
Surface Pro 3 Review - lispython
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8077/microsoft-surface-pro-3-review
======
fumar
I agree with Anandtech the Pro 3 is almost there, but not quite. The Surface
Pro 1 sold me on the idea of an everything device. It had its limitations, but
it worked as a laptop, desktop, and a tablet. Each scenario had its limits and
the most limited one was the laptop perspective. As a tablet it worked great
with movies, browsing the web, light gaming, etc. As a desktop it was powerful
enough to run the adobe suite on an external monitor. But as a laptop the
kickstand and keyboard were not ideal.

The Surface Pro 3 removes some tablet usability and improves on the laptop
experience. I am not sure if this is ideal. I recently upgraded from the Pro 1
to the Pro 3. I am having a hard time using the 12" screen as a tablet in bed
and on the couch. Using the device with pen in hand is harder due to the
larger screen real estate. Even using the Metro side of things is more
cumbersome due to the larger screen. Tiles and settings on touch interface are
too far apart now.

After a few days, I have concluded that the Pro 1 was a better "tablet" with
the ability to be a desktop and laptop. The Pro 3 is more of a laptop/tablet
hybrid with a focus on laptop-ability. Even with all the new enhancements, I
think I will return the device and purchase a Pro 2 instead.

Edit: I used the Pro 1 as my main machine for almost a year. The pen was
useful in photoshop/illustrator. I also used it for gaming; Fifa 2013, Civ 5,
and some indie games.

~~~
bcoates
The article makes it sound like there's no place at all to attach the pen on
the Pro 3, is that true? I'm a heavy pen user w/ my Pro 1, that would be a
dealbreaker for me.

~~~
fumar
True. It comes with an attachable pen holder, but it is held on by glue. I do
miss the pen's ability to attach to the Surface. The eraser nub is now a
button on the pen. The top of the pen activates OneNote. The pen does feel
more durable and better in hand. I would check it out in person.

~~~
RyJones
I kept losing the pen on my Surface Pro because I needed power more than the
pen. Very annoying.

