HP Spectre x360 with gen6 i7 processor - Part 1

So I flip-flopped.

I was very concern that having a new laptop computer will distract me from spending time to draw.  But what ended up happened was that I was still yearning for a machine with long battery life with good performance that I kept searching online for possible good laptop deal.  So I thought, what the heck, I need to get a good computer so that I can have an ease of mind, and thus able to get back to focus on drawing once I've done with setting up the new computer.

So much for giving myself excuse to buy new gadget.

So after done some research and then went to Microsoft Store, I nailed down my selection down to 3 computers:

• HP Spectre x360 with gen6 i7 CPU
• Lenovo Yoga 900
• Dell XPS 13 with gen6 i5 CPU

They were chosen because:

• they are under US$1300 (before tax)
• they have reasonably good battery life (at least better than Surface Pro 4)
• they have good reviews online

For Lenovo Yoga 900, I like the light-weight and the form factor.  But the machine is flimsy and I am seriously worry that I may break it within 2 years.  Gotta say that I wasn't aware of it until after I read a review about how bendable the screen was.  Once I saw that comment, I couldn't Unseen it, and start getting very aware of it.

For XPS 13, I love the smaller form factor, but it doesn't allow me to flip it over, makes it less of a video watching device on the plane.  Also brick-and-mortal Microsoft Store only has the QHD+ screen, which drains battery much faster than the FHD version.  If I want to read something, I use my iPad Pro, so I totally OK with FHD if that's how I got better battery life.

HP Spectre x360 with gen6 i7 CPU has the lowest price tag (US$999) among the 3, and have the best spec (gen 6 i7, 8Gb memory, 256Gb HD).  My biggest problem with it is the weight.  But then with the solid aluminum case and long battery life, I thought it's a good compromise.

So at the end, I brought HP Spectre x360.

After using it for a few days, I have better idea about about the pros and cons of the device:

Pros:

• Solidly built case.
• Fast.
• Great price performance ratio.
• Great battery life
• Great enough display

Cons:

• Heavier than other ultralight notebook.
• Can get really hot at the bottom of the laptop after using for a while.
• A bit too reflective the screen

On the first day/night of using the device, I experienced track pad not responding very once in a while.  But then after some Windows Update and trackpad update, I don't experience the problem anymore.

I also wondered if I should get the 512Gb HD version instead of my existing 256Gb HD version.  But then I realized that a portable 1.5 Tb USB 3 harddisk does an even better job on keeping content.  and it's better to use the portable harddisk to sync content then syncing with laptop thru WiFi.  After all, most of the apps I use are portable apps. Leave too much stuff on the laptop only make it hard for me to sync data everywhere.

Surface Pro 4 experience: Part 6

Finally, it's time to say goodbye to my Surface Pro 4.

I am now resetting the Surface Pro 4, and will return it to BestBuy this afternoon.

So why I am returning it?

Stylus experience: worse than with iPad Pro

The first thing that attracted me to Surface Pro series is the stylus.  Stylus support on Surface Pro 4 is supposed to be the best Windows device can offer.  Yet, compare with the experience of sketching on iPad Pro, sketching on Surface Pro 4 is still frustrating.  For start, I STILL experience touch point alignment problem.  The spot that I put the pen tip on is still slightly away from where I draw on, no matter how many times I did calibration.  I was using Sketchbook Pro 7 on desktop, and constantly frustrated by the alignment problem, and that took me away my creative process.

With Sketchbook app on iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, I do not experience that problem.  The sketching experience was so natural and the alignment is so accurate that I didn't THINK about alignment at all, and instead focus on the thing I should really care about: drawing.

The idea that I spent more than a thousand dollar and yet still have such fundamental flaw is extremely irritating.

Having too many devices

I found this out from the hard way: spent time with Surface Pro 4 at night in the last several night took away my precious drawing time.  And come to think of it, what Surface Pro 4 provides me is simply the ability of playing games while I am on bed.  If I really think practicing sketching is the most important thing of my life other than my day job, I should eliminate anything that distract me from this goal.  This includes Surface Pro 4.

