First Impressions

[Tmozer]

I had a chance to play with my new purchases (SP3 I5 8gigs, black keyboard cover and docking stand) last night. My biggest hurdle is learning Windows 8.1 as a touch system. I have an HP 13" non-touch laptop which I acquired over a year ago with Windows 8.1. But I almost always used it like it was Windows 7.

Anyway, I won't cover the positives which are well covered here.......

The negatives:

Almost no documentation.

I was expecting the pen holder on the keyboard cover to be factory installed as part of the cover. Not a stick on thing. It has already fallen off once. If it does so again I won't be trying to use it (for fear of losing the pen, which I don't see myself using much anyway).

The connection on the side of the SP3 is loose in the docking station. A couple times already the connection has failed and I have to jiggle it to restore. Since I will have my external USB hard drive connected to the docking station I would hate to have it lose connection during a disk operation!

 

[GreyFox7]

A couple people here have mentioned you have to squeeze in the sides of the dock... I don't have one so IDK if this is a bit tricky or finicky or it doesn't always seat perfectly.

Nothing comes with documentation any more it's mostly out of date before its printed anyway. you should get an email after registering with link to the online guide which it where all the documentation is.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/tutorial

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40789

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/userguides

Look for Tips and Tricks on this site in the Forums and elsewhere on the net.

 

[wynand32]

I was a bit nervous about the pen holder when I first attached it back in June. But, it's not had an issue since--it's remained attached, and the pen hasn't left its place unintentionally even once.

So I'm okay with Microsoft's decision to make it user-installable to enable personalized pen placement rather than building it into the Type Cover and taking away any options of where it's placed (or even _if_ it's placed).

 

[malberttoo]

I had a chance to play with my new purchases (SP3 I5 8gigs, black keyboard cover and docking stand) last night. My biggest hurdle is learning Windows 8.1 as a touch system. I have an HP 13" non-touch laptop which I acquired over a year ago with Windows 8.1. But I almost always used it like it was Windows 7.

Anyway, I won't cover the positives which are well covered here.......

The negatives:

Almost no documentation.

I was expecting the pen holder on the keyboard cover to be factory installed as part of the cover. Not a stick on thing. It has already fallen off once. If it does so again I won't be trying to use it (for fear of losing the pen, which I don't see myself using much anyway).

The connection on the side of the SP3 is loose in the docking station. A couple times already the connection has failed and I have to jiggle it to restore. Since I will have my external USB hard drive connected to the docking station I would hate to have it lose connection during a disk operation!

I highly suggest you download the SP3 user's guide in my signature, as well as throw a few dollars at the e-book found in the other link in my sig, "Become a Windows 8 power user". They will go faaaaar in answering a lot of questions for you up front.

 

[MickeyLittle]

I agree with GreyFox7 as I had the dock for the SP2 and it was a very solid connection so possible you aren't getting it closed all the way? If you are and it's still loose then my apologies.

 

[daniielrp]

I attached the pen holder to the SP3 itself as this seemed a much more suitable surface for adhesion than the soft material stuff on the keyboard. This never once felt like it was going to fall off and was very secure. But I hated how it looked, and the pen sits nicely in my bag instead now.