Surface Pro 4 - wishlists!

[CrippsCorner]

I want it to be waterproof so I can safely use it in the bathtub!

There's always a way dude

 

[Spaniard]

 

[Rugbyguy541]

- I good way to store the pen, I don't mind having it off to the side currently, but make it more secure!

- Locking kickstand like I mentioned earlier.

- If you are trying to say this is a "laptop killer" include the damn keyboard!

- make the type cover magnetically connect to the surface when it's closed. Very annoying to be carrying it around and the cover will open enough to take the surface out of sleep.

- Don't lie about battery life.

- Include a screen cleaning cloth / extra nibs for the pen ( I just got replacement nibs from microsoft, it's making a world of difference in my writing!)

- User manuals user manuals user manuals. This should be included, or advertised online better. How are we supposed to know all the cool features if you don't tell us besides exploring and the what not.

- 2 USB 3.0 ports would be magical.

- Type cover volume control outside of mute/unmute

- Type cover screen brightness control

That's all I can think of for now. I have been using my SP3 heavily since launch day and lover it, but would love those improvements.

 

[EthanDavis]

1) NFC. If it's serious about being a tablet, it needs NFC.
2) Dedicated graphics/video card. Want this to REPLACE my computer, which means I need to be able to play decent games.
3) Fanless.
4) Next-gen Broadwell processors. Important but not as important as dedicated graphics card.
5) Option to choose the SP2's 16:9 screen size as an option if desired.
6) Agree that ability to "lock" a kickstand position would be nice.

 

[JesseDiaz]

There's always a way dude

nice...whats playing on the Surface :0

 

[Matt]

I think they should

- Ditch the i3 CPU. The surface is a premium product
- Ditch the i7 CPU. All Surfaces of a Generation should have the same tech specs except storage. Otherwise it will confuse people further. If MS want to built an i7 table call it the Surface Extreme or something. Make it clear that its a different product to the S Pro.
- 8GB RAM for all SP4's
- 1 additional USB socket (could happily be a USB2 version)
- full powered USB3 port (as I understand it the SP3 outpouts less juice than the SP1 USB3 port?)
- Xbox360/XBone wireless controller receiver! If you could pair your exisitng MS console controllers to the surface without cables or adapters this would give the device a real boost to gamers.
- Xbox screen mirroring, play games from your xbox on the surface via streaming (Wii-U sort of approach)

Thats what I would like on top of the usual slimmer faster longer-lasting requirements.

We can dream cant we.....

 

[CrippsCorner]

nice...whats playing on the Surface :0

Ha suppose that does look a bit dodgy, it's only Big Brother though!

 

[EddySnoozah]

For me - trim back the bezel and increase the overall size slightly to incorporate a 13" screen. The larger size of the Pro 3 makes it much easier to use as my main machine compared with my Surface 2 RT simply because the screen is bigger. I do use PowerPoint and Word on my S2 RT, but the size of the 10.6" screen on my S2 RT means that working like that is quite a bit slower for me than using my work lap top, which is 15". For PowerPoint especially, I have found it hard to work with the S2 RT on my lap and I have to work with it on a table because I need to get my eyes really close to the screen, maybe not such a problem for people with better eyesight. When I work on medical conferences, we employ PowerPoint specialists to create the complex figures and animations that some speakers want to show and those tech guys usually use 17" laptops which are huge big heavy things to be carrying around. If you offered one of those guys a 17" Surface Pro which weighed like 20% of what their old laptop weighs - do you think they're going to worry about people saying "oh your tablet is so big, it's ridiculous". There might not be many people out there who actually have a need like that and the market might be rather small, but for productivity I think that bigger is better.
So, a bigger screen and at the same time make the depth a little thinner and with no weight increase. Another thing that I would really like to see is a truly rigid Type cover - one that does not flex at all when typing on one's knees. And keep working on that track pad. Two USB ports would be nice, maybe not essential but would definitely make life a little easier

 

[Geneo]

Agreed- a slightly bigger screen. 14". 12" is a bit tight for these old eyes. (Hey, if you've gone to 12, 14 is no big deal).
Improve the cooling so there's no 'throttling back' playing games.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with mine! MS did good.

