Microsoft Surface Pro 2

#34

Nice one sheep…

I was concerned the 4gig version wouldn’t be sufficient but I guess with SSD’s you kinda get optimum speed virtual memory (my guess).

ThE_JacO - The Bamboo (Carbon) pen is the only one that works… My intuos5 pen is not working… something to do with capacitive pen nibs and slightly different chips (although they are wacom) on the surface pro’s.
The Bamboo carbon pen is sold as a premium pen, so I dont think its a cheap pen in any sense.

In other crazy news, I saw the hackintosh community has successfully setup a dual boot osx mavericks and win8 setup on the surface! Means all my lovely mac productivity apps should run nicely.

If you guys pick one up… here are the links to the art dock hotkeys and some drivers you will need to get everything working:

Artdock and instructions:
Artdock

Wacom Feel Driver:
Feeldriver - Latest versions

I’ll post up some concept art or something… would love to see what you guys have been creating with it. The only thing I really miss is a hardware shift key as drawing in straight lines sucks on a glass surface… MAYBE… just maybe a screen protector might do?

#35

I actually like the surface pen, it is pretty much the same size pen I sketch with on paper so I had no issues.

The bamboo pen has only one button like the surface pen and doesn’t seem to be that much larger. I would love to try it out if I can find someone with a bamboo though. Modbook also makes a pen that works with surface pro and it has two buttons like intuos pens but it is stupid overpriced at $85.

Also the carbon is NOT the only one that works. The regular bamboo feel pens work as well, carbon just doubles the price for looking fancier. Just get the regular black or white bamboo feel pen.

#36

I came across this the other day… a “paint brush” stylus which seems to support the Surface.

Curious if anyone has tried it out?

http://www.sensubrush.com/

#37

The Sensu and the Nomad (http://www.nomadbrush.com/) are capacitive brushes that work with any capacitive touch-screen display. However, both brushes are not pressure-sensitive, so if you require pressure sensitivity for your work, you’re better off sticking with a Wacom Feel-compatible stylus. I think the brushes are best suited for classically trained artists (you know, the artists who use traditional paint media) because they’'re taught from the start how to hold the brush properly. Non-traditional and self-taught artists tend to rest their palms while holding brushes – and that doesn’t work too well with touch-screen surfaces unless you have palm rejection built into the hardware or software (or wear a glove as a low-tech hack).

I’ve read a few customer reviews saying that the brushes lose capacitance over time and stop working after while, but these were early adopters, so the technology must have improved if both companies are still around and offering different brush models.

#38

Hey guys I’ve had my surface pro for quite a long time and I’m about to upgrade to SP2.

I’ve been using it with photoshop. zbrush and 3ds max. If you have any questions I might try to help!

Just some quick thoughts: For me the only drawback is the screen size. If it was 12"+ it would be the perfect machine. Sometimes you will feel a little cramped.

Artdock is a must. It’s an all-in-one package and has overlaying shortcuts for maya, 3ds max, zbrush, photoshop, etc.

Get a PL-900 wacom pen or a Axiotron modbook pen. They have a 2nd button, just like an intuos pen.

#39

technokill, thanks so much for the info… the PL-900 is just what i was looking for. I picked up the bamboo carbon pen, and while it feels great and all… it only has one button

Also got the blue backlit keyboard… and its not bad. Thought the way you have to detatch/flip the cover to use screen can be a bit annoying.

I am returning my S2P tomorrow to swap because I’ve found the accuracy of the pen is off by a fair bit. At first I calibrated it to compensate, but I tested a different one today and the corners were accurate. Mine “drifts” when it goes close to the corners. Not a major issue but annoying when I try to close windows or use file menu etc.

So… if you pick one up and its not accurate, its probably faulty.
At the same time I’m going to see if I can get a good deal on the 256/8gig version and get that.
After downloading and installing my Adobe CC apps storage on the 128 is getting a bit small. I COULD put a microSD inside and get extra 64 gigs etc, but I’m saving that for photo trips.

One questions I have: anyone found a screen protector that feels a bit like the cintiq paper-esque finish when using a pen? I remember a friend showing me a screen protector for iphone that made it smudge-free and it had the same properties as a cintiq finish.

