I had a lot of problems trying to replace my nearly 3 year old Dell XPS13. First of all it was an i7 with a terabyte SSD and 16 GB RAM. 4K HDR screen was gorgeous. I didn't NEED a replacement, but I'd never kept a laptop that long, and I missed the tablet format of my Spectre X360's I had before it. So first I tried a Surfacebook, but it wouldn't work with my Dell WD15 USB C dock. I finally got the multimonitors to work, but it didn't have enough power to charge. I didn't want multiple plugs and I didn't want to buy a dock for it.
Then I tried a different version of this, the i5 base model Surface Pro 7. I already knew the format, I have a Surface Pro 4 that my son and I use for building Lego sets, since we like the electronic instructions rather than the paper. But that Surface Pro 7 also didn't work well with the multimonitor setup with that Dell WD15 dock. Then I tried the 2020 Spectre X360 15" with the discrete video option. Yes, still issues with the dock and multi monitor. So then I finally tried the new 2020 Spectre X360 14 inch. When that didn't work well with the Dell dock, I purchased a Thunderbolt 3 dock that should've worked well with it, and still had issues.
I finally saw they had a really great sale on these higher end Surface Pros, so it was worth getting this and simply buying the Surface Dock 2 and bypassing issues with my Dell dock.
And it's been a nearly perfect result.
It is a bit of a performance hit for the lower power i7 this has, but for my needs, the things I do like transcoding video files are not a constant, so I don't mind the performance drop. The 4k HDR screen was nice, but I don't watch movies on these, so I didn't really lose anything there.
I do require something I can use on my lap on the couch though since I do a lot of work at home at night as well, and the Brydge Pro 12.3 really DOES turn this into a laptop for all intents and purposes, finally a keyboard that's weighted enough that this acts like a laptop in your lap, no kickstand needed.
It's so great having something with no fan noise. This is dead silent.
The form factor is great for someone like me who takes it to work and back home every day.
The tablet functionality is outstanding, whether using fingers or the pen, it gives so many more possibilities than normal laptops. Unlike the HP Spectre X60 15 inch, this is NOT a burden to hold and use as a tablet.
I've had SSD based systems for years now, the last five laptops I've had were all SSD, all my desktops and my media center are SSD, so I'm used to fast booting systems. Yet this still boots quicker than any other system I have or ever used. I don't sleep anything, always power off, so I still have a very quick boot.
I've had a few issues with a couple programs I use such as Eseecloud for my home external cameras, and even with the dock 2 designed for these, I get weird issues with the mouse moving between one of the monitors and this screen. But considering all the things I run on here, that's small potatoes.
The power brick isn't too bad, but I found a USB C to surface port charging cable that I can use with a small USB C wall wart that puts out 90 watts. FAR easier to carry that with me, and the one that shipped with this is permanently under the couch and used when I am home.
The screen gets very dark if you want, FAR darker than the XPS could, which I appreciate at night.
Battery life is a bit of a letdown, but still better than my Dell was doing after nearly 3 years of use. I would've loved the battery life of the Surfacebook but I didn't want to pay the premium for the hardware when I could get this on such a great sale and have basically the same experience. I have no need of discrete graphics and it seemed pointless to spend extra money for something I never needed to use.
I'm glad I finally am done searching for a new laptop. Between the Brydge keyboard I can leave at home on the stand by the couch and the typecover for when I'm anywhere else and don't need this on my lap, I have the best of all worlds.