Gadgetory

Microsoft slag ship hybrid tablet gets even better I'm Dan Akron and this is the Microsoft Surface pro 4 now the surface line from Microsoft has been around for a few years now it was originally sort of a proof-of-concept piece to show consumers so this year the surface pro 4 they're not messing with the formula too much we get a bunch of incremental upgrades but together they're enough that you really feel like it's a fresh new product number one the system is about the same size but it has a bigger screen it goes from a 12-inch screen to a 12-point three inch screen they get a little resolution bump there as well Microsoft calls these high resolution screens PixelSense Apple calls them retina it's all kind of the same thing what's different about this screen compared to a lot of others is that the aspect ratio is 3 by 2 instead of 16 by 9 which is standard for most laptops and televisions and computer monitors the reason they do this they say is because that is the same aspect ratio as a standard piece of letter a4 paper and one of our favorite things about the surface line has always been these keyboard covers and that helps it be you know more productive than just a tablet or a tablet with a really crummy little mini keyboard it's actually a full sized tactile keyboard with a touch pad built in this year they made some nice changes to it it's now island style keys this is much more natural and pretty much exactly like the keyboard in any other laptop that you're gonna find these days the touch pad a little bit bigger and I really like the new surface on it it feels much better against the finger and you get better sort of multi-finger gestures like the all-important two fingers scrolling one problem the surface even though it starts at 899 none of those models come with this keyboard cover even though you really need it now right how much you pay it's an extra hundred and twenty nine dollars frankly it's worth it they should just throw it into the box I can never figure out why they don't you're just gonna have to make the extra $120 investment to get that well you do get however is the stylus pen that is thrown in every version of the surface and has been for years the new one actually has a magnet in it and it sticks right to the side just like this there are a thousand 24 levels of pressure on the stylist and it works with things like OneNote or any kind of sketching I actually use it with the New York Times crossword puzzle app you can write the the answers in and then it converts it to actual text it doesn't feel quite as natural as writing on regular paper with a pen but it's a lot better than many of the other stylus systems I've seen a big competitor obviously is gonna be Apple's iPad pro one of the things we liked about last year's surface was that they took the kickstand built into it and they made it infinitely adjustable to almost any angle and stiff enough that no matter where you said it you can tap on the screen with your fingers and it's not gonna move it's a big improvement over the earlier surface kickstands and ones on other hybrids and tablets that kind of need to have one or two positions and don't move all that much when you combine that adjustable kickstand with the keyboard that can pop up and give you a little bit of lift there you can get almost any angle possible on this except for one that actually works really well on your lap but I guess that's why they don't call it a laptop they call it a tablet or a hybrid I'm Dan Ackerman and that is the Microsoft Surface pro for you