1 month with the Surface Pro 7 [Software Developer's Experience]
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- I've been using the Surface Pro 7 for the past month and a bit and share my experience. Admittedly, this was more for portable use on my commute, but with no commute, things changed a bit. I use this machine for software development on personal hobby projects and created the video with that in mind.
00:20 Why Surface Pro 7?
01:17 Laptop Experience
02:30 WSL2 Is A God Send
03:50 Tablet Experience
04:35 Tablet Comparison To iPad Pro
05:05 Tablet Style Usage Battery
05:50 Battery Life "Test"
07:10 Thoughts on 2 in 1
09:00 Summary
10:13 Bonus Thoughts
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Pro tip : Watch the video on 1.5X
1.7x feels almost perfect for me!
1.25x has been okay for me. Thanks for the tip! He definitely was talking a little too slowly.
Thanks!
0.5x for extra drama
@@LinChearReal lol1
'Simulated commute' made me chuckle :)
Same 😅
One thing I think is good to mention is that although the battery life isn't great, it also charges EXTREMELY fast. I'm a teacher and I use it at school and yes, by lunch time I usually am down to about 55 to 60 percent. But all I have to do is plug it in and leave it alone while I eat and I'm back at 100 percent and ready to go for the rest of the day. The iPad doesn't charge nearly as fast!
This is really nice ! Thank you
@@chokdeesam2365 Yep it charges really quickly so it's not that big of a deal unless you use it on the move without any easy way to charge it if it gets low. But it also means that you need to bring the powerbrick with you if you want to travel even if you are just gone one day.
That is true. Fast charging is great to top things up when I'm down. I just wish the charger was easier to pack away. I bought extra velcro straps just to handle that thing.
Thanks for the details, I was considering buying either one. Ipad or surface ?? Love your two cents ty.
@@LinChearReal Does it have a normal aspect ratio/resolution? 16x9 1920x1080p,2560x1440p,3840x2160p,5120x2880p,7680x4320p/these are all normal resolutions/non made up resolutions.
I wanted to get/I was going to get the I7,32GBs of RAM, 1TB SSD model ,BUT I can't/WON'T deal with non 16x9 displays/made up crazy resolutions.
I thought this would be good, to go with my laptops, I have one 17.3inch,3840x2160p 16x9,I9,128GBs RAM, 3080,with 4TBs Of SSDs/storage, in one of my laptops, my other laptop has an
Intel xeon W-11950H VPro processor
128GB RAM
17.3inch 3840x2160p 500 nits
Nvidia RTX A5000 Max-Q 16GB
It also has three 2TB SSDs and a 7200RPM 6TB hardrive,so 12TBs, I will have Linux Manjaro AND Windows 10 on it.
It also has 4G LTE built in as well.
I thought this would be a good addition to those laptops,BUT I NEED a 16x9 display,for me, non 16x9 displays, NEED to be AT LEAST 55inches OR BIGGER, granted even my 75inch TV, is 16x9/I don't own ANY NON 16X9 displays/my phones the Razor Phone 2 and I don't plan to upgrade, until a 16x9 display, is available,I had the Note 4/Sony Z Premium phone, before this/I waited for this phone to come out, for a LONG TIME,I also bought a back up Razor Phone 2,JUST IN CASE.
I'm looking for a powerful tablet,it NEEDS to be able to run Linux AND Windows, it ALSO NEEDS to be 16x9, it ALSO NEEDS to be optimized, for battery life/if I'm reading/watching a video/browsing the web, it doesn't need to be drinking juice, CONSTANTLY/like crazy/when I'm not editing/emulating multiple devices/testing.
I PROBABLY can program something, in assembly/C, to conserve power/in certain operations, I can setup, where ONLY two/MAYBE 3 cores are used and 6GBs RAM are used.
Just got a surface pro 7 (i7, 16gb variant) recently (2023) with Windows 11 and it's awesome! I use it as my daily device for coding (Angular, Docker, Java) and everything is working smoothly. I also love drawing on this thing. Windows Ink works like magic! (in tablet mode, i use the pencil to literally write emails :D)
Thanks men for your review. I was thinking to move to Surface. but no one telling about professional use cases
@@abutahermuhammad4827 no problem but as of this time I downgraded my sp7 to windows 10 because tablet mode is far better than on windows 11. Memory usage in windows 10 is also lower after I run a debloat script.
Can i still use it in 2024 ☹️ ? Reply please 🙏
@@Aditya_kumar7409 hi, I gave mine to my cousin who's running Autocad, it works great! Battery isn't lasting long but using it while plugged in works fine.
Currently using a Thinkpad X1 Tablet 3rd Gen (i5 16GB)
Was looking for a good review from a software developer's perspective, thank you
I appreciate it. Glad it was helpful!
Yes, I was also searching for a review of this device from a software developer. Perfect!
Was looking for a comment on a video of a review from a software developer's perspective, thank you
@@PalmTree26 I always wanted to comment from a software developers perspective on a comment on a review of a device from a software developers perspective.
ZIN
Love the real world scenario review, this is better than just providing benchmarks
Surface Pro owner here. Agree with your summary. Amazing laptop, passable tablet. Perfect for me because my use case is 90% ultrabook, 10% tablet. It's my go-to for site visits where I'm up ladders, under desks and around the back of server cabinets. Easier to jot things down when in cramped spaces than type things on a keyboard yet once I get to a desk, all my data is already there and OCRed ready to be tidied up to present to the client. I rarely use it as a media consumption device as (like the iPad Pro 12.9) I find it too big and heavy for casual use and prefer something more traditional tablet sized for that job. No device is perfect and all hybrid devices have to compromise somewhere. For me though, it fits like a glove. I can't see me ever going back to a conventional laptop but I always hesitate to recommend it unless I get a good feel for what the potential user thinks they need it for. Never had any issues with the battery in my use case but then I don't run taxing applications without the power connected.
