I personally draw on a Surface pro 6 with the surface pen and I love it. The pressure curve can be adjusted in surface app or most decent drawing apps. The wiggle in the pen can be an issue but only in certain programs (I personally use clip studio and I have 0 wiggle). The tips can be swapped out with different styles as well if you want more of an apple pencil feel.
The fact that you don't have the wiggle issue with Clip Studio relieved all of my worries lmao, thanks Was worried the one drawing program I use would be difficult to draw with 😂
@@izzy1356 Glad I could help! honestly just tinker with the stabilization for any drawing program on the surface and your golden. Clip studio is awesome because you can turn on the speed stabilizer which only turns on when your drawing really slow.
I cant believe they still use pen jitter as the main reason to ditch a surface pro when that is easily overcome using a program like clip studio, it also improves workflow and allows to illustrate with gestures and no keyboard...
@@asdjesdsd Expecting line stabilization to solve all your problems is like trying to use a screwdriver as a wood chisel. Line stabilization introduces too many new issues with stroke behavior to just set the slider to 100 on everything and call the problem solved.
@JustZer0 When you say you get zero jitter, is that with stabilization completely off? If so, that's a relief! I've been holding off due to that. If not, then around what point does it tend to vanish? (ex: stabilization set to 25, 45, etc.)
Having tested this in shop today I can thankfully say the pen did not behave like this at all, this review had put me off the Surface Pro 7 but I realise it’s not representative of how the pen reacts in other programmes such as OneNote. I understand and appreciate that you are calling out Microsoft on their lack of innovation on this product especially compared to the rest of the surface line however it’s still a great product albeit too expensive, despite this, it or the Surface Pro 6 will be my next main device.
I have had the surface pro 5 for over a year now, and i can confirm this pen behavior. It truly is a pain to draw with, and i mostly use one not (i'm using it absolutely every day from 8 to 21-22 with onenote)
I’ve also had my surface pro 5 for over a year now and while I can confirm this jitter, I don’t see it as anything more than a minor nuisance. If your using photoshop, a light use of smoothing completely eliminates the jitter with no noticeable lag. As an illustrator/animator, I couldn’t be happier with my now dated surface pro and while it might seem on the expensive side, getting a similar experience with a drawing monitor and MacBook gets pricey *real* quick.
I’ve seen a lot of reviewers demonstrate the pen and I’ve never seen it as laggy or wobbly as this, and my brief experience in store was quite impressive. So maybe it’s worth another look?
I don't feel photoshop is the best app to to demonstrate drawing latency. Photoshop is overly bloated and always lags for me anyways, so i never expect the surface pen to keep up with me with larger paintstrokes. Might get better performance with a higher end model but the drawing jitters will likely still be there.
I was hoping he'd use Sketchable or Leonardo. He says those are the only apps he says he really likes to use to draw on the Surface. Mainly because since they were built for Windows tablets, they run better and are faster.
True Photoshop may be bloated for a lot of illustration but it is still a staple for a lot of creatives and there are other devices that don't lag as much in PS. I think PS is good to set a baseline and keeps consistent across Brad's reviews. Mileage may vary in other apps of course and keeping additional stroke smoothing to a minimum in any app is always a plus.
Photoshop DOES work greatly even in an old 1st gen i7 with a basic gaming card (around 130-150$), provided one configures PS to use the GPU, as since maybe CC 2018, is not using anymore CPU to get the best brush performance. Even a nvidia GTX 1050 2GB is way enough to get very smooth, lag-free paint strokes. But the full performance settings in PS must be configured carefully (there are many settings in the performance tab). PS is the tool used in many studios for illustration and concept art, and many full time freelancers. The problem could be that even if a tablet or laptop is using a "discrete card", in mobile the performance is *_not_* the same, even with the same "specs" on paper, compared to what happens in a desktop. The lack of cooling is one of the reasons, besides the space restriction for other matters, among other reasons. So.. if you get a surface 7 (I have not yet seen the hardware specs) with an enough powerful GPU,, as an option, you should be able to get smooth performance with the brush (and in a lot other modern software being more GPU based). But please, notice in the video how the lag he's having is as he has needed to set a 30% of smoothing (line stabilizer) in order to get ride of the line wobble/jitter, which is a fact known to be produced by n-trig in the surface solutions, INCLUDING the huge Surface studio. Any software with a high stabilizer setting (and 30% in one is not the same than 30% in another) WILL produce lag, and so, low performance. This is sth MS needs to solve ASAP (in SF 1 with Wacom tech, and I believe also 2, it all was fine) if wanna do some real damage on the iPad line. Till then, nothing to see here for a very large chunk of the illustration community. Said by an MS fan (not fanboy.. fan middle age grunt, in any case :D ) , btw. I've put to work 100% efficient machines to other people, really, really old hardware, just adding a cheapo stick of RAM (8gb alone, or 16gb is fine for even large print projects) and a very cheap GPU, plus configuring really well the preferences. The capabilities gained by using that app, really worth the effort. And again, said by an Affinity, not PS fan (but PS expert over decades).
@@3polygons agreed, I us ps daily for work too (with a non display tablet) and since getting my top spec iMac (in the grand scheme of things by no means an insane machine compared to some PC custom builds) I've been spoilt with the option of keeping all my smart objects, layer styles, textures etc without lag even on PSB files up to 10gb. RAM and graphics are key and getting the settings right but also to add to that a large fast scratch disk is massively helpful to getting the most out of Photoshop. PS will use everything available and more given half a chance but I guess that's the trade off for such a powerful piece of software.
Anthony!!!! FINALLY!!! Thank you for that comment! I have been preaching that for years!!! Photoshop is AWFUL for testing any pen period! Its very laggy and always late to the party when it comes to working well with most drawing devices in general. I always fast forward through any reviews of pens when I see them being tested with Photoshop. It means nothing and is not a realistic test (at least not in my world).
RAM issue actually, for some reason the default is to use like 1 GB of RAM (even though I have 8GB) and they limit the maximum ram you can use to 2.8GB (I think there's a way to change this but I don't remember) Anyway, you just solve this by setting the ram up to 2.8GB (if you can change it, I would recommend going up to 6GB)
Wobbly lines are a problem of PS and also occurs with the latest Wacom devices. Since Adobe seems not to care, the only solution is to install lazy nezumi which has a Bugfix. No jittery lines since then. It did drive me crazy for years. It has to do with photoshop interpreting the pen as mouse and some weird sapping. Ages I had searched the Web to fix it, but the only real solution was lazy nezumi. Also Ps got a lot slower and clunker over the years. I use since version Cs4, and with each new release new annoyances are put into it. It's a great programm, I really like it to do digital art, but it'd also quite slow in comparison to other programs, and your experience will be terrible with an i5 and without enough ram, if working on more than a few layers. Clip studio works way better for lineart. Its as if csp renders the stroke in 60fps, and ps only in 30 or so. But it has also its problems. Mostly in colour management, but that's a topic for another day. My main concern for using a surface device for digital art would be Windows ink and its weird functions, swipes circles and other nonsr nonsense that screws with ky wacom on a daily basis. Fortunately one can deactivate win ink in te wacom settings, but what if there is no such thing as wacom settings. Don't know. If anyone got experience with the surface tablets for painting in ps, let me know if it's worth it.
Photoshop was weird until I set up to use the 100% of ram (for some reason the ram usage is capped to 2.8 GB, yet there's a way to change the limit, I would recommend to set it to 6GB) because the default was to slow for me. Now, its working perfectly fine. I have the Surface Pro 7 i5 with 8GB of RAM
Hey so I'm thinking of buying surface pro 7....is the i5 one good or would it be smarter to go for i7... The price difference is large but I am just starting college for design and would like to use the laptop for the next 4 years atleast.... Do u recommend?
Vedangi More if Ima being honest with you, i5 is where you should start with this computer and I’ve drew for years on an i5 surface pro 4, but if ur doing this for school and you will be doing a lot of editing, I’d suggest i7 with 16 gn for the most capable laptop to match your needs. I suggest using eBay or buying refurbished from Best Buy. But I upgraded to i7 and 16 gb and the smoothness is SOOOO satisfying
@@SpookyxSausage in photoshop its under the preferences option at the bottom of the edit dropdown ( Edit > Preferences > Memory Usage ) I would also suggest adjusting your scratch disks if you have multiple drives.
I wasn't ready to make the jump to the Surface Pro line until they went USB-C. I held onto a Macbook Pro until then. I almost purchased the Pro X, but after digging a little, I found that the lack of full software support was something I wasn't ready for. The Surface Pro 7 has so far been a great way to study and the i7 processor is no slouch when it comes to 3D gaming at moderate graphics. And this charging hole is so nice... I don't think anybody will ever understand why Apple discontinued magsafe for USB C... Now I get both and love it.
I am still using Surface Pro 2013. Clip studio paint and Sketchbook Pro works like a charm. No lag whatsoever. I also have iPad mini5. I like both of the devices.
I very much appreciate the synopsis given at the beginning of the video that doesn't leave behind any questions yet to be answered or anything like that.
I would recommend testing out the Surface Pro in stores because when I did I didn't experience any of the pen wobble issues Brad experienced. I got the i5 version with 8GB RAM, with the Renaisser Raphael 520 pen instead of the Surface Pen because that got better reviews and i use it regularly with Clip Studio and Affinity Designer. Absolutely no line wobble issues and pressure sensitivity is perfect and adjustable. It's an awesome product, if a bit expensive but I'm really happy with my purchase! It makes drawing on the go so much easier and I love the kickstand. The i5 does get quite hot especially if you're using it while charging since it has no fan, but the i7 has a fan and can get noisy apparently. If you're working with massive files I would recommend the i7 instead. Would highly recommend Clip Studio Paint with it, CSP even has the "double tap to undo" feature that Procreate has on the iPad.
Still use my Intuos 3 large, paired with a Dell U2410: same 16:10 ratio and same tablet area to screen size. Over 1 billion colours, though it's old, many of those colours are probably dearly departed by now, or fading away..........
I bought this about a year ago so I could do digital art on the go and I personally love it. The pen does take some getting used to. That being said, I love it. I use it pretty much exclusively to run Adobe Illustrator and Sketchbook Pro so I don't need a whole lot of power. I'm really rough on my hardware and this thing is a tank. I have yet to have any issues at all. Thanks for the review! I just wanted to see what others were saying about it.
The pro 7 looked like the perfect choice for me, since I am most comfortable using Windows for productivity and flexibility, but since you mentioned that it is not that good for drawing; is there any other windows computers that work well for drawing and media consumption?
