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 ....