Shopsmith Forums

Being a worker of wood I like sketch things up and was wondering if anyone here has this item and how well that part of it works?

I'd like to just sort of free hand sketch and then later moved to sketchup for more details. I'd like to have it by my bed side so I can play with ideas while I'm watching tv and the ads come on..... or if I wake early and can't fall back asleep but don't feel like getting dressed and go to the computer.

I'd also like it for trips. Both on the road and at the hotel. In the past I had a laptop for this but it died and I've been trying to decide on what to get next. My wife and adopted the laptop so when it was gone I let her use my 10.1" tablet. That was a mistake for me but she loved it and now that is all she uses. For what she uses it for it is a perfect fit.

I picked up another tablet for me but it doesn't have a pen input method and drawing with it is hopeless. Yes you can do somethings but well not good enough for me.

So the last week or so I've gone and researched a lot of models. Some conventional laptops, come combos, some more advanced tablets and now I'm looking at the surface pro 4. It would seem to have about what I'm looking for as follows:

Size between 10" and 13" [12.3]
At least an i5 processor [yes]
At least 256GB storage (ssd) [yes]
8GB ram [yes]
Windows 10 PRO [yes]
Pen capable [pen included]
Resulation of at least 1920 x 1280 [2736 x 1824]
Price point of about $1200 [with attachments I want, no]
Run time of 6 hours or so [claim 9hrs]

Base price is ok but I think in addition to the cover/keyboard I'd like to have the dock. And of course the tax, so over budget but still the spec are good except for price point.

So if you have one I'd like to here how you like it. And how well it works for sketching.

Ed

Bill Belichick has one. I don't think he likes it. Seriously, although I don't own one, I think it will be great for what you want. However, I would strongly encourage you to consider more than 8gb of memory.

Ken

reible wrote:Being a worker of wood I like sketch things up and was wondering if anyone here has this item and how well that part of it works?

I'd like to just sort of free hand sketch and then later moved to sketchup for more details. I'd like to have it by my bed side so I can play with ideas while I'm watching tv and the ads come on..... or if I wake early and can't fall back asleep but don't feel like getting dressed and go to the computer.

I'd also like it for trips. Both on the road and at the hotel. In the past I had a laptop for this but it died and I've been trying to decide on what to get next. My wife and adopted the laptop so when it was gone I let her use my 10.1" tablet. That was a mistake for me but she loved it and now that is all she uses. For what she uses it for it is a perfect fit.

I picked up another tablet for me but it doesn't have a pen input method and drawing with it is hopeless. Yes you can do somethings but well not good enough for me.

So the last week or so I've gone and researched a lot of models. Some conventional laptops, come combos, some more advanced tablets and now I'm looking at the surface pro 4. It would seem to have about what I'm looking for as follows:

Size between 10" and 13" [12.3]
At least an i5 processor [yes]
At least 256GB storage (ssd) [yes]
8GB ram [yes]
Windows 10 PRO [yes]
Pen capable [pen included]
Resulation of at least 1920 x 1280 [2736 x 1824]
Price point of about $1200 [with attachments I want, no]
Run time of 6 hours or so [claim 9hrs]

Base price is ok but I think in addition to the cover/keyboard I'd like to have the dock. And of course the tax, so over budget but still the spec are good except for price point.

So if you have one I'd like to here how you like it. And how well it works for sketching.

Ed

Cyber Monday they sold what you are looking at for $999 with type cover and with a sleeve. Total out the door $1068. I got one, reg price $1299 plus for touch cover and sleeve, I5 256 mem 8 gig. Initial impression it is a very nice, but very costly windows 10 computer. I have not played with the drawing aspect enough to tell you how it works.

Basic thoughts: I am an Apps person. Totally sold on the idea, execution and reality of Apps.
While there are Apps for the Surface most energy on App development is on App only machines.

