
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 5 Said to Move to Intel Kaby Lake Processors - artsandsci
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/07/microsofts-surface-pro-5-said-to-move-to-intel-kaby-lake-processors/
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archildress
Anyone on HN using a Surface Pro 4 regularly? What are your thoughts after
having it for an extended time?

(I read quite a few reviews when they first came out, but I'm always curious
to know how those products feel after being used consistently for a long
period of time)

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jrs95
I had tried for awhile thinking I could get by on Bash for Windows & Vagrant,
but there were a lot of headaches and I ended up returning it and getting
myself a Lenovo I could run Linux on.

But if Windows itself wouldn't be a problem for you, I think it's a fantastic
machine

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dmix
There's no support for Surface with Linux desktop natively? I thought the
hardware would be pretty mainstream, drivers-wise.

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cgh
From what I understand, and this is just what I've read, the Pro 4 has
keyboard and touchpad issues (Fedora 25). There are a bunch of kernel patches
available but I'm not sure if they resolve the issues.

If anyone with actual experience could add to this, that would be great. It
does look like a great combo.

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marmaduke
With Ubuntu 16, this worked out of the box, no issues. The main problem I
found was hidpi scaling, which is in no way unique to the surface.

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will_hughes
fta:

> Surface Pro 5 will not change the Surface Connect power connector, I was
> just told. Kaby Lake, nothing dramatic. [0]

I don't mind if they keep the connector, but unless they also add USB-C with
Power Delivery support (i.e so I can charge over USB-C), it's dead in the
water as far as I'm concerned.

For laptops, tablets, phones, etc - anything that's small and low powered, I'm
over proprietary connectors.

Having one charger and one cable that does everything is incredibly
convenient, and hard to go back from.

[0]
[https://twitter.com/thurrott/status/850080349778587648](https://twitter.com/thurrott/status/850080349778587648)

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6stringmerc
Definitely on my all-caps WANT list of practical purchases as soon as I can.
Occasionally get to borrow a SP3 top spec and it's so impressive to me. The
fit and finish are up there with my expectations of Akai type foresight.

Provided Microsoft pays close attention to 'just enough' ports to keep it
ahead of the Apple trajectory, I think they'll continue to bite market share
in areas that typically were Macbook Pro favored. Win10 seems to "just work"
for enough Users while still being a functional Enterprise deployment that I'm
frankly still impressed how they've won back customers.

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mustacheemperor
>Occasionally get to borrow a SP3 top spec

As an owner of an SP3 top spec, the regular experience isn't always as great
as the occasional one. Microsoft chose to use a cheap Marvell wifi unit and
mine STILL has consistent problems connecting/disconnecting. I've had to
reinstall windows entirely in an attempt to get the drivers functional in the
past. It still feels crazy to be able to run VMs and CC on a tablet but you
will pay for that i7 in heat and battery life.

That said, those flaws are pretty rare and largely worth it in the day to day.
Most of the time, it's as you describe - and I haven't heard of the newer
devices having nearly the same gamut of problems. Don't buy it expecting to do
any serious art design on the touchscreen though, the pen is only "okay."

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lewisl9029
Basically the only thing holding me back from getting a Surface is the lack of
Thunderbolt 3 for connecting external graphics. If they address that with the
Surface Pro 5, it'd be an instant buy for me.

Though I was secretly hoping for some more exciting additions on the hardware
side with this next refresh (OLED display? Wireless charging? WiGig docking?
Fanless cooling?), so the _" nothing dramatic"_ comment was somewhat of a
letdown for me.

Hoping they have something more exciting planned on the Surface Book side. I
might end up going for that instead.

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dade_
I bought my Surface Pro 3 when it came out years ago and the SP5 is a done
deal. I consider the money already spent...

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stcredzero
My girlfriend actually works from home on her Surface Pro 3. I just bought her
an external screen for it. One thing: it's pretty picky about the DisplayPort
cable. As far as being used as a tablet and as a laptop, it totally works. My
girlfriend also watches movies in bed with it. (Though for YouTube, she uses
the iPad mini instead.)

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vdnkh
I'm glad they didn't move to ARM for the Surface. I bought my mom one for
Christmas to replace her iPad 1 (her main computer at the time) and she loves
it. Having arthritis, a touchscreen hybrid works really well for her. Not
having full access to Windows apps (because of ARM) would probably make it a
non-starter though.

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mtgx
That was Windows RT, and I don't think Surface has had ARM versions since 2-3
years ago.

Any future ARM Windows devices will have full compatibility with all programs.

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macintux
> Any future ARM Windows devices will have full compatibility with all
> programs.

How would they pull off that miracle? Emulating Intel on an ARM chip would be
sllloooowwwwwww.

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Grazester
[http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/8/13881800/microsoft-
demonst...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/8/13881800/microsoft-demonstrates-
full-windows-10-with-photoshop-on-arm-chips)

...You were saying?

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macintux
I admit, I didn't realize they'd already done it with some success. Proof will
be in the pudding, however.

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mtgx
I would've been more interested in seeing a quad-core Ryzen version,
especially instead of the dual-core Intel Surface 5 models.

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Analemma_
Ryzen is good, especially in terms of cores/dollar, but unfortunately I think
Intel is still winning handily on thermals, which are the most important
consideration in form factors like the Surface. I expect Microsoft will stick
with Intel for at least one more generation.