One thing though, modern 'online' apps kill the battery on any portable device. MS Teams/Slack/Chrome/iCloud/Onedrive/etc., are all resource hogs and if you have a bunch of these all running in the background, battery life will tank.
I have the iPad Pro 10" and kind of have to take a minute to decide which one to use at any given time. For consuming, it is a champ. Battery lasts quite a while. For the surface pro, I tend to use it when I pretend I'm going to program.
I've had my surface pro 7 since February last year and it's perfect ! Love it so much ! It does weird windows things but usually followed by a update ! I'm an industrial Designer and it suits my needs 100% , i5 8gb version. Runs fusion360 relatively well, can do the Adobe programs too just don't expect to have them all running at the same time, gets quite hot with the charger in and using it's full capabilities but the passive cooling and magnesium back allows for decent heat transfer.
Hey! I hope you having g a good day I’m thinking of get the same version for programing do you think that it will be good?
"I want to put murder hornets in my film somehow"
LOL
I have a Surface Pro 6 w/ a core i5 (less power hungry cpu). I get ~7-8 hrs on it.
I have an Ipad Pro 12.9 2020, I get about 9-11 hrs depending on usage. If you're just gaming on it all day I'm sure that dramatically reduces battery.
So I just found your review.
I am looking through your videos, and I love that you revisit stuff a month or more after it is released and give a "How is it going after x months?" I think these reviews are way better and I know your channel is going to explode. Thank you for this.
thanks! Things change over time, especially when you're a regular dude and have to pay for these things with your own money. Not all my purchases are happy after a few months, or even years.
@@LinChearReal I get that 110% I am very cautious of what I spend my money on and ever since the Microsoft store shut down, buying a new laptop has became harder.
cool review. i feel the same about my pro 6. it's a near perfect secondary computer with tablet flexibility as a bonus.
It's the dream form factor for me for a full computer.
"windows doin wierd windows things" yea thats totally right i also got the surface and its the background tasks that are not the same everyday i noticed...so it sometimes needs more energy.
Great video man, the other reviewers I've seen don't cover virtualization, so thank you.
I have the same tablet and use it for video game development. The tablet just isn't powerful enough and the screen being 60hz really hurts the experience. I know that's changed in the newer edition (surface pro 8) though. Having a basic 3d scene where a player can move around in first person often lags for me. The screen is small which is fine with me but it takes some getting used to. I went to best buy to see what laptops I could get that day and got the Surface Pro 7. I found that some of the laptops sold at Walmart are way more powerful and appealing then what is sold at best buy. Which is unusual I'm going to be returning it and get something from Walmart instead.
I'm so thankful I happen to come across your channel. I'm in the process of researching tablets. I have been going back and forth between Surface pro 7 and Galaxy S7 I'm leaning towards Surface pro
The Surface Pro 7 is the best allrounder its not the best tablet or best Laptop but its the best all in one you can buy.
Pretty much the entire video ;)
Windows 11 definetly improved things with the Surface Pro Lineup, at least when you use it as a tablet without a keyboard or mouse. I personally use it either for taking notes with the pen, watch Netflix or Visual Studio with WSL Ubuntu. If you don't need Windows, I cannot recommend it as a tablet.
The Surface Pro 8 is supposedly much nicer to use with the touchscreen thanks to the higher refresh rate screen (and touch pulling rate if I'm not mistaken) which makes it feel more responsive.
I'd definetly get the 8 if you're looking to buy one, in comparison to the older models it also allows you to replace your ssd, not just the micro sd card for storage expension. Don't get the 6 unless you don't care about USB C and USB C charging, which is only supported since the 7.
So I use my pro 7 i5 16gb for work/ home media consumption. I am finding this thing is amazing and used alongside with my desktop at home and work it is irreplaceable.
Yes, I agree in that battery life is really disappointing on this device. Hard to get more than 5 h even with light use
I get 7 hours of continuous RUclips playing...
I can get almost 8 hours, but I mostly run OneNote and office products.
@@SgtSeth Have you gone on Microsoft chat boards to look into optimizing Windows 10 for longer battery life? There are also several informative videos on the internet..
And how many hours for charge 80% or 100% ?
You can work 5 hours, charge when eat, and go back for 5 hours again :p right ?
@@chokdeesam2365 For me it is 0 to 60% in less than an hour and 100% in less than 2 hours. As for work if you are using MS apps it should last the whole business day.
Excellent and realistic review perspective from a software developer, nice job, beautifull your baby Lin!!
thanks! Much appreciated
What specs is your surface pro 7? RAM, storage, internal processor?
IPad is kind of useless when it comes to development,
The same with Pro X, as it does not support windows native
Great review.
I bought the SP7 (1 TB) For Business version, it's a bit more expensive but it comes with windows pro and other perks.
I too was getting 4 to 5 hours of battery life just browsing on Edge. I adjusted some of the settings and now get over 7 hours of battery life consistently. I'm less displeased with it. It's not the 10.5 hours that Microsoft advertises. I plan on requesting a replacement unit in a few months.
The surface book 3 is advertised at 17 hours of battery life. Some reviews have only gotten 10 hours.
Which settings did you change ?
What changes did you make to get 7 hours of battery?