Costco sells bundles (including the pen & the type cover) at a very fair price. The Microsoft Store will also have the bundles (at a major discount too) but, only at certain sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday & 2 weeks before Xmas. Keep visiting the store. I save 300.00 off a i7 500gb HD, 16GB ram last year, that made a business 3 year warranty & tax, essentially free!
Damn... I was really hoping they would have improved the drawing side. I want it to be at the same level as the Ipad. I am NOT a apple fanboy. I just use the best tools & for drawing, well, the ipad is rocking it. Maybe the X will be different? Here's to hoping. Thanks for the heads up
Yeah, if Mac put out an actual MacOS tablet, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. And iPad just isn't functional enough for me, and no Wacom options are portable or much good at the writing side of comics-making. I've made due with the limitations to drawing on a Surface, but I'm a bit annoyed that since getting my SP3, NOTHING's really been improved (well, tilt,but yeah)
@@AmericasMorgan well since the a12z can run mac os now in the developers mac mini, the iPAd should be getting more mac features, maybe we will even see a macos tablet in a year or two
This tablet has been my main drawing device for two months now and I love it so much! I own two different wacom intuos and xp pen 15.6 (not pro) but I don't use any of them anymore. The surface pro is like a very portable drawing tablet which in my opinion is just like the wacom mobile studio pro but cheaper, has more battery life, and is way more portable. I'll admit the drawing experience does take some getting used to since it only has 4000 levels of pressure instead 8000, it's a little difficult to draw from a thick line to thin consistently but adjusting the pen pressure on drawing programs can help fix that. I love this f###ing tablet so much I don't want to go back to drawing on my previous tablets. If you're looking for a device similar to the mobile studio pro or cintiq companion please consider buying the surface pro 7 or 6, don't waste $3000 or $4000 on a piece of sh#t when there is a cheaper device out there that does the same thing but with better specs. The surface pro 7 core i7 for me cost $1400. They also have cheaper ones in core i5 models on amazon.
While I definitely notice the wobble (I have a sp6) Leonardo has great stroke straightening, and I feel like drawing in photoshop isn’t doing any favors
The surface pro is not meant to be seen as a traditional laptop computer but more as a tablet that can run windows programs with a hybrid solution of using it as a laptop. Triggered more for light work such as , offline & online media watching, writing , planing , note taking , or Concept creative work. Its a high end productivity tool.
I'm not a professional artist, just a hobbyist. I had been considering a Surface Pro 7 as a "companion device" to replace an ageing laptop (with a 1366x768 resolution that's a little frustrating to use with apps like Clip Studio). I currently do most of my drawing on a desktop using non-display tablet (current dual monitors make it easy to draw on one screen and have references on the second), I'd still expect that to be my primary device but interested in a tablet that I can use to do some sketching while relaxing on the sofa and for when away from home. The surface was appealing as a potential laptop replacement, but it sounds like I'd really struggle to use it for for drawing/sketching. Having seen your (excellent) review of the iPad Air I'm starting to think I'd be better off getting that instead. Looking at what the laptop is mainly used for: Office 365/OneDrive, web browsing, Clip Studio Paint, watching youtube, listening to music - It's all stuff that the iPad can handle or has apps for.
thank you for the review, it's coll and excellent . I'm a digital artist . I have a Surface Pro 7 and I use it for drawing in Illustrator and like it a lot! Definitely do not regret the purchase, it saves me hours in terms of workflow. but the pen experience is not as good as the professional drawing tablet . I have a XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro drawing tablet with screen 22" . The pressure on my XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro screen drawing tablet is lighter and smoother especially at the low end, giving better, more natural marks. The Surface is usable, but is a bit of a compromise compared to the Artist 22R Pro . If you are looking for the best pen experience go with the professional graphic tablet.
The i5 has 66% less performance in the graphics card than the i7s. (source video: Surface Pro 7 - i5 or i7 - Which to Buy?) Do you think that´s why you dont get the best performance while drawing?
it IS. Or is one of the main reasons. PS uses GPU for accelerating the brush strokes since CC 2018 or so. A nvidia 1050 2gb , even with much crappier and older processors works PERFECT if also the preferences in PS are properly configured ( I sincerely don't know if it is the case, in the video). But I have not checked the specs in these SF 7. Might be that even the i7 version is yet not having a powerful enough DISCRETE card (that is, a very basic one in any desktop) but an integrated one. As is not a matter of having an i5 or i7, but the GPU. In PS. In other software, it is not based, the painting, in GPU. IE: in Art Rage, it is all CPU. In Affinity Photo, is mostly CPU. Etc. But in Rebelle, Paintstorm, Expresii, etc, many of those apps are fully GPU focused for the brush system. But the lag he notices is mostly due to activating smoothing 30%, but he needed it to get rid of the n-trig based screen jitter, so is a catch-22 that only MS can solve (by talking to Wacom again ;) ).
Since he did the review over photoshop, I notice he had the same problem as I did. He didn't change how much ram photoshop can use, if you set it to the max (If you have the 8GB of RAM version the limit is 3GB) it works fine.
Edbert Khovey well to go from the 256gb surface pro to a 1tb surface pro it cost an additional $970 Compare that to even the new 16 inch MacBook Pro 16 inch is just $400 to come from the 256gb to the 1TB model So Microsoft actually charges more than double that of Apple for storage
The thing I want to see on your website is a running ranking. Like, not just per category of device, just over-all, what is the absolute best configuration for you, regardless of category. I know you're going to say something like, "well it depends per person's needs". Sure, and for that we will look at your separate reviews. But for you, what has been your greatest joy to draw on and use as a fellow consumer, as an illustrator, what have you loved using, and what do you feel is the best setup of devices. I think once you have that running list, the rest of us can just go top to bottom til we hit the price point and use case we're looking after. Alternatively, it's a really good way for me to see, if the device I'm currently stunned by is something I want to run out and get, how highly or badly is it rated against your other reviews. And it'd be easier for me to see the alternatives closest to it in terms of your personal ranking, and compare them by price and build for myself. I think that'd be great, and also really unique. I don't think anyone else has this definitive ranking for creative professionals yet.
If surface 7 had thunderbolt 3, it would literally be the best buy for a long time, allowing hooking up an external GPU for those nights, and quick grab and go for work days. I'm so so sad they didn't include this, I guess I have to wait till Surface Pro 8.
I picked up a Pro 6 on sale on the 7 release day for just over $600. At this amount, I think its a really good drawing tool. After modifying some of the activation rates, pressure curves, it is by far the best value in a windows aio tablet pc. Im really happy with mine. I got the same level as yours but from last gen. i5, 8gb, and 128gb. I added a 256gb micro sd and moved everything possible over to it.
I want a comparison between this and Tab S6. Also, what's the difference between drawing and note taking on the same device? I assumed they would be really similar
Surface Pro 5 is my daily workhorse, I love it! The Surface Pro 7 other than some hardware upgrades its basically the same thing. The Surface Pro X, on the other hand, is a different animal altogether with its hybrid ARM processor. It will not run Adobe at this time. Many 64-bit software will not work with it unless it has been emulated to the arm architecture. So, if you are an Adobe power user stay away for now.
Better check Tablet Pro's Surface Pen reviews, since they are much more thorough and better researched. He also tests with many more pens, and drawing apps.
It's also that the program recognizes the hand too. Its annoying because to eliminate it you'll have to use gloves. Also, he probably didn't configured the RAM that photoshop can use.
I am not really a creative person so the drawing pieces didn't really apply too much for me but were still helpful to know when thinking about purchasing this device. This is probably one of the best and most detailed reviews that I have watched for the Surface Pro 7. Thanks :-)
as an Engineering student ive about had it with the pen jitter on my surface pro 6. It makes taking notes and drawing diagrams clearly super difficult. Its to the point where im seriously considering buying my 1st ever apple product. Frankly i think this thing is nearly garbage considering its primary function is so flawed.
You know what, I've also had it. Not because of the pen jitter, but because of display issues. I had to upgrade to the sp7 from my sp4 because of flickering. A couple months into owning an sp7 and I get flickering. I'm feeling soo disappointed and angry. Maybe I can get my refund and buy something else with that. 🙄
Almost swore he said Surface Book and I got excited in case I missed something. That was truly what I was hoping for (though I expected it not to show) The 10 series GPU is alright, but the dual-core i5 is not. The base machine is like 1200$ and it has a dual core CPU with no dedicated VRAM and starts at 4Gb of RAM I think. 4gb of RAM is outrageous for a machine in 2019
Feels like you're not too pleased with the device, since this review doesn't feature much of your usual humorous style of presenting and the animations.😂
Really happy to have bought a SP6 this April and see that the updated version have the same pen issue. I keep using it to make art and it's really great. The only way I've found to make clean and straight line is to make a fast stroke 👎.
@@Glamrgrl104 that's perfect. I use blender and Ps constantly and sometimes Zbrush. Recently added Tablet Pro that replace many short cut and hot keys. Really recommend it.
If you want a Surface pro style device that has a good pen for drawing, buy the Samsung Surface Book 12. Particularly I recommend the 8GB RAM model. The S-Pen has Wacom EMR and it gets much better lines than any N-Trig pen. It makes an excellent digital sketchbook.
my experience is the pro 4's pen is almost jitter-free that's because it has no tilt. so if your concerned get that BUT the loss of tilt takes some features so be aware the 1st one is tilt you don't get the ability to tilt the pen and get feedback and 2nd the curser won't line up with your pen until you calibrate it and that it will stay there what that means is you should calibrate the pen in the position it will be in your hand and if you change the angle the curser will not move relative to the pen the tilt just seems to be a bit too much for the communication channels between the surface and the pen, and or the gyro in the pen isn't of high enough quality and keeps jittering its self and the surface is compensating the cursor position for these inputs that aren't happening
4:45 lol, that 1tb sandisk microsd is already down to 379$, yeah I know its way slower but man you gotta give that some thought, ms is just going nuts here
Yeah but the thing is that’s a micro SD. A 1tb NVME drive is around 100-250 dollars so while I think it’s absolutely ludicrous they charge that much for 128gb=256 but the speed difference is absolutely massive.
7th edition and they still haven't solved the wiggly lines? never regretted switching to ipad pro/ procreate :) Geat review as always, thanks for sharing!
I have the Pro X on pre-order but if it dissapoints I'll be getting the Pro 7. I hope the Pro X is better for drawing because I refuse to get an iPad and have nothing on the Apple ecosystem.
Same! Irene, can you please let us know what you think when you get the X and how it handles drawing with the pen??? I'm on hold just waiting for someone to be able to actually test it for art.
@@ToddDolce So I went to the store today and tested the X right next to the 7 and the drawing is soooo much better on the X. I ended up buying the 7 because the X's power is pretty trash and is basically a Microsoft iPad but if I cant use the X pen on the Pro 7 I'll get the X just for it's better drawing
@@darknessdecoder Thanks so much for testing it I think I may want the,X. I wonder how the pen experience could be better on the X if it uses that awful NTrig technology like the 7? I already have a great laptop convertible as well as a workhorse desktop solution so the X may be perfect.
