Hey guys, this is Austin and today I'm trying the new Surface Pro.
So, big shout to Microsoft for inviting us out here, all the way to Shanghai, and this is the ... the lineup.
So this is not the Surface Pro 5.
Instead they're dropping the numbers and going with a much more simple and easy to remember:
new "Surface Pro" name.
But what's cool is pretty much all the stuff that you expect out of the Surface Pro is still here.
So you still have access to the type cover,
you do have a new surface pen,
but most importantly, this is sort of the most advanced tablet the size of an iPad.
So, there's actually a lot new with the Surface Pro even though it actually doesn't look all that different.
So, one of the big things is they've actually refined the design a fair bit.
So, even though it's very, very similar on the outside,
they've smooth a lot of the edges down,
it's a little bit lighter,
it's a little bit thinner, and it does feel nice in the hand.
While the real improvements have been on the inside.
So, this is now rocking an Intel Kaby Lake processors, this particular model is outfitted with the i7 7660U,
there's also Core M3 and Core i5 models.
What's interesting is the Core i5 model actually is completely fanless.
So, you can imagine that while it looks pretty much the exact same on the outside,
it is completely passively cooled.
Not exactly like this is going to be a loud device to begin with,
but it's really cool to have a proper Core i5 without a fan.
So with those new chips come better performance,
so they're claiming around 20% better performance which probably is a little bit optimistic
what should be a big improvement is the battery life.
So, the new surface pro 4 is rated for up to 13 hours of use.
Now that's compared to nine hours on the previous generation and that is a big big bump.
They've achieved this in a couple different ways.
First of all it has a bigger battery which is always helpful.
Those Kaby Lake chips are a little bit more efficient and
Windows 10 Creator Update is a little bit more well optimized for the Surface.
Now this is actually a big jump, not sure it doesn't quite match these 14 hours of the surface laptop.
We're talking about a device
that you can pretty confidently take with you all day without needing to charge it up.
Something that hasn't really changed are the ports.
So, you still have a single USB 3.0 type-A,
a mini display port as well as the magnetic surface connector for charging.
That's not really a huge deal but it's bizarre to see a mini display port on a brand new device in 2017.
It really would be nice if it had USB type C or even Thunderbolt 3 for this price.
Speaking of price the new Surface Pro starts at 799 dollars which is about the same as the last gen.
However it no longer comes with the Surface pen out of the box.
Now to be fair this is a upgraded version of the Surface pen,
but if you want it, it's going to run you an additional $99.
The new Surface pen has four times more levels of sensitivity,
which is nice if you're actually talented unlike me.
What I can tell is there's a lot less lag here,
so it pretty much feels almost one-to-one.
It's not quite perfect, but it is a big improvement over previous Surfaces.
Now, what's cool is this pen is actually is going to be compatible with other Surface models,
but it's going to be pretty much ready to go out of the box with the new Surface Pro.
The kickstand now goes almost entirely flat, which is nice so they call this the studio mode,
but of course if you want a fully flat tablet you can just, you know, not use the kickstand.
And that's one of the cool things about the new Surface Pro.
Well sure there aren't a lot of huge new upgrades, it's a solid update,
there's a lot of small things that do add up.
So if we drop it on the tight cover, you'll see this is a little bit different from the previous generation.
So, it now has the new Alcantara touch that is very similar to what you'll find on the Surface laptop.
The keyboard is not bad at all.
Uh It's maybe not my favorite,
I think a lot of laptop keyboards are a little bit better,
but you have to keep in mind that this is built into a cover,
which is easily detachable,
it's fully magnetic and honestly it doesn't feel bad.
So, one of the cool things about this new tight cover is it does have a fair bit of travel,
I believe they quoted something like 1.2 millimeters,
which is a little bit more than on some certain other Macbo... I mean laptops.
There's like an entire meeting right here.
Ok, so, I got a little loud, time to bust out the big guns.
Something interesting is that Microsoft repeatedly called the Surface Pro a laptop and not a tablet,
which is interesting because it's exactly as much of a tablet
as it was before, as not only does it not come with the pen,
it also does not come with the keyboard.
So, yeah, the Pro will also be available with an LTE option in a couple months which is nice
as it does help to differentiate it between the other surface products.
As you can see on the table behind me there are now quite a few.
So the Surface Book is a little bit of an oddball,
it's definitely the most powerful laptop that Microsoft sells,
it's also just quirky and it doesn't close all the way and it's very expensive,
so I feel like it's a little bit more of a niche sort of thing.
The Surface laptop I think is much more interesting
because it really does feel like a major attack on stuff like the MacBook Air.
It's around the same price and I would argue that the hardware is much much nicer,
which leads the surface pro as a sort of tablet sort of laptop sort of "not sure where's that in life" thing.
Honestly for the Surface line to have started with the tablets,
it feels like it's kind of gotten to a point
where I'm not really sure where else they can take it from here.
And that isn't that necessarily a bad thing.
I think a lot of people really do like the Surface Pro line,
but with stuff like the Surface laptop which kind of does the laptop thing better,
it's weird I'm not really totally sure who should really be picking this up.
We have options like this or that or this or that.
The new Surface Pro will be available on June 15th, the same day as the Surface laptop.
So let me know in the comments below what you guys think about this
and I will catch you in the next one.