The key is TDP and cooling. It's a fact that SP3/SP4 cooling system is barely able to cooling those 15W chips without scorching hot on the back surface. On an iPad, ARM with 100% utilization does not produce scorching hot surface because it doesn't generate 15watts of heat and there's enough surface to dissipate all of the heat generated without having a huge temperature difference between the back surface and ambient temperature.
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Surface Pro 4 first impressions
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The key is TDP and cooling. It's a fact that SP3/SP4 cooling system is barely able to cooling those 15W chips without scorching hot on the back surface. On an iPad, ARM with 100% utilization does not produce scorching hot surface because it doesn't generate 15watts of heat and there's enough surface to dissipate all of the heat generated without having a huge temperature difference between the back surface and ambient temperature.
Same applies for 10.11, skip the wi-Fi set up and you will also skip the "20 questions" In many respects both Microsoft & Apple have many "so called features" on by default, equally I am sure many people would far prefer to decide to turn such functionality on, as and when they decided and not be opted in by default.
Q-6
The SP4 does a much, MUCH better job of dissipating heat keeping the CPU cool than the SP3 does. I'd say that's mainly due to the fact that the SP3 was probably designed primarily for Skylake, but MS had to release something in the interim, since Intel was behind on schedule. Case in point, the SP3 used the exact same hardware the larger SP2 did, but the latter barely suffered any throttling or heat issues. The SP4, while being about the same size and shape as the 3, barely throttles the processor even under heavy load. It has a much more efficient processor, coupled with a better designed cooling setup.
What you're arguing is something that's going to happen with a more powerful processor, period. The MBAs will get warm, as will the new rMBs. Though in the end, the issue isn't if it generates heat, rather how it keeps itself cool. Granted, this is an issue the iPad Pro won't suffer quite as severely, since the processor has a much lower maximum draw. But then again, the iPad Pro won't be doing as many heavy tasks as the SP4. That's the trade off.
So what you're saying is the SP 4 doesn't spin the fans as often as the 3? Because that's the main issue I have with my SP 3. Watch a YouTube video using Edge, for example. That usually has my fan going for some reason.
That's what I've read. You don't hear the fans unless you're pushing the system fairly hard.
For an experiment, I just now got through firing up Edge and watching a 9 minute video on YouTube on my Core M3 SP4 (it was a couple of guys filming a CD warping and exploding at 20,000 RPMs filmed at 200,000 frames per second, so cool), and when I was done with it, I couldn't feel any extra heat on the back. It was about like I had just opened it up after having it asleep for a few hours.
Now my SP4 has a much lower TDP than the iCore chips, and it doesn't have a fan on the back to keep things cool. It's all passive heatsinks and pipes. But if it doesn't generate any noticeable amount of heat for me, I doubt it'll be any worse for the higher end 4's.
Stopped by a MS store to have a look...no SurfaceBooks but Surface Pro 4.
The screen was nice, but it didn't seem optimized for a touch experience. Can one increase the overall UI elements so you can actually select some thing with a finger instead of a pen or cursor?
Speaking of the pen, I liked the small cross-hairs to tell you where you're about to draw. Perhaps this how they compensate for the slight offset and latency. Be interesting how this stacks up with the Apple Pencil.
The screen was nice, but it didn't seem optimized for a touch experience. Can one increase the overall UI elements so you can actually select some thing with a finger instead of a pen or cursor?
Speaking of the pen, I liked the small cross-hairs to tell you where you're about to draw. Perhaps this how they compensate for the slight offset and latency. Be interesting how this stacks up with the Apple Pencil.
Yeah. You can either switch to tablet mode, or jack the scaling up to 300%, which makes everything massive.
You do. I created local accounts on some of my Windows 10 computers.
Edit: I see Renzatic already did.
I think this has been available since Windows 8.1 (ie you just logon to the store with one account in a family group) however on ITunes and Apple store to turn on family sharing (which is slightly better across multiple devices) you must enter a credit card also on windows and you can turn authorisation required to purchase, to stop your kids running up a bill.
A firmware update just rolled down the pipes for me. I can now watch videos without the screen flickering and turning green! 
Hoping that I can turn Hello back on with this update. Safari seems snappier Oh wait....A firmware update just rolled down the pipes for me. I can now watch videos without the screen flickering and turning green!
Well I was considering the iPad Pro, but after going to Best Buy and playing with it for a while, and reading many, many opinions here and on Reddit, I ended up with the i5/8G/256G SP4. This little thing is amazing. Except for an occasional display driver crash (so far only in Firefox), it seems to be working fine. I've not gotten a single bluescreen, the light bleed is minimal and unnoticeable on anything but a solid black screen, and my wifi connection has been completely reliable. The type cover is way nicer than I was expecting, and I find the keyboard more comfortable to use than my 15" rMBP.
