Microsoft Surface Pro 4; 256 GB, 8 GB RAM, Intel Core i5 (Renewed)

(Changed to review 7/28/2016)This review is of the SURFACE PRO 4 256GB HD with 8GB RAM- the extra 4GB of ram this one comes with worlds better than the dated 4GB version which I would not recommend with the i5.(End change)Buying refurbished can help keep the price down. Most refurbished products come with a warranty of sorts for defects. As for this refurbished deal from Square Deals Inc. a certified Amazon refurbishing company, they say they offer a 90day warranty for this product (does not cover drops and spills) only hardware issues. The company Square Deals Inc. is not on the Microsoft certified refresher list, so purchasing the extended warranty from Microsoft is unavailable.The product I purchased is the Microsoft Windows Surface Pro4 certified refurbished, from Square. This product is an enterprise refurbished tablet, so again there is no other warranty you can purchase for this machine. As of now I have only had mine for about 3 days (I shall update as time goes on). The machine is beautiful with a 12.3 inch display running the latest version of Windows 10. Windows 10 does change the brightness sensitive from a number set to words (Dark, Darker, Suggested etc...). Touch is not fantastic however it is good on the device due to the software (win 32 apps) as most of them are not optimized for touch. The user will need the type cover or blue tooth keyboard at a minimum which is sold separately. But that is the only negative of this machine I have seen.The feel of the machine is nice in hand, heavy but a solid feel, holding this for hours playing video games might not be the best idea. The metal is magnesium which is on par with other premium tablets and laptop; over all thickness is kept down to a minimum which is great for all hand sizes. The Type cover is nice and smooth with a glass touch pad. The touch pad glides with accuracy and a nice click sound when double clicking. It does come with a new Pen for digital writing and drawling, my first impressions of this pen is smooth easy to hold with the flat spot on it to rest on you hand light a regular pencil. The only issues is the length is a bit long for my use but I am sure I shall get use to it.Compared to my Surface3 (S3) (Atom with 4GB ram) which I bought brand new (even pre-ordered it). The i5 Surface Pro 4(SP4) 8GB machine is worlds faster and smoother than the S3. There is almost no lag when running adobe or editing video in any other application, while streaming Netflix (yes I did this). The machine even with a case over it does not seem to get warm to the touch compared to the S3 or even the SP3. The fan is extremely quite I had to put it to my ear to ensure it was on. Using normal win32 apps on this machine is like any other PC, however where it shines is when using the new “Modern” apps with touch. Tubecast pro works so well on this I almost don’t miss an official you tube app (much better than using the browser). The edge browser is great but lacking plugin’s which, is a problem for me. To solve this I use Mozilla Firefox which works well with touch (not as good as a touch browser but good enough). Watching videos on this as stated is wonderful!Normal daily word processing task and excel (office) isn’t even a remote problem for the machine. Working on my Access database (over 4K) records and listing to YouTube for music I only saw a 40% CPU usage and less than 4GB of ram. Storage on this particular machine is 256GB which is good compared to other tablets but is not as much as I would like (this machine can support 1TB SSD at a cost) You cannot upgrade it yourself though.Over all this was a good buy and saved some money, but I shall see how long it last being refurbished.****************************Update 7/28/2016***********************I have been using my SP4 for approximately 5 months now and it seems to be running alright. Again the biggest complaint I have with my SP4 is it was an ENTERPRISE version they sold as a consumer refurbished meaning there is NO way to get that extended warranty from Microsoft outside of having a company and purchasing their support etc. This part makes me very upset but it does not take away from the products functionality.The newest INKING for Windows 10 (soon to be anniversary update) makes this machine a true pen/paper replacement which adds to the true functionality. The 3d sense camera is laggy sometimes even with the latest firmware does not always see me until I am very close. Skype does run very well over this machine and the quality for the internal mic is wonderful. I do not take many pic with it but the cam does allow me to snap things on the go if needed. Windows 10 has been updated a lot since I first purchased this product with better and better improvements on functionality and speed. The Wifi on my 1G AC network is always upwards of 300Mbps with no real range issues. Watching 4k video is good but can skip and the screen is a limiting factor for this as I have come to find out; but playing 4k vid on my TV's is wonderful. Steam games that are high level are only playable with med-low to ultra low settings, but again this is not a gaming machine but will work in a pinch.Office touch works like butter thanks to the latest updates and I do not notice throttling issues with developing databases in access or using Photoshop. I have yet to over heat this in a normal environment however out side in the sun it gets hot, like any other machine. I purchased a Dock for the tablet and that adds Ethernet connectivity to the machine. I would buy a cheap plastic case along with a glass screen protector as I've seen other SP4 from friends damage fast. Again this machine shall be good for the next 3-4 years (8GB model) and is truly a wonderful product from Microsoft.I shall update again after the NEXT big update comes out for Windows 10, to show how the product has held up to the new requirements and features (officially).

This came with a cheaply designed after market charger. The battery was already pretty hammered from the original user, so power management is challenging.It would be nice if they disclosed these two discrepancies. I would not have purchased at this price.* Update: screen began flickering. Needs to be replaced.**Update: Surface Pro 4's have a known issue (per Microsoft) with the Surface Pro screens. They are replacing them if they were originally purchased within 3 years. If you're buying this used and the screen fails after 90 days, you get to keep it! Amazon nor the sellers will assist in any way.

After doing alot of research I finally bit the bullet and ordered the i5, 8G Surface Pro. I am an animation and illustration student and I badly needed a screen to draw on for my digital art. The Surface Pro is absolutely amazing, I seriously can not praise this thing enough. My digital work is 5 times better now that I have a screen to draw on. I chose the Surface Pro over a Wecom Cintiq because it is more then just a very expensive monitor with drawing capabilities. The Surface pen has been great for me, I use it daily in life drawing and sketching with both Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop. It is also great for taking notes in lecture classes. The Surface pen is easily comparable to those used with a Cintiq, it may have a lower sensitivity level but I never once noticed. Once I got past the learning curve that comes with drawing on a screen I was sketching just like I do on paper. I draw very loose and quick and the Surface pen never skipped a beat. Performance wise the Surface Pro is snappy quick when doing office related tasks and web browsing. The only times I have had any slowdown, which was minor, was when working in PhotoShop on large files or gaming. The Surface Pro is not a gaming machine, but I have been able to enjoy some older classics. I will be buying the Surface Pro 5,6,7 and so on from this point forward, because my expectations have been completely blown away. Microsoft have made a solid product here. If you are an artist looking for a portable digital art workstation absolutely without a doubt buy the Surface Pro 4! It is expensive but the quality of machine you get is well worth the price.

Review for Microsoft Surface Pro 4: This device is fantastic and far exceeds my expectations. It is extremely portable and powerful, has long battery life, and is better than any other laptop I have tried in this class, especially for the price (I also own a Dell XPS 12 and a 2014 Macbook Air). So far, I have had no issues with the device, save for one of my mice not being recognized (but this can be a problem in any device). The i5 is powerful enough to work and play modern games -- though, even with power charger in, these can sometimes drain the battery pretty quick (but in my case, this could be related to the power charger I was provided with: see below).Review for the refurbishing: I had to give this 4 stars, since I felt a little cheated with the refurbishing process. While the device itself was perfect, it was packaged with a generic power charger which doesn't charge the Surface near as fast as the original (I tested the charger that comes with the Surface Book and saw a pretty big improvement). However, I got this for $200 less than a brand new one, so not a huge ding.