Struggling new SP4 owner needing various helps!

[Shifty Geezer]

I bought an SP4 to replace an original Galaxy Note 10.1, and I'm struggling to get along with it. Currently the Windows Tablet experience is very frustrating and awkward, my desktop apps don't play nicely, and it's quite the effort to find workarounds and solutions.

Anyhow, for now how can I get the custom Display Resolutions working? I need some lower resolution options for apps that can't handle the super high DPI. I've read about using the Intel drivers to add 3:2 display aspects which MS cleverly left off the display settings but the Intel driver is claimed incompatible when I try.

As an aside, the Tips sticky post in this forum says about fn+space to screenshot. This isn't working with my Anker BT keyboard. Do I have to enable that somewhere? Was it patched out? Or is that Fn key for the keyboard and the fn key to control the SP4 something else?

 

[ScottyS]

How to install the display driver without Windows telling you it's not compatible has been discussed here and is convoluted. Unzip the downloaded driver package to any folder and then Click Update Driver in the display driver properties and then pick Browse my computer for driver software, then click Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer, then click Have disk. Navigate to the folder you unzipped the driver to and find the right .inf file (I think it was in the Display folder last time I did this).

 

[jnjroach]

The Keyboard shortcuts are for the Type Cover...

 

[bluegrass]

While you're learning and testing out the apps you need, I would recommend that you stay away from using the tablet mode. Unlike most tablets, the SP's or desktop friendly and operated assume in the desktop mode. As you find out what of you apps works well in the mode, than start experimenting with running them in the tablet mode. I think MS is still trying to figure out how the purist wants the tablet to behave. I believe the tablet mode is a work in progress.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

At the moment I'm running in Desktop mode simply because tablet mode is proper awkward! Click in a text box and there's no option to access the ketboard! In theory I can enable that, but it's kinda bonkers to offer a 'tablet mode' and no input method. Especially when iOS and Android have already presented perfect working examples of how to make a tablet useable.

The tablet situation is actually pretty worrisome. Without a decent Windows tablet install base, who'll develop Tablet type apps for it? And without tablet-type apps, why buy a Windows tablet?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Out of curiosity, had you heard of the Samsung Galaxy Note tablet before this? It's been offering that pen-based tablet experience since 2012. The reason I ask is a lot of folk are talking about Surface Pro and iPad Pro as if they are something new, and I'm just curious if people have overlooked an option that's been around for yonks due to lack of marketing or whatever from Samsung.

 

[MaxBuck]

Out of curiosity, had you heard of the Samsung Galaxy Note tablet before this? It's been offering that pen-based tablet experience since 2012. The reason I ask is a lot of folk are talking about Surface Pro and iPad Pro as if they are something new, and I'm just curious if people have overlooked an option that's been around for yonks due to lack of marketing or whatever from Samsung.

The Note 10.1 and the SP4 are entirely different creatures IMO. The Note 10.1 is an excellent pen-enabled tablet, while the SP4 is fundamentally a laptop with tablet and pen features on demand.

If someone wants a great Android tablet, the Note 10.1 remains the finest on the market IMO. The SP4 is for someone who needs a lightweight but powerful laptop that will serve as a tablet in a pinch. Or so it seems to me.