#40

Regarding to the accuracy issue, it’s been present with both sp1 and 2. However, things got better with windows 8.1, which gave users the ability to calibrate using more points than with win 8. My surface had the same problem. I updated to win 8.1, recalibrated and it got much better (although it will never be perfect near corners).

The thing is when you install the wacom drivers so you can get pressure in photoshop, for example, it overrides the default pen calibration and leaves with that crappy 4 point calibration. That s* can only calibrate well for the center, but the corners suffer from lack of points.

What I mean is maybe even if you try other units, as soon as wacom drivers kick in, you will lose some precision near the edges.

So far that’s the conclusion for most people when you hunt down threads discussing accuracy problems.

About the screen protector, do not get the incipio one. Bad. Any other brand you might find in amazon is alright. Make sure you get an antiglare one. As always, you will miss that bright vivid colors BUT you get antiglare and a paper-like feel. Remember to use the felt nib!

#41

Got the wacom bamboo feel pen yesterday for the surface. It feels way better than the surface pen and tracks much better as well. The only downside is the pen button is absolutely terrible and hard to press. Wish they made it stick out a bit instead of completely blending into the pen.

#42

Hey sheep you still getting the 256/8gb one? Isnt the 128/4gb enough?

I was hoping to upgrade my sp1 128/4gb but apparently the sp2 2568gb is out of stock! I have some friends going to new york for christmas but it seems there’s no way MS will refill their stock in time!

Ive been using photoshop and zbrush alright with the 1st gen, but 8gb would be awesome!

What do you think?

ps: feels kind of lame upgrading just for haswell, but it seems it’s the only option!

#43

The 4gb runs everything perfectly fine. I am mainly upgrading for the increased ssd space.

#44

8.1 got leaned down, but it’s still a bit of a hog space wise, so IMO 256 will really make a difference in the long run. On top of that even hacked 64 bit apps capped at 4GB (ZBrush) will use that on top of what the system and other running tasks take up.

There’s a good reason if the 256/8 is the only one out of stock. IMO it’s totally worth waiting for. I know I am (waiting for it to come back in stock) since it’s out of stock across the whole bleeding planet apparently.

#45

The thing is when you install the wacom drivers so you can get pressure in photoshop, for example, it overrides the default pen calibration and leaves with that crappy 4 point calibration. That s* can only calibrate well for the center, but the corners suffer from lack of points.

What I mean is maybe even if you try other units, as soon as wacom drivers kick in, you will lose some precision near the edges.

Yep, so I found that uninstalling the wacom drivers results in accurate corners and center. So basically we are waiting for a driver update from Wacom :S
It really sucks that they can’t work on this together straight from day one considering they are sharing chipsets.

Continuing my unbiased review… I actually returned my S2P 128 hoping to get a 256/8gig but none were in stock… I explained the corner accuracy problem and got an exchange very easily.

I ended up exchanging to an iPad Air as I needed a dev kit for an upcoming project. Since having it I discovered “Procreate” and started using it together with the Wacom creative stylus (has a bigger rubbery tip rather than a nice classic wacom nib).

The good things about the iPad:

  • Battery life (3 days of use and still havent charged it)
  • Procreate app (exclusive to iPad)
  • Speed
  • Lower cost than surface 2 pro
  • On-screen keyboard is perfect
  • Productivity apps are fantastic
  • Cameras are far superior to the god awful surface 2 pro front/back cameras
  • featherweight
  • made for touch (surface2pro feels like you are screwed without a keyboard/mouse in several instances)
  • Retina Resolution (very crisp thin lines when drawing)
  • Quiet and no heat generation
  • Comes with Pages/Numbers/Keynote… stuff you have to pay for on the surface (office etc)
  • Completely possible to create good artwork… just a different approach and possibly more strain until palm rejection works properly.
  • Cheap apps compared to windows equivalents (no open source stuff though)

The bad things about the iPad:

  • Palm rejection feels 50% working
  • Stylus tech is still pretty crappy… Requiring bigger nibs and no feedback when you lift off the screen
  • None of my Adobe CC stuff works on it
  • Photography trips require lots of space… the surface has USB3. iPad has Lightning connector and no easy way for me to pair it with cameras etc
  • Lightning connector. Pretty much have to carry cable everywhere as its not widely adopted yet
  • No Zbrush :frowning: I would be happy if pixologic just released a zsphere and zsketch functionality app.