And even if I am on trip, iPad Pro my Logitech bluetooth keyboard does everything I care about.  My last Hong Kong trip is a good example that with iPad Pro, I don't need Surface Pro 4 at all.  In fact, I DID NOT spent any time with Surface Pro 4 during my Hong Kong trip.  I really do not NEED SP4.


In fact, I should also stop considering getting Dell XPS 13 (non touch, FHD screen, late 2015 edition) for the same reason: I need to spend more time to draw, and iPad Pro does it great.

Goodbye, Surface Pro 4.  You are a great device, but I think we both should see other people.

Surface Pro 4 experience: Part 5

To keep or not to keep

The idea of returning Surface Pro 4 is still at the back of my head.  In fact, I will probably make a decision in the coming 2 days.

It's not because Surface Pro 4 is really that bad.  It's just that based on my real world usage, I found Dell XPS 13 (late 2015 version) a better fit for me for several reasons.

Battery and charging

One thing I really like about my iPad Air 2 (and now iPad Pro) is that I don't have to worry about charging and having a charger with me all the time.  iPad can survive a whole day intensively using it with charging it.  And worst come to worst I always have a external battery for charging anything that support USB charging, and that includes my iPad.

On the other hand, Surface Pro 4 has 4 to 5 hours of battery life.  While it's still ok, I still have to pack the proprietary charger with me all the time, and keep worrying that I may break the charger.

There's also no battery pack solution, so even if I am willing to pay, I am not able to pack so that I can use my computer for full day without charging.  This can be avoid during long trip.

Also, additional external power adapter is costly, and I read enough horrible messages online to make me seriously concern about buying third party made power adapter.

Rarely use stylus and touch

One of the biggest selling point of Surface Pro 4 is stylus, until Apple Pencil arrived, I was craving for getting a Windows based computer with stylus and accurate digitizing.  Since then iPad Pro with Apple Pencil totally satisfied that sketching need, and I no longer use stylus on Surface Pro 4 much.  It was in my backpack that I rarely touch.

I gotta admit, though, that touch is handy whenever I need to scale the display, or suddenly need to access an application with touch.  In fact, just a while ago I used calculator with touch and found that a fantastic user experience.

The high definition QHD+ screen is contributing to lower battery life than XPS 13 FD version.  However, QHD+ screen on Surface Pro 4 does look good, and I am a bit concern that I am so used to higher definition screen on Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro, reading on the older display may not satisfy me.

All sort of glitches

By now I already resolved all of the glitches that bugs me about Surface Pro 4.  For the failing to wake up from sleep problem, I resolved it by totally avoiding Sleeping and use Hibernation instead.  That allows me to reliability bring up the machine by pressing the power button.  I got slightly better battery life by using Windows 10 "battery saver", and that's how I got 5 hours of solid battery life.  The screen scaling problem is pretty much resolved as found either workaround or replacement applications to do things that I need to do (like using Remote Desktop Connection Manager instead of using regular Remote Desktop application).

Still, the fact that this device has all these widely discussed problems kind of bugs me, make me feel like I am using a inferior product, and that I can't trust in my very day life all the time.

I indeed need a portable PC

Whether I keep Surface Pro 4 or not, one thing is for sure:  I do need a PC.  There was a period of time that I thought I can do all I need to do at home with either my desktop PC and my iPad.  But ever since I got Surface Pro 4, I found one thing I start keep doing these days: typing while I am on bed.  It's indeed relaxing and cozy to type on bed during winter.  It feels like I am getting something done in a lay-back way, and the Type Cover keyboard of Surface Pro 4 really is fantasy.

Another thing I enjoy a lot doing on bed is playing emulator games.  Sure, Wii and PS2 emulator seems to crash once in a while on SP4, but with the instance save feature, I am not particularly concern.  The gaming experience is slightly different from sitting straight gaming on my desktop PC, and I like the option of doing things the way I want whenever I feel like.

Surface Pro 4 experience: Part 4

Surface Pro 4: good, but not great

I have not been writing anything about Surface Pro 4 because of a good reason: I haven't been using it for a while since I brought it a month ago.  This is mainly because I brought an iPad Pro a week after I brought Surface Pro 4.  Since I spent most of time on tablet to draw, and iPad Pro provides a superb sketching experience, it make sense that I prefer using iPad Pro.

