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First impressions & problems with the SP3

cdf3

Active Member
For some reason my SP3 is not recognizing my MS Arc mouse surface edition. Changed batteries in the mouse. When I click bluetooth in settings it starts a scan to see whats available but the mouse doesn't show up. This mouse paired and worked fine with my SP2.

Did you press and hold the little button (near the blue light under mouse) for 5-10 seconds to enter paring mode?
 

cdf3

Active Member
I'm sitting in Starbucks typing this and the SP is sliding all over the table. Would help if they had some sort of ribberization (I don't think that's really a word..) on the bottom of the Kickstand..IMF I put the typecover flat, it helps, but I prefer it angled...The angled typecover is great and the touch pad is definitely an improvement over the TypeCover 2.

I've not had any trouble with the Pen but only tried it with OneNote so far.

The heat is definitely noticeable on the back panel.

I also wish they had some type of rubberized material at the bottom of the kickstand. There are two notches on the bottom of the kickstand that stick out, and the edges are pretty sharp. Not very comfortable when they cut into my legs while wearing shorts.
 

cdf3

Active Member
Trackpad of the SP3 is better than that of the SP2. However, I do miss the ability to make the backlighting on my keyboard come on again by waiving my hand over the keyboard. There's some type of sensor of some sort that can detect when your hand is approaching the keyboard on the SP2. This doesn't work on the new keyboard on the SP3.
I have to physically touch the trackpad or keys to make the backlighting come back on.
 

Dajackal9999

New Member
I wish I could say its perfect except that my keyboard does not work at all. I was on the phone with a Microsoft tech for about 3 hours. After them having me doing everything I already did...check keyboard in device manager, 15 second reboot, refresh, etc. they finally gave me a reference number and said to return it and if BB gave me any flack to have them call MS. I really don't expect to have to pull that card as obviously I bought the thing yesterday, but my only hope is its not the pro itself. One funny thing is they had me wipe the contacts on the keyboard with a dry cloth. The thing is brand new ! However, when I checked the Surface Pro 2 forums this was one of the things some had to do over time. BB opens in another hour and 45 mins. I am anxious to see how well they do here.

Forgot to mention...the keyboard does do one thing. The backlight blinks on and off approx. every 30 seconds or so.
 

bulls96

Member
Have the tiles setup to show more tiles, but the fonts seem to be too small.

Any way to increase the fonts? Those who have adjusted, what percentage of zoom works best?
 

DanL

Member
Did you press and hold the little button (near the blue light under mouse) for 5-10 seconds to enter paring mode?

Thanks much! I was really hoping it was something stupid on my end haha. It was a long day and getting late. Thanks again.
 

MadCruzer

New Member
I will not be dumping my SP2 anytime soon after reading these mostly negative reviews.
Actually these are the kind of issues you would expect on roll out day. I am sure they will all be resolved. My typecover works perfect. I admit the proxy sensor was cool, but I can live without it. I am loving the new screen form factor. Lots more room for productivity. Also I was blown away by the feel of the device when I took it out of the box. The original Surface Pro felt like a brick in your hand. For some reason, the SP3 just feels balanced right.
 

klyph

New Member
Actually these are the kind of issues you would expect on roll out day. I am sure they will all be resolved. My typecover works perfect. I admit the proxy sensor was cool, but I can live without it. I am loving the new screen form factor. Lots more room for productivity. Also I was blown away by the feel of the device when I took it out of the box. The original Surface Pro felt like a brick in your hand. For some reason, the SP3 just feels balanced right.

Exactly. Most of the complaints seem to be either user error, user preference or typical Windows shit like drivers needing to be updated. I've had one issue. My memory card wouldn't read. Went to device manager, uninstalled the driver, downloaded the new driver from Realtek and no more problems.
 

unplug

New Member
So far, I'm really disappointed with the pen. I wireframe alot, and many light strokes don't register. That's a huge let down, my surface pro 1 is so much better.
 

Seneleron

Active Member
ve been running different benchmarks on my SP3, and it actually simply fails on some of the stress tests purely due to insufficient cooling. In one of the maxed out OCCT runs, it reached 90'C+ before failing.

Prime95 Pushed it to 91c spike with 86-88 consistent hold. No crashes. My best suggestion, if you're getting crashes, is to call MS and/or exchange the unit. Your temps are up there, but they are NOT out of spec for the 4300u.

Out of curiosity, how quickly did your temps drop when the programs crashed/were stopped? I noticed the SP3 temps dropped WAY quicker than my old SP2 [went from 88c to 60c in less than a second] Also, I know it's been a long week, but the 4300u is ALSO hyper-threaded, so you're right about that, the i7 should maintain parity on the thermal spec.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

DEFINITELY a lot easier to type on the new type cover, less type-o's.
The screen is DEFINITELY much better for doing office work/spreadsheets, etc. I'd rather be gaming, but at least I can DO my office stuff now without switching to another machine.
With the Apple Cinema display, I have no need or use for a docking station. the SP2 looked like spaghetti exploded when I setup external monitor with it. The SP3 moving most of the connectors to the RH side fixes that.
I am not using enough pressure with the pen to consistently enter button commands or scroll windows. This is because I have seen first hand how easily the tip wears out. I have heard that MS will be replacing these free of charge until a resolution is found, but who wants to deal with that?
Borders on games that will not support 3:2 aspect ratio are tolerable, but it still sucks.
The trackpad is better than any synaptics/sentellic I have used in the past 3 years, with the possible exception of the trackpad on my Blade pro. Of course, my Blade pro has the SBUI, so it's not entirely a fair comparison. I *STILL* find myself occasionally accidentally actuating a left or right side menu open swipe.
2048 gig pagefile is not enough to make windows happy. Had to set to 4096 to stop getting low memory errors [consistent with SP2]
Even at 88-91c, the SP3 was quiet. Not whisper quiet, but just slightly over barely audible. I would rather have a little more noise, better cooling, and higher performance, but that's a personal preference.
Finding decent 3:2 desktop wallpapers at this point in time is a P.I.T.A. [anyone have any good repositories?]
 
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