@@russelc30 I created my own power plan: surfacetip.com/ultimate-tips-max-surface-pro-4-battery-life/
@@thaivunguyen8728 The below information was copied from a thread on LIn Chear's 7day review. The only step i actually did was #6.
1. Make sure all background apps are always turned off.
2. Use Microsoft Edge Canary browser (Google Chrome is a big drain on the battery).
3. Unless your using it, always have the Edge Canary browser closed.
4. Keep screen brightness at around 50% over lower.
5. Turn on battery saver mode as soon as the charge goes below 100%.
6. Apply tips from this webpage, "Ultimate Tips to Max Out Microsoft Surface Battery Life" (surfacetip.com/ultimate-tips-max-surface-pro-4-battery-life/)
7. Instill this update, SurfacePro7_Win10_17763_20.020.2886.0.msi (www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=100419)
8. Most importantly, uninstall this update, SurfacePro7_Win10_18362_ 20.014.39957.0.msi.
For whatever reason, removing this update increased my battery's life by around 2 hours.
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Having it aggressively hibernate seems to stretch the battery for me. But that's not reallllly doing it any favours since the computer is pretty much off.
Very nice review... This is gold for developers looking for buying a portable tablet-laptop experience...I just saw this vid and cancelled my order of ipad pro.. As i dont have money to have both ryt now... Thank you...
I solved battery issue by adjusting how fast it goes to hybernation. And with my rather lite usage its there when i need it. If you can tolerate boot up time, it's good
I've resorted to this as well. I just have to look at the windows logo each time which takes a second or two.
Excellent video! Thanks for the information. You mentioned that you also use the ipad pro. I am researching both devices for a college student who prefers OneNote for note taking. If I were to go with the ipad pro, I would only choose the 12.9 due to the size of the keyboard. I would like your thoughts on which device you would recommend based on my intended use.
Thanks!
This is a mighty handy video, I've been looking all over to see if any software developers had luck with this as a flexible secondary workstation! Would you be able to outline a bit more of which stacks you're using in a typical workday? It's good to know this can handle Docker, Java, Python, etc. with that Pro upgrade, but have there been any situations where it throttles your workflow?
The screen is on the smaller side, so definitely get an external monitor if you don't want to be hunched forward and squinting. It's a fairly capable machine. I know I said I use it for game programming, but do it mostly in godot engine and not so much with Unity. My stack is either WSL2 (Linux), MySQL, PHP or Python with Javascript front end. I use a tonne of Jetbrains IDE (pycharm, webstorm, CLion, IntelliJ). They all work well. I can't really complain too much about the performance, except when Docker becomes stupid and goes all out at 100% and spins up the fans.
Great to see a review from developers point of view. Pretty nice audio and photography as well, easy to watch.
Thanks for the kind words
Same here, especially on the linux kernel & running python one of my favorite languages
Hi, I am a Software Engineering student
I wanted to know that is it worth it that I buy a surface pro 7 since I have to do codings a lot or should I just buy a normal laptop?
Would be appreciated if you give your suggestions 🙌
Hey, nice video, I am planing to get a pro 7 myself. Just a tip, try to have a script or something before recording so it flows better. But nice video anyway.
thanks ;) I'll just have to get used to speaking to the camera. me and scripts are mortal enemies.
Lin Chear hahaha don’t worry, you’ll get along pretty quickly, the quality and editing are very good tho.
our steam libraries are nearly identical
Battery live fair point that's why I upgraded to surface book 2
now I just detached the tablet and when I want to use it as that, then I just reattached to the base to get the power of nvidia 1060 6GB ddr
Please remember that your running a win 10 Pro, hyper-v, docker, visual code, Outlook, etc. all full programmes without limitations base on OS with notifications
I would advise upgrading to surface book if that's your flavour as you get the best of both worlds
that's definitely a fair point. When I run it as a tablet I only use RUclips or browse reddit.
@@LinChearReal best purchase I've ever done. Power base and table plus I use the surface dial and pen for CAD. Docker desktop, hyper-v management, WSL, visual code, Powershell, windowx 10 sandbox mode for testing AD group polices, etc and xbox game pass for PC.
Mac are dead, sorry if that offends some but Windows now both hardware and OS are killing it. Trust me upgrade to SB2 or 3 and you'll never look back.
Hopefully looking forward to your next video on it.
@@AvengeTheTECH I'm a engineering student and I love the Surface Book functionalities but as a student my budget is pretty small. Do you think the SB1 i7 512gb ssd, 16gb ram is still working good now?
@@anhtrietvoinh8898 most definitely but look on ebay for an SB2 I'll take a quick look and post a link in here. SB1 GC is OK for CAD but SB2 is much and the SB3 has a option for CAD dedicated. i7, 16GB 512 or look for a 1TB they should be around too. Hope this helps
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143653722065 check this 1TB version. The OS is built serial is built into the hardware so all you do is download Windows media tool and install to a USB boot of it and bang it installs Windows, however contact the seller and ask why no OS as I'm curious but you may get it cheaper because of that. Bingo
How do you have >300 subscribers? This video is great!
Thanks! I'm fairly new at this so hope to continue along this journey.
so it is an amazing laptop/ computer for everything except web browsing casually? Also, this vid took forever to get a not so satisfying result. No hate, just trying to help.
I agree. It may not be the BEST of tablets, but it certainly can act as a tablet and excels at a labtop. Studying engineering the tablet function is super handy for field work.
Best money i ever spent :)
I wish I had this when I was studying computer science. I'm old. In my day we weren't even allowed computers in the lecture hall.
