Microsoft has apologized to owners of the Surface Book and
Surface Pro 4 for enduring a "less-than-perfect experience" with their tablet PCs. Acknowledging issues with both products, launched in October, the Microsoft Surface team has published a "Note to Our Customers," thanking them for supplying "candid feedback" on the two computing devices and advising it is continuing to work on solving the problems plaguing the Surface 4 since launch.
Among the issues affecting users is where the Surface Pro seemingly uses high amounts of power in sleep mode.
ZDNet reports one user complained that sleep mode's power requirements are so bad, the battery charge dropped from full to 72 percent after being in the mode for just three hours. "I can't use it for work if it's going to die on my in my bag or on my desk throughout the day with minimal use," writes the user, admitting they still had 15 more days left to return it at the time of writing.
Microsoft Surface Book
Another problem raised shortly after launch involved flickering displays. A firmware update in October caused some Surface Books to have driver issues, triggering the flickering, something Microsoft fixed with another firmware update in November. While the flickering issue has seemingly been solved, the more recent power usage problems are unlikely to be solved until early next year.
"Since launch, we have aggressively pursued the most pressing feedback,"
writes the Surface team. "We have already issued a number of updates via Windows Update and are working to issue additional updates and fixes as soon as possible to further improve the overall Surface experience." The team then goes on to advise users to check out the
support pages providing instructions on downloading and installing Surface and Windows updates.
While the issues are a concern for Microsoft, it may be extremely useful for Apple. The
iPad Pro could potentially pull some frustrated Surface users away from Microsoft's ecosystem, in favor of the similar iOS tablet and Smart Keyboard combination.
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