Surface Pro 7+

Windows Slates/Detachables
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I didn’t see one here so I thought I create one since I am seriously thinking about getting one. Thought about the 8 but I like having the full size USB-A as I still have a lot of that around.

I see a local-ish BB has the i5 open box excellent for $689 & satisfactory for $640. Info just says missing some non-essential stuff, which I am not sure what that means. Almost tempted as $50 means a fun weekend or a faster 256gb ssd. I plan to get the MS extended warranty anyways. Hmmm.

How are the 7+ liking their device?

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Updated ordered the i5 7+. I think I will notice having double the ram more than anything else. I have an incipio hardcase on my SP5, which I take should fit or did dimensions change a little(thicker) the 7+?

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The 7+ is very slightly thicker than the 5, but in our experience , most but not all 5 cases have fit. The one thing you should watch for is that any case doesn’t block the vents of the 7+ even a small amount.

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good to know, thank you. I think I might be fine with the current case, but will find out when it gets here.

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Update got the device but it was missing the keyboard(despite what the package itself says) & the stock charger. Will have to drive to a best buy 20 miles away from me to get a replacement cause I don’t trust them to ship the right item.

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Went to the BB took an hour in traffic to get there from DT area. Did the SSD swap & windows 11 is right now updating. Feel snappier vs the SP5 & maybe it is me, but the tablet itself feels a hair nicer to hold. Like that it feels the same as my SP5 but faster. Excited to see how it handles editing Fuji raw files.

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Here is a weird one. Today I get on my device in the morning like I always do but the battery bar went missing but device was still working. Device manager showed battery is there. After a few minutes device shuts down & requires me to plug it in. Plug it in & battery is working but bar is missing. A few seconds later battery bar comes out & it starts working again. I get to work & device won’t turn on cause battery is missing & needs to be plugged in. I plug it in & for a few minutes battery bar keeps coming & going away. Device manager shows battery is fine. I uninstall the battery battery from there & restart the device(while plugged in) & the issue was still there. After a few minutes battery bar comes back & everything seems normal so far.

Does this sound like a hardware or software issue?

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Did you install the latest firmware updates? Sounds like something got scrambled possibly. You can force the Surface to do a fresh check so to speak of all systems by doing a hard restart.

I.E hold down the power button until the system shuts down. It’s essentially a hard crash, but because of that it will poll/check status of everything on the first restart.

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I think I have the latest firmware update. How do I check if I do have the latest firmware if nothing is showing up in Windows Update? I take I hold the power button down method at any point or just when it is not showing the battery bar? I just came back to work & the device did it again, but plugged it & went back to normal with less issues than this morning. At least so far. Hmmm

Edit: ran the surface diagnostic tool & that was no help here. Ugh

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You can do the power button at any point. I’d close out of anything you were working on though, and do it when the battery bar isn’t showing as the event log might show what’s happening.

If Windows update isn’t sowing anything, you probably have the newest firmware. Also If not make sure at least right now you are using the supplied MS power adapter and not a 3rd party dock

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Yes I am using the stock power adapter. I did that method twice just to be certain. Will see what happens in the morning. Is this a windows install issue or hardware? Cause it was fine last week.

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95% likely it’s a software issue. without actually seeing it, hard to know for sure. I don’t know where you live but some Best Buys in larger markets are MS authorized repair depots. If you have one of those they can run some hardware diagnostics, not available to the public.

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Interesting, will see if a local BB has that option. Though maybe it is not needed as things were normal today. Hmm.

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Update: battery bar for the last 30min or so has been showing me at 100% when all I’ve been doing is using discord & web searching on chrome(I know). I think it might be software. Will see what the next windows update does before I do recovery rest via external storage.

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Ugh it happened again. Weirdly taking the keyboard off would show the battery bar but then like 10 seconds later it would go away. If I took it off then put it back on while battery was showing it would immediately go away. Looks like I will be doing a clean install again later. :-1:

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So my brother in law recently changed jobs and the new one requires a fair bit of travel. He has a 4 year old Dell inspiron 2 in 1, but was looking to get something with a better display and had actually seen my son using his Go 2 and liked the design quite a bit.

He’s not a power user per se, but does use Office 365 extensively and is also a Kindle user…

I went with him yesterday to Best Buy intending to help him with buying a Go 3, but when we looked around we saw this deal on a Pro 7+ with the keyboard included.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ 12.3” Touch Screen – Intel Core i3 – 8GB Memory – 128GB SSD with Black Type Cover (Latest Model) Platinum DTI-00001 - Best Buy

I suspect that BB and MS are working together to clear old inventory, but regardless, at this price, if you are OK with the larger size of the Pro 7 versus Go 3, this is actually $50 cheaper than the midrange Go3 (the one we usually recommend) when you add a keyboard.

It’s got an 11th gen core I3 which is actually a bit more power efficient than the 10th gen in the regular Pro 7. It also comes standard with 8GB RAM which addresses my biggest problem with the older core I3 10th gen Pro 7 which was only offered with 4GB RAM. And of course the black keyboard comes in the box.

In addition the Core i3 8GB RAM configuration also supports the Android subsystem while even the core M version of the Go 3 doesn’t. So he was able to run the kindle app on this system and other than taking considerably longer to initially start up the Kindle app, otherwise runs more than adequately.

We looked at the Pro X which is also on sale right now, but it ends up almost $200 more when you add the keyboard, but arguably only offers the bigger display and smaller bezels than the Pro 7 +. He likely would have been fine with the Pro X performance wise, but this still was just a much better deal.

And we were able to secure an open box MS pen as well for under $45.

TLDR; This seems to me to be an excellent deal all around especially as an entry to MS surface line.

PS: BB also has the 11th gen Core I5 version for a couple hundred bucks more, also a great deal, but I think in terms of total bang for the buck, this is hard to beat.

PPS: both models also have the removeable SSD design that is also in the Pro 8 and Pro X

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Wish me luck Windows is downloading a cumulative update for the insider version of W11 I am on. I turned my device on at home it was fine, but at work I had to plug it in to wake it up from sleep, but battery was there. So random.

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Damn it that update didn’t solve it. I think I will be doing a full reset this weekend. Should I do it via cloud or via usb recovery method?

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I think you did restore via USB the last time? If so I’d do via cloud as in theory you should get the latest OS and patch build outs.

BTW; Just on the odd chance that there are issues with the insider build, I’d download the standard release build, if nothing else to set a baseline. The 7 + as a model is over a year old at this point, so any major core bugs would have been long since patched in the general release.

If the problem occurs even with general release, it’s a strong indicator of a hardware issue IMHO

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I only restored it via USB when I did the SSD swap. I then did all the software updates & then a regular reset. I will try the cloud restore this time, thank you. I am starting to think it might be hardware? It happened again this morning but this time I tried it with the SP5 M3 charger. It worked, but then when I restarted the computer it shut down, but never restarted no matter how many time I pressed the power button. It turned on when I used the SP7+ charger & battery bar was back.