I’ll see how they go with fixing the drivers, I just wanted the opportunity to try both worlds and find what suits me best as each artist is different.
There are rumors of an iPad Pro, Although I’d happily even settle for a wacom companion if the price dropped to 1.2k

Anyway I want to be clear that I loved the surface 2 pro, it was incredible to finally have a cintiq experience but there’s a lot of work to be done on the OS. There were too many frustrating menu-button-window-closing-where-is-my-cursor-why-is-it-not-working moments.

#46

Well in my case I’m not really planning on keeping the sp2 on the LONNGGG run. As soon as the other big-screen contenders settle, I´ll probably get one of them, like the thinkpad yoga or the fujitsu q704. I really like the surface but that screen gets me mad sometimes.

#47

hopefully some of you held off on the surface 2 because its getting a speed bump to 1.9ghz

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/02/surface-pro-2-tablet-gets-a-quiet-speed-bump/

#48

Alternatively, if you’re in the US… the Surface Pro 1 (128GB SSD w/ 4GB RAM) is being sold for $599 through both BestBuy and the Microsoft online store. BestBuy has a 5x Reward Points deal for this Friday and Saturday. If the in-store price is MSRP just show them a copy of their website’s price and they will pricematch. BB and Microsoft have a 10% EDU discount as well:

Microsoft Online:
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Pro/productID.275287300

BestBuy:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/surface-pro-with-128gb-memory/7952262.p

BestBuy via Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Surface-Pro-with-128GB-Memory-/200998270636

Also CowBoom is selling the same model used for $439 after a 20% off coupon ( NUEVA20 ). Be mindful of the condition value assigned to each unit:
http://www.cowboom.com/product/1354754

Here is a Surface Pro 2 ‘In-Stock’ tracker:
http://www.nowinstock.net/computers/tablets/microsoft/surface/

#49

Just pulled the trigger on a Surface Pro 2 256GB today! There’s been a total shortage of them here in Australia and they’re finally back in stock on the Microsoft online store. Should be here by Friday. Looking forward to being able to go full portable AND be able to draw and sculpt with a stylus. This is going to be awesome for onsite video editing as well!

#50

i’ld be interested to know how your battery life holds up…

#51

SheepFactory mentioned earlier that he’d used it “non-stop” for drawing, sketching and sculpting and it had lasted around 7-8 hours which is quite impressive. I’ve seen a few youtube videos where they’ve said in only lasts 2-3 when playing a graphically intensive game, but for CG and video work it seems that it will definitely hold up for all day, away from desk work. But I can post my own impressions once I’ve had it for a couple of weeks. I’m planning to use it in conjunction with my iPad 4 and the ‘Actions’ app which allows me to create custom buttons on the iPad that can be associated with keyboard shortcuts and even string commands together so it’ll be interesting to see if I can go completely keyboardless for CG/Video/Photo editing work.

#52

The Power Cover which extends the Surface Pro 2’s battery life by 60% is available for preorder in the US, Canada and Japan from the Microsoft Store:

 [http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.298465700/pgm.87981000](http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/productID.298465700/pgm.87981000)

/edit: Forgot to mention that many Surface Pro owners use the Intocircuit Power Castle PC26000 external battery along with Mikegyver’s modded power connector to boost the SP2’s runtime by an extra 1.25x (or 18 hours total). The unit is slightly smaller than the Surface Pro itself but may be attractive to those who are out in the field for a long period of time:

http://www.amazon.com/Intocircuit%C2%AE-PC26000-Compatible-Thunderbolt-Connectors/dp/B00BB5VQCE

The cable is near the bottom of the page for $29:

http://www.mikegyver.com/Surface-Battery-Car/

#53

hi guy’s, a little off topic but did anyone had a chance to check the new Wacom Creative Stylus 2 on a regular touch enabled capacitive Window 8 tablet/laptop (like for ex. lenovo yoga)

and if so if anyone stumbled upon a driver for the stylus that would enable the touch sensitivity on the PC, it’s a bluetooth device so it’s should be a problem … it’s probably not in wacoms best interest to enable the full functionality of the pen on the PC since it would undercut companion sales, but maybe anyone found some “unofficial” drivers?