Is a Surface Pro 4 For Me?

[jimono123]

Hey Tom's Hardware Folks,

I wanted to get your advice on something. I'm getting to a point where I'm looking to replace my old MacBook Pro from 2009. It's been a great laptop but it's definitely been showing its age and limitations the last couple of years. I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the Surface Pro 4 in terms of specs and what all it claims to be cabable of. I absolutely love the form factor which is a huge selling point as well as the pen functionality as I am on the go a lot and I also love drawing. There are a number of things that I would need of it however for it to be able to be a complete laptop replacement.
On top of routine document and photo creating/editing, surfing the internet, drawing, etc., I would also need it to smoothly do all of the following:

-Allow me to run and work in programs like Eclipse IDE on a regular basis (I write a lot of automated test scripts for my work)
-Allow me to work remotely from my desktop at the office (probably with the addition of the Surface Dock, one or two additional moniters, a keyboard/mouse, etc.)
-Some lighter video editing (comparable to things you might do in a program like iVideo)
-Some lighter audio editing (comparable to things you might do in a program like GarageBand)
-Streaming my Steam library from my main PC while I'm at home
-Able to run one or two smaller games natively (such as Transistor, Supreme Commander, etc.)
-Able to be completely reformatted on a routine basis (and not like a backup and restore, but a complete wipe and reinstallation of a fresh copy of Windows 10)

I'm looking into the i7, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSDD configuration (possibly going up to the 1TB SSD configuration but that's a pretty steep additional cost) and then being able to hook it up to a the Surface Pro Dock when I'm at home or working remotely. I'm not sure if my desires of what it needs to be able to do are unrealistic to expect from the Surface Pro 4 though. I know that there are many other alternative laptops out there that I'm considering if the Surface Pro 4 just isn't realistic for this but it would be amazing to have one smaller form factor device that is cabable of all of that without huge compromises to performance. Am I just pipe dreaming or do any of you have any successful experiences performing similar tasks on the Surface Pro 4? Also, does anyone know of or have you experienced any inherent limitations in the OS or anything like that that would keep it from operating differently from a normal desktop or laptop running Windows 10? I've generally read positive reviews so far and spent a decent amount of time talking to various sales associates at various retailers but many of those associates are either Microsoft employees or seem really inexperienced at more advanced usage. Any thoughts or advice on this would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Brian

 

[jsmithepa]

Today I was at Costco, and glanced at this seemly extremely thin laptop. What is it? I went over to touch and the dang thing keeled over, then I saw the sign, it's a Surface something. I mean it looks super-sleek but the keyboard to screen weight ratio is completely wrong. I understand why this is so, but having used a normal laptop forever, having to have a stand to pop up the screen feels weird. I know, I answered none of your questions.

 

[jimono123]

Today I was at Costco, and glanced at this seemly extremely thin laptop. What is it? I went over to touch and the dang thing keeled over, then I saw the sign, it's a Surface something. I mean it looks super-sleek but the keyboard to screen weight ratio is completely wrong. I understand why this is so, but having used a normal laptop forever, having to have a stand to pop up the screen feels weird. I know, I answered none of your questions.

Hey no worries. It's good to get some perspective. I think that I'm pretty comfortable and used to the upright tablet form factor a bit as I have a larger Android tablet that I use regularly; that tablet just doesn't do a lot of the major things I need of a laptop. So I think that's not too big of a deal for me. But who knows, maybe I'll stop in somewhere and play around with one of the tablets and see what I think again.

 

[velo3100]

The main thing with small devices is that they are small. This limits the productivity that you can do with it. It should be able to do everything except for streaming the steam library as you need a gtx gpu for that.

Back to the productivity, you will get frustrated of the small screen when you are doing things like coding or video editing.

For simple things its fine.

 

[jimono123]

The main thing with small devices is that they are small. This limits the productivity that you can do with it. It should be able to do everything except for streaming the steam library as you need a gtx gpu for that.

Back to the productivity, you will get frustrated of the small screen when you are doing things like coding or video editing.

For simple things its fine.

That's good to know. Thanks for the input. I was under the impression though that Steam streaming only required the steam desktop application to be installed on the origination and destination devices for streaming to work. I could be completely wrong though as I've never tried it without a device that had a designated GPU.

 

[MrJak]

The main thing with small devices is that they are small. This limits the productivity that you can do with it. It should be able to do everything except for streaming the steam library as you need a gtx gpu for that.

Back to the productivity, you will get frustrated of the small screen when you are doing things like coding or video editing.

For simple things its fine.

