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 advertisement posting whatever is completely inaccurate and intentionally misleading. First of all it states in multiple locations that it comes with the keyboard and pen, but it does not. It has a picture and the picture even says inside the box includes the tablet, keyboard and pen and then there’s another location inside the posting on Amazon that further state that it comes with the keyboard and pen, but it doesn’t and if you really search hard in the ad somewhere in small print where you have to literally open 1 million things just to even see it does say that it doesn’t come with a pen and keyboard, which is ridiculous. This is clearly a violation of both federal and state loan in Texas cause I’m in Texas and honestly, they should be sued along with Amazon but that’s unfortunately not. How are things apparently work anymore. Furthermore the tablet doesn’t power on, and I don’t know if it ever will the charging cord that they provided with the tablet isn’t for the tablet at all it does not have the ability to charge the tablet. So I have no idea whether the tablet they sent me work or doesn’t work because it doesn’t not power on it and provided is not for the tablet and never was for the tablet and is incapable of charging the tablet. If it even turns on at all because by visual inspection, I can see that the plug area where the actual appropriate charger does plug into is not right there’s like there’s something there or something missing that needs to be there that would actually allow the tablet to be charged so I don’t think this table works at all and I don’t think it ever works. I think I was literally just sent a piece of junk and expensive to pay $200 for it. Awful. Don’t ever buy anything from these people.

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.

The surface pro functions as expected and is a lightweight and cheap touchscreen laptop if you get additionally a key board and a great mobile second screen if not. Hover ever the screen has glitched some times during in the relatively short time if owned it. Overall very happy with it . I didn't have the battery issue many others seem to have had.

Love the tablet. Didn't come with all accessories advertised.

Well, I had a problem with this surface pro 4 (refurb) originally. The OS had serious issues rebooting. After going through a merry-go-round of steps troubleshooting, I finally had to download a USB boot image file from Microsoft. Thankfully, the serial number on the tablet was all I needed and the reboot OS recovery worked like a charm. Now, similar to another comment made about this product not having a stylus, I also experienced the same problem. I had to go out and purchase a stylus separately. The good news is that Amazon refunded my purchase of the stylus and would have shipped me one separately if I had simply asked. Now, this machine is running great. Fabulous in fact. And, with a little work I managed to save even more on the price. Great Buy if you're a Geek / Tech Head like myself. Happy Hunting. Alex.

Do not get, starts flickering when the slightest temperature rise or graphic software used. I have older different brand laptops that still don't act like this.

After installing all the firmware and software updates that stopped it from freezing and crashing (I'll assume that's Microsoft's issue and not this company's fault) the machine works fine, and suits my needs quite well. It's an incredibly impressive product. What irks me is that it came not with the new Surface Pen that ships standard with all Surface Pro 4s, but inexplicably included the previous inferior model that has about 1/5th of the pressure sensitivity and a poor magnet to keep it from getting lost. Another important corner cut was the inclusion of a knockoff third party "replacement charger". If you have used knockoff replacement laptop and cell phone chargers before, you know they can get very hot very quickly and in some cases destroy the battery with the wrong amount of power getting to it... which can wreck a good machine or be a really expensive fix, given that the battery is not meant to be replaced This all would have been fine had they mentioned it rather than trying to skate by with the bare minimum definition of "pen and charger included". Since the pressure sensitivity was important to me as an artist who intends to draw with the tablet, I had to pay $60 for the new pen from Microsoft, and since I didn't want to junk the whole computer after 6 months or burn the house down, I had to shell out another $67 for an OEM charger. Considering I saved about $200 buying this refurbished and spent almost $130 making up for the non-advertised cut corners, this ended up not being as good a deal as I hoped. I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 because it IS a solid product and I DID save $70, but I'm furious about the sneakiness and lack of candor. If you don't need the newer pen and are willing to roll the dice on the charger, you can get the device itself at a great bargain. If you want the Surface Pro 4 and all that is supposed to come with it, think long and hard about it. Mine works fine at the moment, but since the people selling it didn't exactly prove themselves honest from the start, who knows what other problems might await.