@@ToddDolce I only have a gaming PC which is why I opted for the Pro 7 for that extra bit of portable power. The X pen works on the Pro 7 as well so that makes the pro 7 the better choice for me but if you need an iPad like device then def go for the X, however the benchmarks were pretty dissapointing but it's a gorgeous device.
why is there a lag on your pencil? there is a sensitivity setting for the pen so you don't have to press as hard. I got the pro 7 i5 with 128, pen and type cover for $800
I didn't even watch this because my Pro 7 turned out to be a bad decision. My screen started flashing like a lightening storm. It would then turn black and wouldn't respond to any commands. The information I was able to find on my phone explained it is a glitch that does not have an across the board fix. There are a couple of things you can try. They may work, they may not. My daughter-in-law is a teacher, has had hers for sometime now and loves it. I'm 62 and haven't upgraded my computer in years. I'm behind the times. One thing I remember though, it used to really mean something to Microsoft when one of their new products had a glitch. Now, they have so many different choices and upgrades, it's a smoke and mirror game that sweeps the problems under the rug. Mine got returned..Sadley, I didn't have access to the great folks at the Portland, Oregon Microsoft store who helped me with a problem years ago with my current laptop. And the assistance from the Call Centers hasn't changed in all of these years. I'm usually a patient person, but I don't have any use for someone who has a preconceived idea of what the solution should be. Obviously my statement about the screen suddenly coming back for less than 5 seconds, didn't register. "No I can't attempt that because my - device - won't - stay - on. A number of the schools use Chromebooks. My daughter is a teacher at the same Highschool as my daughter-in-law. Her Chromebook and the ones the students use, get the job done. I'm not going to bother with "bells and whistles" again. Give me a workhorse that gets the freaking job done. And this old fogey wants it to work right out of the box. Then I want it to keep working past a month and then some. Thanks for letting me rant. Just send up some good thoughts for me. Carry on.
Great review! I'm thinking of still getting this device but with the i7, so hopefully that can take care of any lag that might occur. I also use Clip Studio as my main art program, so hopefully I won't have to worry about line jitter. Does that seem like some fair assumptions? Also, this will be the first tablet computer that I've ever saved up for, and while I would love to get the Wacom Mobile Studio, it's way outside my price range right now. I love your videos!
Clip Studio Paint is great even on my really old Surface 3. You'll almost surely have no jitter problems, I barely have any if I go extremely slow and with the improved tech in anything that's newer than mine, the jitter will basically disappear. Also, the Mobile Studio is a different category altogether, it's designed to literally be a portable big canvas, while the Surface Pro is designed to be a portable 2 in 1 lap-blet that is lightweight and flexible.
I have the i5 and Photoshop is running perfectly fine (I had to adjust the ram of photoshop to use it all. Take in mind that for the 8GB device the ram for photoshop is limited to 2.8 GB. Plus, the default was only using like 50% of the 2.8GB)
Have you tried adding a virtual keyboard like Tablet Pro to Surface machines? I started using so I don't have to use a physical keyboard. It docks on the right side and you can customize all the keyboard shortcuts you want/use. I would be interested to see a review of a windows tablet using tablet pro or something similar that gets rid of the physical keyboard
This video is 3 years old and ouch... I felt called out. Can you please step outside my office? My Intuos 3 will be 19 on September and doing just fine, thanks for asking... XD
Somehow his reviews seem biased lately, and he doesnt test with clip studio paint that gets rid of jitter and lag and improves workflow with touch gestures.
What's keeping me from jumping on the Pro X band wagon is the inter-compatibility between ARM and x86 architecture for using a wide array of applications. That's pretty much it. The price point is so close to the Pro 7 16 GB variant, that price is not a deciding factor when cussing between the 7 and the X
Thanks for the review. Thanks for pointing out drawing straight lines with a stylus are not straight lines on the Surface Pro 7. Is this a typical problem with other tablet PC's? I'm thinking about buying a tablet PC and drawing a straight line is important to me.
I dunno if you've tried it but Lazy Nezumi Pro seems to fix the line wave. it's a general stabilizer that works very well on a Surface Pro, and sorta makes it a good "budget mobilestudio" option.
he actually "fixes" it with the stabilizer ("smoothing") included in PS since CC 2018, but needs to set a 30%, which adds lag. My tests with Nezumi always gave poorer results than with Krita's standard stabilizer, or PS's one, or of course, worse than the best one in that, Clip Studio Paint's stabilizer.
please review the lenovo x1 tablet gen 3, it's like a surface pro but with wacom drivers and dual thunderbolt 3 ports. the thing is so thinkpad it's deadass got a military durability rating.
Okay yeah the pen as problems but no one said how fragile the pen nib is. If you’re a new time buyer,i would recommend buying extra set of nibs for the surface pen if you’re willing to spend a lil bit more
Hey mate, thanks for the review. I purchased the SP6 a couple of months ago and was sweating it that I should have waited for the SP7. After your review I’m cool with the 6 for now. How does the brush lag on the 7 compared to the 6 in PS? Cheers
While i did notice the pen wobble on my surface pro 7, it is entirely in my opinion dependent on what programs you use. I tried auto-desk and my usual programs on my creative cloud and i did notice the wobble. i also use clip studio pro EX, it is the one program that has no line wobble what so ever.
ipados would be optimised to utilise the 4gb of ram on the ipad, additionally most if not all tasks on the ipad would not be that taxing on system ram. this is bad on the surface because it runs windows, which can be very punishing on ram. when you have windows running on idle with nothing going on that could use around 2gb, which is already half of available ram. also considering chrome tabs or other intensive tasks and that the Intel integrated graphics will share system ram for vram, there is not a whole lot of breathing room to work with. this is the reason why most people are seeking 8gb ram minimum on laptops nowadays.
Doing a high resolution ILLUSTRATION work for print, like a bigger than A3 canvas at 300 dpi for print, with 4gb RAM, is a no-way. Even 8gb falls short, though, it does in the iPad, but not in a desktop PC, where 8GB RAM are enough for quite big project. But life is so much easier with 16GB.
@@3polygons Here is my issue with Apple products in general. (please don't get defensive because I'm NOT trying to start a PC vs. APPLE thing here as I HATE that nonsense) Unless someone here will kindly correct me (which I'm open to) Apple has it where trying to do anything "under the hood" is nearly impossible and outrageously cost prohibitive. What would be the cost for upgrading the RAM in a 3rd Gen. iPad Pro 12.9? (is it even possible) What would be the cost of upgrading the hard drive on the same device? (is it even possible?).... See where I'm going with this? Again,...I'm NOT saying the iPad is not a good device. My goodness I have seen some AMAZING work on it as it is a quality tool. Same goes for PC devices as well. It's the artist as much as it is the device. That being said, it is soooooo much easier to tinker with "most" PC type of devices. And to be fair, the biggest turn off for me with the PC devices is....well,....WINDOWS. If I was assured that there are options to upgrade the iPad Pro 12.9 3rd gen. I would feel more comfortable about trying one out but I'm not about to drop over 800 bucks for a used one knowing it can never be upgraded unless you just buy a another one in a newer generation release. That's insane to me.
@@ToddDolce One of the main debates leads to no end (not in this case) in those ipad vs desktop fans because often the crowds are of verry different nature. A majority of the iPad users I stumble upon are at most advanced hobbyists. Some very few are pros (a small portion of those that say they are ;) ). And BTW, with pro, I mean people who earn decent money with their painting/drawing production. So... You wont convince an iPad pro advanced hobbyst. EVER. Because what you need is not what they need. You tell them that you need to paint on canvases of 1.5 or 2 meters wide, 1 meter or less tall, or whatever, and the file be at 300 dpi (so a loooooot of pixels there, quite some memory and CPU to process that) , and they'll just tell you to 'paint smaller', and at 150 dpi, and "convince" (to avoid a more "specific" word) the clients that this is enough. Which is... never, for them. Or, if are simply enhancing-painting images of 20.000 x 20.000 pixels (a not uncommon size in pro photography). Simply, iPad Pro can't handle that. Affinity Photo's iOS version can (surely through an internal software trick), but is a limit in RAM (8 GB max) and the Metal library in the iPad Pro. Full stop... So, if one is a pro, or even "semi-pro" one can't simply trust that no project of 20k wide pixels will pop-up..'cause it will... And sadly, not only in print projects. And once it does, you can't afford to go loosing clients for a brand obsession, or having a cool toy. One must always provide. That's being pro, imo... and all the gigs u loose, is money lost, and QUITE worse, lost opportunity. If one was to spend more money and save bucks with the ipad pro... but is not the case. Look at the price of current ipad pros (and getting old Apple products with their fast obsolescence "style"... er.. no thanks) + pencil + keyboard compared to going to newegg (or just wallmart if one is not tech savvy) choose your components, custom build your pc, get a wacom-alternative classic tablet of medium (M) size. Is outrageously cheaper and yet more flexible and powerful... for work. Is just not as nice and portable. But huh, it's work what I do... I paint for the bucks (and the joy).
@@3polygons That's kind of what I thought too. You summed it up very well here. It's the planned obsolescence that Apple has built in that has always irked me! Its the one BIG advantage that having an external graphics tablet has that nobody seems to mention. They are NOT contingent on being a slave to the device they are connected to. (Both MAC and PC) If your system is tired and beyond upgrades,..you get another and the Graphics Tablet will still be there for you. As you said, is it as portable of a solution as say an iPad? Maybe not, but unless you plan on doing your finished work on a park bench or a local Scam-bucks coffee shop, then that shouldn't be a major issue. My recent interest in the iPad honestly stems from my recent interest in the Procreate app. So after doing some simple math, a basically $10.00 app would cost me...close to $1300 when factoring in a good used iPad 3rd gen 12.9", Apple Pencil, Paperlike screen cover, appropriate heavy duty stand, and usbc storage stick. IS Procreate worth $1300 for me to just try out? That is what I'm faced with.
Would love to know how well video editing apps like Premiere Pro or Filmora can run and render videos on this device. Do you notice any big lags and troubles using it? How far can you push them?
Brad! Thanks again for an amazing video. I definitely look forward to these each week. I have to admit I'm a little sad due to the review. I have been in the market for a portable drawing tablet for a while and was crossing my finger that the surface would be that tablet. With that being said, if you don't mind me asking. What device would recommend for an artist on the go? I personally use everything from clip studio paint to belnder. So I'm looking for a reliable drawing tablet with the processing power to run light 3-d modeling software. Thank you in advance for your help.