That's good to know. Thanks for the input. I was under the impression though that Steam streaming only required the steam desktop application to be installed on the origination and destination devices for streaming to work. I could be completely wrong though as I've never tried it without a device that had a designated GPU.

That is correct, Steam streaming doesn't require a nvidia GPU; that's for "NVIDIA GameStream."
I think it should be able to handle everything you've listed, though I'm not sure about reinstalling Windows.

However, if you're considering the 1TB model, I'd definitely recommend looking into the Surface Book; you can get its 512GB model for the same price and it includes a nvida GPU that should give you a boost in GPU accelerated programs, be it games or video editting. You can probably play some older titles at the native resolution of 3000x2000, but most newer titles would need to run at 1080p or lower or be played via streaming.

And, in case you wanted to know the specs of each for comparison's sake:
Surface pro 4: i7-6650U, 2.2GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 540 iGPU on a 2736x1824, 3:2 screen
Surface Book: i7-6600U, 2.6GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 520 iGPU; includes Nvidia 940m equivalent with 1GB dedicated GDDR5 vRAM on a 3,000x2,000, 3:2 screen

 

[jimono123]

The main thing with small devices is that they are small. This limits the productivity that you can do with it. It should be able to do everything except for streaming the steam library as you need a gtx gpu for that.

Back to the productivity, you will get frustrated of the small screen when you are doing things like coding or video editing.

For simple things its fine.

That's good to know. Thanks for the input. I was under the impression though that Steam streaming only required the steam desktop application to be installed on the origination and destination devices for streaming to work. I could be completely wrong though as I've never tried it without a device that had a designated GPU.

That is correct, Steam streaming doesn't require a nvidia GPU; that's for "NVIDIA GameStream."
I think it should be able to handle everything you've listed, though I'm not sure about reinstalling Windows.

However, if you're considering the 1TB model, I'd definitely recommend looking into the Surface Book; you can get its 512GB model for the same price and it includes a nvida GPU that should give you a boost in GPU accelerated programs, be it games or video editting. You can probably play some older titles at the native resolution of 3000x2000, but most newer titles would need to run at 1080p or lower or be played via streaming.

And, in case you wanted to know the specs of each for comparison's sake:
Surface pro 4: i7-6650U, 2.2GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 540 iGPU on a 2736x1824, 3:2 screen
Surface Book: i7-6600U, 2.6GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 520 iGPU; includes Nvidia 940m equivalent with 1GB dedicated GDDR5 vRAM on a 3,000x2,000, 3:2 screen

That's really helpful to know. Thanks for that information. I think that most likely, the Surface Pro form factor is a better fit over the Surface Book, especially since I don't really "need" the extra GPU power, but that's some really good information to consider. Thanks for that.

 

[MrJak]

The main thing with small devices is that they are small. This limits the productivity that you can do with it. It should be able to do everything except for streaming the steam library as you need a gtx gpu for that.

Back to the productivity, you will get frustrated of the small screen when you are doing things like coding or video editing.

For simple things its fine.

That's good to know. Thanks for the input. I was under the impression though that Steam streaming only required the steam desktop application to be installed on the origination and destination devices for streaming to work. I could be completely wrong though as I've never tried it without a device that had a designated GPU.

That is correct, Steam streaming doesn't require a nvidia GPU; that's for "NVIDIA GameStream."
I think it should be able to handle everything you've listed, though I'm not sure about reinstalling Windows.

However, if you're considering the 1TB model, I'd definitely recommend looking into the Surface Book; you can get its 512GB model for the same price and it includes a nvida GPU that should give you a boost in GPU accelerated programs, be it games or video editting. You can probably play some older titles at the native resolution of 3000x2000, but most newer titles would need to run at 1080p or lower or be played via streaming.

And, in case you wanted to know the specs of each for comparison's sake:
Surface pro 4: i7-6650U, 2.2GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 540 iGPU on a 2736x1824, 3:2 screen
Surface Book: i7-6600U, 2.6GHz base, 3.4GHz boost; 2 cores, 4 threads and intel HD 520 iGPU; includes Nvidia 940m equivalent with 1GB dedicated GDDR5 vRAM on a 3,000x2,000, 3:2 screen

That's really helpful to know. Thanks for that information. I think that most likely, the Surface Pro form factor is a better fit over the Surface Book, especially since I don't really "need" the extra GPU power, but that's some really good information to consider. Thanks for that.

Alright, well there's a chance that the graphics performance may be similar anyway, but I'm not sure. Also, I've never seen either in person, so I don't know how they compare in size, but they seem similar enough to me from what I've seen, especially since you can undock the keyboard and use it as a surface pro; that's when the integrated graphics kick in.