Surface Pro 7 First Impressions (Patreon)

Something a little different today, a bit of a hardware review! Awhile ago, I was at a familiar crossroads that many artists face: do I stick with a powerful desktop, or do I get an all-in-one tablet computer? After weighing the many pros and cons, I decided that I would be better off upgrading my computer tower and Cintiq. 

So last year I did a major upgrade of my desktop --  which was extremely painful and nerve-wracking, to be honest!!! --  but ever since I have been happily tweaking and optimizing my software mix. 

When I decided to upgrade the desktop, I also decided that a lower-powered laptop would still be very useful. Primarily, I wanted a laptop as a writing device. I like to do my writing in different settings like cafes and I like having a computer with which I can manage email while on the go. But, of course... if that laptop could also handle some drawing input... that would be nice wouldn't it? :)

Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up a second-hand Surface Pro 7 (complete with mouse, type cover and pen) and it was too good a deal to pass up, so I jumped on it! 

Why didn't I want an iPad Pro?, you may be asking. Well, simply, I'm a Windows person, I've just made my peace with that. I wanted this thing to run Clip Studio, sync with my dropbox, work in the way that I'm used to working... I wanted this device to reduce friction in my process, not introduce new friction with a new OS. 

I'm pretty happy with the digitizer and speed of this thing, but I'm still getting used to it as a drawing device. First of all, it takes quite a bit of time to get all the brushes and software set up the way I like it. Part of the problem being I can't even remember all the brushes I use or why/how I set up my canvas the way I did, since it all evolved so organically over time!

My goal for this device is to be able to make preliminary sketches and thumbnails, or maybe small edits. The goal is not to make full drawings or comics! But I will probably try to make a few full comics with it because I've found that enduring that pain is the best way to learn an uncomfortable new process. 

The other thing that I needed to figure out was how to manage without a keyboard. When you take the keyboard off this thing... it's completely detached! It doesn't work like a bluetooth device or anything (which I knew in advance)... so shortcuts are no-go. I had to solve the same problem on my PC and ended up with an XP-pen shortcut pad, which rules to be honest. I'm considering also giving the Clip Studio Tabmate a shot later on...  but the point of this laptop was to have something as grab-and-go as possible, so I didn't want to have another peripheral if I could avoid it. 

I ended up installing Gesturesign which is pretty neat! It's allowing me to assign multi-finger gestures to some of these keystrokes. I like this, but I can already foresee that now my cintiq's lack of touch input will then start to drive me crazy as I move back and forth :p I can never win can I.

(Although... just now as I'm hunting around my settings in Clip Studio trying to figure out if I could have exported the interface, I'm noticing that Clip also supports gestures natively... 🤦‍♀️ ah well, this is a process!!!)

So, the Surface Pro 7. Is it perfect? No. I still wouldn't replace my desktop/cintiq with this and again, that wasn't the point for me. I'm pretty happy with it though! The pen feels nice, I am putting some effort into learning how to use Windows Tablet Mode "properly" and really working hard to customize this for my own needs. After all, customization is what Windows is all about :)

I'll let you know how this works out as I have a bit more time with it!