~~~
lstamour
Now that it doesn't attach there, I think you'll develop new habits to avoid
losing it in the future. Happened to me too because the pen was tiny, black
and ... less useful.

~~~
RyJones
Yeah, I bought an aftermarket pen and promptly list it, too.

------
el_duderino
I'll post what I said in the comments of the article.

Well, this is the device basket in which I'm throwing all of my eggs. My
mobile devices are currently a 2006 Dell 17" laptop running Windows 7 and an
HP Touchpad running CM10.1. I've been waiting to upgrade until the right
"hybrid" device came along, and this is the one I'm banking on, albeit the
i7/512 model.

My usage is a little atypical. My work requires me to occasionally spend time
on construction sites creating sketches and recording measurements. I am
hoping this device will allow me to skip the full size (24" x 36" or larger)
architectural prints and the paper sketch pad and simply carry everything on
the SP3. After I finish on site, I am often going back to a hotel room for the
night, or spending the next few hours in an airport/airplane. I make heavy use
of AutoCAD, and being able to make tweaks in the field, or even the hotel,
should be amazingly helpful. I don't expect to be at full productivity, but
then again, even on a typical laptop, running AutoCAD on one small screen will
never be as productive as running on 2 or 3 large desktop displays.

In theory, the SP3 should be perfect for me. I do worry about the batter life
though. I suspect that I might need to pick up an external battery pack for
those times I'm on site without access to a wall outlet. Time will tell, I
guess. I also think about general durability. I am generally not on fully
active construction sites with lots of dirt and dust, but I will be in
environments that are not office-like. So we'll see if there is some sort of
rugged case or screen protection available for those scenarios.

All in all, I am really looking forward to getting my SP3 in August. I just
wish they would release it already since I could really use it mid-July. But
I've waited this long, so what's another couple of weeks.

Thanks for the nice review. This is the one I've been waiting for, and it
didn't disappoint.

------
withdavidli
Just got mine yesterday (typing on it for this post). There are some problems
on it I wasn't expecting.

\- Drawing apps like Fresh Paint don't work sometimes when on split screen. By
doesn't work, I mean it won't recognize the pen on start up. I would have to
full screen the app, use the pen, then I can use the pen on split screen.

\- Apps aren't adjusted to split screens correctly. The resizing of the apps
gets rid of functions like creating a new page that can only be seen when app
is in full screen.

\- Chrome Windows 8 mode sucks. That thing resized to a quarter of the screen,
blacked out the other 3/4ths and it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to
undo it because the menu button on Chrome was blacked out. Figured out that
they were still there, just not visable.

\- Chrome sometimes disables my trackpad click recongniztion? I can activate
links and tabs via the touch screen, but not by clicking the trackpad. All was
good after restarting Chrome.

\- Tablet does not recognize that I took off the keyboard sometimes. This
causes orientation lock. I would have to reattached and detach keyboard.

\- Trackpad kinda stuttering with movements. Sometimes jumps around so not
very precise. This happens more when using on my lap for some reason..

\- Changing screen orientation is sorta laggy, definitely more than a 1 second
change. I have the 8gb/256gb version.

\- I'm pretty sure Flux crashes this tablet. Froze it twice in 30 minutes
after install. Perfectly fine now after uninstall.

I'm actually getting used to Windows Metro...strange. This is the first
Windows machine I bought myself after 4 years. I was a Windows user for most
of my life until college.

EDIT: Pen holder could have been designed better. Everyone at the store trying
it out was confused it wasn't there. It's basically a stick on piece that
comes with the keyboard, but none of the floor models have them at the
Microsoft store. It's also uncomfortable placing the pen in there. I know it
has to be tight so it doesn't fall out, but it's a struggle every time.
Probably takes a good 3 seconds to fully place it in. If you don't think
that's a long time wait until you're leaving a meeting and everyone is waiting
on you. Bad user experience on the pen holder.

\- Too heavy to hold for tablet use. Wasn't really expecting it, but have
heard reviews about it, and this is the lightest pro version too. Good thing
the kick stand can rest on my knees (actually pretty good for posture with
knees bent because you're neck won't be pointed down the entire time).

~~~
skrebbel
Genuinely wondering, why Chrome? IE11 has a really awesome touch UX, in the
metro version, IMO. Did you try it and dismiss it, or not even consider it
given IE's track record?

~~~
withdavidli
Ecosystem traps people if I want to be cynical. I do everything on Chrome from
personal to work, all my favorites/bookmarks are synced through all my
hardware.

Even if there was a sync option for IE to Chrome accounts this is just extra
effort. You put too many steps in front of me I'm just not gonna do it (yes,
I'm lazy, but UX should consider the lazy).

------
homerowilson
I was jhust on an airplane trip and watced with some amusement my aisle-mate
fumbling with a new surface pro.

When first using it on his lap, the screen kept flopping around as the
kickstand slid off his legs--he eventually used the back of the seat in front
of him to prop it up a bit.

Then when the tray came down, he clearly could not get a comfortable typing
angle.

At some point, he dispensed with the keyboad and used it as a tablet with the
kickstand on the tray, and that looked like a pretty good set up.

I asked him if he liked it near the end of the flight, and alas he said he
plans to dispense with tablets all together and go back to laptops.

~~~
WorldWideWayne
I was using a laptop on a plane one time and the person in front of me put
their seat back without even turning around to see what was going on. It
cracked the screen hinge, but luckily everything still worked.

So now I'll never bring anything but a tablet on the plane.

~~~
tjdetwiler
You just have to be careful you don't wedge your screen up into where the tray
table folds up into.

------
teeray
We also reviewed the Surface Pro 3 in our labs, looking at things like screen
performance and battery life among other things. You can find all of the
graphs under "Science & Testing"

[http://tablets.reviewed.com/content/microsoft-surface-
pro-3-...](http://tablets.reviewed.com/content/microsoft-surface-pro-3-tablet-
review)

------
victorvation
The Surface Pro 3 seems an awesome device for students. Being able to read PDF
textbooks, hand-write notes while using diagram/drawing tools, browse the
internet, follow along with (and write on/annotate) lecture slides, word
processing with a physical keyboard, writing on PDF practice exams, etc, all
in a single device is extremely convenient.

