The reason for buying this is simple: to replace the old Surface Pro 4. That Surface Pro 4 would overheat badly the moment I opened DingTalk to teach a class, and on top of that the screen would start shaking. Turns out that screen shake is a known defect — “Zhang-chan” actually had to swap machines because of it, while I probably never hit it since I’d never thrown anything “heavy” at the tablet. Anyway, the Surface Pro 4 just couldn’t keep up anymore, so I bought a Surface Pro 8. Spec is i5 + 256GB + 16GB RAM, with the standard keyboard/pen/cover bundle. Double 12 sale, 9998 RMB for the lot. Not a bad price, eh.

Honestly, this might be the dumbest mouse I’ve ever used. Of course, Microsoft’s intentions in designing it were good—it just fell a bit short.

As a handheld, the Surface Pro 3 kept me company for a long while. But eventually the newer Surface Pro 4 came out. Not a huge upgrade, but considering I spend more time with this thing than with my desktop, I figured I should treat myself. So I upgraded. On the whole the two machines aren’t that different. Most of it is a spec bump.

Over in the hardware section of S1stage, people have recently taken to calling Logitech “poop.” The origin of this meme is kind of funny—one day some guy stormed in demanding mouse recommendations, laid out a whole pile of requirements, and then tacked on: “Don’t recommend me Logitech. Logitech is poop.” And the whole thread derailed instantly, filling up with congratulatory messages from all sorts of poop users. Honestly, as a die-hard poop loyalist, I still quite appreciate poop’s……………after-sales service.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro kept me company for quite a while — probably the electronic device I’ve used most in recent years, second only to my MP3 player. I watched videos on it, browsed the web, played all sorts of visual novels. But as my needs grew, the god-awful performance, the unsatisfying resolution, and the rough build quality started to bother me. So I sold it and picked up a Surface Pro 3. I’d read online that the i3 version’s performance might actually be worse than an Atom, that battery life was bad, and that while the US version was cheaper, the domestic warranty had been cancelled. So I gritted my teeth and bought the China-market i5 128G. Reviews are everywhere online, so I’ll just talk about the stuff that tends to get overlooked.