Surface Pro 4 media event in Singapore

For reasons unknown to me, I was invited to the media event here in Singapore for Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Launch.

Microsoft has invited creatives to talk about their workflow with the new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and I managed to interview some of them. There were artists, video and music makers. From what I gather, they only had the SP4 for a few days and were told to create something before the launch date which is today. Because they only had limited time to work with their computers, just take their opinions with a pinch of salt, especially since they are invited to represent Microsoft, so there's going to be some bias.

The first artist I talked to was Antz, a graffiti artist.

He uses Photoshop and Illustrator for work. Prior to using SP4, he would draw sketches on his sketchbook, scan, and then work on his computer. With SP4, he says that he was able to really cut down the bulk of stuff he carries around, such as the pencil case and his A4 sketchbook. He's also now able to work on location. Take a photo with SP4 and immediately draw on it to visualise how his design is going to look like in real life.

I tested Photoshop on his SP4 and noticed no lag. The Surface Pen has a really nice feel when drawing on the glossy 12.3-inch screen of the SP4. The tip of the pen is tiny and you can really see the line come out under the tip. The erase at the back of the pen also feels great when used against the screen. There's also a click button on the pen that you can set to open a particular software.

There is however an issue, which is the slow diagonal line issue that still exists. It's a problem that is not isolated with SP4. Most digital styluses will have this problem, so many of iPad supported digital styluses will have this issue.

These are the diagonal lines that I drew. If you draw slowly, the lines will be wobbly. Look at the line on the far left.

The problem goes away if you draw fast. So it's not a problem with if you're a fast sketcher, casual doodler. But it will be a problem if you draw slower, such as when you're trying to draw a portrait and want to be more accurate.

For some strange reason, Microsoft Fresh Paint does not have this wobbly effect. OneNote, Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro all had that issue.

Not sure if you are able to detect the wobbly lines for my drawings above. Oh, the pen has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and it works great.

SP4, as it's running Windows 10, is able to run the full version of Photoshop. I was watching Antz draw on SP4 when he told doesn't use shortcut keys, because he doesn't use shortcut keys when he draws on his A4 sketchbook. He's trying to use the SP4 as if he's drawing on the sketchbook. Personally for me, I cannot even begin to imagine not using shortcut keys.

When you fit the Surface Type Cover onto SP4, it's going to be awkward drawing on it because of the hand positions. You have to detach the keyboard for better comfort.

Microsoft should really make the Type Cover wireless. That would be awesome because you won't have to put the keyboard beneath the screen anymore. You can put it to the side and it won't interfere with the drawing hand.

Next I spoke to the Autodesk guys. They showed me Fusion 360 that was installed on the SP4. It's a 3D modelling software that has nifty cloud features. They told me it was free, or maybe I heard wrongly, but I found out that it cost USD $300 per year in terms of subscription.

They showed me a model of a chair and spun it around in 3D space in the software and there is very minimal lag with the SP4 that's running with integrated graphics card. It's just a simple chair so I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to more complex scenes. They were unable to tell me if SP4 or Windows 10 support Maya or 3ds Max.

But seriously, this is not the computer I would buy for serious 3D work. For stuff like Fusion 360 or Google Sketchup, I think it's more than powerful enough that's for sure.

Then I talked to Clayton Lai from Craft Worldwide, a company that into video production.

He showed me Adobe Premiere Pro that he was using to work on a 1080P/2K video. SP4 was able to handle the video stream without and dropped frames and that's quite impressive.

His unit also has a pretty cool external drive that's plugged into the USB 3 port.

I think Adobe Premiere Pro works well but the interface is a bit cramp for the 12.3-inch screen. Clayton told me that the SP4 is more suitable when you're outdoors and need to do some emergency work. Ideally, it's best to edit video on a larger screen so that the controls, buttons and timelines are larger.

He also has the SP4 hooked up to a mini display via the miniDisplay port. The video played without lag on both the SP4 and the display.

When I asked all the people I spoke to today to ask if they had any issues, they all said they were happy.

Personally, I think the Surface Pro 4 is a good computer, a brilliant tablet/laptop. It's not perfect yet, especially because of the wobbly diagonal line. That could be a software issue because there exists the Lazy Nezumi software just to deal with this issue. So Microsoft should really tackle this problem head on.

Another thing that would make the SP4 even better is to have wireless keyboard.

Anyway, I've already invited several artists to review the SP4 and Surface Book. These artists use their computers on a full-time basis for production work. I hope their reviews will give you a better sense of how Microsoft's new computers perform. The reviews will be out next week or so.