Microsoft Surface Pro 4 first impressions

Approximately two months after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the announcement, Surface Pro 4 has finally arrived in the Indian market, along with its older sibling Surface Pro 3. The Surface Pro 4 is tablet that aims to replace your laptop but costs a pretty penny with a starting price of Rs 89,990 (and the top model costs Rs 1,44,990). Add another Rs 12,490 for the Smart Keyboard that you will probably need to buy.

Here are our first impressions of Microsoft Surface Pro 4...

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a premium-looking tablet with a compact design (it's 8.45mm thick, but not the slimmest tablet around). The magnesium alloy body and silver colour option add to the looks of the device. Moreover, the bezels around the screen are pretty thin, resulting in a high screen to body ratio. At less than 800 grams, it is tablet/laptop you won't mind lugging around in the bag.

Surface Pro 4's display panel is sufficiently bright and offers decent viewing angles, but colours appeared a little oversaturated at first glance. However, we were not able to play any videos for a better judgement.

The tablet runs Windows 10 Pro operating system and comes with three processor options: Intel's Gen 6 Skylake Core m3, i5 and i7. RAM and storage options are 4GB and 8GB; and 128GB and 256GB, respectively.

Connectivity is going to be a problem with Microsoft Surface Pro 4 as it comes with only one USB 3.0 port and no HDMI port. For that, you need to buy the (Mini DisplayPort to HD AV) adapter separately. There's a microSD card reader thankfully.

The Microsoft Smart Keyboard, which is not bundled and costs an extra Rs 12,490, is pretty thin and light. The keyboard and Surface Pro 4 are connected via a magnetic dock and can be attached and removed very easily. When the keyboard is paired with the tablet and the stand at the back is at maximum incline, you don't lose the colour saturation; therefore, working on the Surface Pro 4 in laptop mode will be easy. The keyboard has chiclet key layout and is backlit, unlike the keyboard offered with iPad Pro. We quite liked the Surface Pro 4 in the little time we spent with it, what with its thin and light design, ability to run fun Windows 10 apps and ease of switching between laptop and tablet modes. However, we would have liked more USB ports and a full HDMI port.

The bigger problem, however, is the price: Rs 89,990 is too steep a price for the entry-level Surface Pro 4 considering how price conscious the Indian market is. We will find out more about the tablet in our full review.

Source: Microsoft Surface Pro 4 first impressions