That’s a pretty long time to own a device, right? I’ve been having this device since late 2014 and it has been my main laptop/tablet ever since then for the most of my time.
Well, I unfortunately lost my stylus at an airport. Meh. But the device is still in one piece!
So, after a few skin changes, a few windows to Linux and back to windows flashes and a lot of charger replacements, here’s how it feels like to use a 2014 hybrid laptop in 2020.
The device has a metal and glass build and I am that person who loves metal tech! Primarily because it feels cold and secondly, it feels premium in hands. Though, the product gets a bit on the heavy side due to that but it’s not an issue for someone like me.
Looking at the device, you’d instantly notice that the paint has faded away from sides and edges and the metal is exposed. Yep, that takes away the look but then again, we have an option to skin the device which comes in handy and gives us an option to make it look different from what it used to!
The product which used to feel futuristic back in the day, now feels slightly outdated. You will notice those big bezels and they will be bothering you a lot if you are someone who’s been embracing 2019 bezel less game. But it’s fine for me though as this way, I have more area to hold when using my device as a tablet. But again, this might be an issue for you though.
But hey, you’re not going to purchase this device now, anyway right? It’s just for those who proudly own a Surface Pro 2 😊
This 10” panel has a good FHD resolution, which is quite above the competition back then and even now it looks sharp and good. The only issue we would have is with the scaling, obviously. But Microsoft took good care of it. Most of the apps would run at 1.5x scaling factor by default so that wasn’t an issue at all.
This wasn’t the case while using Linux though; even after setting scaling at 1.5x, we will have to manually set it for each app, and that’s quite annoying; though it’s just one-time thing but still.
The good thing being that people who embrace high DPI will love it just like I do. You a lot of information on the page without having to slide anywhere so I like it.
Another good thing with this panel is, the brightness can get fairly low and insanely high. Which is not common. Also, the auto brightness works really well here and it adapts to you; which means it learns what brightness you use at what time and that’s good since you won’t have to change brightness very often, and it will give you that tablet feeling which is missing from a full fledged laptop.
The panel supports multi-touch, in case you were thinking of those cool touchscreen games; also, it is responsive. So, you won’t be missing out on that full windows touch experience. That’s what we’d expect from something taking $800 from us right?
The keyboard we have here has good broad keys and you don’t compromise on the typing experience at all! The whole keyboard has a velvet finish and it feel good to touch it. And the keys, they are backlit! That too witch 3 different brightness level; and it has that ambient lighting thing for the keyboard and that is a benefit over traditional backlit keyboards because while you’re not using the keyboard, it just turns off and you are not distracted by those keys at night while watching something 😊.
Keys are very gentle to touch and I felt like typing in air since it’s so smooth and effortless that sometimes I’d just type random things for no reason just because the experience is so good.
We also happen to have a mousepad with the same velvet finish and it works fairly good to. It’s not like some of those pads which you won’t be able to use since some or the other thing is annoying. But that’s not the case here; from scrolling to zooming in, this mouse pad has help up pretty good. Only issue being, if it you end up spilling some water on it or started using it without drying your hands, then it starts misbehaving and we need to wait for the water to dry out completely.
Very less often it happened that I had to attach a wireless mouse. That happened only during the times while I was preparing some presentation since that’d require some dragging stuff, and almost every mousepad suffers in that department. Even Apple.
I would like to point out that throughout my usage time, I haven’t replaced or repaired my keyboard. Yes, and it’s been over 5 years. And the keys; all of them are still functional and so is the back light and the mouse-pad and that’s impressive because the build felt it will breakdown pretty soon.
The device was sporting top notch specs at the time: 5th Gen i5 coupled with 8 GB Ram and 256 GB SSD which itself were very rare that time. What it means? Top notch performance! I was blown away to see the insane boot time this thing had and how fluid it felt; unlike the traditional performance laptops. Even now, performance is great for medium as well as heavy usage in some case as 8/256 combo is fast and doesn’t get in your way. I use this laptop for my video editing and I also used to play games back in the day.
It was able to handle games like CS: GO, GTA V, GTA IV, COD MW3, NFS MW and so on with some tweaks and above 30 FPS; which is not bad considering the fact it isn’t made for gaming anyway. Very less often it happened that it froze or stopped responding. It was an amazing deal as a laptop. But it has its cons too. It can only be used at to positions; which are only convenient when used over a desk or a solid surface. While using over laps, it is kind of hard to use. Besides, the touch pad is small, stops working when gets moisture and the buttons are kind of weird since you cannot click them. And being a laptop with just one USB port is not convenient at all either. You probably need to get a USB extender to use this for proper laptop experience!
And one great thing I notice is, the ability to use it as a standalone tablet. Microsoft made windows 8 to work in harmony with touch devices, and that worked! I enjoyed my time using it as a tablet. Watching videos, listening to music, video calling, and a lot more were great due to that great battery life which it offered and the amazing display. It is a great tablet. But it is heavy. Yep it weights over 1kg and it by no means is comfortable in hands, especially at some certain positions! Like when you use it laying down.
So, here’s the thing. Microsoft made it great but not great enough to suit to everyone. It suits me because I don’t have a lot of work to do! I mainly used this for entertainment and some college reports, writing blogs and yeah that’s fine.
But someone who is a corporate person and need this, probably need to see it as a secondary device since it cannot be used as a full-fledged laptop all the time. And this might be a trade-off.
Hence, a great hardware and poor implementation in a Nutshell. But again, we have people like me who love it for offerings it gives