawboard, so will give it a trial.

Problem for me is that for the duration of my working day, the SP4 is connected to dual monitors via dock, so this restricts my ability to use the pen for PDFs etc, but I will see how I go.

I'll also have a crack at using it for navigating, see how I go.

One question for pen users - do you find that the pen magnet is strong enough to hold the pen to the screen when transporting the SP4, or does it get pulled off inside bags etc?

tripp

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#1745315 21-Mar-2017 18:53

I was looking at a SP4 but then an acer aspire switch was one 1-day for $899 brand new. Noels sells them for $2000 so it was a great deal.

Bonus over the SP4 is the USB C which you can also use to charge the device as well. I got a couple of these from mightyape.

Very happy :)

JayADee

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#1745646 22-Mar-2017 11:16

dafman:

Juicytree:

I use my pen all the time. I am company director and get lots of .pdf/s to read and mark up etc. I use the built in program 'Drawboard PDF' - I find it brilliant for making notes on the documents, highlighting, rotating and lots more.

I owned my Surface 4 for at least a year trying out several .pdf readers until I discovered I already had Drawboard pre-installed.

I use the pen for navigating most of the time instead of my 'fat' finger.

My surface is the i5, 8gb model and i've had no issues at all with it - it's just great for reading my magazines and newspapers on - love it to bits!

Thanks, just had a look at drawboard, so will give it a trial.

Problem for me is that for the duration of my working day, the SP4 is connected to dual monitors via dock, so this restricts my ability to use the pen for PDFs etc, but I will see how I go.

I'll also have a crack at using it for navigating, see how I go.

One question for pen users - do you find that the pen magnet is strong enough to hold the pen to the screen when transporting the SP4, or does it get pulled off inside bags etc?

i5, 8Gig, I used the pen (past tense) as a mouse substitute for everything - navigating, playing solitaire, photoshop, web browsing to onenote but had to give up because of the problems with it. I was hoping to use it to draw with.

I gave up on the pen being 100% useful and use a mouse now but lately I haven't had much choice as I am drawing digitally again so I've been making due with it despite the problems. The program I'm using with the pen makes no darn difference, it does it with anything and also does it with a reset of the Surface. It also does it with two other Surface pens I tried. So I gave up trying to fix it. But I am going to keep moaning about it because it really p--- me off!

I clip mine onto the top of the case in the provided slot. It's never fallen off there but if you just hitched it on with the magnet I think it might if it's getting bumped around much in your bag.

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JayADee

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#1745662 22-Mar-2017 11:31

tripp:

I was looking at a SP4 but then an acer aspire switch was one 1-day for $899 brand new. Noels sells them for $2000 so it was a great deal.

Bonus over the SP4 is the USB C which you can also use to charge the device as well. I got a couple of these from mightyape.

Very happy :)

That looks pretty good!

Dingbatt

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#1746551 23-Mar-2017 17:23

So I pulled the trigger on two Core M SP4s (4GB/128GB). Spent this afternoon setting them up. I must say the display is gorgeous and I almost wish I had got one for myself as well!
So the next question is to do with MS Office for them both. We are currently using Office 2010 on all our PCs but it appears that to get the most out of the Pen particularly, a new version of the programs may be required. I have seen MSO 2016 retailing for $195 per PC or MSO365 University which is $145 per PC for a 4 year licence. Does anyone have any comment on what would work best with the surface? Are there any other essential apps for study besides the ones mentioned earlier in the thread?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

timmmay

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#1746553 23-Mar-2017 17:28

I don't even use the pen.

JayADee

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#1746777 24-Mar-2017 07:20

timmmay:
I don't even use the pen.

Send me yours. ;)

Drawing with it is fabulous when it works.
I was thinking about this thread when I was drawing a Trump cartoon and the f- pen would cut out throwing my concentration right off.

I can't understand why so many people say they don't have an issue when I tried 3 different ones and the same number of pens! I want somebody to prove to me theirs works. It's so annoying!!

qwertee

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#1746783 24-Mar-2017 07:45

In answer to the OP - Yes

I love my Surface pro 4 (M3 version) after moving away from an ASUS T100TA.

Perfect for travelling and couch surfing.

The only gripe is that the charger power pack does not have the USB charger port for this model.

Wish I could charge it using a mini USB connection. Less chargers to worry about.

For other work I use my laptop

cheers

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Dingbatt

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#1748655 27-Mar-2017 12:55

Is Drawboard PDF a full pre-installed app? It shows as a trial on our Surfaces.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Juicytree

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#1748682 27-Mar-2017 13:30

Drawboard is not a full app. It does everything I ask of it for reading, rotating and annotating however for $38.50 (I assume USD) per year it can be upgraded to enable the insertion of pages etc so I suppose it depends on what a user needs.

Check out https://drawboard.com/pdf/ and the FAQs in support.

heavenlywild

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#1748685 27-Mar-2017 13:34

Slightly OT, but surely the next gen of the Surface Pro shouldn't be too far away? I would wait a bit and see before purchasing anything.

Dingbatt

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#1748712 27-Mar-2017 14:15

heavenlywild:
Slightly OT, but surely the next gen of the Surface Pro shouldn't be too far away? I would wait a bit and see before purchasing anything.

That was my assumption due to the discounting going on at the moment. However, just as in any new gen devices, they will charge a premium initially, which puts the SP5 out of my price range. Rumour has it that the Surface Book is no longer going to be a convertible, but a standard clamshell.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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