SP3 i3 owners... Do you wish you would have upgraded?

[SRVwannab]

When I bought my SP3, I bought the least expensive configuration available. I have a Retina MBPro and was looking for an alternative to the MB Air I have been carrying around. In short, I couldn't be happer with my Surface in general, and in particular, the Pen! The ability to take notes (One Note- I Love it) in a way that actually works so closely like pen and paper has been huge.

I also love the keyboard- although, oddly enough- I find myself using my SP3 with keyboard disconnected and with a mouse (I'm not huge on the whole "touch" thing) more and more.

My i3 has done everything I have asked of it. Have any of you i3 owners found it lacking for what you need? Thanks!

 

[bluegrass]

That's great to hear. I can see a lot of the low end ones being purchased for students of all ages. Heck my son has my 4 year old grand daughter using an ipad. I would love to get her and her 9 year old sister SP3s.

 

[Gerke]

I've absolutely no regrets. I have put in a Sandisk 128GB micro sdxc. The i3 is capable of everything, even Autocad is working smoothly. It performs better than my old Acer S3 with a second gen i7.

 

[daniielrp]

Nope, does everything I need it to

 

[Mikewired]

I had a i7 256 and had too many issues with desktop program scaling for what this machine cost. I did like using it for casual browsing and note taking. I be watching for a deal on a sp3 i3. I will most likely get it without the type cover aka iPad style use.

 

[Donald King]

I did not buy the i3 model, I bought the i7. But this thread makes me wonder if I should have bought the i3. I manage an IT department and most of my work is done over RDP, SSH, or in web browsers generating reporting, metrics, etc. I like my SP3, but I feel like I would have gotten better battery life and less heat output with the i3, and it would have still performed the same for what I use it for. The most intensive app I use locally is Minecraft, I do all my real computing on servers remotely. Live and learn I guess. Maybe it was the "IT guy zeal" that said I had to have the i7. I don't regret getting the i7, until I have to start looking for my charger

 

[jnjroach]

The i3 benchmarks at 80% of the i5 and the i5 benchmarks 90% of the i7 on the SP3's

 

[mtalinm]

yes I wish I would have sprung for the 512 disk on the i7 instead of the 256.

I figured a thinner/lighter SP4 would be out in the spring, so I would upgrade before running out of disk space. now that i hear it'll be the same form factor, i wish I had sprung for the top of the line as there may not be any reason to do the SP3-->SP4 upgrade. in fact I worry they will make it slower.

 

[kristalsoldier]

When I first read about the Sp3 and its various configurations, I was toying between the i5/ 8GB/ 265 GB and the i5/ 4GB/ 128GB versions. By the time I walked into the Store, I had pretty much decided on the latter version. The price difference between it and the model above it was significant (to me, that is) and I knew that I could ramp up the local storage by 128GB using a MicroSD and since I am always connected to the web either by WIFI and/ or by my phone's data connection, I would have access to my OneDrive (with all my files/ folders set up for offline access). The only sticking point was the RAM. But then I thought that since my current (and aging) desktop machine sports 4GB RAM and I have not really skipped a beat (no gaming or any other kind of RAM intensive work for me), the SP3 with 4GB RAM would suit my purposes. I should add that (and touch wood!) my device has been functioning very well. But sometimes I have also wondered whether I could have made do with the i3. Maybe I could have had since what I currently do with the i5, I could very well do with the i3. No regrets though.

 

[compnovo]

^^^
This is pretty much my story on all points.

 

[VickiFL]

The i3 benchmarks at 80% of the i5 and the i5 benchmarks 90% of the i7 on the SP3's

That's good to know, and makes me happy I saved money and went with the i3. No regrets yet.

 

[goodintentions]

Anyone here ran visual studio 2013 with the i3?