I had one and the performance was spot on but the battery life for me was absolutely brutal, this device was made to be chained to on outlet so I had to return it. Like my battery life was so bad that I had it on recommended and the brightness on 40% and after watching a 2,hr 1080p movie on the local drive it would drain to 15%.
I agree. I use it for "real work" and use my ipad for chill time.
Great video and a great education. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
Best! Nice vid bro, one to be noticed and needed, surface pro 7 needs to be examined.
Thanks for the dev perspective. Question, have you experienced wobble on the kickstand?
On the surface 7 and surface 4 the kickstand has been rock solid
Thx appreciate the honest comparison of functions . . . worth listening to sir.
Thanks! My honest feedback is what I aim for.
I own the Surface Pro 4 (core i5, 256GB SSD, 8GB ram) and overall for it being as old as it is this thing runs great. Honestly its cool to see MS keeping the Surface products alive.
my Pro 4 suffers from flickergate :( glad yours is still working
Lin Chear bruh Im sorry to hear that 😕 Iv seen new screen assemblies for about 90
@@LinChearReal u should be able to get it replaced from Microsoft directly!
Great review, thank you
Thanks for watching!
SP7 is not concerned with being a great tablet, it is committed to being a great computer in tablet form. Not sure why people don't understand this. iPads are just big iPhones; so of course, their battery lasts longer. Also, iPhones can do what 99% of people use their iPad for (e.g., taking videos/photos, editing video/photos, emailing, watching movies, web browsing, gaming, and MS office apps). This is why Apple will never add pen support to their iPhones/Macbooks or touch screen capabilities to their Macbooks. If they did, iPad sales would plummet. Much more profitable to convince people to drop $1,000-$1,500 on an iPhone, $800-$1,000 on an iPad, and $1,000-$3,000 on a Macbook...
ipad are just big iphones are you serious with that statement?have you seen the latest ios update for ipad? and also saying that surface isn’t concerned with being a tablet is completely wrong.The whole concept of 2 in 1 especially the surface design is to be able to use your device as a computer and convert it into a tablet but unfortunately microsoft can’t just make it a great tablet.windows doesn’t really have great apps and also it has never been a great experience to use windows in tablet mode.To enjoy a surface device,you necessarily need a keyboard which is not the case for an ipad.If you need to run real computer program,the surface is the way to go that’s all and make sure you get the right configuration for everything to run smooth but for anything else,ipad is better(media consumption,photography,portability etc...).Watch ipad pro reviews before saying that is just a huge iphone,you could have said that couple years ago but definitely not now,ipad is even more powerful than many laptop out there and apple is making it better and closer to a real laptop,the only thing missing now is mac os to make it a full computer which may happen in the future
@@Joker-yu5kp Media consumption, photography, and portability perfectly describe iPhones. Adding external attachments still results in both devices doing 99% of the same things. Hence, iPads are just big iPhones.
If Apple gave its iPhones/Macbooks pen support and their Macbooks touch screens iPad sales would plummet. This is why they're the only big tech company that doesn't sell laptops with touch screens and pen support. Additionally, it's 2020 and I'm still waiting for Apple's computer/ tablet hybrid (HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and Dell all sell one).
iPads being "powerful" has nothing to do "eventually" being a computer/laptop (Surface Go 2 is a prefect example). No accident Apple pushes the marketing phase "laptop replacement" instead of "portable computer". If iPads are so powerful why can't they play two RUclips videos at once, open 3/4 screens, or move screens around and into different shapes like the underpowered SG2 (Is it because they're just big iPhones)?
People don't buy SPs because they have a tablet mode. They buy them because they're computers. What major activity is done in tablet mode that can't be done in computer mode? Thus, SP7's tablet mode is an afterthought for MS, just like it is for all touchscreen laptops and desktops.
Lastly, RUclips tech reviewers are small business owners whose primary goal is growing their business (via more subs, views, likes, ad money, etc). Being critically honest about Apple products (in the US) is not good for business. It also jeopardizes receiving free review devices and being invited to spring/fall new product launchs (which are key to business growth).
Tech RUclipsr Lew Later has said he no longer gets invited to Apple events after exposing the bendgate issue with iPhone 6 and making other critical comments in his reviews on Apple products (for the record, I've owned iPhones for the past 6 years so I'm not an Apple hater, just a realist).
I think you are being a bit of an MS super fan, MS released the SP as a tablet but when it became obvious it sucked they started claiming it was not! MS has failed long before the iPad was released to be capable of creating a Windows tablet, it is astonishing that after all these years they remain incapable of making a half-decent tablet OS. The SP is not even a good choice as a laptop, awkward with crap battery life. It is a hybrid that sacrifices too much to be a mediocre laptop and a poor tablet. Anyone serious with their workflow should buy a great laptop and a great tablet separately. Two devices but both will give you the best you can get with no compromises. MS has run out of ideas and is clearly incapable of improving the SP either as a tablet or laptop, apart from the loyal fans it is almost no longer relevant. My hope for a better replacement for this form factor is a WOA like the Surface Pro X, maybe on Windows X, with the floppy keyboard swapped for a Surface Book like detachable keyboard. That may save the day but as it stands consumers are abandoning the SP due to the poor user experience.