I use the Hp Zbook X2 G4. It's Wacom EMR tech. Shortcut keys on the side. Dedicated GPU is a NVIDIA Quadro M620 2GB GDRR5. 14 inch 4k screen. Mine got 16gb of RAM, 512 gb of storage, dual core double threaded GPU (there is a quad core version) and I also got the DreamColor display. The battery life is meh (4 to 5h), but at least there's fast charging. Palm rejection sucks, but I have a shortcut key to toggle it on/off and with a drawing glove it's fine and I leave it on all the time. Pen and keyboard in the box and the integrated stand is sturdy. Found mine on ebay new for 2k CAD. My primary drawing stuff is a Cintiq 22HD that I got since it was released. I love drawing on my Zbook more. The glass is chemically treated so the pen feel is really nice. It's not as nice as etched glass apparently, but I never tried it. My style is very lineart heavy so I really need an accurate pen. I considered the Mobile Studio Pro, but the 13 inch was too small for me and had no dGPU. The 16 inch is too big and heavy and I found the price point ridiculous for the performance. I also considered the Surface Book 2, but it was just too pricy for me. And I wasn't sure about NTRIG, apparently the pen works better on the books. It is a power house though. You could also check some Samsung 360 laptops, I think it's the Notebook 9 Pro They use Wacom Emr. It's what I was planning to buy before I found the Zbook. I suggest you check Mobile Tech Reviews on UA-cam (she has a tech for artists playlist) or SurfaceProartist.com
If you absolutely need Windows I think Samsung make the most portable decent ones. They aren’t power houses, but you get a Wacom EMR pen and other goodies. Or if you just want to sketch and use blender... you can try to Samsung Tab S6. Apparantly there are Android ports of blender available, but they are older versions, I would look more into it. Artflow, Infinite painter, and sketchbook Pro are OK enough to make up for lack of Procreate of you want to avoid Apple. My set up is a Mac and a Cintiq at home, and an iPad Pro on the go. I’m surprised how much work I can get done on my iPad Pro. I’m not a 3D guy but I heard forger is surprisingly good.
I have this and the pen, the nib on the pen breaks SO EASILY for me, I use it everyday. The sensitivity can be a bit off. I ended up going back to my £60 wacom for drawing, cheaper and sturdier.
@@thebradcolbow it's not Microsoft's fault you're such an incompetent buffoon and can't figure how to use one of the simplest tools created in mankind. You're a nimrod.
I'm being totally serious when I say this Elliot. I will pay you $1000. CASH MONEY. Totally serious if you can help me solve the pen wobble on Surface devices. Take out your phone, hit record show the settings or trick to this. Then record yourself drawing slow angled lines without a stroke straighter on. Can't be fast ass lines, NO, Sloooow angled lines. Also make sure you snag some before and after footage. I will give you full credit send you the cash and the video and you will be a hero to the art community.
I'm looking at either getting a pro 7 or a Lenovo Yoga C740. I love how thin and light the pro 7 is but the yoga has similar specs, a 2" larger screen, can flip to be used as a tablet as well and cost $300 cheaper. Any thoughts comparing the yoga to the pro 7?
I actually have to say I don't see this problem with the slim pen on the Pro X. Not sure if this is common, or just me? But I can pull it slowly across the screen, and the jitter is almost non-existent..
soldered SSDs are designed differently. A 2.5 inch SSD has enough surface on the PCB to fit flash memory modules. Surface Pro solders the flash modules into the motherboard that is very tiny by itself. more memory modules means more surface area used on the motherboard, so that is not an option. Therefore they use denser modules that are harder to manufacture.
@@Aaku-AudioBook comparing soldered SSD to M2 style one is indeed wrong, but that SKU makes little sense in terms of value for money, the 1399 (which is new, we didn’t have it in the past) is so much more value for just 200 more, that the 1199 should just be skipped
Looks ok. But for me, i prefer apple ipad mini 5 or ipad air 2019. The surface 7's specs is not that good considering the price. No high-end graphics tho. You can get better specs laptop with that price.
Full size laptops are an entirely different category though. You either pay for pure performance with more weight and less portability and flexibility, or you pay for a lightweight portable devices with pen features and all the stuff that makes it a really nice pick for who uses it for school/studying/writing/drawing etc.
Yes, the Apple pencil is better than the Surface Pen & less than the Wacom Pro Pen 2. However, if you cannot draw & make amazing art with the Surface Pen, you need to improve your own drawing skills. Btw... Most art software has a little slider (generally referred to line smoothing). Increase it a hair (.01 to 2 - app pending) & "NO" jiggling lines on a drawn freehand "slant stroke." Because the Surface can run full blown Photoshop (not this stripped down version for the iPad) & tons of other great art design software that the iPad can't... the edge still goes to the Surface. The only worth while app you cannot use is Procreate. However, with all the other things you need a computer to do... emails, notes, games, entertainment, "artwork," work-work, ect., the Surface wins hands down. There's a reason why the Apple "i" in iPad no longer stands for innovation for Apple. The iPad is literally copying everything from the Surface. Attached keyboard now? For a computer that's not a computer, Apple sure loves copying Microsoft's computers these days. Then again, Apple has never made something of their own. They have taken existing tech & made it better. That cannot be disputed. However, that isn't the case anymore. Edit: seriously... fixing that "jiggle" from a slanted freehand stroke, with the Surface Pen, is do easily resolved. And again... compare apples to apples (no pun intended). That jiggle doesn't happen in regular "Photoshop." Oh wait, the iPad can't run Photoshop. And no, the wanna be PS for iPad isn't a real version of Photoshop. That jiggle only happens in a few programs too. Thus, software developers can fix it on "their end" & thus they're to blame, not the Microsoft Pen. Microsoft can certainly do some things better & makes mistakes too but, don't blame them because a software developer is lazy & didn't code their software/app correctly! Edit 2: btw... yes you can get a virus on a Windows PC. But those of you who think Apple doesn't get viruses... you are madly mistaken. Apple products are now targeted "far more" than Microsoft. Apple also has some shady repair policies. Look it up in any credible news outlet. Again, the Apple pencil is awesome, but if you get a virus or a part breaks... you are paying a crazy amount of money to fix it. There's a reason why unlike a MS store where you can make an appointment or walk in, "you can only make appointments at an Apple store if there's an issue," because they are swamped fixing or rather charging you to replace your device with a refurbished device. This is all after you paid TOP DOLLAR for a iPad that comes equipped with hardware that's 2 years old minimum. Personally, if I buy anything new, I expect it to be "new," especially when I'm paying top dollar.
@@fwlo4409 ... true, especially since Foxconn put nets around their buildings, to stop people from committing suicide. I'm not sure what's worse (honestly): a entry level job at Foxconn or slavery
I want to buy a surface pro but I don't know which generation to buy cause my budget is limited and at the same time I need a powerful device for video editing and illustrations
These reviews that suggest artists shouldn't get it because the waviness bother me. Its really only noticeable in photoshop with smoothing low and going extremely slow. Photoshop is great for painting but not the best inking software, making this complaint fairly trivial...but of course its a line reverberated by reviewers constantly.
Brad Colbow haha, the first emoji didn’t make it thru 😆. Nice review, its a letdown all surfaces have had and continue to have a pen line wobble. Definitely for notes, not for drawing primarily. Too bad.
I personally draw on a Surface pro 6 with the surface pen and I love it. The pressure curve can be adjusted in surface app or most decent drawing apps. The wiggle in the pen can be an issue but only in certain programs (I personally use clip studio and I have 0 wiggle). The tips can be swapped out with different styles as well if you want more of an apple pencil feel.
The fact that you don't have the wiggle issue with Clip Studio relieved all of my worries lmao, thanks
Was worried the one drawing program I use would be difficult to draw with 😂
@@izzy1356 Glad I could help! honestly just tinker with the stabilization for any drawing program on the surface and your golden. Clip studio is awesome because you can turn on the speed stabilizer which only turns on when your drawing really slow.
I cant believe they still use pen jitter as the main reason to ditch a surface pro when that is easily overcome using a program like clip studio, it also improves workflow and allows to illustrate with gestures and no keyboard...
@@asdjesdsd Expecting line stabilization to solve all your problems is like trying to use a screwdriver as a wood chisel. Line stabilization introduces too many new issues with stroke behavior to just set the slider to 100 on everything and call the problem solved.
@JustZer0 When you say you get zero jitter, is that with stabilization completely off?
If so, that's a relief! I've been holding off due to that. If not, then around what point does it tend to vanish? (ex: stabilization set to 25, 45, etc.)
Having tested this in shop today I can thankfully say the pen did not behave like this at all, this review had put me off the Surface Pro 7 but I realise it’s not representative of how the pen reacts in other programmes such as OneNote. I understand and appreciate that you are calling out Microsoft on their lack of innovation on this product especially compared to the rest of the surface line however it’s still a great product albeit too expensive, despite this, it or the Surface Pro 6 will be my next main device.
I have had the surface pro 5 for over a year now, and i can confirm this pen behavior. It truly is a pain to draw with, and i mostly use one not (i'm using it absolutely every day from 8 to 21-22 with onenote)
@@Sttreg the 7 is improved from 5 and the pen depends on what app you used. 64bit desktop apps arent optimize well for touch screen drawing
I’ve also had my surface pro 5 for over a year now and while I can confirm this jitter, I don’t see it as anything more than a minor nuisance. If your using photoshop, a light use of smoothing completely eliminates the jitter with no noticeable lag. As an illustrator/animator, I couldn’t be happier with my now dated surface pro and while it might seem on the expensive side, getting a similar experience with a drawing monitor and MacBook gets pricey *real* quick.
I’ve seen a lot of reviewers demonstrate the pen and I’ve never seen it as laggy or wobbly as this, and my brief experience in store was quite impressive. So maybe it’s worth another look?
Daniel Winter definitely, I ordered the 7 last night I was impressed after testing it in real life
I don't feel photoshop is the best app to to demonstrate drawing latency.
Photoshop is overly bloated and always lags for me anyways, so i never expect the surface pen to keep up with me with larger paintstrokes.
Might get better performance with a higher end model but the drawing jitters will likely still be there.
I was hoping he'd use Sketchable or Leonardo. He says those are the only apps he says he really likes to use to draw on the Surface. Mainly because since they were built for Windows tablets, they run better and are faster.
True Photoshop may be bloated for a lot of illustration but it is still a staple for a lot of creatives and there are other devices that don't lag as much in PS. I think PS is good to set a baseline and keeps consistent across Brad's reviews. Mileage may vary in other apps of course and keeping additional stroke smoothing to a minimum in any app is always a plus.
