Upgrade to SB from SP4?

[MagicalMayhem007]

So relatively recently (1-2 months ago) I bought a Surface Pro 4, which I love. I would have bought a Surface Book, but they weren't available at the time - I am in New Zealand. Now they're available on a student deal, and I have a friend who'd be interested in buying my SP4. My SP4 is an i5, 4GB RAM. Would the upgrade to a SB be worth it? I'd either get the lowest end model (i5 8GB RAM 128GB) or one up from that, with the dGPU and 256GB.

Thoughts? I've heard the battery life on the SB is significantly better, but your opinions would be appreciated .

 

[surfacebookinuk]

Screen size as well.. And keyboard is world class.. My 15 page essays are no easy thing to do with a pro4 keyboard.. But you should know that using it as a tablet is limited in comparison to sp4. No kickstand when in tablet except if you turn it around (a huge kickstand is created lol)

 

[Nonseven]

I came from an SP3 to a SB. I know the SP4 is a bit better than the SP3, but if I had to do again I'd still get the SB. Keyboard is great, and the battery life is good. If you switch a lot to tablet mode and take a lot of notes with the pen, then I recommend the SP4, otherwise get the SB.

 

[hughlle]

Really depends how you want to use your computer. While at university, the vast majority of my work is with the pen and onenote. This made the SB a little worthless due to the tablets battery life, and not being able to charge it up from the keyboard base. It's just a question of what you need to do with your machine.

 

[conan1600]

Why in Sams name couldn't they just take a pro 4 and stick it on a surface book dock. perfect device....sigh

 

[hughlle]

Why in Sams name couldn't they just take a pro 4 and stick it on a surface book dock. perfect device....sigh

Um, product differentiation? A better question would be why they gave up on having a power cover, but perhaps it was for the efficiency reasons quoted for why the SB base isn't used to charge the clipboard (although it would be nice if we could just make the choice ourselves, it feels rather "Apple" in approach, a "you'll use it as we tell you you will use it" kind of mentality)

 

[jason10mm]

Why in Sams name couldn't they just take a pro 4 and stick it on a surface book dock. perfect device....sigh

While I agree with you in principle, I think the extra weight on the SP4 (versus the clipboard part of the SB) would make for a VERY unbalanced laptop. They would have to increase the weight of the SB base accordingly, which would then make the whole package heavier and defeat the entire point.

But yeah, a dgpu + battery + keyboard base for a SP4 would probably be a hot seller. Hopefully with thunderbolt, USB-C or whatever an external dgpu in a dock will become a popular thing for these types of devices. Plus I suspect an enterprising case maker will make a very thin cover for the clipboard with a wire kickstand or similar device eventually. MS definitely went with form over function on that choice.

 

[conan1600]

While I agree with you in principle, I think the extra weight on the SP4 (versus the clipboard part of the SB) would make for a VERY unbalanced laptop. They would have to increase the weight of the SB base accordingly, which would then make the whole package heavier and defeat the entire point.

But yeah, a dgpu + battery + keyboard base for a SP4 would probably be a hot seller. Hopefully with thunderbolt, USB-C or whatever an external dgpu in a dock will become a popular thing for these types of devices. Plus I suspect an enterprising case maker will make a very thin cover for the clipboard with a wire kickstand or similar device eventually. MS definitely went with form over function on that choice.

Kickstand alleviates all concerns of keyboard weight. Exactly as it does with the current keyboard. Simply adding USB c 3.1 would remove all problems as well. Gtx 980 gaming on a tablet docked to a 28 inch screen.....ahhh video editing as fast as my heart desires...ohhhh