Things I Like & Dislike about the Surface 3

[Zippy0n]

Just thought I'd share my thoughts after using this for 4/5 months (ish) now. Things I like and dislike are listed below, please make your own little list.

Positive's

1. Fanless - No worry of it overheating when in your bag
2. Micro USB - You can use a portable battery bank to charge on the go
3. Light In Weight - Easy to carry around
4. Quick start up/shut down
5. Build Quality
6. USB 3.0

Negative's

1. Atom -Can be a little slow when doing lots of things
2. Kick stand - great idea however can be annoying to adjust while in bed
3. Micro USB - Annoying when you plug in and says "not charging"

Dave

 

[Turbo4AWD]

Check Windows update. There is a firmware update that fixes negative number 3.

 

[GreyFox7]

My Surface 3 performance is somewhat erratic seemingly changing with the wind. Recent updates corrected some of it for now, and I suspect more issues will slowly get resolved (painfully slowly). When it's behaving it's quite good (will never be as fast as an i5 but not bad given the cost differential) other times not so much. If they could just keep it on the path without these spurious incursions into Surface purgatory. It has great but as yet unfulfilled potential.

 

[Zippy0n]

How did you find the patch notes for that fix? Your right it's charging much better now

 

[InspectHerGadget]

My Surface 3 performance is somewhat erratic seemingly changing with the wind. Recent updates corrected some of it for now, and I suspect more issues will slowly get resolved (painfully slowly). When it's behaving it's quite good (will never be as fast as an i5 but not bad given the cost differential) other times not so much. If they could just keep it on the path without these spurious incursions into Surface purgatory. It has great but as yet unfulfilled potential.

It is just under powered and nothing will fix that. Slow storage like a mobile phone and a slow CPU. It is what it is. I tell customers to always aim for an i3 or faster and it is good advice.

 

[GreyFox7]

It is just under powered and nothing will fix that. Slow storage like a mobile phone and a slow CPU. It is what it is. I tell customers to always aim for an i3 or faster and it is good advice.

Since that post things have improved yet again with more updates. If they get and keep the drivers solid the S3 is not bad. Although if they had opted for a real SSD in the build instead of eMMC storage it would have been even better. Nope, it will never be as fast as a Core Series processor but the S3 is smaller and lighter than a SPx and much easier to hold.

I have a feel for what to expect from a Surface 3 class device and realize certain hardware decisions impact the upper limit of performance and are not changeable. Most if not all of the stability issues I was complaining about are software problems, some have been addressed but then is it only temporary.

 

[Zippy0n]

With the 'Plugged in, Not Charging' thing fixed, its a little powerful machine, It suits the needs of the vast majority of users, but cant do the heavy things such as Video Editing as I do with my Go Pro 4. Several Tabs open, Using the Mini Display to use the TV as an extended monitor, with word open listening to ITunes works great. For a little touchscreen tablet with serious laptop potential, you'd be a fool not to understand its potential

 

[Turbo4AWD]

How did you find the patch notes for that fix? Your right it's charging much better now

Well, that "plugged in not charging" issue was really freaking me out, then I did a google search to find patch information for the Surface 3 and found out that they had released a patch a month ago that I did not have. So I installed the patch and found that immediately my "plugged in not charging" message had gone away for at least a day. Then I continued to watch it and 4 days later it was still charging without giving me the message "plugged in not charging". Figured it was tied to the last firmware update that I installed so I made note of it.

I don't really use my Surface 3 as a main hardcore PC. I was just replacing my iPad with it and it has done wonders. I don't expect it to run 15 browser tabs and play video smoothly without chopping. If I wanted to replace my laptop with a Surface, it would be the Surface Pro 4 Core i7. However, I fall into a small group of people called "PC gamers" and there is no Surface tablet that could satiate my need for gaming power so I just use said gaming machine as my main box (laptop) and then the Surface 3 for B.S. web surfing with no "not available on mobile" web restrictions. Love it so far. Feel like I don't get enough time with it though. lol.

 

[kojack]

Have a look at the surface book, that has gaming potential. But none of the "pro or surface" devices would be what I consider gaming machines. Maybe the pro 4 with 16gb of ram and the i7 could handle some. But the surface 3 is great for everything else. We love ours.

 

[TallSurfaceUser]

The pen. Bluetooth connection unreliable and top button never works. On screen keyboard is just atrocious. Splot keyboard too little. Plit. Splot. Split. Fourth attempt to type Splot. Split!

 

[Zippy0n]

The pen works perfect on mine. Charging is now better. It's light I love mine

 

[jnjroach]

I have an SP3, SP4 and S3 and still prefer my S3 for couch surfing and general computing.