I think you simply may have a bad unit as what you are experiencing doesn’t seem to be widespread, but we have seen individual issues like you are describing.
In your specific case, I think you likely have a slightly misaligned display/touch-pen assembly which might explain your pinch/zoom issues as well as the Windows hello problem as the tolerance for the camera sensor is exceptionally tight, and a misalignment is likely slight blocking the sensor.
We had a customer about 6 months ago that bought a fairly large batch of Pro 8s and a handful of them had touch/pen issues and the customer discovered that the affected units had consecutive serial numbers. and thus came from the same production run.
I just keep getting impressed with this SP8. I know I’ve covered this in multiple different parts, but if there was a handy solution to my FaceTime/iMessage/News+ (FIN) addiction, I’d go solo with this solution. Here’s why in pictures of the SP8 (with Type Cover and Slim Pen 2) and M1 iPP11 (with Magic Keyboard and Pencil 2):
The SP8 is a little wider, slightly taller, and a whopping 2.7 oz heavier. I feel the full desktop experience, with all my files on device, trumps Stage Manager no matter how much I try to make it fit my my workflow and no matter how much I enjoy FIN on it. I know I’ve been holding a brief for MacPad, and can’t say I wouldn’t look if it happened, but since much smarter folks here have repeatedly told me that there will never be a MacPad, I’m now impatiently waiting to see if the iPhone 15 Ultra gives me enough screen real estate and zoom camera support to just go with it and my SP8…
Or is that just too much tryptophan talking…
And yes, if I ditch the Magic Keyboard the combined weight of the SP8 and stripped down iPP11 is only 3.7# - a whole 0.2# heavier than a MacBook Pro 14…
Accessory time again - well not a real accessory to the computer but handy nonetheless. This is a bit pricey for a lapdesk, but solid wood, very sturdy, and you can see a real boon whether you are pairing the iPad with a Mac or PC. The slot on mouse tray may get extended to the edge by owner so can use iPad portrait or landscape. It even lets you set up the two devices and still have room for a real mouse.
UPDATE: So after running yesterday’s Patch Tuesday load (including some firmware updates), NOW I am being offered 22H2. Calendar says its already 23H1; get with the program MS - especially for your OWN products.
“Apparently I just bought surface pro 8. i5, 8/128GB version. Next I need to find a bigger SSD, but not before I…”
Looks I forgot to finish my sentence and post above. Anyways, I’ve been happy owner of a Surface Pro 8 for a few days now. Yesterday I bought 512GB ssd and swapped it, piece of cake. Just one unrecoverable bsod-loop so I had to do cloning twice.
Next up: figuring out where to put this thing when it’s plugged in my eGPU setup. I used to have three monitors (2x 27" 1440p and 1x 34" uw 1440p). Then I bought 4k monitor from Amazon, used it for a while and returned it… Now I have an empty monitor arm that I could put a VESA/Laptop stand in and use Surface as the third monitor.
Last week I upgraded my eGPU from Quadro P1000 to RTX3060, didn’t went that smoothly since all I had was bluescreens. After two full reinstalls thing are working afterall.
Today I found a vesa/laptop stand locally, I agreed to pick it up tomorrow and Amazon has shipped me bunch of stuff, including a case for the surface. Things are looking rather nice.
I endured the SP8 for about 6 months. It would randomly crash when using the eGPU and 100% would bsod when first plugged in after a reboot. Having a gen4 m.2 drive definitely didn’t help with stability either. The drive would cause crashes mostly during heavy disk use.
Last nail on the coffin was only 8GB ram. I’m using 22/32GB right now, and all I have open is “a few” instances and tabs of both Edge and Chrome…
I sold it in favor for a Asus gaming laptop that I immediately upgraded to 32GB ram. It’s still plugged into my eGPU and will also bsod the first time (vram allocation error due having rtx4060 and rtx3060 etc). But it is a desktop replacement now that does not randomly crash during normal forum/youtube use. Not 100% perfect either but close enough. It also has gaming power away from home when I need it.
Story doesn’t end there tho, since who would actually daily carry a 15" gaming laptop? It doesn’t even fit in my messenger bag So I went looking for used Surface GO 2 devices but ended with Pro X 16/512 for $399 and 6 months of warranty left.
So I went looking for used Surface GO 2 devices but ended with Pro X 16/512 for $399 and 6 months of warranty left.