Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave 2D here. This is the new Surface Pro 6 from Microsoft, and
00:07it's received two big changes. One is a CPU upgrade this year, they've gone to 8th gen
00:12CPUs, and then the other is an aesthetic change, it's now a black, or they have a black option.
00:17And that's something that people have been looking for for a while, like some people
00:20say, Marques, Matt Black, all the things, but there's a lot of stuff that hasn't changed
00:24on this device, and I feel like it's a product that, for some people, it's like, should I
00:28upgrade this year, should I not? And, well, that's what we'll talk about today. So first
00:33I'm going to talk about things that haven't changed. So it's got the same screen, it's
00:36a beautiful screen, the bezels are present, but it's kind of necessary on a product like
00:40this. It's running Windows 10, and because of the operating system, I do feel like it
00:44needs some bezels on the Surface Pro lineup. The keyboard, trackpad, and the pen input
00:49haven't changed. Great inputs, I've never had any real issues with them. I wouldn't
00:52mind if the trackpad was a little bit bigger, but given the size constraints of the type
00:56cover, I don't think you can make it that much bigger. It's got the same kickstand,
01:00unlimited position, so you can fold it back pretty far, and that just gives this product
01:03a ton of diversity and utility. I think that's what makes the Surface Pro lineup what it
01:07is today, that really good kickstand. The speakers look to be unchanged, they're in
01:11a good spot, like they're usable both in tablet mode and laptop mode. They sound clean, can't
01:16really ask for more. The ports, however, have also not changed, and that's something that
01:21I think bugs a lot of people. This is a device that still does not have a USB-C or Thunderbolt
01:263 port in late 2018, and that is a huge miss in my books. Now, in their defense, if you
01:33were going to have a USB-C port on this device, you would probably replace the Surface connector,
01:38which is what they're using to charge it. And to date, I have not seen a product out
01:42there that has a well-functioning magnetic USB-C charging system. I've seen a lot of
01:46companies try, but invariably they all suck, or at least they're not reliable enough to
01:50exist on a Surface product like this. And maybe that's what Microsoft is waiting for,
01:54maybe they're trying to perfect that magnetic power delivery system through USB-C, and maybe
01:58that's when they'll switch over, but right now, we're stuck with the regular Surface Connect.
02:03That being said, without USB-C or Thunderbolt 3, it really limits the full potential of this
02:08device, because there are tablets out there, there are 2-in-1 devices out there that do
02:11have Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, and we've seen what they can do. Like, you can plug
02:14back an external GPU, and this thing becomes a gaming beast. I understand this is obviously
02:20not the main demographic of the Surface Pro lineup, but I feel like they should've put one in.
02:25The pricing is better this year. It starts at $900 at the base model, but you're getting
02:298GB of RAM and a 4-core CPU, so the product feels like a much better, longer-lasting product
02:34than last year's Surface Pro. Okay, so things that have changed. The finish on this device
02:38now comes in a black finish, and it looks really nice. Unfortunately, it scuffs easily.
02:43Any kind of contact with a hard material has a chance to scratch or scuff that black material,
02:48and it'll show because it's a matte black. That's the type of finish that shows scratches
02:52really easily. If you're going to pick up a matte black Surface, I highly recommend
02:56picking up a black dbrand skin to protect it. It basically looks like the regular product,
02:59it's just got some protection. Okay, let's talk about performance. The drive on my particular
03:04unit is the upgraded one, so it's a 256GB drive. It's an NVMe, and it performs really well.
03:10I can't talk about the 128GB base model, but the 256GB upgraded one is pretty fast.
03:16The CPU's also been upgraded, so this year, it's running 8th-gen Intel CPUs, and this unit's
03:20running the i5, and it's fanless, which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you're
03:25looking for. So this thing is silent. I love that. A lot of people are looking for that quiet
03:29workspace, and this gives you that. A fanless, quad-core i5 is really nice to work with. However,
03:35it can get warm. It never gets burning hot, just warm, but a fanless i5 is going to throttle in
03:40certain applications if you push it hard enough. So stuff like video editing or photo editing
03:45large files can have issues on this particular device. Gaming also isn't great. It's running
03:50a UHD 620, nothing crazy. Light games will run on this device, but anything even moderately
03:55demanding isn't going to perform well, because that GPU isn't particularly powerful. The strange
03:59thing is that last year's model, like the 2017 Surface Pro, that top-end model from last year
04:05had a slightly more powerful GPU than this year's top model. Now, a lot of the workflows that are
04:10going to be happening on a Surface Pro product are going to be more CPU-dependent than GPU-dependent,
04:14but for the people that wanted a more powerful GPU, kind of missed out this year. Battery life
04:20hasn't changed. I'm still getting around eight, eight and a half hours, and the AC adapter is
04:23also unchanged. It still has that USB port on the side, which I've always liked, but the overall
04:27product is, I mean, it's an upgrade depending on your workflow. Like, if you're doing multi-core
04:32heavy stuff that can take advantage of that 8th gen CPU, this is awesome, and also the black color
04:37scheme, if that's up your alley, this is awesome, but I feel like the product overall hasn't changed.
04:42That missing USB-C port or Thunderbolt 3 port, particularly a Thunderbolt 3 port, would have
04:46been really nice and would have completely changed my opinion of the Surface lineup in general, or
04:51the Surface Pro lineup, but without that port, I feel like it's an excellent product for the right
04:57person, but for most people, this is still kind of like a niche 2-in-1 product. It can't be like
05:03everybody's product quite yet. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it,
05:06subs if you loved it. See you guys next time.