Waiting for New Surface Laptop!

[JMac]

New to the forum and wanted to introduce myself.




I’ve had a bit of a conundrum over the last couple of years. I’ve been using the original Surface Pro since day one and it’s still serving me well, although it’s mostly been regulated to a desktop replacement. For the past few years, I used it as a tablet almost exclusively, especially as PDF annotator and of course, OneNote. Nothing beats the buttery smooth Wacom EMR. However, my use case has changed and I no longer need a tablet. I’ve been looking for a really good laptop.




I really like the Surface Book, but realized I didn’t need all that firepower. I’ve been test driving the latest from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Asus but there was always something I didn’t like about them. Then, lo and behold, Microsoft announces the Surface Laptop.




I went to the Microsoft store to see for myself. It’s impressive and there’s a simple elegance to it. The build quality really stands out as all Surface products do. I’ve been reading and watching a lot of first impressions from the internet. It seems the two of the biggest complaints for the Surface Laptop are the Alcantara material on the keyboard and the lack of updated ports. Frankly, neither of these are a concern to me because (1) I take really good care of my computing equipment (2) I only have a need for one USB port for my printer and (3) I use a single 27” monitor with a direct DisplayPort connection.




I pre-ordered the Burgundy 8gb/256gb model. In the end, I decided that although other OEM laptops offer more memory, storage and ports for the same price or even cheaper, I’d rather pay for the Microsoft Surface build quality and the great customer service I’ve always had with them. For me, that’s worth any potential trade-offs.




Again, just wanted to say hello and hopefully I’ll be able to provide some valuable end-user feedback from time to time.


JMac

 

[hughlle]

Welcome to the forum JMac

It sounds like you've made a considered choice, and bought it for your own reasons, and not what someone else has told you to do.

I'm with you in that I really can't see the issue with the keyboard material. Folk have been taking swiped at the surface keyboards since day one, even with the new type cover, which leads me to think it is largely sour apples and moaning for the sake of needing to moan about something. As to the ports, while it would be nice to have a second USB port, it really wouldn't be the end of the world for me. I've used my surface pro's for 3 years, how many usb ports have i needed in that time? One. And I could get away without using it at all if I'd bought a bluetooth mouse and not a wireless one needing a dongle. Other than that, the usb port get's used for a hdd or usb stick, maybe once a week just to transfer a large file across to my main computer. I could easily do without that as well if I just stopped being lazy and set up file sharing on my home network.

I've not read about it, but I imagine it ought to support the new style surface dock. So for me, being an owner, it would never be something that put me off, not that it would anyway

 

[GreyFox7]

May the force forum be with you.

 

[MickeyLittle]

I've got the Surface Book with 2 USB ports and I totally recommend getting a wireless mouse over a Bluetooth mouse. Heck 99% of the time I don't have anything in either of my USBs and it's just sleeker that way! If I'm hooking up to monitors and such I have a dock for that but just sitting around on the couch or wherever my ports are free and clear.

 

[John2k14]

I've been struggling my self with the keyboard as well... I had a Surface Pro 3 keyboard and then the 4th, the 4th is a excellent upgrade to the 3rd, although the material after a year of heavy use is getting deteriorated and with a low quality life. My sp3 isn't throttling but I'm considering the Surface Laptop, I'm expecting to be release in Portugal to evaluate if keyboard is not a tc4 glued on metal.
Anyone knows if the trackpad is bigger than TC4?