
Surface Pro 3 – some specs and pricing are revealed - tweakz
http://www.wpcentral.com/surface-pro-3-real-specs-and-pricing-revealed
======
codinghorror
The Yoga Pro, which I otherwise liked, was kind of unusable in practice as a
tablet just due to weight and size. 13.3" was too big, too heavy.

I worry that a 12" Surface (up from 10.6") might have the same problems.
They'll need to really reduce the bezels and keep the weight way down.

------
sahaskatta
This is quite interesting that Microsoft is rolling out new iterations so
quickly. It was only a 8 month gap between the Surface Pro 1 and the Surface
Pro 2. If a Surface Pro 3 makes a debut next week, that would be approximately
7-8 months since the last iteration yet again.

For comparison, it Apple refreshes the Macbook Air and iPad about every 12
months.

~~~
tdicola
Do they really have a choice? For better or worse they aren't getting traction
with the Surface family, so they need to keep trying new stuff in the hopes of
finding a device that consumers want.

~~~
sliverstorm
They are getting some traction, but they entered the race late.

~~~
melling
What does "some traction" mean? Do you have any market share numbers?

~~~
sliverstorm
[http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/microsoft-surface-sales-
doubl...](http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/microsoft-surface-sales-double-
irrelevant-tablet-market/)

They estimate a million units. While a very small piece of the market, a
million units says they found traction to me.

~~~
melling
Linux has a larger market share on the desktop. Did I miss the year of Linux
on the desktop? Sounds like you are making that "one millllliiioooon" number
sound bigger than it is.

~~~
nivla
You are comparing apples and oranges. Linux is a OS and more specifically a
kernal and surface is a brand of tablet.

Yes million is pretty remarkable given most people wrote it off as DOA.

~~~
melling
Microsoft is pushing really hard. I see commercials everywhere. In this other
HN post, it says that Microsoft has lost $2 billion on the Surface.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7770452](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7770452)

They are certainly putting up a fight. Anything could happen in the future but
I think getting excited about a million units shipped is a bit premature.

~~~
sliverstorm
Nobody is getting excited. You are reading way too much into our comments.

------
higherpurpose
So far they've only lost money with Surface. And I remember they were saying
to their partners initially "don't worry, this is just a reference product -
it's like not like we're actually trying to compete with you or anything like
that!" \- yet they're now at the third iteration.

~~~
pjmlp
I hope they succeed eventually.

Microsoft has the right product for those of us that would like rather have a
laptop capabilities with the size and battery duration of a tablet.

iOS and Android ecosystems require a big brother computer for proper
application development, whereas on the Surface I can change to desktop mode
and run Visual Studio with the full SDK.

This is what has putted me off to buy a Android Asus Transform a few years ago
and buy a Asus Netbook with Ubuntu instead.

~~~
mandeepj
how about using an android VM on windows desktop\laptop ?

I tried once but never did any app development

~~~
pjmlp
How does it have anything to do with using a tablet with laptop capabilities
feature wise?

What you are suggesting is no different from using the Android SDK on a
desktop/laptop, which by definition isn't a tablet.

~~~
mandeepj
no, i am not suggesting anything. I just had a question so I asked. Sorry, if
i was not clear.

------
yread
Why isn't the link to the original story

[http://www.wpcentral.com/surface-pro-3-real-specs-and-
pricin...](http://www.wpcentral.com/surface-pro-3-real-specs-and-pricing-
revealed)

Is HN still autobanning wpcentral?

~~~
dang
We unbanned it and changed the url to there from
[http://www.cnet.com/news/next-microsoft-surface-pro-intel-
sp...](http://www.cnet.com/news/next-microsoft-surface-pro-intel-specs-said-
to-leak/).

Submitters: please don't post stories that just point to something else. Post
the something else instead.

~~~
CmonDev
What if someone wants to re-post something that was posted 1+ year ago to see
new opinions? I think at the moment it navigates back to old post without
creating a new one.

~~~
dang
I've posted about this a few times:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7727075](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7727075)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7544123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7544123)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7617961](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7617961)

HN's duplicate detector is left weak on purpose so that people can repost
interesting things, either because they haven't received significant attention
or because more than a year has passed. You may need to change the URL
slightly for the repost to work.

Because it's an honor system, we ask people not to abuse this. Examples of
abuse are deleting posts that didn't get traction and resubmitting them; or
reposts of the same material over and over. In general, we're more tolerant
when people are reposting things because they're interesting and less tolerant
when they're promoting something.

~~~
CmonDev
Thanks for taking time to reply!

------
josephagoss
I was about to buy a Pro 2, might hold off on one of these.

For taking notes and digital art/illustration, these devices are amazing and
I've been using my friends one a lot.

~~~
stinos
Came here to say pretty much this as well - since the Surface came out I was
interested in it especially after trying it out with the pen + OneNote; being
able to have one device that does the tablet stuff like touch/pen/note taking
_and_ the C++/C#/Virtualbox cross-platform development stuff sounds like a
dream to me (which makes me guess I'm probably in the target group for the
device). Expecting MS to come with an update I was waiting a bit though and
the Pro 2 came close already, but mainly due to coincidences I haven't gotten
around to get one. Plus the specs were still not on par with my current
laptop's it seems. Now this Pro 3 however: extremely tempting. While at the
same time makes me wonder if I should wait another couple of months for yet
another, faster update :]

~~~
MetaCosm
It is really excellent if you will actually use the pen. I love pen input (I
have a Note III and a Surface 2). I love using Hyper-V -- which seems much
faster than VirtualBox (on Windows).

I went through like 7 devices prior to sticking with this one -- Macbook Air
and Pro, Asus Transformer, X301, Pixel ... and others. None of them had all
the things I wanted in one place... the Surface 2 is just about a perfect fit
for me.

I doodle on it (pressure sensitive pen is AWESOME), I take hand written notes,
I run Ubuntu and CentOS in Hyper-V for work stuff, I run Visual Studio, I play
League of Legends (1080p mid-low settings) and it is just my go-to device when
I am not on my desktop.

I purchased it on a complete lark -- just to have one, and it is quickly
become my go to device when traveling. It is a machine of compromises... it
has a "good" screen, it has "good" battery life, it has "good" performance, it
has "good" pen input, it has a "good" weight. Not exceptional in any category,
but if you want something that places in all of them -- it is perfect.

------
fake-name
Just make a model with a fucking 4:3 screen. PLEASE!

Not everyone uses tablets for watching movies. I use my Surface 2 RT pretty
much exclusively for reading, in portrait mode. A 4:3 model would be a
immediate buy for me.

------
mandeepj
Surface keyboard design and the way screen gets docked into keyboard is plain
terrible. MS need to get the right design clue from Acer where keyboard is
still detachable but it remains firm like a normal laptop keyboard.

You can look at Acer surface tablet here - [http://www.amazon.com/Acer-
Iconia-W510-1422-10-1-Inch-Keyboa...](http://www.amazon.com/Acer-
Iconia-W510-1422-10-1-Inch-
Keyboard/dp/B009P7JJEC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1400483427&sr=8-5&keywords=acer+windows+8+tablet)

~~~
Holbein
If this keyboard is as lightweight as others i've seen, I imagine this Acer
solution to topple over if the screen is pushed back more than 90 degrees, no?
What keeps it upright?

~~~
mandeepj
Sorry, hard to explain. This acer tablet is on display at MS store so if you
have any nearby - please visit to experience it.

