Two and a bit weeks ago on Black Friday I picked up an SP4 (i5, 4GB, 128GB) and I just wanted to say that Microsoft nailed it. The screen is fantastic, the pen is fantastic and the TypeCover is fantastic. Windows 10 runs like a charm and features like Windows Hello mean I can go from an entirely powered down device to the desktop in under a minute even when the facial recognition can't detect my face correctly.
I would highly recommend this device to people who want a lightweight but high performance machine for Office environments and workloads. The only major downside is the Windows Store having shit apps but that is an issue for all Windows platforms but it seems like it is improving long-term.
For those of you that care and/or have some time to read, I put a longer version of my thoughts onto my blog.
Once again thanks Microsoft for this fantastic device. My long-term aim will be for this to become a Linux PC once I replace it (probably 4-5 years) so hardware support should be all worked out by then... I hope anyway.
My Razer Blade Stealth works pretty well on Ubuntu and Fedora. Touch screen, wifi, bluetooth, everything, even the freaking chroma keyboard works on Ubuntu.
I don't find it to be quite as high performance... I've installed our company's GPO on about 20 of these and it literally takes hours to complete the configuration. It's a cool device, I just don't think it's good enough for Professional use, To each his own
Microsoft have really built the Surface around Windows. For example OneNote compliments the Surface Pen very well. A Surface is about the only machine I would ever recommend running Windows, simply because the whole Surface experience revolves around it
god help you if you go off the beaten path with your device, though. things get weird. fast.
I do like the hardware. The surface pro 4 is almost okay at this point with linux but the surface pro 3 is still a champ and the pen works great. Its an 'ok' tablet with linux but a faaaaabulous laptop. I recommend limiting your cpu speed on battery though; linux's power management isn't quite there. And the pro 4 should be way better, but its not, because power management on skylake in linux still ranges from meh to ok
I have one for work for all my VPN purposes, and at work I have the docking station that two mini-display ports on it. I like the improvements the 4 made over the 3, which is all of what we had at my old job, such as the magnetic pen, port relocation, and the improved keyboard.
I got my dad the Surface Pro 4 after his Pro 2 got stolen. He has over 500 flights during a year and I think it's one of the best computers to bring for travel.
I have my Surface pro 3 bought for only 350$ (but with a crack that render half of the touchscreen unusable) but still love it for my use. Small and light so doesn't required a lot of space in the backpack and it's useful to remove the keyboard to use it has a tablet to read scientific papers. Just have a grip with the right click on the touchpad (well, with the touch pad in general), but I don't want to use money to buy the surface pro 4 keyboard.
I am going to be a negasaurus rex here, and say I prefer a laptop. I have a top of the line Surface Pro 3 for ages, running win 8.1 and then 10. After spending 20 years + learning to use a mouse and keyboard, i still don't like touch on a PC. It seems more effort to reach up and touch the screen to swipe and unlock it (which is just an unneccesary waste of energy), than it is to use the mouse and keyboard where my hands are. Perhaps the addition of haptic feedback may help the on screen keyboard seem more natural to use? I have had a few random issues that seem to have been fixed with firmware updates, such as the thing locking up on wake. I haven't had too much luck with linux. Fedora 25 is probably the best, although it is a struggle to wake the device up from sleep. It usually ends up flashing its screen and going back to sleep. It only seems to respond to the power button while sleeping, so no hit the space bar to wake it up. The type cover is not bad, but i keep missing the spacebar lately. Pressing it on the side as i do with my right thumb doesn't always yeild a space. The high DPI screen is more of a hinderance to me than a benefit, because if something doesn't support scaling, it ends up super small or blurry. Typically things that render their own controls or interface, like the old version of photoshop, games etc. I guess they were trying to go for the apple retina display? Game performance, even for modern simple games, is a bit rough. This is the police for example is unplayable stock. But thats not really a negative on the device. It struggles with factorio for example, although thats like running your own Skynet. All that being said, I don't take it on planes to watch movies, or really use it as a tablet. So, in my opinion, its a good tablet but not a good laptop. It didn't transform my life, maybe I am incapable of being a hipster? ;) It suffers from trying to be an ipad, or android tablet, where touch and scaling work perfectly for everything.
I think i would prefer a 15inch 1080p laptop/mobile workstation. End rant.
The Surface Pro greatly improved since the first gen, I heard all kinds of problems with the first gen laptop and how they doubled the battery life in SP2, and included 8 GB of RAM with 256 GB (or 512, but I have 256) of storage, I still struggle with 256 GB of SSD, so I wouldn't last with 128 GB.