buying an old Surface (which one is suitable?)

[earthwalker7]

Hey all, I'm trying to figure out which Surface to buy. I'm between jobs, so I'm not going to spend on a S4 - but rather would like to get an older Surface. I already have a Dell XPS 13 for laptop work, so this is for light media consumption and note-taking.

I am considering:
- surface 2
- surface pro 1
- surface pro 2
- dell venue 11 pro
- Very open to other suggestions, such as Asus, Teclast, Huawei, etc.

Uses:
- run Office
- view PDF and Epub documents
- view movie files from an external hard drive via USB

Requirements/factors:
- long battery life (most important factor)
- price value
- external keyboard
- capacitive pen would be nice, but not a must

I was drawn first to Surface RT and Surface Pro given the low current prices, long battery life, and that these seem to meet most of the above needs. But then I started to notice that there's a few newer models whose prices have also fallen. The group's thoughts and suggestions are welcome, please.

 

[hughlle]

Welcome to the forum.

From personal experience, I'd suggest looking at a used or refurbished surface 3. Great battery life, does all you need it to do, great design, and can be had fairly cheap. They keyboard is a little cramped, but unless you're writing an essay (which you've the dell for), then it is a pretty nice keyboard at the end of the day I will always revert to my sp4 for serious work, but as a companion device for the kind of use you describe, I always go to my S3.

 

[jnjroach]

I second the Surface 3 recommendation

 

[earthwalker7]

Thanks a lot! Good insight. I guess you'd consider the pre-3 versions too old then and outdated? I think also this is a purchase I could kick down the road a bit, and once the S5 comes out, prices on the S3 would have dropped even further. Then I can get a dented version on Ebay and be set.

 

[hughlle]

Thanks a lot! Good insight. I guess you'd consider the pre-3 versions too old then and outdated? I think also this is a purchase I could kick down the road a bit, and once the S5 comes out, prices on the S3 would have dropped even further. Then I can get a dented version on Ebay and be set.

The S3 just has a range of improvements over the older ones, from running windows 10, and not the forgotten and neglected windows RT. The form factor is great (especially screen ratio), better kickstand, faster etc etc. You could go for the older surface pro's, but you're unlikely to witness the same kind of battery life as the surface 3.

And you're getting ahead of yourself. We don't even know if there will be a surface 4, let alone a surface 5 (in case it is a matter of confusion, I'm talking about the surface 3, not the surface pro 3)

 

[earthwalker7]

wait, I thought there was a surface 4. I didn't realize there's a pro3, and a 3, and not a 4. Confusing. I just want to be able to watch videos and read docs under long-battery-life conditions, so that when I'm on a business trip during the day I have access to my tools.

 

[hughlle]

wait, I thought there was a surface 4. I didn't realize there's a pro3, and a 3, and not a 4. Confusing. I just want to be able to watch videos and read docs under long-battery-life conditions, so that when I'm on a business trip during the day I have access to my tools.

Yup.

Surface pro 1, 2, 3, 4
Surface 1, 2 with windows RT (so no desktop applications, just the limited number of apps from the store)
Surface 3 with windows 8.1 or 10.
Surface book, surface book with dedicated graphics, surface book with performance base
Surface studio
Surface laptop

Can't say they're not giving us choice

Surface 3 is your best bet for battery life imo. While I get great battery life from my surface pro 3 and 4, once you start watching films etc, it drops dramatically. This is not the case for the surface 3 in my experience.

 

[earthwalker7]

Good advice. And S3 has a pen, so that's a nice to have.
Price is around $200 on ebay.
I can wait a bit until new models come out then get the S3.
What am I giving up by not getting a Pro?
Are those more laptop like?
I only need a media consumption device, not a full laptop.

And what's battery life on the S3 really? Is it about 10 hrs? Or much less?
Is pro better for battery?

 

[hughlle]

The S3 has a pen, although when bought new it is not included and is an added expense (same as the keyboard).

There is no guarantee as to there being a new model. There are rumours, but it has been a while since the S3 was released and there has been no word of a new verion. You could be waiting a long time. It is more likely that an SP5 will be announced, but that will have a minimal impact on prices of the S3, if it has any impact at all.

The difference between a pro and a regular are the kickstand (the SP3 and SP4 have a kickstand that adjusts to any angle, wheras the S3 has a kikstand that has 3 positions). You also give up on power, storage options (and speed, pro have SSD, the S3 has eMMC memory), memory options (S3 tops out at 4gb), screen size (the pro are a few inches larger, and as such the device and keyboard are larger). There is no "more laptop like", the S3 is essentially just a slower smaller version.

Given your stated use case, a pro is going to be money poorly spent. The battery on the pro can last almost as long as the S3, but only if you're doing very little and set it up appropriately. As an example, when watching videos, the pro will see a pretty drastic drop in battery life, depending on the type of format, I might get 5 hours, while with the S3 I'm often able to watch an hour long HD tv show stored on the device (i.e not streaming) and lose 10%. I think that a 9-10 hour battery life is achievable if you're not trying to run intensive software. An additional little perk if it anything which appeals, is that there is also an LTE version of the S3 while no pro device has cellular capabilities without a usb dongle.

 

[earthwalker7]

what about some of the less-well-known alternatives to the S3 - like the Dell Venue 8 5830, or the Lumia 2520?

 

[roger090]

Surface 3 is a better choice. http://qingzhiliao.com/return-man-3-the-season.html