Photoshop DOES work greatly even in an old 1st gen i7 with a basic gaming card (around 130-150$), provided one configures PS to use the GPU, as since maybe CC 2018, is not using anymore CPU to get the best brush performance. Even a nvidia GTX 1050 2GB is way enough to get very smooth, lag-free paint strokes. But the full performance settings in PS must be configured carefully (there are many settings in the performance tab). PS is the tool used in many studios for illustration and concept art, and many full time freelancers. The problem could be that even if a tablet or laptop is using a "discrete card", in mobile the performance is *_not_* the same, even with the same "specs" on paper, compared to what happens in a desktop. The lack of cooling is one of the reasons, besides the space restriction for other matters, among other reasons.
So.. if you get a surface 7 (I have not yet seen the hardware specs) with an enough powerful GPU,, as an option, you should be able to get smooth performance with the brush (and in a lot other modern software being more GPU based). But please, notice in the video how the lag he's having is as he has needed to set a 30% of smoothing (line stabilizer) in order to get ride of the line wobble/jitter, which is a fact known to be produced by n-trig in the surface solutions, INCLUDING the huge Surface studio. Any software with a high stabilizer setting (and 30% in one is not the same than 30% in another) WILL produce lag, and so, low performance. This is sth MS needs to solve ASAP (in SF 1 with Wacom tech, and I believe also 2, it all was fine) if wanna do some real damage on the iPad line. Till then, nothing to see here for a very large chunk of the illustration community. Said by an MS fan (not fanboy.. fan middle age grunt, in any case :D ) , btw.
I've put to work 100% efficient machines to other people, really, really old hardware, just adding a cheapo stick of RAM (8gb alone, or 16gb is fine for even large print projects) and a very cheap GPU, plus configuring really well the preferences. The capabilities gained by using that app, really worth the effort. And again, said by an Affinity, not PS fan (but PS expert over decades).
@@3polygons agreed, I us ps daily for work too (with a non display tablet) and since getting my top spec iMac (in the grand scheme of things by no means an insane machine compared to some PC custom builds) I've been spoilt with the option of keeping all my smart objects, layer styles, textures etc without lag even on PSB files up to 10gb. RAM and graphics are key and getting the settings right but also to add to that a large fast scratch disk is massively helpful to getting the most out of Photoshop. PS will use everything available and more given half a chance but I guess that's the trade off for such a powerful piece of software.
Anthony!!!! FINALLY!!! Thank you for that comment! I have been preaching that for years!!! Photoshop is AWFUL for testing any pen period! Its very laggy and always late to the party when it comes to working well with most drawing devices in general. I always fast forward through any reviews of pens when I see them being tested with Photoshop. It means nothing and is not a realistic test (at least not in my world).
0:53 It's Surface Laptop 3, not 2.
The lag is more of a Photoshop issue. It still exists with my Wacom device (in Photoshop on Win10).
Yeah the response is a lot better on CSP
RAM issue actually, for some reason the default is to use like 1 GB of RAM (even though I have 8GB) and they limit the maximum ram you can use to 2.8GB (I think there's a way to change this but I don't remember) Anyway, you just solve this by setting the ram up to 2.8GB (if you can change it, I would recommend going up to 6GB)
@@LeonsGyatt this! Photoshop uses ram like crazy, so using the bare minimum will result in crazy lag
@@fwng69420 CSP?
Wobbly lines are a problem of PS and also occurs with the latest Wacom devices. Since Adobe seems not to care, the only solution is to install lazy nezumi which has a Bugfix. No jittery lines since then. It did drive me crazy for years. It has to do with photoshop interpreting the pen as mouse and some weird sapping. Ages I had searched the Web to fix it, but the only real solution was lazy nezumi. Also Ps got a lot slower and clunker over the years. I use since version Cs4, and with each new release new annoyances are put into it. It's a great programm, I really like it to do digital art, but it'd also quite slow in comparison to other programs, and your experience will be terrible with an i5 and without enough ram, if working on more than a few layers.
Clip studio works way better for lineart. Its as if csp renders the stroke in 60fps, and ps only in 30 or so. But it has also its problems. Mostly in colour management, but that's a topic for another day.
My main concern for using a surface device for digital art would be Windows ink and its weird functions, swipes circles and other nonsr
nonsense that screws with ky wacom on a daily basis. Fortunately one can deactivate win ink in te wacom settings, but what if there is no such thing as wacom settings. Don't know. If anyone got experience with the surface tablets for painting in ps, let me know if it's worth it.
Photoshop was weird until I set up to use the 100% of ram (for some reason the ram usage is capped to 2.8 GB, yet there's a way to change the limit, I would recommend to set it to 6GB) because the default was to slow for me. Now, its working perfectly fine.
I have the Surface Pro 7 i5 with 8GB of RAM
Hey so I'm thinking of buying surface pro 7....is the i5 one good or would it be smarter to go for i7... The price difference is large but I am just starting college for design and would like to use the laptop for the next 4 years atleast.... Do u recommend?
Vedangi More if Ima being honest with you, i5 is where you should start with this computer and I’ve drew for years on an i5 surface pro 4, but if ur doing this for school and you will be doing a lot of editing, I’d suggest i7 with 16 gn for the most capable laptop to match your needs. I suggest using eBay or buying refurbished from Best Buy. But I upgraded to i7 and 16 gb and the smoothness is SOOOO satisfying
Thankyou!!
Thanks Veronica, but how do we set the ram to be of a higher %? Thanks!
@@SpookyxSausage in photoshop its under the preferences option at the bottom of the edit dropdown ( Edit > Preferences > Memory Usage ) I would also suggest adjusting your scratch disks if you have multiple drives.
"charging hole" Brad knows computers lol. waiting for your surface x review.
Oh, I missed a chance to use the "Brad Knows computers" jingle
@@thebradcolbow lol yeah.
same, but bigger, longer lasting, perhaps quicker, but somewhat glitchy when dealing with old apps; review done
Black glory hole
Citizen Trini lmao
I wasn't ready to make the jump to the Surface Pro line until they went USB-C. I held onto a Macbook Pro until then. I almost purchased the Pro X, but after digging a little, I found that the lack of full software support was something I wasn't ready for.
The Surface Pro 7 has so far been a great way to study and the i7 processor is no slouch when it comes to 3D gaming at moderate graphics.
And this charging hole is so nice... I don't think anybody will ever understand why Apple discontinued magsafe for USB C... Now I get both and love it.
I am still using Surface Pro 2013. Clip studio paint and Sketchbook Pro works like a charm. No lag whatsoever. I also have iPad mini5. I like both of the devices.
Nikhil Kumar how long battery life on using those drawing apps?
Now that it's near the end of the year, maybe you can do a top 10 or top 5 stylus pens. For windows and mac's, iPads, even surface pros.
I very much appreciate the synopsis given at the beginning of the video that doesn't leave behind any questions yet to be answered or anything like that.
I would recommend testing out the Surface Pro in stores because when I did I didn't experience any of the pen wobble issues Brad experienced. I got the i5 version with 8GB RAM, with the Renaisser Raphael 520 pen instead of the Surface Pen because that got better reviews and i use it regularly with Clip Studio and Affinity Designer. Absolutely no line wobble issues and pressure sensitivity is perfect and adjustable. It's an awesome product, if a bit expensive but I'm really happy with my purchase! It makes drawing on the go so much easier and I love the kickstand.
The i5 does get quite hot especially if you're using it while charging since it has no fan, but the i7 has a fan and can get noisy apparently. If you're working with massive files I would recommend the i7 instead.
Would highly recommend Clip Studio Paint with it, CSP even has the "double tap to undo" feature that Procreate has on the iPad.
Holy crap, he just uploaded it and already people have started commenting...... they love you Brad!
I watch these reviews just for the drawing, it’s so smooth and nice
Brad, I actually bought the surface 4 because of you, years ago! I still use it daily :)
Ash Ketchub how much battery life now on your device? Mine is SP2017.
The Apple Pencil 2 with an iPad Pro has literally no lag it is so incredible!!!
Still rocking Intuos 3, I feel called out!
intuos 4 XL here :D
I thought “that’s not me but I know I would be delighted if it was”
Still use my Intuos 3 large, paired with a Dell U2410: same 16:10 ratio and same tablet area to screen size.
Over 1 billion colours, though it's old, many of those colours are probably dearly departed by now, or fading away..........
I'm just glad he didn't call me out for still using the first-gen Bamboo :p
@@HipposHateWater (!+
I bought this about a year ago so I could do digital art on the go and I personally love it. The pen does take some getting used to. That being said, I love it. I use it pretty much exclusively to run Adobe Illustrator and Sketchbook Pro so I don't need a whole lot of power. I'm really rough on my hardware and this thing is a tank. I have yet to have any issues at all. Thanks for the review! I just wanted to see what others were saying about it.
The pro 7 looked like the perfect choice for me, since I am most comfortable using Windows for productivity and flexibility, but since you mentioned that it is not that good for drawing; is there any other windows computers that work well for drawing and media consumption?
0:12 alright folks that's the end of the video.
so the conclusion it's bad for illustrator? :(
@@termoscoffee251 Sadddd
Costco sells bundles (including the pen & the type cover) at a very fair price. The Microsoft Store will also have the bundles (at a major discount too) but, only at certain sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday & 2 weeks before Xmas. Keep visiting the store. I save 300.00 off a i7 500gb HD, 16GB ram last year, that made a business 3 year warranty & tax, essentially free!
Damn... I was really hoping they would have improved the drawing side. I want it to be at the same level as the Ipad. I am NOT a apple fanboy. I just use the best tools & for drawing, well, the ipad is rocking it. Maybe the X will be different? Here's to hoping. Thanks for the heads up
@Jeron Tan Count me in. Same here!
Yeah, if Mac put out an actual MacOS tablet, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. And iPad just isn't functional enough for me, and no Wacom options are portable or much good at the writing side of comics-making. I've made due with the limitations to drawing on a Surface, but I'm a bit annoyed that since getting my SP3, NOTHING's really been improved (well, tilt,but yeah)
X kind of sucks since it can't run many programs
@@AmericasMorgan well since the a12z can run mac os now in the developers mac mini, the iPAd should be getting more mac features, maybe we will even see a macos tablet in a year or two
@@timdawg6413 I think apple has said they don't want a touch screen computer computer though
This tablet has been my main drawing device for two months now and I love it so much! I own two different wacom intuos and xp pen 15.6 (not pro) but I don't use any of them anymore. The surface pro is like a very portable drawing tablet which in my opinion is just like the wacom mobile studio pro but cheaper, has more battery life, and is way more portable. I'll admit the drawing experience does take some getting used to since it only has 4000 levels of pressure instead 8000, it's a little difficult to draw from a thick line to thin consistently but adjusting the pen pressure on drawing programs can help fix that. I love this f###ing tablet so much I don't want to go back to drawing on my previous tablets.
