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.