~~~
storgendibal
I have been using the SP1 as a student for over a year now and love it. I
print all PDF hand-outs to OneNote and annotate them with notes from class.
Everything is indexed so I can search across 5 quarters worth of notes in an
instant and access them from any device.

I'm in business school (don't hate :) ) so most of our content is in the form
of HBS case studies and diagramming and drawing graphs/charts is pretty
common.

I see a lot of people using Notability on iPads. If I could get a Wacom or
NTrig active stylus on an iPad, that would be sweet, but alas, not possible.

~~~
lstamour
If you haven't seen it in person, you'll love the new 3:2 aspect ratio. I want
all my laptop/tablet devices in that ratio in future. So productive :)

------
vxNsr
Just a note: I too have noticed that my trackpad (on my HP envy laptop) will
sometimes lose 2-finger scrolling or any multitouch support, usually it's just
in chrome but sometimes it'll be for eveything. I have a touchscreen as well
so it's not as big a deal but often the only way I've found to fix the problem
is to restart the machine.

I'm assuming its a driver problem possibly with symantic. I'm dreading calling
HP support about it because the first 4 or five layers seem to be ignorant
knowledge-base-only-readers. (They really are only about as effective as
google. They'll recognize a keyword and use that as the basis for their
response. No matter how insignificant that one word is.)

~~~
akuma73
This happened on my Zenbook prime as well. You need to restart the synaptics
driver, which was very annoying.

I got rid of it and just went with a Macbook Air. It's just better in so many
ways.

~~~
vxNsr
right except that my laptop costed ~$700 and had a dedicated graphics card and
touchscreen while the macbook has nothing at that price point.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Well, you still get what you pay for. Is there a PC laptop with a decent
trackpad experience at any price point?

~~~
sremani
Does a macbook has touchscreen at any price-point ? At least with the windows
machine if you have trouble with trackpad, touchscreen will come to rescue.
Its insane how people get hung up one thing and talk as if that is central.
When Apple released Retina branded hi-res, its all about resolution, now that
Macbooks are not hi-res than their competition somehow its not that important
anymore.

Dude, its just a tool - use it if you can. Your reality or competence of usage
of a tool is always subjective, so lets all chill and pick the marbles we like
respectively.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
> Does a macbook has touchscreen at any price-point ?

Why do I care? I barely use the touchscreen on my 16k RMB X1, and I numb my
pointer finger on its precise yet painful trackpoint because _the trackpad is
useless_. Without the trackpoint, I would have to give up, since the touch
screen really doesn't work for programming.

> Dude, its just a tool - use it if you can.

A tool that doesn't work, and I'm pissed off about it. This is not a pissing
contest, but about having a tool that doesn't suck.

> Your reality or competence of usage of a tool is always subjective, so lets
> all chill and pick the marbles we like respectively.

I use PCs because of my work. But whenever I use my wife's macbook, I'm
absolutely floored by the trackpad...that actually works...why should
designers get better equipment than programmers?

People that settle for crappy tools make me unhappy.

~~~
sremani
Your argument has merit, but my point is you are overblowing the importance of
trackpad. I would rather have the trackpad that is as capable as MBA on SP3,
but I am willing to compromise there given other aspects of SP3 as well as, at
least in my case as a programmer I used touch to compensate for some
shortcomings of trackpad.

No this absolutely is not a pissing contest.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
The track pad is very important to me, a working one is very useful, and who
wants to carry around a mouse (and find a table to use one) or suffer from
guerilla arm using touch all the time. If it is important to you, you can only
get a MacBook.