If you're looking for a device similar to the mobile studio pro or cintiq companion please consider buying the surface pro 7 or 6, don't waste $3000 or $4000 on a piece of sh#t when there is a cheaper device out there that does the same thing but with better specs. The surface pro 7 core i7 for me cost $1400. They also have cheaper ones in core i5 models on amazon.
also get a Renaisser Rafael pen, it's cheaper than the MS pen and has better line quality which greatly reduces the pen jitter.
What about heating issue? Been trying to get used to it but it gets very hot it's hard to continue.
While I definitely notice the wobble (I have a sp6) Leonardo has great stroke straightening, and I feel like drawing in photoshop isn’t doing any favors
totaly agree !, the leonardo app is the key
Or Sketchable, or Concepts.
@@JohnSmith-gb8hd BINGO!!! Totally agree!
The surface pro is not meant to be seen as a traditional laptop computer but more as a tablet that can run windows programs with a hybrid solution of using it as a laptop. Triggered more for light work such as , offline & online media watching, writing , planing , note taking , or Concept creative work.
Its a high end productivity tool.
I'm not a professional artist, just a hobbyist. I had been considering a Surface Pro 7 as a "companion device" to replace an ageing laptop (with a 1366x768 resolution that's a little frustrating to use with apps like Clip Studio). I currently do most of my drawing on a desktop using non-display tablet (current dual monitors make it easy to draw on one screen and have references on the second), I'd still expect that to be my primary device but interested in a tablet that I can use to do some sketching while relaxing on the sofa and for when away from home.
The surface was appealing as a potential laptop replacement, but it sounds like I'd really struggle to use it for for drawing/sketching. Having seen your (excellent) review of the iPad Air I'm starting to think I'd be better off getting that instead. Looking at what the laptop is mainly used for: Office 365/OneDrive, web browsing, Clip Studio Paint, watching youtube, listening to music - It's all stuff that the iPad can handle or has apps for.
thank you for the review, it's coll and excellent . I'm a digital artist . I have a Surface Pro 7 and I use it for drawing in Illustrator and like it a lot! Definitely do not regret the purchase, it saves me hours in terms of workflow. but the pen experience is not as good as the professional drawing tablet . I have a XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro drawing tablet with screen 22" . The pressure on my XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro screen drawing tablet is lighter and smoother especially at the low end, giving better, more natural marks. The Surface is usable, but is a bit of a compromise compared to the Artist 22R Pro . If you are looking for the best pen experience go with the professional graphic tablet.
The i5 has 66% less performance in the graphics card than the i7s. (source video: Surface Pro 7 - i5 or i7 - Which to Buy?)
Do you think that´s why you dont get the best performance while drawing?
it IS.
Or is one of the main reasons. PS uses GPU for accelerating the brush strokes since CC 2018 or so. A nvidia 1050 2gb , even with much crappier and older processors works PERFECT if also the preferences in PS are properly configured ( I sincerely don't know if it is the case, in the video). But I have not checked the specs in these SF 7. Might be that even the i7 version is yet not having a powerful enough DISCRETE card (that is, a very basic one in any desktop) but an integrated one. As is not a matter of having an i5 or i7, but the GPU. In PS. In other software, it is not based, the painting, in GPU. IE: in Art Rage, it is all CPU. In Affinity Photo, is mostly CPU. Etc. But in Rebelle, Paintstorm, Expresii, etc, many of those apps are fully GPU focused for the brush system.
But the lag he notices is mostly due to activating smoothing 30%, but he needed it to get rid of the n-trig based screen jitter, so is a catch-22 that only MS can solve (by talking to Wacom again ;) ).
Since he did the review over photoshop, I notice he had the same problem as I did. He didn't change how much ram photoshop can use, if you set it to the max (If you have the 8GB of RAM version the limit is 3GB) it works fine.
4:41 it cost more because the 256 is a SSD not HDD, SSD is much faster in read and write than a HDD, I think the price bump is quite right
Edbert Khovey well to go from the 256gb surface pro to a 1tb surface pro it cost an additional $970
Compare that to even the new 16 inch MacBook Pro 16 inch is just $400 to come from the 256gb to the 1TB model
So Microsoft actually charges more than double that of Apple for storage
The thing I want to see on your website is a running ranking. Like, not just per category of device, just over-all, what is the absolute best configuration for you, regardless of category. I know you're going to say something like, "well it depends per person's needs". Sure, and for that we will look at your separate reviews. But for you, what has been your greatest joy to draw on and use as a fellow consumer, as an illustrator, what have you loved using, and what do you feel is the best setup of devices. I think once you have that running list, the rest of us can just go top to bottom til we hit the price point and use case we're looking after. Alternatively, it's a really good way for me to see, if the device I'm currently stunned by is something I want to run out and get, how highly or badly is it rated against your other reviews. And it'd be easier for me to see the alternatives closest to it in terms of your personal ranking, and compare them by price and build for myself. I think that'd be great, and also really unique. I don't think anyone else has this definitive ranking for creative professionals yet.
If surface 7 had thunderbolt 3, it would literally be the best buy for a long time, allowing hooking up an external GPU for those nights, and quick grab and go for work days. I'm so so sad they didn't include this, I guess I have to wait till Surface Pro 8.
I picked up a Pro 6 on sale on the 7 release day for just over $600. At this amount, I think its a really good drawing tool. After modifying some of the activation rates, pressure curves, it is by far the best value in a windows aio tablet pc. Im really happy with mine. I got the same level as yours but from last gen. i5, 8gb, and 128gb. I added a 256gb micro sd and moved everything possible over to it.
I want a comparison between this and Tab S6.
Also, what's the difference between drawing and note taking on the same device? I assumed they would be really similar
Theres another 3rd party pen, the raphael or something like that that's supposed to be pretty good.
Yes,..I keep hoping Brad will test it out! Hint Hint wink wink. It is supposedly a great pen and behaves more like the Apple Pencil.
Your reviews are really nice I fell like you are always honest about what you feel
Surface Pro 5 is my daily workhorse, I love it! The Surface Pro 7 other than some hardware upgrades its basically the same thing. The Surface Pro X, on the other hand, is a different animal altogether with its hybrid ARM processor. It will not run Adobe at this time. Many 64-bit software will not work with it unless it has been emulated to the arm architecture. So, if you are an Adobe power user stay away for now.
Better check Tablet Pro's Surface Pen reviews, since they are much more thorough and better researched. He also tests with many more pens, and drawing apps.
I think your issue with the wavy lines is program dependent, it's not really an issue with other drawing programs from my observation.
It's also that the program recognizes the hand too. Its annoying because to eliminate it you'll have to use gloves. Also, he probably didn't configured the RAM that photoshop can use.
I am not really a creative person so the drawing pieces didn't really apply too much for me but were still helpful to know when thinking about purchasing this device. This is probably one of the best and most detailed reviews that I have watched for the Surface Pro 7. Thanks :-)
as an Engineering student ive about had it with the pen jitter on my surface pro 6. It makes taking notes and drawing diagrams clearly super difficult. Its to the point where im seriously considering buying my 1st ever apple product. Frankly i think this thing is nearly garbage considering its primary function is so flawed.
You know what, I've also had it. Not because of the pen jitter, but because of display issues. I had to upgrade to the sp7 from my sp4 because of flickering. A couple months into owning an sp7 and I get flickering. I'm feeling soo disappointed and angry. Maybe I can get my refund and buy something else with that. 🙄
It's Surface Laptop 3, not Surface Laptop 2 that was announced this year.
Almost swore he said Surface Book and I got excited in case I missed something. That was truly what I was hoping for (though I expected it not to show)
The 10 series GPU is alright, but the dual-core i5 is not. The base machine is like 1200$ and it has a dual core CPU with no dedicated VRAM and starts at 4Gb of RAM I think. 4gb of RAM is outrageous for a machine in 2019
Feels like you're not too pleased with the device, since this review doesn't feature much of your usual humorous style of presenting and the animations.😂
Nah, the Surface was good. Sometimes the jokes fall flat and border on cringy, that's what happened here so I cut some of them.
Right, hilarious style of usage
If there is power and software like CC and full office the surface pro X would be killer
Really happy to have bought a SP6 this April and see that the updated version have the same pen issue. I keep using it to make art and it's really great. The only way I've found to make clean and straight line is to make a fast stroke 👎.
Is it still working good. How's multi tasking on it?
@@Glamrgrl104 that's perfect. I use blender and Ps constantly and sometimes Zbrush. Recently added Tablet Pro that replace many short cut and hot keys. Really recommend it.
If you want a Surface pro style device that has a good pen for drawing, buy the Samsung Surface Book 12. Particularly I recommend the 8GB RAM model. The S-Pen has Wacom EMR and it gets much better lines than any N-Trig pen. It makes an excellent digital sketchbook.
Link? Is it worth getting used?
i like Brad´s style, he should dive into comic industry.
my experience is the pro 4's pen is almost jitter-free that's because it has no tilt. so if your concerned get that BUT the loss of tilt takes some features so be aware
the 1st one is tilt you don't get the ability to tilt the pen and get feedback
and 2nd the curser won't line up with your pen until you calibrate it and that it will stay there what that means is you should calibrate the pen in the position it will be in your hand and if you change the angle the curser will not move relative to the pen
the tilt just seems to be a bit too much for the communication channels between the surface and the pen, and or the gyro in the pen isn't of high enough quality and keeps jittering its self and the surface is compensating the cursor position for these inputs that aren't happening
Came here to see if I could draw on this... answer found in the first 10 seconds
4:45 lol, that 1tb sandisk microsd is already down to 379$, yeah I know its way slower but man you gotta give that some thought, ms is just going nuts here
Yeah but the thing is that’s a micro SD. A 1tb NVME drive is around 100-250 dollars so while I think it’s absolutely ludicrous they charge that much for 128gb=256 but the speed difference is absolutely massive.
The lag and line problem is only for photoshop, csp works perfectly fine!
Useless power cable
I have a surface pro 4. Unless MS has vastly improved Palm rejection, expect to be very frustrated.
7th edition and they still haven't solved the wiggly lines? never regretted switching to ipad pro/ procreate :) Geat review as always, thanks for sharing!
Check the Surface Pen reviews from Tablet Pro, they are much more thorough.
It greatly depends on what application you're using to draw with. Other drawing apps don't have that problem.
I have the Pro X on pre-order but if it dissapoints I'll be getting the Pro 7. I hope the Pro X is better for drawing because I refuse to get an iPad and have nothing on the Apple ecosystem.
Me too!