That said the Surface Pro is very nice. The track pad is different from a laptop to some programs ( program fault). Example I have one program that the touch pad gives problems for but on a regular windows 10 laptop works fine. Mouse seems to work fine. Touch screen is flawless. Build quality is excellent. Type Cover very nice. My opinion it is exactly what is advertised. At the price I paid great value for very upscale computer.

Not as nice to hold as other tablets. Not as nice on lap as laptop. Fine on desk or laying flat.

I got my Surface Pro for two reasons, I wanted one, drooled over it since it was released. and two because of Christmas the return policy extends to Jan 31. I figured that would give me plenty of time to decide if it was the value I thought it was.

I do not use Sketchup so I can't say pro or con. I do know the sketchup app is available for the iPad Pro that also has a pen.

My thoughts right now is while It is a great toy I may return it. It is extremely expensive for a windows 10 computer. If the Apps I presently use on my iPad were available for it, I would keep it hands down but it does not. I really really like the concept of Apps.

Right now I love my IPad and unless things drasically change I may shift to an IPad Pro which has a pen also.

Not much of a technical review I know but really just my initial thoughts as I only have had it a week. Right no both my Surface and IPad sit side by side I find I pick up the iPad almost all the time. Even my wife has noticed I'm not playing with it like usually do.

Well after reading all those glowing reports I started reading the reviews at Amazon. I normally worry when the 1 stars gets over 13%, this thing has 21%! If you look at the 4 and 5 starts it amounts to just 62%, the three and below adds to 38%. A lot of the lower ratings are from early on when MS was shipping a product that was clearly not ready for prime time. But still even a year later there are a lot of low scores.

Ed you got a really good price. Right now I see the machine and cover for about $1106. But I'm not sure I want one anymore. A new model is on the way a surfacepro 5 with the new intel(7th gen) processor and more then likely a higher price but will it suffer the same introduction ills as the last one?

BTW if people are wishing to run android apps on their PC's I've been doing that for years now. I've been using something called Bluestacks app player. One of many of these sorts of applications. It crashes from time to time and some android apps work better then others, they work but sometimes they don't look as good as you would like. There was one that of these that I tried called amiduos that looked good but it didn't like my hardware.... it happens.

So now I'm back to not knowing what I want to do. Wait I guess.

Ed

Ed Reible have you considered the iPad Pro?

While I have not given up with the Surface Pro yet I am getting closer. I spent most of the evening yesterday trying to get rid of password requirement on the Surface. Found out after trying everything that since I first signed in using my Microsoft ID that password verification would always be required. Good to know now better to have known before.

If I can figure how to I will reset the Surface back to zero and try again. Pain in the butt!!!!

Also the Surface as a tablet is pretty frustrating. You can not do or at least I do not know how to do anything that requires right clicks. Have to plug a Mouse or Keyboard to do that.

Pen seems to work but playing with Apple IPad Pro at the store the Apple pen seems to be better and easier to use.

Before you give up on you idea to sketch on a computer check out the IPad Pro.

Hi,

Sorry but not interested in the ipad pro.

As to your password issue I think the machine can use hello, just teach it to recognize you and your in. You can turn off the password requirement when returning from sleep on the same page. Found this stuff yet?

If that is not to your liking right click the windows icon in the lower left and pick run. At the prompt type in netplwiz

You should see a box and your login names... have fun.

I haven't done this to my machine as I like to have the password in place but it should fix this issue for you.

Ed

Ed in Tampa wrote:Ed Reible have you considered the iPad Pro?

While I have not given up with the Surface Pro yet I am getting closer. I spent most of the evening yesterday trying to get rid of password requirement on the Surface. Found out after trying everything that since I first signed in using my Microsoft ID that password verification would always be required. Good to know now better to have known before.

If I can figure how to I will reset the Surface back to zero and try again. Pain in the butt!!!!

Also the Surface as a tablet is pretty frustrating. You can not do or at least I do not know how to do anything that requires right clicks. Have to plug a Mouse or Keyboard to do that.

Pen seems to work but playing with Apple IPad Pro at the store the Apple pen seems to be better and easier to use.

