Surface Pro 4 Review - The Best 2-in-1 for College Students

My review of the Surface Pro 4 aimed at College students. Enjoy!

A comprehensive review covering the screen, keyboard, trackpad, build quality and surface pen with comparisons of 4gig and 8gig models for video editing performance and gaming.

Is this the best 2-in-1 laptop for students? Which model is better value, the 4GB or 8GB? Is it worth the money? Watch this video to find out! =)

Review unit: i5/4g/128g/Intel 520

Be sure to check out my other hybrid laptop reviews:

Music Credits:
Intro: Robotaki - Raton Laveur
Background: FILI - Smooth Rides

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Purchases made from store links may give me some money.
(It doesn’t cost you extra, so please buy everything)

[FadilKarim]

To all the people saying that this is too expensive for college students...have you been to a college campus recently? The kids may be on a top ramen budget, but they're still walking around with MacBooks...

[exiagundam]

when the SP4 fell down in 2:30 my heart fell down with it

[dondewaay]

U deserve so many more subs. Your videos feel like something that would come from a channel with 500, 000 or more. I love them :D

[daveyan]

one thing to note for college/university students. the ms store offers a 10% discount. it should help pay for part of the type cover. yes it's strange it's not included. hopefully it helps some of you

[tylerroberts]

don't know if you will see this dave, but I just wanted to say you are such a breath of fresh air. whereas other tech authority/CNET) just seem and feel so, i would say robotic so often, and honestly feel more like style than substance and just like they are talking off some kind of script. You and MKBHD are my favorite reviewers on youtube and hands down the best in my opinion-because you always make me feel relaxed and just talk to your viewers in your reviews like you are a normal everyday user-just like the people who watch your videos, and it's so relatable in addition to the knowledge you impart on us.

A great example from this video:"The surface pro 3 in particular was really solid and it came out before I started making youtube videos, so i thought i should do one for the surface pro 4 that was geared towards college kids."

Thanks for the videos Dave, you have something great here, keep at it, you will be at the top before soon.

[poisson]

Dave, your reviews rock! Coming from the fan-boy oriented iVerge channel... Yours save my day.

[yzabella]

OMMGGGG I HAD MY SURFACE PRO 4 FOR A YEAR NOW AND I JUST REALIZED IT HAD A SD SLOOOT HAHAHA

[Antnie]

Fantastic review Dave, can't wait to see how this stacks up to the iPad Pro.

[jordanlin]

Dave, did you get any annoying Windows 10 bugs (such as not able to wake the device up) or any hardware problems? (like back light bleed etc.)

[SamsonZhangTheSalmon]

Hey Dave, awesome video, a question: what do you use to make your animations, like the titles and the summary animation at the end?

[robertibeh]

Dave, In 2 years you're going to retire from whatever you're doing to support yourself and family. Because by then, your subscriber count will be so high you no longer need to work. Keep up the awesome work, and remember I said this.

[TarekMidani]

Background beat on point, not distracting, layout of all your reviews are consistent and smart. Man... Why haven't seen this channel earlier. I'll share this!

[tre-moon-dous]

hey Dave, I'm not really sure if you'll reply to this, but thanks to ur video, I've decided to buy a surface pro 4 for college, although you said 4gb of RAM is already good enough for a typical college student, do you think its wise for me to go with 8gb version instead of the 4gb If I were to consider this purchase as a long term purchase throughout my studies, (3-4 years), I'm hesitating because many people keep saying that 4gb RAM is quite irrelevant In 2016, and I'm gonna be graduating in 2018-2019, I'm worried that my laptop is going to need more RAM in a few more years as many simple programs would start demanding more memory. I'm sorry If I sound ignorant, hope you can reply to this..thanks in advance

[tfox]

I love the casual vibes to this video. Dave always seems to have great reviews of the Surface devices! Even though he reviewed the Surface 3 somewhat unfavorably, I still ended up buying one and I still think it's brilliant.

[chromax]

Hi Dave, I know you might not answer my question but, Would you still recommend the Surface Pro 4? Or should i wait for the pro 5?