@@andyH_England that's what I'm trying to explain them.I have nothing again microsoft but claiming that surface isn't trying to be a tablet is a lie.it's a hybrid machine but as you said,failed miserably in tablet mode.Surface gives you full computer capability but again avoid the entry model with shit specs if you really wanna enjoy the windows experience.For surface to even replace your laptop isn't worth it because you can definitely get a really powrful laptop with better design and specs.So tell me what is the surface line for?it's not a great tablet or laptop considering its cost.Who that hell wanna watch 2 RUclips at the same time? 🤣 i love multitasking that's why I'm an android guy but never ever try to open 2 RUclips at once.For most people that just want basic and some professional stuff and also enjoy media consumption,apple is a lot better.Surface doesn't even support some basic apps to start with and it sucks on tablet mode
@@andyH_England Glad you don't deny iPads are just big iPhones that do the same things and run the same OS. Smart man.
As for Surface Pros, they're on their 7th (so to be 8th) generation. And, like any successful product, MS keeps expanding the product line up (Surface Go and Surface X). Further, Surfaces devices have over 2 billion in sales, a 20% increase (Google it) with Surface Pros being the most popular devices by far.
thank you so much for this review!!
Am still using my surface pro 4 and it’s still lit… I prefer my surface 4 than my iPad
The kind of cooling system is what takes the battery first. I have a surface pro 2, and when am working, the battery lasts 8 hours...but if am using apps that need lots of power, the battery goes fast. Also, I make sure that I turn off background apps, and put it on power saving mode if it's not plugged in power. I prefer the surface pro to the iPad...but good review...and yes, sometimes what you talked about has a lot to do with the software you're using..
I did the same thing with my Surface Pro 4, which was aggressively put it into power saving mode. To be fair, the SP7 is used for real work while the ipad pro is used for chilling out.
Would you recommend it to a college starting student planning to study computer science ? The portability really attracts me , but I wont want it to affect my usage time in any way.
Yes for sure. It's on sale right now at Best Buy for $799 (i5/128GB/8GB/ with Keyboard cover)
@@MrJawshoouhh is the i3 version worth getting? it’s only $599 on bestbuy right now
@@JamesTheAxeThrower I'm not sure as I've only used the i5 version but if you check out the review for it by Noah Herman, that should give you a better idea. IMHO, paying $599 for an i3 and 4GB is not worth it. I'd look at the new surface laptop go (the $699 version) if you can pay the extra $100. Or look at open box deals for either the surface laptop go or surface pro 7 on Best Buy. Hope that helps!
@@MrJawshoouhh I have a hard 700 budget right now lol R.I.P. I might just wait till next month for Black Friday sales
@@JamesTheAxeThrower Oh yeah I'd wait then. If you need a computer asap, keep an eye out for those open box deals. Sometimes they're better than the sales 🤷
The office i work in handled me a Surface pro 7 three times. Each laptop didn't last 1 years with me, it just can't take it. Now our IT department are going to distribute new laptops, maybe something like Dell, HP..
Hello From Cambodia
🇰🇭 ✌️
You can use your iPad Pro with a Raspberry PI for Umbuntu development.
Today, Docker no longer requires Windows 10 Pro. You only need Windows 10 Home with the 2004 update which now supports WSL
@jaspal singh For each project I create a docker compose file. For example, I create a separate MongoDB database or Redis server for each project.
I struggled until about 5:00. I feel the point is valid. SP is great as a mini laptop for students and portable. I find I feel more comfortable with my iPad for note taking and battery life. Do people just keep both?
Love the videos
Amazing content. I have Lenovo Flex IdeaPad. Although it is absolutely fantastic , I would want to replace it with this surface pro. Is it better than Lenovo? The problem is that I have another Lenovo laptop that it's for work so I don't spend a lot of time using my personal Lenovo laptop
Great that it's software developer perspective ! Now I think of iPad Vs surface for note taking I don't mind about battery but I do care about stylus and screen quality for note taking and reading books which would you think is better?
For notes iPad is better. The problem is that onenote is pretty limiting, for example you cant fill a shape, you cant rotate something, so for notes only, iPad is better+ it has better battery life. Sp on the other hand can run windows apps like full word, full browser, etc
Definitely hoping microsoft updates the pro 8 and gives it the pro x design. Those super slim bezels paired with a regular CPU would be fantastic.
Hey Lin! Nice review. I can’t get beyond (smaller than) 17” screens on my laptops. Anything smaller I just can’t handle if I don’t have to. 😉
Hey Vic! For a portable machine, I'd gladly give up some screen size (to an extent) for portability and weight savings.
Lin Chear ha! I just use a bigger backpack.. although I don’t commute with my laptop anyways .. but if I would.. .. ;-)
I like to have as small backpack as possible. Of course, that's not a big concern now these days ... ha
Thank you so much for this. I'm interested in looking for the best price comparisons for tablets that doesn't sacrifice processing power. I will be using my tablet for engineering programs that require greater image rendering capabilities, such as AutoCAD, pls-cadd, etc electrical engineering programs. If anybody can point me in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated.
Media and general use was never the intention of the surface. It's for the artist who wants to be able to run full Photoshop. It's really just trying to compete with the MacBook Air. The iPad is meant for light tasks and that is how it gets away with longer battery life. Also, the reasons he battery got better was because of the background usage setting where it learns how you use it and when to limit the processor.
Sorry, but SP7 is not for artists. It is for increased portability and productivity via Windows and its related apps. Just look at Microsoft's SP7 webpage. This is why private businesses and government agencies favor SP7 over iPad Pro.
@@RK-um9tuhi, I AM that person.
it can be for productivity on the go and especially for artists that want Photoshop on a portable slate. You think that's not the case, but I disagree as I've been using it for some time now and weighed my options with what I wanted out of a professional setup. I need the features that only full Photoshop can offer, but in a more affordable and more portable setup than the professional studio. It fits my needs well and delivers great results with the i7 processor.
