

Now we could also measure flickering at 50 Hz below 50 percent brightness without a connected power adapter. Update : Thanks to a readers tip, who told us that he is suffering from problems caused by flickering / PWM, we looked at the Core i5 version again with the newest firmware and drivers. You will find a link to our color profile for the Surface Pro 4 in the box below. In factory settings, the color accuracy of the Surface Pro is not on a professional level and we could even notice a slight blue cast in the grayscale analysis, which can be removed by the calibration. Calibration hardly improved the color accuracy, only the DeltaE of the grayscale could be reduced by one point. The measurements of the panel with 2734x1824 pixels differ slightly, which is not surprising since both devices use the same panel from Samsung (SDC3853). The display is identical to that of the Surface Pro 4 m3 model, so we will just have a brief look at the results. More information about all the other aspects – build quality, input devices (new Type Cover), ports, cameras and speakers – is available in the review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 ( Core m3 ). Both review samples are equipped with the same 128 GB SSD (Samsung MZFL128 NVMe), but we still add the performance figures of the 256 GB drive (Toshiba). Maybe the 4.5-watt SoC (TDP) manages much longer battery runtimes compared to "power-hungry" Core i5? If this is the case, how much performance do you have to sacrifice if you want longer runtimes? The Core i5 also affects the power consumption and the temperature development, so we will also cover these sections in this performance update.

Obviously, the small price difference raises the question why should anyone choose the m3 configuration? The fanless m3 version entry-level model of the Surface Pro costs almost 1000 Euros (~$1065/128 GB, without Type Cover), while the i5-6300U version starts at 1030 Euros (~$1097/128 GB) without accessories. While the main review of the brand-new Surface Pro 4 has a closer look at the Core m3 version of the 12-inch device, we can now check the Core i5 model. For the original German review, see here.