[samirsaeedi]

I found your channel today and I've watched 3 of your videos. I really like your work man, wish have found this channel sooner. I like these points specially: You get deep, but not boring deep, on details. The recap part is beautiful and informative, and your honest opinions help a lot on choosing for an average customer. Thank you and keep up your good work.

[kiramoth]

You don't talk about the drawing aspect of the surface pro 4, which is a big deal as the surface brand is heavily targetted to artists. Is it better from the surface 3? Performance improvements? Adobe CC interactions? Ect. Judging this product without mentionning its use as a drawing tablet isn't accurate, although the review was otherwise as good as usual.

[Splackavellie]

Great review, as always Dave! Your channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites for tech reviews. Your videos are just the right length, rarely miss important information, give a clear, well formulated opinion without obvious bias and have a natural, almost zen like flow to them. Keep up the great work!

Couple things to note, as someone who has owned both the Surface Book as the Surface Pro 4:

1. The Surface Pro 4 is by far the better tablet. The tablet portion of the Surface Book really felt like an afterthought. It has atrocious battery life, absolutely no expandibility and misses the excellent stand of the SP4. Now I know Microsoft markets it as a laptop with some clipboard functionality, but I can't help but feel they went the Apple route and intentionally crippled what could have been a perfect device in order to sell to separate products.

Just think of how good the Surface Book could have been with ALL the perks of the SP4, combined with that fantastic keyboard dock. I would MUCH rather have the same Surface Pro 4 tablet with the option to choose either the $150 Type Cover 4, or a $250 Keyboard dock with that same hinge and added battery, of even a $300 Dock with NVIDIA GPU in it. Combine the excellent tablet experience with the Surface Book's laptop experience, and you've got close to the perfect all in one solution. Not to mention insane battery life.


2. The difference between the i5 and i7 model of the Surface Pro 4 isn't as small as you make it out to be. Unlike the basic 128GB Surface Book, the i5 128GB Surface Pro 4 comes with only 4GB of RAM (which you mentioned), which is enough for casual tablet use, but very meager for a main laptop, especially considering multitasking. Besides that, the i7 has the way better Intel 540 graphics, compared to the 520 graphics in the i5 model. The i7 has about 70-80% better graphics performance, and actually comes very close to the discrete GPU in the Surface Book. Perhaps that is why Microsoft decided to handicap the i7 model of the Surface book with the Intel 520 graphics instead of the 540.


Personally, I use the Surface Pro 4 as my main laptop more and more, and keep finding myself to prefer picking it up over my MacBook Pro. I have the i7/256GB/8GB model and have found that, for a tablet with a low voltage CPU and no discrete GPU, it actually packs quite a punch when it comes to gaming. Sure, it won't run the latest and greatest games in full resolution. But when you turn the resolution down to 720p (which is acceptable on a 12" screen) and tweak the settings some, I've found that even GTA V, Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider manage frame rates in the high 50's. No, it's definitely not a gaming powerhouse, but I'd put it at least on par with a last gen console, and it is more than capable for providing an adequate gaming fix. So far, I've finished three backlogged games on it (Bioshock, Portal 2, Arkham Origins: Blackgate) and am halfway through Arkham City. Not too shabby, when Apple's iPad Pro only manages to run Gameloft games and constantly crashes the same Bioshock.


My brother, on the other hand, has a gaming desktop, so doesn't need either the power, graphics performance, or storage that I need from the Surface Pro 4. He picked up a brand new 128GB i5 model for 884 euros today, which is about $1000, -. Coming from an 8" Shield Tablet, he couldn't be happier with it, and that model provides him with everything he possibly needs from both a tablet and a laptop.

[lilbabygroot]

Dave I've gotta say, I'm a huge promoter of your videos and production skill which is in my opinion on par with MKBHD if not better. That said, the lighting in this review was just bad. Your shots of the unboxing as well as shots you appear in are dark and the background is either not lit well or just seems bland. Lighting sets the mood! Just some constructive criticism, keep up the awesome videos!

[ao_pixel]

This is easily the best review of the SP4 I've seen yet (and I think I've seen all so far lol).
Very well done!