[Kipters]

To be fair, I've been using my Surface Pro 4 for a bit over four years now, and pre-lockdown I was on 2 round-trip flights a month on average.

No issue whatsoever using it on the tray. On the contrary, my size and the reduced seat pitch in most narrow body aircrafts made my other machine (a 15" macbook) rather unusable.

[numpad0]

Anecdotally, I tried OG Surface Pro back when it launched. On my lap the kickstand was extremely unstable; on high speed rail chairs the angle of kickstand was extremely steep and uncomfortable; on university desks and cafeteria tables it was okay but never good; only on airplane couches and Starbucks tables, which I’m not as privileged to say I use with frequency, it fit, at all.

The kickstand has reportedly improved since, but the problem is that it’s a highly engineered design for multiple but precisely pre-determined situations, with a limited adaptability.

Traditional laptop hinges on the other hand, oh they work beautifully between 0 to 1.1g under any posture, if you could put it on a lap or table it’ll be nice. That’s it. Way better than the kickstand.

[Kipters]

Keep in mind the device "lapability" improved a lot in the subsequent iterations, for two reasons:

- the kickstand is now freely adjustable, you can set it at any angle (there are no pre-determined stops)

- the keyboard "sticks" to the bottom of the front side, this both gives the device more rigidity on your lap and improves the typing angle

I have never used an OG Pro, but I've used an RT and the difference is night and day

[stinos]

Same experience here. I hear the 'unusable on lap' sentiment seemingly often (including in the OP article itself). Yet, I honestly cannot tell is because it's only the ones with a bad experience speaking up and the rest remaining silent, or because there really is a problem I'm not aware of. And in both cases: I honestly wonder how that is possible? Is my body different in some way that I don't see the difference between a Surface and a laptop for lap use? Or do I do things in another way than others? Are my legs longer than average? I mean I just put my legs next to each other, put the thing somewhere on my lap, screen like 15cm in fron of my knees, adjust the stand so it's in an angle I normally use and that's it. The only problem I could see is that if you'd want the screen to be roughly where your knees are that is impossible. But for me that distance is just a bit too much to be able to read text comfortably and I cannot rest my arms anymore because of how far the keyboard is.

[numpad0]

https://msegceporticoprodassets.blob.core.windows.net/asset-...

This image is from Microsoft.com. Think how much his upper torso will have to bend to look at the middle of his thighs.

[stinos]

Sure, but the image shows a desktop. I'm talking about differences of the Surface vs a 'standard' laptop when used on your lap.

[numpad0]

I’m talking the combination of a chair similar to that and Surface devices. I guess people who don’t have problems with Surface sits less often in surfaces that high and upright.

[rsynnott]

That seems very awkward versus a laptop, though; in particular you'd have stay very still. I'd expect it to be particularly problematic on a bus or train, where there was movement.

[stinos]

The hinge is sturdy so in comparison with a laptop you don't have one big contact area with your legs but the bottom of the kickstand and the botom of the machine itself which don't move with respect to each other. The bottom of the keyboard kan move wrt the rest but only in one plane. I don't see how movement of whatever you're sitting on changes much in how the thing sits on your lap. I also don't encounter that when I'm on a bus or so.