But there are also things that my iPad Pro can't handle, like running a lot of those Windows based that I have been using since years ago.  As the refund deadline slowing approaching for my Surface Pro 4, I need to make sure that this is a device that I want to keep.  So once again, I started to heavily use Surface Pro 4 in order to figure out whether I should keep Surface Pro 4, or return it and buy another Windows based laptop.

One thing I need to keep remind myself: I indeed NEED to buy a Windows based laptop.  Even though I have a lot of computer devices, I DO NOT have an adequate computer device that:

• belong to me (not company laptop)
• portable
• fast enough to run basic apps, emulator games, graphic apps and utilities
• has a good typing experience that allows me to type hours and hours
• support active stylus, so that I can use it to do sketching when needed
• has a good screen that allows me to use it in portrait and landscape mode at ease
• has good enough battery life
• light weight
• reasonably priced (for the feature I listed above)
• does not have heat issue when use it as a sketching device
• stylus has no serious latency and calibration problem.

I gotta say that so far Surface Pro 4 satisfy the list a have above.  In fact, I found the fact that I can almost fully recharged SP4 in 2.5 hours an amazing feature that even my iPad Pro can barely match it.

However, being a super picky person, there are still stuff that irritates me:

Horrible wake up experience

Time and time again I found SP4 NOT ABLE to wake up from sleep properly.  The most frustrating part is that I know for sure the machine is running, and yet I wasn't able to bring up the screen.  Eventually I have to shut down the machine by pressing the power button for long time.  Also, I found that waking up the device from sleep by pressing power button doesn't seemed to work reliably.  I am now, instead, starting to train myself to wake up a sleeping machine by pressing any key on keyboard.

I also experienced problem when the SP4 continues to draw power when it was supposed to be in save mode.  I read a lot of review and they seemed to point out that the problem happens on Microsoft's power saving code, and Microsoft replied that it won't be able to fix the problem until sometime next year.  In the meantime, I think the best way to avoid extra power drawing is by shutting down the before putting SP4 in my backpack.

Windows Store app still failed to provide a proper tablet experience

I spent quite some time last week to try to see if I can consume content is exactly the same way as I consume them on iPad, and eventually found out that while I can indeed consume all these contents, I need to serious compromise the user experience.

Take podcast as an example.  There are a few ok podcast app on Windows Store that respect the power management feature (so that I can close the screen while continue to play podcast audio at the background), none of these apps are able to subscript some of the Hong Kong based podcast I frequently listen to.  At the end, I have to go for the workaround:

• Use iTunes Widows top application to download podcast episodes
• Use Multimedia 8 to play these downloaded podcast mp3

Another example is reading Chinese ePub books.  I was surprised that most book reading apps, be it Windows desktop app or Windows Store app, has problem dealing with Chinese epub file.  Here's the application that I tried and found that they have problem properly:

• Liberty (Windows Store app):
  It has no problem dealing with English ePub books, but for Chinese ePub books, it has this strange behavior that it took me a while which I eventually figured out.  It turns out that if a ePub file is not in English, the app can only handle ONE of such file.  That mean I can only have one Chinese ePub book being keep tracked (of my reading progress) by Liberty.  While I can live with the limitation since I usually prefer finishing one book before starting another, it's a workaround nevertheless.
• Nook (Windows Store app):
  It works well with both Chinese and English epubs, but it has one serious problem: it only use portion of the screen.  I seriously doubt this Nook will get updated since the whole Nook ebook business was not going so well.
• Icecream eBook Reader (Windows desktop app)
  The app has problem running properly on Surface Pro 4 as it's UI elements are so tiny on SP4's high definition screen.  I also couldn't find a feature to increase the font size.  Even though it did open both Chinese and English epub files properly, I couldn't use it and eventually uninstalled it.

There are other epub apps that I tired and having problems.  I am not listing all of them here since it would be a super long list.

