Surface Pro 3 Core i3

[pvc]

It comes down to what you wanna do with it and how long you are planning on keeping it. The problem with the i3 is that you get 4gb of ram and 64 gb of disk space and a good chunk of that is used by the os and its future updates. You can buy sd cards, but might as well put the money towards the i5. If money is tight, you can get better value elsewhere.

 

[chankoedo]

A User at tabletpreview.com shares his thoughts, which came to my mind as well:

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Seems like a botched test to me. Light laptop use is web surfing and tablet use is web browsing yet they get opposite results? What on earth is the difference?

Light laptop: First we consider the light workload test. We use the default browser (in this case IE 11) going through a standard workload of web browsing with the display set at 200 nits. The default setting is to hibernate the machine when the battery gets to 5%, and to avoid damage to the battery this was not changed, so please note these times are from 100% charge to 5% charge.

Tablet: For battery life testing, we run the displays at 200 nits and test Internet surfing

I've had both an i5 and the i3 and whilst I've done no scientific test I can vouch for an increase in battery life with the i3. I would say the tablet test anandtech did is more what I experienced.
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I am defenitely looking forward to several other experiences with the i3 model. I hardly can believe that its on the weaker side.
Somebody was talking about undervolting the i3 would result in a longer battery lifetime. What exactly do I have to think about when doing so? How do i do it? And will it affect average usage perfomance (surfing, streaming)?

All i know is the "energy saver mode" from the SP2 which noticeably decreases performance and results in some lags.

 

[Liam2349]

I definitely have a limited budget. I'm seriously considering getting a surface pro 3 i3 with a student discount. I just don't want to feel like I wasted my money. I wish I could afford the i5/8gb. I feel like that is the sweet spot for future proofing. I just wish picking out a surface didn't feel like such a compromise. I wish I could mix and match. Maybe have an i5 with 8gb with 128gb of storage space or i5 with 4gb and 64gb of storage space.

Frustrating...I'll probably end up getting neither because of it. Also the keyboard thing feel silly. They should include it in the price of the computer.

The student discount is good - I also use it, saved £94 on an i5/4GB/128GB and keyboard cover.

I know some people want more RAM and more storage space, but I store everything on my desktop and other drives, and OneDrive is nice, so I don't really need to keep much on it. I did get a 64GB micro SD but I don't really use it.

And about future proofing, the cycle of these devices is way less than a year now so I'm not really worried about that, I don't think it's a big deal. Surface isn't really for high performance anyway, especially not Pro 1/3 - it's more of a luxury device.

 

[Wiidesire]

future proof..., I'll buy a Surface Pro 4 anyway

 

[Wiidesire]

Somebody was talking about undervolting the i3 would result in a longer battery lifetime. What exactly do I have to think about when doing so? How do i do it? And will it affect average usage perfomance (surfing, streaming)?

I'll explain it very simple.

Not every processor/graphic chip is of the same "quality". That's why a manufacturer sets the voltage at a certain level where there is the best balance between battery performance/producing cost.

But this also means that if you are lucky you get a "good chip", where you can set the voltage lower. This is called "undervolting".

With the Surface Pro 3, you can do that with the program Intel XTU.

Now what we also need to know is that lower voltage doesn't mean the performance is worse.
Yes higher processor clock does need more voltage (or let's say "power consumption"), but if you set an voltage offset lower, it doesn't affect performance, unless the voltage is too low for the processor to handle and the system gets unstable.

The reason why you want to undervolt are obvious:

• longer battery life (because of reduced power consumption)
• less heat (less power consumption -> less heat production)

But again. You can't undervolt every chip and if you can, not every chip can be undervolted the same.
If you want to know a little more about the Surface Pro 3 undervolting, take a look here:

http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/...oost-performance-by-20-reduce-heat-and-noise/

Hope I helped you a little bit.

 

[GreyFox7]

I'll explain it very simple.

Not every processor/graphic chip is of the same "quality". That's why a manufacturer sets the voltage at a certain level where there is the best balance between battery performance/producing cost.

But this also means that if you are lucky you get a "good chip", where you can set the voltage lower. This is called "undervolting".

With the Surface Pro 3, you can do that with the program Intel XTU.

Now what we also need to know is that lower voltage doesn't mean the performance is worse.
Yes higher processor clock does need more voltage (or let's say "power consumption"), but if you set an voltage offset lower, it doesn't affect performance, unless the voltage is too low for the processor to handle and the system gets unstable.

The reason why you want to undervolt are obvious:

• longer battery life (because of reduced power consumption)
• less heat (less power consumption -> less heat production)

But again. You can't undervolt every chip and if you can, not every chip can be undervolted the same.
If you want to know a little more about the Surface Pro 3 undervolting, take a look here:

http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/...oost-performance-by-20-reduce-heat-and-noise/

Hope I helped you a little bit.

I guess the real question would be, is it worth it.
XTU uses resources itself (kinda piggy from what I've seen)
You have to tinker with it to get a stable system that doesn't randomly reboot etc.

I have seen a few people post that they were undervolting by x amount followed by the system crashed trying a lesser amount... but they haven't come back with their glowing success story.

Maybe you will get 10% maybe 5%...

Aside from the usual reduce Display brightness, shutoff monitor in x minutes on battery the best thing you can do is look at the system with Task Manager and Resource Monitor and make sure your not running superfluous apps and background processes that waste battery.

So then if you still need more juice maybe the easy way is to buy an external battery like ...,
The Mikegyver http://www.mikegyver.com/Surface-Battery-Car/
26000mAH Surface External Battery. $225
Huge Capacity, 26000mAh., 96wH. Approx. 1.65 to 3 times additional for Surface Pro
Go big or go home and plug in.

 

[bamaster]

The student discount is now a little different. You save a minimum of $150. Normally, it is 10% off, which is what I got on the i7.

But now you can get the i3/64 for $649, which is about 19% off. The i5/128 is $849 instead of $999, which is 15% off.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-store-offers-150-all-surface-pro-3-models-students-10-i7-model

 

[aspeks]

Glad i could cancel my previous order and preorder the i5/128g for just 814€ from a german store. So i got the better processor for the price of the i3 + 128g microsd which i intented to buy anyways.

 

[chankoedo]

Glad i could cancel my previous order and preorder the i5/128g for just 814€ from a german store. So i got the better processor for the price of the i3 + 128g microsd which i intented to buy anyways.

which german store are you talking about? I am from Austria. Is it the -19% MwSt. @ Mediamarkt?

 

[aspeks]

Media Markt had this 19% off of all electronics last week, also applying for the Surface. Popular products like the MBA/iPad/Surface were sold out really fast, i got lucky getting one on the last day when they had them in stock again for about 3 minutes.

 

[Wiidesire]

which german store are you talking about? I am from Austria. Is it the -19% MwSt. @ Mediamarkt?

Yep he's talking about that one, got my SP3 i3 for 650€

 

[Liam2349]

The student discount is now a little different. You save a minimum of $150. Normally, it is 10% off, which is what I got on the i7.

But now you can get the i3/64 for $649, which is about 19% off. The i5/128 is $849 instead of $999, which is 15% off.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-store-offers-150-all-surface-pro-3-models-students-10-i7-model

That's interesting. In the UK we save 10%.