Surface Pro (5th generation) first impressions

I wanted to write a proper review at a later date, after a more prolonged exposure to the whole Surface experience, but at the time of writing the Surface Type Cover has yet to arrive, and the stylus I ordered on Amazon should be delivered today. Still, I have spent enough time with the device to be able to share at least some initial observations.

I have been interested in acquiring a Surface device for a long time. Mind you, I don’t consider 2‑in‑1 devices to be necessarily innovative; I still maintain that tablets in general have been suffering and keep suffering from lack of vision and originality in hardware, software, and interaction paradigms. All tech companies seem to ignore a great deal of potential that was briefly hinted at with the Newton platform back in the late 1990s — the idea of a tablet that can stand on its own as a computing device, with a ‘tablet interface’ designed from the ground up. But, most importantly, designed around the user with an interaction paradigm that goes beyond doing the same things you’d do with the mouse on a traditional computer, but with your fingers on a screen.

But while I don’t consider 2‑in‑1 devices to be necessarily innovative, I wanted to see if one of the most popular could at least work as designed and deliver on its premise. The ideal Surface device for me would have been a Surface Book. Not only because it’s more powerful than other devices in the Surface family, but also because I was always intrigued by its design and quirky hinge. A fully fledged laptop, but you push a button and the whole screen surprisingly detaches, revealing a fully fledged tablet, and a rather big one at that. But since I have some other stuff to update down the road (and not inexpensive stuff), I couldn’t afford to get a Surface Book at the moment.

Luckily, the Tuesday after Cyber Monday, I managed to purchase a 2017 fifth-generation Surface Pro for a very low price at the local second-hand electronics shop I frequently visit. This Surface Pro was in very nice condition, still with a good battery, and despite being one of the lower configurations (4 GB RAM, 128 GB of internal flash memory, but equipped with the beefier Intel Core i5-7300U CPU and not the entry-level Intel Core m3-7Y30), when I tried it out at the shop I was pleasantly surprised by its speed and responsiveness.

It came, however, without accessories. No keyboard, no Surface Pen. These weeks I have been using it as a tablet, interacting with it with my fingers or a passive Bamboo Stylus for more precise interactions; and when I needed to use it more like a traditional computer at my desk, I connected it to a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard and a Microsoft Bluetooth Ergonomic Mouse (which is a very nice mouse to use, by the way).

Even before being positively surprised by the Surface Pro’s responsiveness, I was positively surprised by how it handles. It feels solidly built, dense, and every bit as premium as an iPad; and just like, say, a 12.9‑inch iPad Pro, while feeling solid and hefty, it doesn’t feel heavy to handle. I knew that the Surface kickstand would have felt sturdier in person than what it looks on photos, and this Surface Pro is by no means the first Surface I ever handled, but still, when it’s your device and you can freely play with the kickstand, you realise that Microsoft is truly good at building hinges.

Then something happens when you turn on or wake up the Surface Pro: you have a tablet in your hands but on its bright, crisp screen you see (in this case) Windows 10 Pro running. Not a dumbed-down version of it, not a ‘Windows Tablet Edition’ OS, or something of the sort. You’re immediately reminded that you’re holding a traditional computer that just happens to come in tablet form. The feeling this conveys, in turn, is: I can do all sort of stuff with this, just like on my ThinkPad. I’m not saying that you can’t do all sort of stuff with an iPad Pro, mind you, but the feeling, the approach, seem different to me.

I think that the ace up the Surface’s sleeve is that it turns certain traits that would be considered weaknesses — it’s boring and predictable — into strengths. Look, it’s Windows on a tablet: how unimaginative, how non-innovative. But it’s also what makes the Surface work. It’s what makes the Surface’s UI work even if you’re not using Windows’ Tablet Mode. Remember what I said before, that I wish more tech companies would create a tablet whose user interaction went beyond doing the same things you’d do with the mouse on a traditional computer, but with your fingers on a screen? I think interacting with Windows on the Surface Pro works surprisingly well exactly because you’re not expected to do more than that. It’s Windows, it works like Windows, and you interact with it in the same way you’d interact with Windows on any other PC. Sure, there may be a few multitasking gestures here and there, or the occasional small target to hit, but the whole predictability and unpretentiousness of the system does really work in its favour.

I still think Microsoft missed a big opportunity with the Metro UI of the Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 era. A more tile-based UI language would really work well on a Microsoft tablet for touch-based gestures and interactions, in my opinion. I remember playing with a Surface RT a few years ago, and while I agree it was an underpowered device, it was really fun interacting with the live tiles on the Start Screen and navigating the interface.

