Can You Use Your SP3 On Your Lap?

[Dan Klinger]

Yep - I train it daily...and do the lap thing all the time. I also find it frustrating, but I like the advice of the Incipio Roosevelt as a possible solution. How easy is it to slide into a tablet mode with the folio though?

 

[ScottyS]

"Can You Use Your SP3 On Your Lap?"
No. But I never used a laptop on my lap.

 

[nipponham]

Not as natural as a clam shell form factor have you, but lapability is not a problem at all. And it's not like I have particularly long lap, either. Even with my legs crossed, I can open the kickstand so it hooks over my dominant knee which makes for a pretty stable user position.

 

[strollin]

"Can You Use Your SP3 On Your Lap?"
No. But I never used a laptop on my lap.

Yup. I've owned/used laptops since 1996 and have never even attempted to use one on my lap. Can't envision ever wanting to use my SP3 in my lap. I suppose it's because I never use public transportation like buses or trains which are about the only places I can think of where someone might want to use their lap.

 

[annabanana]

I use my SP3 on my lap 95% of the time, sometimes with the keyboard, sometimes without. When I'm out and about with it, I often carry it in padfolio and set it up on my lap on it which makes it very stable.

 

[Jhn Jeffrey]

Could you elaborate on this?

As other contributors have described, if I have the keyboard flat(ish) near my navel then the kickstand goes beyond my knees. Even if I arrange my 'lap' to support the screen horizontal (not very convenient), the near edge of the keyboard is uncomfortably close, leading to difficulties with the trackpad and space bar etc. (See remarks above re the gap between legs - maybe it's less of a problem for skirt-wearers).
I guess you could argue that my legs are too short, though I am reluctant to admit to a design fault of that order - they have done everything else I have asked of them for 70 years now!

 

[zhenya]

All things considered, I think the SP3 is pretty usable on my lap. The first generation of Surface, now that was nearly impossible. But this one, with the wide variety of kickstand angles, and the new magnetic hinge on the keyboard, I find it works just fine in almost any position. I've used it on airplanes, on the couch, in bed. Surprised at its flexibility, actually.

 

[Jhn Jeffrey]

I'm very pleased for all those contributors who don't have the problem that I suffer from; but what I'm most pleased about is the practical advice from those who recognise it as a genuine issue. All I need to do now is shop around for the Incipio Roosevelt Folio or something equivalent, at an affordable price. Makes an interesting quest!

 

[zhenya]

You posed a direct question in the title of your thread. You're getting the answers you asked for.

In over a decade in IT, one thing I can tell you is that most users will complain when something changes merely because it is different, not because it is necessarily worse. If it were up to the average users, we'd still be using laptops with floppy disk drives and those roller-balls for mice.

 

[Jhn Jeffrey]

You're quite right, zhenya, I did pose the question that way; some answers are a little more useful to me personally, but it's interesting to see the range of views - and indeed thigh lengths.
If you had been in IT longer than 10 years you would know that the inbuilt resistance of the average user would have meant the laptop would never have been marketed! I certainly wasn't complaining about the Surface Pro 3, just trying to find a way to help me use it better. Thanks to this forum I've made useful progress on that.

 

[hughlle]

Never had a problem no matter how i'm sitting or lying.

 

[Telstar1948]

I'm using mine on my lap as I type this. I've found I can use mine with legs crossed, both legs folded up under me on the couch etc. I open the hinge up quite a ways and hook it over my knee and it balances there just fine with the type cover attached. It's what I've learned to do, but I'll admit that an actual laptop takes a little less ingenuity, but I've found I can use my SP3 in most any circumstance.