@@ThatOneGirlThatPlays Just because artists can use the SP7 does not mean it was "intended" for them (this is what I was responding to, "general use was never the intention of the surface"). There aren't enough artists for Microsoft to designate them as the SP7's target market...
@@RK-um9tu sketchable is one of the preloaded apps. I defined "general use" as the tablet for primarily anything but business or creative business.
@@ThatOneGirlThatPlays Ok...you are correct. Microsoft designed SG2 for artists. Now I understand why there is an LTE variant. Because artists need to be connected to the Internet 24/7.
How many hours did it last? 4 to 5 hours? this segment 5:49 is so confusing because you only said things like it barely made it through to 8pm with 10%. It would be so helpful if your experience with it was shared in "I used it for 4 hours browsing youtube before it drained". Idk I was just hoping this video would be helpful.
Hi! Thanks for your review. Currently I’m still using pro 3( luckily it’s still working but it’s getting slower), and I’m thinking to get a new laptop as my major computer (I use MacBook Air as a secondary computer for leisure purpose). The reason why I want to get a surface pro is that SAS can only work with Windows and it fits most of my purses. I use external monitors at home and work, so the small screen doesn’t bother me. My daily task includes coding for data analysis on SAS, Stata, Matlab, and occasionally Python. I have a few questions. 1, should I go for pro X or pro 7? 2, If I get a pro 7, should I go for i7? 3, what’s the most efficient way to have access to files on surface from Mac or the other way around ( since you’re using both systems too). Any suggestions would be appreciated:)
Hey. 1. Right now, Go for the Pro 7 as there's no guarantee that the X will support all Windows applications. 2. I got the i7 for additional horse power, especially with software development, having that headroom is a must for me. 3. What I have is a NAS on a Gigabit network when I want to transfer files around. I have a USB3 Gigabet network adapter for Amazon when I want to transfer big files. I have a shared drive that can be accessible any time from any of my home machines.
@@LinChearReal Thank you soooo much!! By the way, do you think MBP is way better than your pro 7 for software development? I wonder if I should just get rid of SAS at some point and stick with IOS.
Hey you posted this on my birthday ;D
happy belated birthday!
sadly the battery is whats putting me off... and at the same time i dont wanna buy another apple product because last time i paid £2K and within a year and a half it died forever... so im stuck
Sorry but this guy is way off when it comes to SP7's battery.
1. I can watch RUclips for over 8.5 hours in tablet mode at 50% brightness with Wifi, Bluetooth, and battery saver all on (around 5,7000 mWh discharge rate; balanced power mode).
2. MS Office apps do not drain the battery and can easily last all working day (around 4,700 mwh discharge rate on balance power mode with battery saver on).
3. When idle the mWh discharge rate is around 3,400 mWh (50% brightness, balanced power mode, battery saver on).
5. Battery won't drain if you remove the keyboard and do a shutdown (which is different than turning it off).
6. You also need to make sure Wifi is always disconnected when you do a shutdown.
7. Using battery saver doesn't harm the SP7's ability to perform work-related tasks.
Interesting that he does not share any discharge rate information. Nor does he say if he turned it off or did a shut down, what power mode he is using (Ultimate, High, Balance, Power Saver) or if apps are running in the background. Guess it's much easier to just say how great iPads are...lol
Btw, I have a SP7 with i7, 16 ram, 256 ssd specs. Love having a "real" computer in the form of a tablet...
i agree, the battery life was not something i expected when i bought it. im only getting around 4 hours consistently for RUclips and emails for a couple weeks now :(
@jaspal singh yeah battery life kinda sucks. When I have battery saver on I still only get 6-7 hours, less if I'm using Zoom also.
WSL2 on pro x is mind-blowing and I think your battery complaint can be put to rest I would guess. Also vscode works wonderful on WSL2 . Unless you use win 32 apps for living I think pro x now is a compelling development machine
I am glad to hear you say that. I've got a X coming tomorrow.
you can't use Hyper-V yet on Pro X, so no Docker.
just FYI if that is something you need.
@@HelloSirob you can using WSL 2. Have not been able to do it yet because my current windows build does not have WSL 2, and I can only upgrade it to build 2004 but there is a hold on that due to issues with that build.
I've been using WSL2 more and it's pretty good. The only thing "missing" is I can't easily develop iOS applications with it, but I knew that going into it.
Tip: today is not required to have windows pro edition to run docker, on "home" docker works as well now thanks to wsl2 and latest upgrade. before that docker runs as well on home, but on legacy version of docker
yup, Microsoft made it easier to work with docker on the Home version of windows.
Been using my Surface Pro for 8 months, for the same reasons you mentioned. The portability + specs were appealing. I can dock this thing to 2 4k monitors and it can handle it decently. However, WiFi drivers are still an issue - For whatever reason I have to restart my PC randomly throughout the day when I start getting 1.5 mbps down, rather than 300+. The battery sucks on it. I'm lucky to get 3-4 hours at best. If you have to do video calls while coding, good luck. Your IDE's and system in general will get sluggish as this thing has no dedicated graphics and a subpar CPU. 8 months later I regret purchasing this, and the biggest reason why is Windows 10, and how badly Microsoft SUCKS at maintaining this OS. All of the programs/apps I use just work better on Mac/iOS. Windows seems to throw a temper tantrum at the most random times. So many GUI bugs happen, forcing you to restart right when you're starting to get some work done and at your peak of productivity. Honestly, I can't deal with it anymore and I'm moving to a Macbook Pro + iPad Pro for apps I use that require a pen.