Same! Irene, can you please let us know what you think when you get the X and how it handles drawing with the pen??? I'm on hold just waiting for someone to be able to actually test it for art.
@@ToddDolce So I went to the store today and tested the X right next to the 7 and the drawing is soooo much better on the X. I ended up buying the 7 because the X's power is pretty trash and is basically a Microsoft iPad but if I cant use the X pen on the Pro 7 I'll get the X just for it's better drawing
@@darknessdecoder Thanks so much for testing it I think I may want the,X. I wonder how the pen experience could be better on the X if it uses that awful NTrig technology like the 7? I already have a great laptop convertible as well as a workhorse desktop solution so the X may be perfect.
@@ToddDolce I only have a gaming PC which is why I opted for the Pro 7 for that extra bit of portable power. The X pen works on the Pro 7 as well so that makes the pro 7 the better choice for me but if you need an iPad like device then def go for the X, however the benchmarks were pretty dissapointing but it's a gorgeous device.
why is there a lag on your pencil?
there is a sensitivity setting for the pen so you don't have to press as hard.
I got the pro 7 i5 with 128, pen and type cover for $800
$800 dollars!!! What site did you buy it on and how is it now
@@divineadeniyi3314 Costco bundle sale.
I'm waiting for a suped up surface book 3.
They announced the Surface Laptop 3, not 2.
I didn't even watch this because my Pro 7 turned out to be a bad decision. My screen started flashing like a lightening storm. It would then turn black and wouldn't respond to any commands. The information I was able to find on my phone explained it is a glitch that does not have an across the board fix. There are a couple of things you can try. They may work, they may not. My daughter-in-law is a teacher, has had hers for sometime now and loves it. I'm 62 and haven't upgraded my computer in years. I'm behind the times. One thing I remember though, it used to really mean something to Microsoft when one of their new products had a glitch. Now, they have so many different choices and upgrades, it's a smoke and mirror game that sweeps the problems under the rug. Mine got returned..Sadley, I didn't have access to the great folks at the Portland, Oregon Microsoft store who helped me with a problem years ago with my current laptop. And the assistance from the Call Centers hasn't changed in all of these years. I'm usually a patient person, but I don't have any use for someone who has a preconceived idea of what the solution should be. Obviously my statement about the screen suddenly coming back for less than 5 seconds, didn't register. "No I can't attempt that because my - device - won't - stay - on. A number of the schools use Chromebooks. My daughter is a teacher at the same Highschool as my daughter-in-law. Her Chromebook and the ones the students use, get the job done. I'm not going to bother with "bells and whistles" again. Give me a workhorse that gets the freaking job done. And this old fogey wants it to work right out of the box. Then I want it to keep working past a month and then some. Thanks for letting me rant. Just send up some good thoughts for me. Carry on.
Great review! I'm thinking of still getting this device but with the i7, so hopefully that can take care of any lag that might occur. I also use Clip Studio as my main art program, so hopefully I won't have to worry about line jitter. Does that seem like some fair assumptions? Also, this will be the first tablet computer that I've ever saved up for, and while I would love to get the Wacom Mobile Studio, it's way outside my price range right now. I love your videos!
Clip Studio Paint is great even on my really old Surface 3. You'll almost surely have no jitter problems, I barely have any if I go extremely slow and with the improved tech in anything that's newer than mine, the jitter will basically disappear. Also, the Mobile Studio is a different category altogether, it's designed to literally be a portable big canvas, while the Surface Pro is designed to be a portable 2 in 1 lap-blet that is lightweight and flexible.
I have the i5 and Photoshop is running perfectly fine (I had to adjust the ram of photoshop to use it all. Take in mind that for the 8GB device the ram for photoshop is limited to 2.8 GB. Plus, the default was only using like 50% of the 2.8GB)
Have you tried adding a virtual keyboard like Tablet Pro to Surface machines? I started using so I don't have to use a physical keyboard. It docks on the right side and you can customize all the keyboard shortcuts you want/use. I would be interested to see a review of a windows tablet using tablet pro or something similar that gets rid of the physical keyboard
I actually don't mind the bezle as it is nice to hold on to
This video is 3 years old and ouch... I felt called out. Can you please step outside my office? My Intuos 3 will be 19 on September and doing just fine, thanks for asking... XD
Im sorry, I may be confused but weren't you the guy how said that the pen was GREAT when you review the surface pro 2017????????????
Somehow his reviews seem biased lately, and he doesnt test with clip studio paint that gets rid of jitter and lag and improves workflow with touch gestures.
What's keeping me from jumping on the Pro X band wagon is the inter-compatibility between ARM and x86 architecture for using a wide array of applications. That's pretty much it. The price point is so close to the Pro 7 16 GB variant, that price is not a deciding factor when cussing between the 7 and the X
You just have to put some of the sp7 in the spX
Thanks for the review. Thanks for pointing out drawing straight lines with a stylus are not straight lines on the Surface Pro 7. Is this a typical problem with other tablet PC's? I'm thinking about buying a tablet PC and drawing a straight line is important to me.
Don’t understand how he can’t get straight lines... don’t get that problem
Imagine surface pro with apple pencil and 120 hz- zero lag display, with procreate for windows... Dream machine...
I dunno if you've tried it but Lazy Nezumi Pro seems to fix the line wave. it's a general stabilizer that works very well on a Surface Pro, and sorta makes it a good "budget mobilestudio" option.
he actually "fixes" it with the stabilizer ("smoothing") included in PS since CC 2018, but needs to set a 30%, which adds lag. My tests with Nezumi always gave poorer results than with Krita's standard stabilizer, or PS's one, or of course, worse than the best one in that, Clip Studio Paint's stabilizer.
Can't wait for you to review Surface Pro X.
please review the lenovo x1 tablet gen 3, it's like a surface pro but with wacom drivers and dual thunderbolt 3 ports. the thing is so thinkpad it's deadass got a military durability rating.
Taking notes 📝
Okay yeah the pen as problems but no one said how fragile the pen nib is. If you’re a new time buyer,i would recommend buying extra set of nibs for the surface pen if you’re willing to spend a lil bit more
Hey mate, thanks for the review. I purchased the SP6 a couple of months ago and was sweating it that I should have waited for the SP7. After your review I’m cool with the 6 for now.
How does the brush lag on the 7 compared to the 6 in PS?
Cheers
I don't know but my strokes in photoshop cc are flawless is that cs6?
While i did notice the pen wobble on my surface pro 7, it is entirely in my opinion dependent on what programs you use. I tried auto-desk and my usual programs on my creative cloud and i did notice the wobble. i also use clip studio pro EX, it is the one program that has no line wobble what so ever.
I thought the 3rd gen iPad Pro 12.9 only had 4GB RAM too. So why is that bad for the Surface?
ipados would be optimised to utilise the 4gb of ram on the ipad, additionally most if not all tasks on the ipad would not be that taxing on system ram.
this is bad on the surface because it runs windows, which can be very punishing on ram. when you have windows running on idle with nothing going on that could use around 2gb, which is already half of available ram. also considering chrome tabs or other intensive tasks and that the Intel integrated graphics will share system ram for vram, there is not a whole lot of breathing room to work with. this is the reason why most people are seeking 8gb ram minimum on laptops nowadays.
Doing a high resolution ILLUSTRATION work for print, like a bigger than A3 canvas at 300 dpi for print, with 4gb RAM, is a no-way. Even 8gb falls short, though, it does in the iPad, but not in a desktop PC, where 8GB RAM are enough for quite big project. But life is so much easier with 16GB.
@@3polygons Here is my issue with Apple products in general. (please don't get defensive because I'm NOT trying to start a PC vs. APPLE thing here as I HATE that nonsense)
Unless someone here will kindly correct me (which I'm open to) Apple has it where trying to do anything "under the hood" is nearly impossible and outrageously cost prohibitive.
What would be the cost for upgrading the RAM in a 3rd Gen. iPad Pro 12.9? (is it even possible) What would be the cost of upgrading the hard drive on the same device? (is it even possible?).... See where I'm going with this?
Again,...I'm NOT saying the iPad is not a good device. My goodness I have seen some AMAZING work on it as it is a quality tool. Same goes for PC devices as well. It's the artist as much as it is the device. That being said, it is soooooo much easier to tinker with "most" PC type of devices.
And to be fair, the biggest turn off for me with the PC devices is....well,....WINDOWS.
If I was assured that there are options to upgrade the iPad Pro 12.9 3rd gen. I would feel more comfortable about trying one out but I'm not about to drop over 800 bucks for a used one knowing it can never be upgraded unless you just buy a another one in a newer generation release. That's insane to me.
@@ToddDolce One of the main debates leads to no end (not in this case) in those ipad vs desktop fans because often the crowds are of verry different nature. A majority of the iPad users I stumble upon are at most advanced hobbyists. Some very few are pros (a small portion of those that say they are ;) ). And BTW, with pro, I mean people who earn decent money with their painting/drawing production. So... You wont convince an iPad pro advanced hobbyst. EVER. Because what you need is not what they need. You tell them that you need to paint on canvases of 1.5 or 2 meters wide, 1 meter or less tall, or whatever, and the file be at 300 dpi (so a loooooot of pixels there, quite some memory and CPU to process that) , and they'll just tell you to 'paint smaller', and at 150 dpi, and "convince" (to avoid a more "specific" word) the clients that this is enough. Which is... never, for them. Or, if are simply enhancing-painting images of 20.000 x 20.000 pixels (a not uncommon size in pro photography). Simply, iPad Pro can't handle that. Affinity Photo's iOS version can (surely through an internal software trick), but is a limit in RAM (8 GB max) and the Metal library in the iPad Pro. Full stop...
So, if one is a pro, or even "semi-pro" one can't simply trust that no project of 20k wide pixels will pop-up..'cause it will... And sadly, not only in print projects. And once it does, you can't afford to go loosing clients for a brand obsession, or having a cool toy. One must always provide. That's being pro, imo... and all the gigs u loose, is money lost, and QUITE worse, lost opportunity. If one was to spend more money and save bucks with the ipad pro... but is not the case. Look at the price of current ipad pros (and getting old Apple products with their fast obsolescence "style"... er.. no thanks) + pencil + keyboard compared to going to newegg (or just wallmart if one is not tech savvy) choose your components, custom build your pc, get a wacom-alternative classic tablet of medium (M) size. Is outrageously cheaper and yet more flexible and powerful... for work. Is just not as nice and portable. But huh, it's work what I do... I paint for the bucks (and the joy).
@@3polygons That's kind of what I thought too. You summed it up very well here. It's the planned obsolescence that Apple has built in that has always irked me! Its the one BIG advantage that having an external graphics tablet has that nobody seems to mention. They are NOT contingent on being a slave to the device they are connected to. (Both MAC and PC) If your system is tired and beyond upgrades,..you get another and the Graphics Tablet will still be there for you. As you said, is it as portable of a solution as say an iPad?