~~~
sremani
[http://laptops.reviewed.com/content/asus-zenbook-ux301la-
dh7...](http://laptops.reviewed.com/content/asus-zenbook-ux301la-dh71t-laptop-
review)

Asus Zenbook UX 301 has the best touchpad (according to the site). So, I guess
if you are objectively looking for a touchpad - you do have option.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Can't wait to try it out, hopefully they have one at Zhongguancun already
somewhere.

------
niels_olson
Has anyone load-tested that hinge at 150° extension? I'm concerned the weight
of my hand while drawing might destroy the kickstand, or at least the hinges.

------
melling
How good is the speech recognition Windows 8? I've become a fan of Siri on the
iPhone, pretty good. I get the feeling that were pretty close to very accurate
speech recognition. Between Microsoft, Google, and Apple I think we're going
to get over the line really soon. This post was done entirely with Siri. The
missing words or her fault. :-)

~~~
qntmfred
just use siri then [http://myechoapp.com/](http://myechoapp.com/)

~~~
melling
I'd like a slightly improved Siri, and almost no one wants to screw around
with one device to dictate to another device. I simply want to say
"Siri|Google|Cortana..." then start dictating.

With iPhone sitting on my coffee table: "Siri, display on Apple TV... open
Evernote.. New Note ... "

------
fit2rule
I'd love to get one of these, but I simply cannot fathom investing in hardware
on which Linux will not run. I suppose it would work in a VM, but .. really ..
what a pity that its so locked down and unworkable to change ones OS in this
day and age. Register this one protest non-buy, fwiw ..

~~~
WorldWideWayne
Apparently it's really easy to install Ubuntu [1] on a Surface Pro 3.

"...you’ll find that most things work out of the box. WiFi works, but only
2.4GHz networks can be detected. The touchpad on the Type Cover works, but the
keyboard does not. You’ll need to activate the virtual keyboard in the
accessibility setting to get much of anything done, and Ubuntu’s virtual
keyboard is lacking in desirable features. There are some third party
alternatives you can install, but the initial experience here will likely have
you scrambling for a USB keyboard.

The pen works as a pointer and as a left-click when you press down, but
because Bluetooth does not work out of the box you lose the buttons on the
pen."

[1] [http://www.geek.com/microsoft/linux-users-rejoice-heres-
ubun...](http://www.geek.com/microsoft/linux-users-rejoice-heres-ubuntu-on-
the-surface-pro-3-1594864/)

~~~
swdunlop
That's a big improvement, then. The original Surface Pro was awful, with
serious problems [1] in the mwifiex driver. I also found its wireless support
was unstable when bluetooth was also in use, even in Windows 8, which was the
final deal breaker for me.

I would recommend waiting on adopting any Surface devices until there is
general acclaim that they got the hardware right, beyond a reviewer who just
used it for a few days then rushed to press.

[1]
[https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69661](https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69661)

------
baconstrp
OK mine decided to shut down itself for the second time ever since I had it.
Full battery charging, No BSOD, not even useless crash report after boot. I'm
done, eBay there it goes, bye.

------
gcb0
The review was sounding good until it mentions the high speed camera for
measuring pen performance... And do not include videos, not which models were
tested in the table selling the 3 as faster.

Was it the i5? i7?

------
lps41
To resolve the lack of edge gestures when the screen bezel is covered, they
should configure the TrackPad to also work with edge gestures.

~~~
dworin
It does - at least sliding from the left or right. I'm not sure if there are
others I don't use.

------
chenster
Microsoft, stop bombarding us with your ads, you've already missed the train
even after your 3rd try.

~~~
stevoo
I have been a linux user for the past 10 years. Didn't event want to bother
with Windows for all that time.

This machine is the only thing that will get me to use windows again (if i
dont end up installing linux on it)

As far as hardware i believe this is superb machine. They might have lost the
train, but if they keep it up the version 4 will be much much better.

They just need to continue improving the software

~~~
chenster
The real problem is innovation. Don't forget Apple iPad and Android-pads are
also evolving too. Until that's changed, Sadly, MS will always be playing me-
too.