By no means am I anti-Windows, I think it is fine for gaming and certain tasks that might function better on Windows. But for all other tasks creative/development, Mac just wins. Even working in dotnet core, Mac users have the option to use Rider, and I personally don't miss Visual Studio after using JetBrains Rider for some time now.
I regret spending $1600 for the Surface + Keyboard + Pen + Dock, and if there are any pro users out there thinking about this as a productivity machine, I implore you to look somewhere else.
A that sucks. I admittedly don't use this as my primary machine. I have a desktop I built myself for heavy loads and a Macbook Pro that I use professionally (provided by work). The Surface Pro is more for personal coding projects, which I AM FAILING at since I haven't produced anything of worth since I bought it ....
I have both the IPAD Pro & the Surface Pro 7 I don't totally disagree with the battery life comparison. I find that the IPAD Pro be a couple hours better than the Surface however it isn't as good as being claimed. I agree that the Surface battery could be better. Overall I like both and use them daily.
Great review. :) How clear is the type when used for reading, research on Chrome, Word, Excel? Are you able to make out the icons on the Word & Excel ribbon?
Windows scales the UI pretty well and everything is legible.
Thank you! I think I got a lemon. I will exchange & see how well I do reading on Chrome & in Word & Excel detailed productivity. BTW, why do you use the Macbook for work instead of the Surface Pro 7?
It's a work provided laptop. I can't use personal equipment to access corporate infrastructure. I use the surface pro for personal projects.
The one is Arm, the other is x86... Arm is much more efficient at the cost of not being able to run the conventional computer applications. Connected standby also sucks on x86. However, for me the tablet functionality is sufficient enough... And I can't miss the x86 applications that I occasionally use, for my laptop use.
So, windows 10 home does support virtualization. It just doesn't support the hyper-v hypervisor. Eg vmware is able to run.
Also, if you like Ubuntu, you could just install it. Either in Dualboot or just as main os.
Things definitely changed since when I created it. I never enjoyed dual booting on these device because there's a chance that the purpose built drivers for the screen/pen may require more fiddling with.
@@LinChearReal The good thing about Linux is, that the community is huge. You can basically copy-paste the commands you're given.
The most things work. Some things that don't work as well are the wifi (just copy a few files to a folder and you're good to go.) and the palm rejection of the pen.
Hey, I'm sure battery consumption has to come down the fact that it is running Windows as well as running fans to cool it. I have i7 512, and am completely happy with it!
Thanks !!!!
Hi! loved the video! I’m a computer science student and I also study business. Im looking for a new computer for college but I can’t decide between a MacBook and a Surface Pro and I wanted to ask you if you would recommend one over the other!
The price difference between the Macbook and surface pro is huge. If it's price alone, I would go towards the Surface Pro. I do use a MacBook Pro professionally, but aside from running OSX apps, the Surface Pro keeps up with the Macbook Pro.
@@LinChearReal Does it compare in build quality, service, smoothness of OS and premium feeling to MacBook as well? I heard that on surface pro 7 apps are “freezing” or opening with delay sometimes... And apps are running on the background in sleep mode and drain battery
Hi might be asking the same question in my country on i5/8gb surface pro 7 plus available. I am an solution architect and do web development and training work. Using python vscode docker react django etc …will you suggest this or if not then what should i go for in windows. Actually i liked this very portable devices so was very much interested
Hi..
Your doing great....
Does it's support Excel develop mode like Excel visual basic form ?
Can you please tell me..
I use a very similar setup, pycharm running inside of WSL2. I recently had to switch from macos to windows because my mac is not turning on anymore. I have a question for you, does your surface 7 have a fan? My understanding is that i7 models do have a fan, I wonder If it's too loud or if it gets too hot and if thermal throttling occurs.
yes my i7 has a fan. It turns on if I play a game like rocket league but is silent for the most part. I haven't benchmarked it to test for thermal throttling but haven't noticed any slowdowns. I'll keep an eye on this.
I'm typing this comment on a Surface Pro 7. I love it as a computer. As a tablet, unfortunately not so much. I'm having a lot of issues with the touchscreen keyboard and there aren't that many apps for windows 10. I guess if you're looking for something small and lightweight that's pretty much as powerful as a computer and has touchscreen and a removable keyboard then it's great. I only use the surface in tablet mode when I'm watching a movie or doing something that requires little to no typing. If you're looking for more of a tablet experience, then I'd go for the iPad.
Would you recommend it if I would use it as a laptop? Because I’m going to high school and I need a laptop that’s not that chunky or heavy because I’ll be carrying lots of book and I’m interested on getting it
@@viridianavillegas4424
Definitely. If you're familiar with Windows 10 and just wanna use it as a laptop, go ahead. It's great. You'll also be able to install most of the things you need on it.
I recently discovered that the touchscreen keyboard issues that I have are just on discord and Facebook. I'm led to believe that these two companies are doing something wrong lol. Everywhere else everything works fine.
It's still not the best tablet experience, but it's nice to have this lightweight device, pull its keyboard off and just enjoy holding it while watching something, or you know, just write something on it.
I also found out you can turn on a virtual touchpad which is very useful for the times when the touchscreen experience gets bad. Haha.
I think the Microsoft website has some Surface pro 7 bundles that include the keyboard at a lesser price.
Btw get at least 256 GB of storage. I've found that's the perfect amount because Windows will take like 40+ or more for its system. And unless you're doing very intensive graphics and stuff, an i5 processor should be more than enough.