Functionally, though, I think Microsoft did the right thing in leaving Windows RT behind. Being able to experience Windows fully on tablet-sized well-performing hardware is much better. If your idea is to deliver tablets or convertible devices that are meant to be versatile and useful for both ‘passive’ tasks (reading, enjoying films, videos, music, etc.) and productivity-oriented tasks (or creative tasks), then it’s better that the system running on them isn’t crippled by lack of features or limitations imposed by a UI that can’t handle certain complexities in a seamless way.

iOS is not a bad operating system, but it was designed for a smartphone. It was adapted for the iPad because it made sense at the time. Initially, the iPad wasn’t created to be a device that could be used for the same productive and professional uses as a traditional computer. In Steve Jobs’s view, you had a Mac for that. As I wrote in Yes to everything (March 2020):

The Surface knows what it is. And Surface users know what to expect from it, in terms of functionality and interface. The user interface could be improved here and there, but it’s not ambiguous. The levels of interaction comfort aren’t either. There is a distinctive best/good/okay comfort range as you go from operating a Surface like a Windows laptop, to using it as a tablet with pen input, to using it with touch input with just your fingers. But that feels fine because that’s the experience the Surface is supposed to provide. […]

The iPad, on the other hand, has had a more varied history, and has been more of a chameleon — with regard to both purpose and interface. It was born as a separate device with unique characteristics to fill the perceived void between a laptop and a smartphone. In 2010, when introducing the iPad, Steve Jobs said, In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks. They’re gonna have to be far better at doing some really important things: better than the laptop, better than the smartphone.

And in its first iterations, the iPad was exactly that; its identity pretty clear — ‘a big iPhone’ that could be just as easy to use as an iPhone, but better at doing certain things due to its bigger display. And better than a laptop because certain basic tasks and operations were simply more intuitive to carry out thanks to the multi-touch interface. That really killed all the remaining netbooks still in use at the time, and many non-tech-savvy people were happy to use a small laptop-sized device that was much less intimidating to use than a traditional computer. All thanks to its user interface and its very operating system, that was not Mac OS X slapped on a touch-based device, but something that felt much more integrated and suitable for such a device. The learning curve was also low because people already knew iOS thanks to the iPhone’s success.

Then, unfortunately, Steve Jobs passed away.

I’m absolutely convinced that the biggest mistake (Cook’s) Apple made with the iPad has been to have waited so long before deciding to branch iOS and give the iPad a dedicated ‘iPadOS’. Apple should have done it the moment they perceived that many users wanted to do more with iPads than just using them as ancillary devices for a series of basic tasks. I’d say the process should have started with the introduction of the third-generation iPad in 2012 (the first with a retina display). Instead iPadOS came as late as 2019, and its differences with iOS are still too marginal to be meaningful and beneficial to the iPad. Today, to truly take advantage of the hardware capabilities of the iPad, iPadOS should look and feel more Mac OS Lite than iOS Pro.

Using good old regular Windows on a Surface device might feel clunky in places (some UI targets are really best tapped on with a Surface Pen or similar stylus rather than with your finger, for example), but at least Surface devices — which are almost as old as the iPad — haven’t really suffered from an identity crisis. I’m as surprised as some of you may be when I write these words, but when it comes to tablet computing, Microsoft seems to have listened and served their target audience better than Apple has with theirs.

Back to my Surface Pro 5th generation — Other miscellaneous things

Startup and shutdown times are excellent. In normal conditions, this Surface Pro cold boots in about 8 seconds (from pressing the power button to the appearance of the lock screen). If there aren’t open apps when you shut down the device, shutdown is almost instantaneous.

The device delivers good performance, as I already said, but it’s certainly not suitable for gaming. I installed Steam and downloaded a few games my older 2014 ThinkPad X240 can handle, but performance was only acceptable, and I had to choose lower settings to try and make things smoother. The weak point here is clearly the GPU, which is decent for everyday use, but not for running triple‑A games.

The Surface Pro has a MicroSD slot, so I decided to purchase a 128 GB MicroSD card with fast performance to use it as permanent additional storage. So, to save space on the internal SSD, I also tried to install Steam and my game library on the MicroSD card. Evidently, despite the good reading/writing speeds of the card, it was not an ideal solution, as games took longer to load and update, and the whole experience was generally worse. Better use the MicroSD card as media storage and little more.

