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New SP4 owner in Raleigh

convergent

Active Member
I just picked up a new SP4 a few days ago and so far loving it! My story...

I've been working in technology since the before the PC was introduced... aging myself there. For about the last 10 years I've been heavily favoring Macs and my whole family is heavily vested in the Apple ecosystem. About 4 years ago I had to go back to Windows for work, but stayed Mac at home. I do a lot of photography and use Lightroom on Mac. I also have a number of apps on the Mac I use that don't have easy replacements in Windows without a lot of work to move.

For about the last year I've been wanting to get something to allow me to more easily capture information into OneNote. I mostly type in; but sometimes need to use a pen and paper and end up with all these notes all over the place. I thought about an iPad, but stopped carrying one a while back when I got the larger iPhone. Nothing really added to carry one of those and didn't want to spend $1000 just for that. So I've been considering a SP4 for months now. My thought was that I could effectively replace my work issued Dell laptop and just carry one thing on the road, but at my home office I could dedicate the SP4 as a OneNote pen based tablet.

Last week my Dell developed some problem in Office that reinstalling and repairing didn't fix, so it needs to be re-imaged. I decided to take this opportunity to buy an SP4 i5 8G 256G and give it a try as a replacement while they are fixing my Dell... and hopefully just leave the Dell in the bag when it gets back. After a long weekend of setup activities, I have it working pretty close to what I expected.

I got the free dock and have that connected to a 4K display, wireless mouse/keyboard, and ethernet to gigabit fiber connection; and my home office network, NAS, etc.. In front of the display I have my keyboard on the left of center and to my right I have the SP4 tilted at about 10 degrees off the table. I have OneNote (the app) up all the time on there, and use the second display for everything else. We use Office 365 and One Drive for business, so along with VPN access I can function pretty equivalently with what my work Dell can do. But with the advantage of being able to grab the SP4 as a tablet or clamshell when I leave the office. That will be the nice part. No more having to put it away on the plane during take off and landing!!!

I have a million questions about things on the SP4, Windows 10, and the pen, and glad to find this community to get some help.
 
Congratulations on your purchase. The SP4 is a great machine as you've already begun to use it. I hope you can update your SP4 to Windows 10 Creators Update.
 
Congratulations on your purchase. The SP4 is a great machine as you've already begun to use it. I hope you can update your SP4 to Windows 10 Creators Update.

It came with Creators Update. Unfortunately that cost me some money because Amazon had a good price they would match on the model without it; but the one with Creators Update was same price as Microsoft on Amazon.
 
Congrats.

I am also simultaneously a Mac maniac and a PC bee. @convergent is a good name for it.

So stick around here and offer advice, and ask questions. We are a community of enthusiasts, and remain positive about all technology. It is good to have tech companies and their respective ecosystems competing for our dollar. In the end, we win.
 
Congrats.

I am also simultaneously a Mac maniac and a PC bee. @convergent is a good name for it.

So stick around here and offer advice, and ask questions. We are a community of enthusiasts, and remain positive about all technology. It is good to have tech companies and their respective ecosystems competing for our dollar. In the end, we win.

I agree with you 100%... competing ecosystems and platform is the only way things will continue to be innovative.
 
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