Weak battery life

This issue can be controversial, as what reviewers found out seemed to be very different from what Microsoft claimed.  Based on my real world usage experience, SP4 gives me about 5 hours of battery life.  It's enough to handle my daily life and work life usage, assuming that I either have access to power outlet in the middle of the day, or I have my iPad Pro with me as my backup device.  Still, it seems to be on the weak side comparing with other latest laptop that claims to have 8+ hours of battery life.

Surface Pro 4 alternative?

In fact, if there's one reason why I will return Surface Pro 4, it will mainly because of battery life.  But then the question is: is there other alternatives?  I keep researching, and eventually found 2 options:

• Dell XPS 13 (Last 2015 verrsion)
• SurfaceBook

However, after I weight the pros and cons, I still think Surface Pro 4 is a better option.

Dell XPS 13 (Last 2015 version)

Pros:

• Longer battery life than Surface Pro 4
• However, based on what I read, XPS 13 doesn't necessary provide the 10 hours it claimed, as mentioned in this article.  The thing is that those 10 hours result are archived by minimal setting.  If I push XPS 13 to do some intense application, like running some intense game or copying tons of files thru network, I will get the similar 3 hours battery life.  Also, if I get the touch version with higher resolution, it will have the similar battery drain problem as SP4.  

Cons:

• Lack stylus support
• Doesn't provide the tablet form factor and experience.
• That means I cannot easily use it watch video during long flight, which I did tried during my trip back to Hong Kong recently, and extremely enjoying it.
• Heavier than Surface Pro 4.

SurfaceBook

Pros:

• Has a much bigger battery on the base unit

Cons:

• Too buggy to be useful in reliable business situation
• I am planning to use whatever laptop I have in daily work, including using it in the office.  Anything that doesn't run reliably is a no no.  And whatever benefit this device provide means nothing is it can't work reliably.
• Expansive
• Same configuration cost $500+ more compare with SurfacePro4.
• Heavy
• Leaving SurfaceBook in my backpack can be a more painful experience.

Thus, as of now, I will continue to keep Surface Pro 4 .... until something seriously piss me off.... will see ....

Surface Pro 4 experience: Part 3

If there's one thing that really bugs me about Surface Pro 4, that will be the way how the machine being turned on.  More than couple of times that after I press the power button, SP4 didn't turn on immediately.  If I long press for a long while then eventually the system will do a cold restart.  But that totally breaks the illusion of Windows 10 being a tablet OS.  The turn on and sleep behavior keeps reminding me that this is not a tablet.  This is a PC.  And sometimes that caused me frustration as I expected all the tablet device behavior, like instant on, long battery life and so on.

Carrying a separate power adapter around is also a hassle to me, particularly when the tablet's 5 hour battery life definitely isn't enough to satisfy my full day usage.

Surface Pro 4 experience: Part 2

So I was trying to SP4 to do a quick sketch, and found that the new Surface takes FOREVER to wake up from cold.  To be precise, it took almost 5 minutes to boot up,  Due to it's form factor, I kind of expect it to wake up much quicker.  Maybe it's just that one time, since I did started SP4 from cold in some other situations and it was working ok.

Knowing that SP4 has a microSD slot, and being a storage hog, I want to maximize the storage that I can use.  So I brought this Samsung - EVO+ 128GB microSDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Memory Card and inserted it in SP4.  Maybe I had too much expectation because of this "UHS-1", so I was not too happy after seeing following tests I did:

• Sending 40.4Gb application files (with executable binaries and all setting files): took 43 minutes.
• Sending 61Gb multimedia files: took 50 minutes.
• Sending 17Gb multimedia files: took 10 minutes.

It still usable.  I was just expecting more.  Also I was told that there's this microSD ejecting itself problem on SP3.  Let's see if SP4 has the same problem or not.

Surface Pro 4 experience - Part 1

Last year, I tried Surface Pro 3, and I returned it with tons of anger and frustration.  Yet, my need for having a digital sketchbook was still not fulfilled.  And now that Surface Pro 4 had been released, I told myself that I would like to give Surface line one more try.

