What's new

Any Happy SP3 users?

I made the jump and purchase an i5 8GB Surface Pro 3. The first surface device I have even owned and I absolutely love it. I’m going to try and break down what I love about it into categories and I’ll also speak about the issues I have with it which are minor…

Lapability – I know how modern laptops work on the lap. The bottom is weighted and the top flips up making it a breeze to use on the lap. The surface pro 3 however has a hinge design. I can honestly say I’ve been using this for a week while sitting on the couch and I haven’t had one issue with the design of the Surface Pro 3. I find it refreshing with the hinge design. I never once had an issue where I couldn’t use it on my lap. Love the lapability on this device!

Screen – Specs aside, the screen is pretty gorgeous. Everything looks great from movies to the web. Good stuff!

Modern UI/Tablet Mode – I love the idea behind windows 8 when in tablet mode. I find the tile based interface gorgeous to look at. I recently installed a program called oblytile which allows me to create custom tiles to my liking. I absolutely love it. I set up tiles for websites (Polygon, IGN, The Verge, youtube, etc.) All work as expected. Oblytile just lets you add that extra level of customization to the tile interface when in tablet mode. Highly recommended if anyone hasn’t used it or heard of it. And it’s super simple to use. My only gripe with oblytile is if I create a custom tile for an existing ‘windows app’ because I want a custom image rather than the default tile image, it does something weird when opening. When you click on the custom tile, it opens up desktop mode quickly and then it goes into the windows app. I find this odd. If you were to click on the default windows app tile it launches the app directly.

Since I’m on the subject of tablet mode, the windows store is very…. Lacking. The apps available doesn’t seem to have the tender, loving care that other apps in other app stores have. I understand the windows app store is newer but I would really like to see some quality apps available. There’s no official Youtube app and the 3rd party youtube apps that are available aren’t very pretty and are lacking. The IGN app is pretty bad. Apps just seem to be an afterthought. I would like to see some really great quality apps in the near future.

Search – This is a great feature. If you’re in desktop mode you simply hit the “F6 key” I believe and the windows search bar pops up. I use this all the time. It takes out the process of having to think where something is located on your surface pro. Want to adjust screen brightness? Just start typing brightness. Want to see if there are updates? Start typing update. This is a great feature. Also a huge plus, when you’re in tablet mode, you don’t have to hit the “F6 key” you merely just need to start typing and it will search automatically with what you are looking for. A great feature that eliminates having to think where you need to go to find something.

Gaming/Heat/Power – I haven’t had an issue with the heat at all like some users have. I’ve installed steam. I played Dear Esther, Half Life 2 and Need for Speed Underground and all worked flawlessly. I mainly bought this device to do some writing and premiere/photoshop work. I have yet to install any adobe programs as I need an external dvd drive to do so. But so far I haven’t had one issue with processing power not letting me do what I want. So I totally love what this thing is capable of doing so far.

Keypad – A great feel to it, backlit, great trackpad. Love everything about it. I even love the pen holder. I have no issues with anything about the keyboard.

Pen – a great little add-on. I don’t use this on a daily basis, but when I do use it to write notes, it works perfect for me. Love everything about it. I usually make notes on PDF documents for movie scripts and this works perfectly for doing just that.

Battery Life – Don’t have a problem with this either. It lasts me a full day with light usage. I usually use it in the morning before work and all evening when I get home from work. It lasts for my usage. Of course depending on how much you use this, it may vary. But personally for me, it’s perfect! All in all, if the battery is low, I throw on the charger. No big deal!

Overall, I love the device. It’s sleek, it’s durable, it does everything that I want it to do and need it to do. My only issue is the Windows App store. It definitely needs a lot of support. I do think I am going to use this i5 8GB model for 30 days and return it so I can get the i7 model coming out August 1st. I don’t plan on buying another portable laptop for years to come so I might as well drop the extra couple hundred dollars and upgrade the processor.
 
Last edited:

tom.giannelli

New Member
Had an SP2 and just got my new SP3 - wow great upgrade.

now that the screen is a more manageable size, this is really a full laptop replacement. that was my only gripe on the SP2.
 

vanhalo

New Member
This forum can sometimes turn into a hate Surface and MS rant. I've been on this forum through the SPro, then SPro2, and now SP3. With each release, naysayers have always come out in force. You'd be surprised at how many issues, imaginary or not, have been posted in this forum. Crappy device. Awful benchmarks. Too hot. Bluescreens. Idiot MS employees. Two month return nightmares. Exchanges that (surprisingly) had the exact same problems as the original. Three times even. On and on. We've even had 'I can say without a doubt' predictions that there would never be a Spro2. There's even a 'MS finally killed the Surface' thread just 3 days after the SP3 release. Wow, tough crowd here.

Through it all, I've maintained a positive attitude simply because I was thrilled with the Surface concept. Having used other tablets in the past, I finally had the perfect device. A real tablet that is also a computer. These other solutions came close, but they were laptops first, tablet second. Plus they were heavy and awkward.