Before you give up on you idea to sketch on a computer check out the IPad Pro.

Netplwz and changing registry to no lock screen will not work if you initially signed into a windows 10 machine using your Microsoft ID. Hello hasn't helped and I have spent hours researching this situation.
One solution is to create a new user with password off. But then I would have two users to contend with my original which is the administrator and the new one. My thinking is now to create a new user that does not need a password. Assign him to being the administrator then deleting my original user ID which presently is the administrator. Great opportunity to turning the whole thing to stupid junk.

If the thing had a reset button like my iPad or my Lenovo I would reset everything take what I learned and start over.

Too bad you are not interested in the IPad great machine!

reible wrote:Hi,

Sorry but not interested in the ipad pro.

As to your password issue I think the machine can use hello, just teach it to recognize you and your in. You can turn off the password requirement when returning from sleep on the same page. Found this stuff yet?

If that is not to your liking right click the windows icon in the lower left and pick run. At the prompt type in netplwiz

You should see a box and your login names... have fun.

I haven't done this to my machine as I like to have the password in place but it should fix this issue for you.

Ed

Ed in Tampa wrote:Ed Reible have you considered the iPad Pro?

While I have not given up with the Surface Pro yet I am getting closer. I spent most of the evening yesterday trying to get rid of password requirement on the Surface. Found out after trying everything that since I first signed in using my Microsoft ID that password verification would always be required. Good to know now better to have known before.

If I can figure how to I will reset the Surface back to zero and try again. Pain in the butt!!!!

Also the Surface as a tablet is pretty frustrating. You can not do or at least I do not know how to do anything that requires right clicks. Have to plug a Mouse or Keyboard to do that.

Pen seems to work but playing with Apple IPad Pro at the store the Apple pen seems to be better and easier to use.

Before you give up on you idea to sketch on a computer check out the IPad Pro.

Well I did it. There is a reset. Pressed it and now I'm watching it has been running a half hour and is about 52% done. I will start over and see if I can live with the thing or whether I do a reset again and take it back. Wife says to take it back now. She says it is not worth the frustration. I have installed hundreds of new machines. I even have a windows 10 lap but the Surface Pro makes too many assumptions about what you "REALLY" want. Bah Hum Bug!

The reset completed and I began again.
Found all the little traps that I fell into the first time. Microsoft makes assumptions that they think is what users want and in my case were not. I did not allow the express recommended to run and step by bloody step changed the traps Microsoft had set.

Totally different machine now! Goes where I want it to go not where Microsoft thought I would want it to go.

Here is my opinion as of this moment. It falls short of a tablet when compared to an Ipad the only other tablet I have experience with. Few meaningful apps, great selection of fluffy type apps but no apps for banks, stores, utility companies, business applications and such. Much heavier than my IPad, harder to hold.

Falls short of a laptop when compared to the Lenovo i have sitting on the desk beside it. There are compromises that must be made, keyboard not as good, touch pad doesn't work perfectly with all programs, small screen, high price. Does not sit on the lap,

Advantages. FAST, SSD hard drive makes boot time almost non existent, open programs fast.
Fantastic power cord with magnetic connector. Powerful Bluetooth. Pen you can draw and make notes on just about anything. Things like one note are especially open to pen usage.
Did I mention it is fast! Almost forgot to mention the pen application has neat things. There is a magical ruler that you can move into place then draw straight perfect lines. The pen itself has an eraser so you can easily erase things plus has two buttons that can be set up to do different things. You can free hand it to draw a circle or you can tell it to draw a perfect circle. Also it acts like a French curve making perfectly smooth curve or the less than perfect free hand curve. Line thickness, color shadow can all be controlled and manipulated.

I have a Surface Pro 4 and love it (full disclosure, I am a MSFT FTE). The sketching works pretty well in onenote. There is a cool app called Plumbago (https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nblggh5gk42) which is excellent for sketching and such. I previously had a Surface Pro 1 (wasn't a fan...too heavy, screen too small) and a Surface Pro 3 (liked it a lot).