 

[EddySnoozah]

One more thing is that they need to do something about the two little bits of metal that project from the bottom of the kick stand on the left and right hand side. These are like kind of little 'legs' or rests for the kick stand they stand out from the bottom of the kick stand by about one millimetre, which is not a lot, but the edges are quite sharp. Here in the UK, we are actually having a bit of warm weather for a change and that means that when one is wearing shorts and uses the Pro 3 on one's lap, these two little supports can dig in a bit. In fact I think it's only a matter of time before I cut myself on one. Should be OK once the heatwave has passed and normal British weather has resumed.

 

[mobius_one]

Realistically, they really need to keep it small and light, while keeping their goal of laptop replacement accessible. To reach these ends, I believe they should have:

• Slight increase in power supply, (36 watts is actually too low in my opinion , go up to 42 or revert to 48 or something) to be put to use on stuff like actually fully powering the USB port. (or maybe a second USB? but this is wishful dreaming...)
  
  
• Hopefully, newer/lower-powered/better broadwell chips will be out, so maybe an IRIS or IRIS PRO integrated graphics set, since it is unlikely for any dedicated GPU's to fit inside the aforementioned size/weight requirements. Also, from what I have read, Iris seems perfectly adequate for casual gaming. I have an Nvidia 555m in my laptop and it works great, and it ranks fairly close to Intel's integrated Iris graphics on notebookcheck.
  The drawback of Iris being a higher power requirement than the current 15watt integrated processors, which is why I'm hoping for this to be included in broadwell (hopefully the added and lessened power requirements of the respective graphics and processor will balance... maybe... please?). Maybe with this comes 4k screen as well?
  
  
• If they could possibly bump up Battery life even an hour, I think it would make people more happy as well.
  
  
• Some better storage option for the pen, if not a silo (because of size restrictions).
  
  
• Cheapen the Type cover. a hundred and thirty for a cover? Really??? I don't see this part as being worth it but others might... When i get mine i will go with a cheaper and better Bluetooth keyboard rather than that.... though the current cover's saving grace is that it has backlight...
  Also it would be cool if the cover could extend battery life. That would also make it more worth the money, even if slightly thicker... I dont exactly get why some products pride themselves on "excess thinness" IMO . Its great, sure, but it makes it seem fragile somehow. I wouldn't mind a slight thickness adjustment if it meant better battery life.
  
  
• It needs GPS capabilities... that way even if i don't use it for that too often, i can track it if it is stolen. I do want to protect my large investments after all... This is another reason to increase the power supply as well.
  
  
• I personally would also like to see a DVD/RW drive built into the dock system. (make it more worth the $200)
  
  
• is 4g too much to wish for on top of all that? I guess i could always do a dongle or mobile hotspot...but bleh... more moneyz...
  
  
• How about more configuration options too? I want 8gb mem with my 128gb SSD
  Heck why not a build your own type thing? It was mentioned somewhere that even with all the options, 3 processors * 2 ram* 5 SSD's is only 30 total options... Maybe prices will reduce by then for SSD's too so we can completely scrap the 64gb and i3 options (Maybe this is just my personal abhorrence of i3 rearing its head)... now we are down to 16 total options. If all ram is standard at 8gb then down to 8 options, of course this will mean a slightly higher price though-realistically, for a 128gb/8gb/5th gen i5 which would be the minimum, the price would be around $1050.
  Maybe standardizing some of these things will also reduce costs.
  
  
  In spite of all these things that may need a second/third/fourth look, I think the current product is still very good at what it does-just not perfect . I believe this will be great for students, and I can't wait to get one myself. (I will definitely take the dive at some point, just waiting for the right buying time)

 

[GreyFox7]

I also wouldn't mind 'the hard cover' lol, made from the same material as the Surface that indeed, locks it. Okay, I'm basically looking for a Surface laptop... but there certainly are cases where I do like to remove the keyboard.

I wouldn't mind seeing a smaller bezel, and... the bloody Windows button moved back to the centre!

Regarding to anything Surface related, I want a 32-46" Surface TV set much like Google will be getting Sony to make with their Android TV sets next year. Man, that'd be a beautiful device, although I guess it would go against what the Surface stands for which is touchscreen.

Surface was originally a large tabletop device for multiple users and I believe there were also wall units something like weather people use.