View attachment 2338

Now the SP3 is out. It took everyone by surprise. When I saw the new SP3 form factor, this was even better than the SPro2, IMHO. Larger screen. Thinner. Lighter. Even better battery (still up in the air, I must admit). This was closer to what my old, heavy laptop convertibles were. And, having used it for the last 5 days, I like it even more. It does what I want for my work and play. And I simply do not have the major problems that others seem to have. Don't know why. Maybe I'm just lucky. But I've been lucky 3 times now. No major issues with SPro, SPro2, and now SP3. Or maybe I don't try and see how far I can push the limits. I don't pretend that all the Surfaces have been perfect. But just that for me and some others, we've just had good luck.

So, if you're a happy SP3 owner also, give a shout. We can certainly use some positive energy in this forum.

I am happy with the SP3 so far. I have not had buyers remorse yet but I am looking for it here.

My reasons or justification for selling the SP2 and upgrading to the SP3 were different than most. I am trying to decrease my digital/electrical footprint to consume less energy for solar panels.

I was using a monitor and the dock with the SP2 and could not see using it without the external monitor. I frequently left it in the dock because.....I didnt want to use it like an ipad. I can throw the ipad around the living room (and I frequently do) without worrying about breaking it.

I have 9 days to decide. Its all about the screen at this point and the new Type cover. If I take it back I will switch back to Apple to a Mac Book Pro and a Mac Mini Server (replacing the Surface Pro 3 and a Dell T710 server)....mainly and mostly because of the digital/electrical footprints.

Thats right....i am OS ambidextrous. Whatever fills the need.
 

Odyssey

Member
I bought the SP3 for school to take notes, read and send emails, and for general web-browsing and media consumption. I had a SP2 but sold it because the screen was too small for me to really be productive and view multiple windows at once. It was also a bit too heavy and thick to use as a tablet. The Pro 3 fixes all these problems for me. The screen is noticeably larger and incredibly crisp and clear. It is thin and light and surprisingly comfortable to use as a tablet for watching videos and reading documents. Performance-wise, I haven't noticed any real difference from the SP2 just from my general use. My favorite thing about owning a SP3 is its versatility. I can go from filling out documents with the Type Cover attached to browsing the web in tablet mode. Honestly, after hearing all the complaints about the SP3 here on the forums, I've been trying to find things to complain about. But as of now, I have no complaints. The SP3 works flawlessly and satisfies most of my needs and wants :)
 
Last edited:

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
I love my Surface Pro 3. To me, this is the best TabletPC I have ever owned and I have been around lot of UMPCs and Tablet PCs since 2006. The form factory is excellent, the quality is amazing. The speakers on this device are a complete different story compared to the ones in the older Surfaces. The screen format to me makes more sense than the 16:9. The battery life still not perfect but for most users 6~7 hours is enough. It's not a device for gamers. It's a device with a decent performance more than enough for running most of the applications in any business.

I bought the Surface RT went it was released and later the Surface 2. I enjoyed both but they have limitations that required from me some adjustments and workarounds. The same with an iPad that I owned and used as my main device for almost everything for more than 2 years. With the Surface Pro 3 I don't have limitations.

This device is awesome! Just give MS time enough to tune it and you will not regret the money that you paid for this PC.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
What is a Broadwell chip? The guy at Best Buy said that late 2014, possibly early 2015, SP 3's would have them.

That Will be a hybrid between the ATOM and the i5. It's expected not to need a fan. So in my opinion it will not be a good processor for gaming and it will run warmer than the i5 in our Surface Pro 3.
 

geckoking

Member
i am now a happy surface pro 3 owner. For days i been having to plug in my surface pro 3 just to use it because of the wifi problems it had off battery. It was slow and almost unusable off battery. i was locked in at 6mb idle and would not get past 11mb. Now that i got it working with 5G connection off battery, it is night and day. I am getting awesome speeds (now idle at 117mb and up 234mb) and this is how the surface should be out of the box.!!
 

Mikeyqp

Member
I'm pretty happy with my surface. Productivity is dramatically increased with my note taking. I've been studying for the medical boards. Taking notes, double clicking pen to copy paste certain pictures (from Ebooks, websites, etc etc) to my notes, quickly transition to other notes, using different pens/highlighters, organizing all my notes to notebooks/sections/pages, are all extremely easy to use.

one thing I don't really use, because I primarily use it to take notes, is the type cover. I'm using my sister's Apple Bluetooth keyboard lol. I thought this was a bit weird so I went ahead and bought the Microsoft Bluetooth wedge keyboard from amazon :)
 

ZachBui

Member
There are some bugs that I've been finding but I'm positive those will be resolved in updates. I'm loving the SP3 much more than the SP1 that I had. The screen size really does it for me, and it's the perfect balance for gaming and work. I hadn't had the experience with the kickstand as I had the SP1, so I'm loving this factor as well since I can now find it comfortable to do work in multiple positions
 
Top