The Surface Pro 5 also comes with a USB 3 port (in full USB‑A size), a MiniDisplay port (connecting an external display was really easy and hassle-free), a headphone jack, a Cover Port to connect the Type Cover keyboard, and the SurfaceConnect port where you can connect the AC adapter, a Docking Station or Surface Dock accessories. Not a lot of ports, but absolutely sufficient for my needs. The SurfaceConnect port feels stronger than MagSafe in its magnetic connection, but still passes the cable yanking test. I also like that there isn’t a specific orientation for the connector — you can plug it in with the cable facing either way.

Now that the Surface Pen alternative I ordered on Amazon has arrived, I can say it feels better than a Surface Pen for handwriting and sketching. The tip has more grip and when it touches the Surface’s display, it feels more like pencil on paper rather than plastic touching glass. The stylus I chose (based on some recommendations online) is the Renaisser Raphael 530 active stylus. One of the things I like about it better than the Surface Pen is that it doesn’t have an AAAA battery, but an internal rechargeable battery that can be charged via USB‑C. This stylus therefore feels less hollow in the hand. The flip side is that the battery life of a Surface Pen will never degrade over time. You put a fresh AAAA battery when the old one is exhausted, and you’re good to go.

The experience of drawing and writing with a stylus in Windows is great. The Ink to text feature works well and Windows’ handwriting recognition had very little problems recognising my longhand. I was able to write search terms and phrases in the browser, and even entire URLs, and again everything was parsed with a surprisingly high degree of accuracy. A few minor corrections here and there (my lowercase ’n’ was recognised as ‘h’ in a few instances) weren’t really bothersome and didn’t detract from the overall seamlessness. But I should have expected this, since the handwriting experience was already good on my ThinkPad X61 Tablet running Windows 7 Pro.

A moment of praise for Windows’ virtual keyboard. It’s something I already noticed when I started using Windows Phone 8 on my Nokia Lumia 925 and 1020, and Windows 10 Mobile on my Lumia 830 — I make almost no typing errors when using it. I don’t know if it’s the size and shape of the keys, their spacing and placement, but I’m always more accurate when typing on Windows’ virtual keyboards compared to iOS and iPadOS. Apple’s virtual keyboards were fantastic in the pre-iOS 7 era, and my typing impeccable; the experience has degraded with further iOS iterations — at least for me. I also find Microsoft’s predictive text to be smarter than Apple’s. On iOS I often find that some quite common words suddenly and randomly aren’t suggested or even recognised; for example the other day I was trying to write a quick message, and iOS kept autocorrecting ‘yes’ in ‘yet’ or ‘yield’.

Switching back and forth between landscape and portrait orientation is less smooth than on Apple devices. There is a little lag as the Surface ‘prepares’ the interface for the change in orientation, and the process feels like the Surface is a bit reluctant to proceed. Due to its screen’s aspect ratio, the Surface is taller and narrower than an iPad when used in portrait orientation, and that initially feels a bit weird. But it’s great for reading documents and PDFs, or webpages with a lot of vertical content.

This Surface Pro also has very nice speakers. They’re stereo and front-facing, and they sound rather crisp. Despite their small size, the bass is noticeable and overall they don’t sound tinny.

I haven’t done any meaningful test regarding battery life. The device is second-hand, and if you’re interested in getting a Surface Pro, I’m sure more recent models will have a better battery performance. Still, in the couple of days I used my unit most intensely, starting at 100% charge in the late morning, I was able to work on it all afternoon (sometimes listening to music via Spotify in the background), plus I watched a few videos on YouTube and a short documentary, and in the evening I was in a 2‑hour videochat on Google Meet with my friends (I asked them if they were seeing and hearing me well, and they confirmed). When later in the night I returned to the Surface to check something, battery was at 30% — so I’d say it’s not bad for a day of normal-to-heavy use with a device that’s now five years old.

I think that’s it for now. Maybe I’ll write an update to this article or a separate addendum when the Type Cover also arrives, so I can share further impressions after using the Surface with its characteristic companion, and respond to any interesting feedback I may receive in the meantime. If you have any questions or you want me to elaborate on a particular aspect of the Surface you feel I may have overlooked, you can reach me via email or find me on Twitter and Mastodon.

Surface Pro (5th generation) first impressions was first published by Riccardo Mori on Morrick.me on 15 December 2022.