I am still not crazy about Win 10, but I'll get used to it in time. This thing is quite the step up from my Note Pro 12.2!
I am still not crazy about Win 10, but I'll get used to it in time. This thing is quite the step up from my Note Pro 12.2!
A few issues with my 4...
- Hello Me (or whatever it's called) login is broken. The damned thing never recognizes me, and I spend 10mins trying to get on because it makes you wait that long before eventually offering a bypass. I gave up on it.
- Generally less stable than my SP3... bugginess in quite a few areas
- Slower logins and wakes for sleep. Don't know why it all takes so much linger than my SP3?
- Wakes form sleep for unknown reasons... Seems every time I put the thing asleep at 100%, I wake it at 50 or less
- I hear the fan as much, or more, than my SP3
Now, there's certainly lots of good about this system, but nothing jaw dropping over my SP3. I think I'll bring it back and wait for the bugs to be ironed out, or just wait for the SP5? Had planned on trading in my SP3 for it, but that's now feeling like a more reliable system.
Then again, there's a firmware upgrade waiting for me. Maybe I'll give it one more shot?
... installing the firmware - there goes the fan noise???
UPDATE: Don't want to sound overly negative. I realize that much of this is firmware & software related. But the SP3 was just such a revolutionary device that I was really hoping the 4 would bring it to the next level. For now, I'm thinking that my 3 is good enough.
- Hello Me (or whatever it's called) login is broken. The damned thing never recognizes me, and I spend 10mins trying to get on because it makes you wait that long before eventually offering a bypass. I gave up on it.
- Generally less stable than my SP3... bugginess in quite a few areas
- Slower logins and wakes for sleep. Don't know why it all takes so much linger than my SP3?
- Wakes form sleep for unknown reasons... Seems every time I put the thing asleep at 100%, I wake it at 50 or less
- I hear the fan as much, or more, than my SP3
Now, there's certainly lots of good about this system, but nothing jaw dropping over my SP3. I think I'll bring it back and wait for the bugs to be ironed out, or just wait for the SP5? Had planned on trading in my SP3 for it, but that's now feeling like a more reliable system.
Then again, there's a firmware upgrade waiting for me. Maybe I'll give it one more shot?
... installing the firmware - there goes the fan noise???
UPDATE: Don't want to sound overly negative. I realize that much of this is firmware & software related. But the SP3 was just such a revolutionary device that I was really hoping the 4 would bring it to the next level. For now, I'm thinking that my 3 is good enough.
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Nice choice. When you think about which device is a superset of others as in what it can do more than the others there's no touching the Surface Pro 4 or even 3. Had the Note 10.1 and thought about the Note 12.2 or even iPad Prosumer but they didn't make sense over the SP especially when it can multiboot Windows, Linux, BSD and even OS X.
Hoping that I can turn Hello back on with this update. Safari seems snappier Oh wait....
I don't think you can. This update was all about the GPU from what I read.
The GPU firmware runs Hello, so I'm turning it back on. I have decided I'm going to return this one for a another because twice the Hello bug ran my SP 4 very hot while supposedly in sleep and plugged into the new dock, for about 3 hours. Second time I could smell a burned plastic odor when I walked into my office and my Surface was too hot to touch on the screen. After turning off Hello as suggested it hasn't reoccurred.
Wow. Now I'm kinda glad I waited to turn it on.
I might be overreacting here, but if I were you, I'd probably take it back and switch it out for another one. If it got hot enough to give off a burnt plastic smell, it wouldn't be entirely inconceivable to think it might've done a bit of damage to the hardware. I don't know what temps the mobile iCores are rated for, but I doubt it's anywhere near as high as what the desktop chips are. Without that fan on, it might've been pushing temps as high as 60-70C.
Definitely take it back. You paid too much money to have that occur. You don't want any failures down the road when it may not be in warranty because it had a history of overheating
The only bit of good news I can give you concerning that is that it seems to be more a software problem, or more specifically, an Edge problem, than a hardware issue. I see it happen all the time while I'm browsing about, but nowhere else.
...knock on wood.
FYI guys, a *possible* solution for connected standby issues is to upgrade the ACPI control method battery entry drivers in device manager, under Battery. You will see the stock driver is from 2006, if you just update driver it will find ones from NEC from 2013. Supposedly this helps, but I can't say for sure.
Best Buy emailed me a coupon code for $100 off on a new SP4 as part of student discounts. I will not use the coupon so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll give it to you. It works for some SP3 models too.
It works for these SKUs: 4523600, 4523800, 6243045, 6244035, 6244044, 6244026, 8728035, 4523400, 4217500, 4217606, 4217800, 4217700
It works for these SKUs: 4523600, 4523800, 6243045, 6244035, 6244044, 6244026, 8728035, 4523400, 4217500, 4217606, 4217800, 4217700
That was simple. If this improves performance at all, it'll make me wonder why MS didn't use it as the default drivers in the first place.