To be honest, if iPad Pro releases a month ahead of schedule, then I would not even consider Surface Pro 4 at all, since my sketching need will most probably will fulfilled by iPad Pro with Apple Pencil.  But iPad Pro has been arrived yet (as for the moment I type this blog), and I am heading to Hong Kong a few days later.  My options are getting a Surface Pro 4, or use my heavy and short battery life EeeSlate.  I finally decided that I deserve to use a better device.

Next I have to decide whether I should get a Surface Pro 4 or a SurfaceBook.  I ended up picking Surface Pro 4 because I concern about portability.  If I want a power laptop to use during a trip, I can use my office laptop, which has quad core i7 CPU in it.  If I want something super light weight, I will use my iPad Air 2.  Surface Pro 4 fits in my life by providing a device that is light enough to carry around wherever I go, and yet powerful enough to run my Windows based applications, including several drawing tools like Manga Studio 5, Sketchbook Pro 7 and so on.

So I brought a Surface Pro 4 with i5 process, 8Gb memory and 256Gb harddisk.  My expectation on this device was pretty high, even though I had so much problem with Surface Pro 3 before.

The first thing I realized while I was setting up Service Pro 4 was that it DOES NOT work with my generation 1 Type Cover which I brought with a Surface RT.  I was a bit disappointed, but not a big deal breaker.  I did brought the new Surface Pro 4 Type cover.  HOWEVER, I will I'll probably return the one I brought and get the one with fingerprint scanner, because I am I sick and tired of my coworker looking that me typing in my password during meetings.  Fingerprint scanner will totally avoid that hassle.

Another thing that frustrated me was that I kept losing Wifi signal when connected to one of the WiFi router at home (the "Hxxxxxx" one).  Once I connected to my network "Mxxxx", the connection seemed pretty stable.  Still, I'll probably need to verify it when I go to work tomorrow.

Since sketching is my main purpose of getting this device, I installed and fired up SketchBook Pro 7, and tried a bit.  The experience was pretty good, and the soft tip on the stylus allows me to sketch without feeling like I was drawing on glasses.  There seemed to be a tiny tiny tracking issue which makes me think that I may need to calibrate the pen input, but I even the current non-perfect tracking seemed to be acceptable.

The heat problem that drove me away on first one seemed to be improved.  I still felt heat at the back, but I wondered if it's because I am still charging my machine right now.

The new TypeCover is nice to use.  The rest area feels good.  The tracking seems nice.  And the backlit will be a great help when I was using it to type during my trip back to Hong Kong a few days later.

The default 200% resolution setting is too tiny for my to use comfortably.  So I switched to 225% and that seemed to work better for me.

The fact that I only have a single USB 3.0 port is indeed a hassle to me.  I cannot connect to both my USB 3.0 harddisk and my XBox360 joypad at the same time.  I will need to see if I can find a USB 3.0 hub to allow me to work around this problem.

Some of my "portable" application, like SketchBook Pro 7, didn't work right away, but installing Visual Studio 2012 C++ Distributable package solved the problem.

I then tried Manga Studio 5.  Just like what I experienced last year with Surface Pro 3, the default Wintab setting didn't work, and I had to switch to TabletPC mode, but then I lost the zoom gesture.  Fortunately, this time Microsoft provides a WinTab driver.   And with that I was able to has pressure sensitivity and zoom gesture at the same time.  I did still experienced some tiny tail at the beginning of some strokes when I use G-Pen, but then that's more about more needing to get used to inking style Mange Studio 5 use.

Remote Desktop (both the desktop and Windows Store version) still have that zooming problem.  As before, I used to workaround application called "Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.2".

But then there are applications that require a more drastic way to resolve the resolution problem.  Like Daz Studio, which is totally useless when in highest resolution with text scaling mode.  So everytime when I need to use Daz Studio, I need to set to resolution to 1280 x 800.  With that, menu and everything will then look normal on Daz Studio.

Compare with 2 years ago, there are at least some Windows Store apps that makes the tablet experience on Windows 10 better than when it was Windows 8/8.1 .  For instead, "Podcast!" is a petty ok Podcast player.  For reading ePub books you can use "Liberty".  For cbr and cbz Comics/Manga reading you can use "Cover".  They don't provide as good the experience as the similar apps on iOS or Android OS, but they do the job nevertheless.

That's all for Day 1.