
Traditional laptops could learn a thing or two from the Surface Pro 4, whose dual, front-facing speakers positioned on either side of the screen project audio toward your ears, instead of to the sides or into a desk like some other systems do.

The 13-inch Macbook Air was much more limited, at 65.8 percent. HP's x360 has a slightly wider color range, at 103.2 percent, while Toshiba's Radius 12 was almost identical, at 100 percent. The Macbook was a good deal worse, with a rating of 4.3.Įditing photos is a pleasure with a color range that almost perfectly covers the sRGB spectrum (99.7 percent). The Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 and HP Spectre x360 were less accurate, but close, with Delta-E ratings of 0.6 and 1.25. The Surface Pro 4's color accuracy is nearly perfect, achieving a Delta-E rating of 0.35 (numbers closer to zero are better). The Spectre x360 (339 nits), Satellite Radius 12 (338 nits) and the 13-inch Macbook (334 nits) were close, but still noticeably dimmer. With an average screen brightness of 382 nits, the Surface Pro 4 is brighter than any Surface yet, and more luminous than its competition. When I watched the trailer for MTV's The Shannara Chronicles, everything from the turquoise Elfstones to the blood-soaked orcs looked sharp and vivid. The 2736 x 1824, 12.3-inch screen is bright, colorful and simply a joy to look at.

The new PixelSense display (opens in new tab) on the Surface Pro 4 is stunning. When you add in longer key travel (1.4mm for the SP4 versus 1mm for SP3), a heavier actuation weight (59 grams for SP4, 50 grams for SP3) and the same bright backlighting, I can say with confidence that this is the best Surface keyboard Microsoft has ever made. So for the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft has reduced the keys to a standard 12 x 12mm size and switched over to a more well-spaced, chiclet-style layout, which is much more comfortable for typing.

The problem was that the old layout had almost no space among the keys, which made it easy to hit multiple keys at the same time resulting in unnecessary typos. What many people may not have realized is that previous versions of Microsoft's Type Cover (both for Surface 3 and Surface 3 Pro) had oversized 14 x 14mm keys that were bigger than what you'd get on a typical laptop or desktop keyboard. But with the Surface Pro 4, that caveat is a thing of the past. Previously, when I recommended either the Surface 3 or Surface Pro 3, I had to mention that people should try the keyboard before buying to make sure they would like it.