@@viridianavillegas4424
Oh when it comes to the keyboard, watch out for Alcantara. Don't go for the blue keyboard. That's what I had at first and it got really dirty after like 4 months of use. You're supposed to clean it weekly... Which I forgot. 😅
Now I got the poppy red one and I just wipe it like once every two weeks and everything is fine. Btw that red is great lol. Paired with the surface mouse (the simple one, not the arch one) in the same color, it's just perfect.
I still use the older keyboard when I'm outside in my backyard where the potential of it getting dirty is higher.
Tucker Coffin thank u so so much, you convinced me, I’m getting it. Btw do you think the platinum keyboard would get dirty? Also do you have the surface pen? I’m not that interested on getting the mouse, i think the pen is way more versatile and I’ve seen that its performance it’s really great
@@viridianavillegas4424 Yep. I have it even if I don't really draw or even take that many notes. It's useful. It end of it acts as an eraser and you can set what one push of a button does, two pushes or what holding it down should do.
It's so nice for taking screenshots. I press it once then select the part of the screenshot that interests me and copy and paste it. All with the pen.
Btw I know I said I don't like it as a tablet but for browsing the web where you don't need to type that much, it's so awesome to just use it without a keyboard lol. I'd not go back to a laptop. Haha
Maybe there is a battery optimizer like on smartphones. It might take a couple of day for it to work.
If you mean 3rd party battery optimiser apps, they're all garbage, and don't really do very much!
@@alexwr for example, my s20 ultra has an optimizer built in. It took a couple of days for the algorithm to work, and for me to start getting better battery life. Apple does this, and so does google.
There's an app called powir I haven't tried yet that keeps track of battery usage.
Nice straight up review. I got this last week. It's great for me most of the time but I see lots of little annoyances such as camera light stays on sometimes, screen/brightness problems/flickers/Black's out, gets got when charging or left in backpack, hello windows problems to name a few. These make me think about returning it. Did you experience any problems like this? Do you reckon it will improve in the future with updates etc ?
I have not had any of those issues. It works pretty flawlessly.
Shall i choose this or Huawei matepad pro ? Gonna use it for netflix and school writing in word app. Kind Regards
I have a desktop PC, a work laptop, and a 9 month old baby. The desktop is useless because I'm never in one room long enough. My work laptop is kind of big, bulky, and the kid keeps typing to grab it when I'm sitting on the couch. I'm thinking about getting a surface pro for personal use so I can move around the house. (personal use I mean hobby programming, light gaming mostly retro stuff, and maybe a couple hours a week of freelance programming.) Would this be a good use or should I get a smaller laptop? I use Windows based programs so I don't want an Apple or Android device. Thanks for the advice!
Still using my SP4 and no Problems so far, MS hast to make a big Jump for me to upgrade. I am hoping for it.
Greatings from Germany
I'm on the SP3 and having bad battery life. Are you experiencing any of that with the sp4?
It was better in the past and I have to charge more than once a day, yes. That’s why I am hoping for a great update with SP8
Did your fankess I5 overheat too? I returned mine. I7 with fan is overpriced.
Oh that’s awesome 😎 thanks bro, I would like to ask you about the ability to do Software engineering tasks Like coding and developing applications! is it the best choice for software engineers or not? and can it afford all the programming that software engineering’s student should do!? I need your advice 😞
The best choice is a tough question to answer.... it definitely is a great choice! I also use a macbook pro, which I've been using professionally since 2007 (a few different versions now). It might be a great portable for a student. Battery life might be an issue, but the quick charger can top you up if you're near an outlet and get you through the day.
You can use VBox and VMware on Home. No docker though
True. Now I don't even need Pro to run docker. Docker works fine in WSL2 now. Ah well
Does the laptop get hot when it charges? That’s my problem with the surface 3. I know it’s an older model but still curious.
ive got the i5 128gb version and I easily get 7 hours battery life out of mine. maybe there has been an update to improve the battery life? the super fast charging is amazing as well!
It depends what you do, and what software you use.
You can not just compare battery life like that.
Hay I love that Aloe plant it's huge what kind of tree is that by the window 😎
Have you tried running a linux distro such as Ubuntu? Could be a great linux device.
ARM energy consumption vs intel's I believe regarding the batterie issue ?!!
how about working and programming, do you hear noise, how about performance?
I want to buy surface pro 7. I5 1035g4
Im a pentester and im not sure if the cpu can handle this:
Multi Tabs in firefox
Burpsuite
Brute force...?
If you download the Surface Pro recovery disc from Microsoft it includes Windows Pro as standard by default?
thanks for the review. there are 2 types of windows that Microsoft offers in pro 7 line. windows home and windows pro. so you could have bought the pro version from the beginning.
In the end, I don't really need Pro after all. womp womp.
I was trying to add a virtual machine to mine a few days ago (I’ve never played with a virtual machine yet) i couldn’t access the reboot settings to add a virtual machine.
I didn’t know I need windows pro to do it…
Would a 13.5 inch form factor enable a larger battery to last at least 10 hours?
Hi Lin Cheah thank you for the review I’m an Apple user and am thinking to changing my Mac to SFP7. I have an iPad pro too. Can you synch these two devices especially desktop sharing? And what about Cloud as have saved my files on cloud too? What is the best way to migrate files for iOS to Windows? Thanks
hey. There's no inbuilt system to sync between a mac and a SP7. There's ways such as using something like OneDrive or Google Drive to sync some shared files, but they aren't explicitly designed for each other. The way I would migrate from iOS to Windows would be to use iCloud and copy those files over onto your Windows machine that way. You've given me a good topic for a video in the future ;) Thanks!