Maybe not, but unless you plan on doing your finished work on a park bench or a local Scam-bucks coffee shop, then that shouldn't be a major issue.
My recent interest in the iPad honestly stems from my recent interest in the Procreate app. So after doing some simple math, a basically $10.00 app would cost me...close to $1300 when factoring in a good used iPad 3rd gen 12.9", Apple Pencil, Paperlike screen cover, appropriate heavy duty stand, and usbc storage stick. IS Procreate worth $1300 for me to just try out? That is what I'm faced with.
Would love to know how well video editing apps like Premiere Pro or Filmora can run and render videos on this device. Do you notice any big lags and troubles using it? How far can you push them?
Question : can you charge it with a power bank? You mentioned that it not Thunderbolt 3.
I charge my Surface Go with a powerbank all the time. This shoud be the same.
IIRC people on r/Surface tested it and it works, not sure if it goes up to 100W USB-C chargers but it does reach 50W
@@Vincentmrl oh nice, I'm gonna go check out that sub. Thanks!
Brad! Thanks again for an amazing video. I definitely look forward to these each week. I have to admit I'm a little sad due to the review. I have been in the market for a portable drawing tablet for a while and was crossing my finger that the surface would be that tablet.
With that being said, if you don't mind me asking. What device would recommend for an artist on the go? I personally use everything from clip studio paint to belnder. So I'm looking for a reliable drawing tablet with the processing power to run light 3-d modeling software. Thank you in advance for your help.
Don't be sad. Just check the Surface Pen reviews from Tablet Pro, which does more thorough testing.
I use the Hp Zbook X2 G4. It's Wacom EMR tech. Shortcut keys on the side. Dedicated GPU is a NVIDIA Quadro M620 2GB GDRR5. 14 inch 4k screen. Mine got 16gb of RAM, 512 gb of storage, dual core double threaded GPU (there is a quad core version) and I also got the DreamColor display. The battery life is meh (4 to 5h), but at least there's fast charging. Palm rejection sucks, but I have a shortcut key to toggle it on/off and with a drawing glove it's fine and I leave it on all the time. Pen and keyboard in the box and the integrated stand is sturdy. Found mine on ebay new for 2k CAD.
My primary drawing stuff is a Cintiq 22HD that I got since it was released. I love drawing on my Zbook more. The glass is chemically treated so the pen feel is really nice. It's not as nice as etched glass apparently, but I never tried it. My style is very lineart heavy so I really need an accurate pen.
I considered the Mobile Studio Pro, but the 13 inch was too small for me and had no dGPU. The 16 inch is too big and heavy and I found the price point ridiculous for the performance.
I also considered the Surface Book 2, but it was just too pricy for me. And I wasn't sure about NTRIG, apparently the pen works better on the books. It is a power house though.
You could also check some Samsung 360 laptops, I think it's the Notebook 9 Pro They use Wacom Emr. It's what I was planning to buy before I found the Zbook.
I suggest you check Mobile Tech Reviews on UA-cam (she has a tech for artists playlist) or SurfaceProartist.com
If you absolutely need Windows I think Samsung make the most portable decent ones. They aren’t power houses, but you get a Wacom EMR pen and other goodies. Or if you just want to sketch and use blender... you can try to Samsung Tab S6. Apparantly there are Android ports of blender available, but they are older versions, I would look more into it. Artflow, Infinite painter, and sketchbook Pro are OK enough to make up for lack of Procreate of you want to avoid Apple. My set up is a Mac and a Cintiq at home, and an iPad Pro on the go. I’m surprised how much work I can get done on my iPad Pro. I’m not a 3D guy but I heard forger is surprisingly good.
Can you make an artistic/drawing/painting review on the dell latitude 7400 2 in 1 please 🙏🙏🙏🙏
4:40 it's cuz apple overprices things at the start so they don't need to
review the wacom pen from the lenevo thinkpad series
Hi. I don't know about Lenovo but I have a Dell precision 5530 2in1. It has Wacom AES. I think it's pretty good
@@amuyize Dell Precision is a bit too expensive IMO, and it doesn't come with the pen?!
I have this and the pen, the nib on the pen breaks SO EASILY for me, I use it everyday. The sensitivity can be a bit off. I ended up going back to my £60 wacom for drawing, cheaper and sturdier.
Just tell within the first 10 seconds whether they fixed the diagonal line issue or not
Dude you need to get with the guy from DigitalDigest. He'll teach you how to use the pen correctly.
If there is some secret trick you need to know to use the pen correctly then MS should share it with their users and make it less secret :)
@@thebradcolbow it's not Microsoft's fault you're such an incompetent buffoon and can't figure how to use one of the simplest tools created in mankind. You're a nimrod.
I'm being totally serious when I say this Elliot. I will pay you $1000. CASH MONEY. Totally serious if you can help me solve the pen wobble on Surface devices. Take out your phone, hit record show the settings or trick to this. Then record yourself drawing slow angled lines without a stroke straighter on. Can't be fast ass lines, NO, Sloooow angled lines. Also make sure you snag some before and after footage. I will give you full credit send you the cash and the video and you will be a hero to the art community.
And he is never heard from again. :0)
BTW the wave apparently is a product, in part, of palm contact with the screen. Seems an Art glove can help reduce if not eliminate it entirely.
I'm looking at either getting a pro 7 or a Lenovo Yoga C740. I love how thin and light the pro 7 is but the yoga has similar specs, a 2" larger screen, can flip to be used as a tablet as well and cost $300 cheaper. Any thoughts comparing the yoga to the pro 7?
Should I get the surface pro 6 or 7? I found a better deal for the 7, but does the 6 preform better?? please help!
What is the best Microsoft gaming 2 in 1 tablet...I'm ready 2 buy it..no matter how expensive it is
I actually have to say I don't see this problem with the slim pen on the Pro X. Not sure if this is common, or just me? But I can pull it slowly across the screen, and the jitter is almost non-existent..
$/£300 for an extra 128GB when 1TB SSDs are £100. Make it make sense.
soldered SSDs are designed differently. A 2.5 inch SSD has enough surface on the PCB to fit flash memory modules. Surface Pro solders the flash modules into the motherboard that is very tiny by itself. more memory modules means more surface area used on the motherboard, so that is not an option. Therefore they use denser modules that are harder to manufacture.
@@Aaku-AudioBook comparing soldered SSD to M2 style one is indeed wrong, but that SKU makes little sense in terms of value for money, the 1399 (which is new, we didn’t have it in the past) is so much more value for just 200 more, that the 1199 should just be skipped
I don't get the same problem the second i put on a glove
How is the thermals on the surface pro 7
Waiting on the SPX review for art
Looks ok. But for me, i prefer apple ipad mini 5 or ipad air 2019. The surface 7's specs is not that good considering the price. No high-end graphics tho. You can get better specs laptop with that price.
Full size laptops are an entirely different category though. You either pay for pure performance with more weight and less portability and flexibility, or you pay for a lightweight portable devices with pen features and all the stuff that makes it a really nice pick for who uses it for school/studying/writing/drawing etc.
Yes, the Apple pencil is better than the Surface Pen & less than the Wacom Pro Pen 2. However, if you cannot draw & make amazing art with the Surface Pen, you need to improve your own drawing skills.
Btw... Most art software has a little slider (generally referred to line smoothing). Increase it a hair (.01 to 2 - app pending) & "NO" jiggling lines on a drawn freehand "slant stroke."
Because the Surface can run full blown Photoshop (not this stripped down version for the iPad) & tons of other great art design software that the iPad can't... the edge still goes to the Surface. The only worth while app you cannot use is Procreate.
However, with all the other things you need a computer to do... emails, notes, games, entertainment, "artwork," work-work, ect., the Surface wins hands down.
There's a reason why the Apple "i" in iPad no longer stands for innovation for Apple. The iPad is literally copying everything from the Surface. Attached keyboard now?
For a computer that's not a computer, Apple sure loves copying Microsoft's computers these days.
Then again, Apple has never made something of their own. They have taken existing tech & made it better. That cannot be disputed. However, that isn't the case anymore.
Edit: seriously... fixing that "jiggle" from a slanted freehand stroke, with the Surface Pen, is do easily resolved. And again... compare apples to apples (no pun intended). That jiggle doesn't happen in regular "Photoshop." Oh wait, the iPad can't run Photoshop. And no, the wanna be PS for iPad isn't a real version of Photoshop. That jiggle only happens in a few programs too. Thus, software developers can fix it on "their end" & thus they're to blame, not the Microsoft Pen.
Microsoft can certainly do some things better & makes mistakes too but, don't blame them because a software developer is lazy & didn't code their software/app correctly!
Edit 2: btw... yes you can get a virus on a Windows PC. But those of you who think Apple doesn't get viruses... you are madly mistaken. Apple products are now targeted "far more" than Microsoft. Apple also has some shady repair policies. Look it up in any credible news outlet. Again, the Apple pencil is awesome, but if you get a virus or a part breaks... you are paying a crazy amount of money to fix it. There's a reason why unlike a MS store where you can make an appointment or walk in, "you can only make appointments at an Apple store if there's an issue," because they are swamped fixing or rather charging you to replace your device with a refurbished device. This is all after you paid TOP DOLLAR for a iPad that comes equipped with hardware that's 2 years old minimum.
Personally, if I buy anything new, I expect it to be "new," especially when I'm paying top dollar.
It's all because Jobs no longer exists
@@fwlo4409 ... true, especially since Foxconn put nets around their buildings, to stop people from committing suicide.
I'm not sure what's worse (honestly): a entry level job at Foxconn or slavery
I want to buy a surface pro but I don't know which generation to buy cause my budget is limited and at the same time I need a powerful device for video editing and illustrations
These reviews that suggest artists shouldn't get it because the waviness bother me. Its really only noticeable in photoshop with smoothing low and going extremely slow. Photoshop is great for painting but not the best inking software, making this complaint fairly trivial...but of course its a line reverberated by reviewers constantly.
Great review Brad (as always)... I was curious to know how is the palm rejection with this device
Good review.
Does the pressure precision equal to wacom ones? Any Lag when drawing ?
noticeable lag bro
You can see it when he's using Photoshop in this review
It's called the Lagface Pro 7 in reality.
That's the fault of Photoshop, not the Surface nor Surface Pen.
Charging hole, AKA the Surface Connect port.
you say potato I say potato... that saying doesn't work in text :D
Brad Colbow haha, the first emoji didn’t make it thru 😆. Nice review, its a letdown all surfaces have had and continue to have a pen line wobble. Definitely for notes, not for drawing primarily. Too bad.