When comparing LG 23ET83V-W vs Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the Slant community recommends Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for most people. In the question“What are the best touchscreen monitors?” Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is ranked 6th while LG 23ET83V-W is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is:
The (included) Surface Pen has a very interesting set of features - it allows for 1024 points of pressure, has an eraser on top, and when you click the eraser it will open Cortana (Microsoft's new voice assistant). It's magnetized, so it will stick to the left side of the Surface. The Surface achieves all of this via its new N-trig technology (replacing the Wacom technology found in older generation models). There's also palm rejection technology, so whenever the pen tip it close to the screen is will ignore all finger or palm touches.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Very good viewing angles
With 178 degrees of both vertical and horizontal viewing angles, this monitor can be used at an angle with no problems, and if watching media with other people they will still see a clear picture even if they are viewing it off-angle.
Pro Fast response time means no display lag
With only 5ms of response time, this monitor will display images nearly instantly after they are received. This is important, especially for touchscreens where a delay in touch input and the displayed image moving would be very noticeable. 5ms is also considered good enough even for high level gaming, although world-wide top players will prefer even lower response times.
Pro Interesting black and white design is unique
The white glossy base and rear of this monitor may not suit everybody, but it certainly gives it some personality which sets it apart from other monitors. The contrasting colors can look sharp in many setups, although not all of them.
Pro Great pen support
The (included) Surface Pen has a very interesting set of features - it allows for 1024 points of pressure, has an eraser on top, and when you click the eraser it will open Cortana (Microsoft's new voice assistant). It's magnetized, so it will stick to the left side of the Surface. The Surface achieves all of this via its new N-trig technology (replacing the Wacom technology found in older generation models). There's also palm rejection technology, so whenever the pen tip it close to the screen is will ignore all finger or palm touches.
Pro Laptop-level specs
The Surface Pro 4 comes in configurations from core M up to a core i7. RAM starts at 4GB, and goes to 16GB. Storage caps out at 256GB of SSD storage, which should be enough for most users. These are all specs that can be found in most laptops - even beating out some budget-midrange desktop options.
Pro Good expandability options
The Surface has a USB 3.0 port that can be used for a mouse to be plugged in, or you can plug in a USB hub or Microsoft's own Surface Dock, which has 4 USB 3.0 ports, audio output, Gigabit Ethernet, and two HD video ports. The Surface Dock allows for as much expandability (or more) as most laptops out there. There's also a SD card slot if you need more storage (current SD card sizes range up to 200GB, although this won't be as fast as the internal SSD speeds).
Cons
Con No USB ports
While many other monitors in this price range offer USB pass through as an added feature, this one lacks any extra USB ports. You can't plug in any mice, keyboards, or external hard drives into this monitor.
Con Sub-par display quality
Colors are somewhat accurate, as this monitor scored 86.8% of the sRGB color gamut...however when compared to other IPS panels which typically score 95% or higher this is a disappointing result (after calibration it still fell short at around 91%).
Black levels are measured at 0.32cd/m² which means that when pure black is displayed on the screen, they will appear gray-ish instead of a true black. This leads to a lower than advertised contrast ratio of 519:1 (it is advertised at 1000:1), which isn't impressive at all.
Con Limited adjustment doesn't allow full range of movement
The stand allows for 30 degrees of tilt, which is more than adequate for traditional monitors - however this is sub-par for touchscreen monitors. Touchscreen monitors benefit from tilt adjustments more than traditional monitors, as different uses work best at different angles. For example, watching a movie or web browsing is best done in a near-vertical position, while typing on an on-screen keyboard is most comfortable at a large angle which can't be achieved with this monitor.
There also is no swivel, pivot, or height adjustment.
Con Expensive
You can find a computer with similar specs for about half the price of the Surface Pro 4. You are paying a premium for the high-end build quality, for the engineering required to manufacture a fully portable computer, as well as for the high resolution touchscreen.
Con Lack of touch-focused apps
Windows has traditionally been a mouse-and-keyboard operating system. Finally, third party apps are starting to become more touch friendly, although it's a long, slow process. The Windows Store still lacks many big titles, which means the only option is to download the regular Windows version of most apps, which are rarely touch-friendly.