Microsoft Surface Pro 3

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Surface Pro 3We’ve decided to give the Microsoft Surface another shot as our next “standard issue laptop” at work so I now have a Surface Pro 3 tablet. The SP3 is replacing my Samsung Ativ Book9 ultrabook, which I got in April 2014, in turn replacing my original Surface Pro. I’ve been using it now for two weeks as my main machine at work, so how does it stack up against the ultrabook and the original Surface? Some things change, some things stay the same …

Hardware

Like its previous incarnations, the Surface Pro 3 is solidly constructed. The kickstand snaps out for “normal” laptop mode use, but is also adjustable to just about any angle, which is a welcome change. The addition of some additional magnets along the bottom bezel allows the keyboard to angle up slightly but also required moving the Windows button/logo to the short side. This, along with the new silver case, really makes the SP3 look like a large iPad at quick glance. I prefer the matte black case of the original Surface, but will admit the silver is stylish.

The right side of the SP3 has the single USB 3.0 port, mini DisplayPort, micro SD card slot (underneath the kickstand) and re-designed magnetic power connector (which doubles as a dock connector, more on that below). On the left side you’ll find the headphone jack and volume buttons. The power button is on the top-left corner, the opposite side from the original Surface.

My model has the 1.7GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 8gb RAM, and 256gb SSD. The CPU/fan assembly is on the right side (looking at the front) of the device. The fan can get pretty loud (like a loud shhhhhh) and seems to come on at about 30% CPU usage. Strangely, even when the fan is cranked up, you can barely feel any air flowing out of the external vents. When CPU usage gets high and the fan ramps up, the outside of the case gets very hot (could almost burn you! see the photos below). The 256gb SSD is double what my Samsung ultrabook had, and four times the capacity of my 1st generation Surface (64gb). Even with all of my corporate apps installed, plus two VMWare virtual machines (WinXP and Win7), I still have about 100gb free, and could expand that more if necessary with a microSD card.

Docking Station

This probably isn’t a big deal for someone who’s always on the road with their Surface, but for someone like me that wants to use it as my main machine in the office, finally there’s a docking station! Using my Samsung ultrabook at work was a mess: I had to connect power, network adapter dongle, and a USB hub, which all had to be disconnected when I left for the day then re-plugged when I came back in. The Surface dock has power, USB ports (two 2.0 and three 3.0), ethernet, DisplayPort, and audio jack (for external speakers, leaving the side jack on the tablet still available when docked). The design allows the Surface Pro 3 to be dropped in, even with keyboard attached, then the sides slide in to secure it (the docking connector is on the right-hand side, which plugs into the power connector on the tablet). The angle that the tablet sits in the dock isn’t adjustable, but it seems to be at a decent angle that doesn’t reflect too much of the overhead lights in the office.

Pen

The updated pen is a good size and weight, although the button placement can be problematic depending on how you hold it. The inclusion of a sticky pen loop to attach to your keyboard is a strange design choice. I wish the pen would magnetically attach to the side of the Surface like the 1st gen one did. The inclusion of a magnetic surface on the side of the dock to hold the pen, though, is a nice touch. The purple “eraser” button launches OneNote. I was hoping maybe this could be customized to launch any app (like Evernote) but your options in the Surface app are OneNote or OneNote Desktop only (so much for options). The stylus uses a single AAAA (yes, quadruple A) battery (for writing, pressure sensitivity, etc.) and one 319 coin cell (for the “eraser” button functions like launching OneNote and taking screenshots), so make sure you have some spares on-hand of those non-standard sizes.

Power/AC Adapter

The re-designed magnetic power connector isn’t perfect, but is a lot less frustrating that prior versions. On the tablet, it’s a slot, which a corresponding tab on the power connector from the AC adapter. The magnets help pull the tab into the slot, and it’s reversible. The brick still contains an extra USB power port which means one less brick needed when travelling to charge a phone or other mobile device. The cord from the brick to the wall, however, still seems too short (about 18″), which makes my brick not sit flat on the floor but hang from the cord.

Speakers

I had problems with the speakers on the 1st generation Surface Pro being very quiet, even at top volume (I had to use external powered speakers most of the time). On the SP3, the speakers have been moved to the front, barely noticeable in the top left and right corners of the screen. They’re still not super loud, but are a big improvement over the original.

Keyboard

The update Type cover is larger than its predecessors and also backlit, which is cool. It still connects magnetically to the bottom of the tablet with a satisfying snap! and can be disconnected just as easily. The new magnets along the bottom bezel of the tablet allow you to angle the keyboard for more comfortable typing, but you’ll have to deal with a slightly echo-y sound when it’s in this position as opposed to flat on the desk. It’s slightly harder to use the touchscreen to access taskbar items when keyboard is tilted up, though, because the magnet/keyboard gets in the way of your finger.

I’m not sure why Microsoft switched from the matte black plastic frame of the keyboard to a more soft felt, other than maybe it attracts less fingerprints. The fabric on the back of the keyboard though, which doubles as the screen cover, seems to pick up dirt and dust more easily as well, and also doesn’t “grip” the desk which makes it sometimes slide around while typing.

The keboard is still missing the more advanced keys like Print Screen and Insert. Fn+Win+Space will substitute for Print Screen, but third-party mapping software will be required if you want to have your Insert key back (unless you want to have to bring up the on-screen keyboard every time you need it).

Screen/Display

The screen is very bright but the glare/reflections on it are still terrible. The adjustable kickstand definitely helps with this, but when using the Surface Pro 3 flat on the desk for note taking the highly reflective surface made it hard to focus on the screen because all I could see was the fluorescent light fixture above me. Luckily, there is no shortage of matte screen protectors available from third parties, like this one, which I purchased immediately.

Scaling still seems to be a confusing problem with Windows 8.1. At the default settings (letting Windows choose the scaling for each display) text is crisp on the Surface but seems blurry on external monitors due to differences in DPI. I can work around this by turning on “Let me choose one scaling level for all my displays” and using 100%, which makes the text crisp on all displays, but a lot smaller on the Surface than on the monitors due to its higher resolution. I had the same issue with the 1st gen Surface, trying to find a good balance between the Surface’s screen and my external monitors without having to fiddle with them each time I docked/undocked. It’s better, but still not perfect.

Battery Life

I wasn’t able to get the battery level below 5% in Windows 8.1 without some command-line powercfg.exe changes, but starting at 5%, it took just over 3 hours to charge back to 100%. This was with the standalone 1A charger and when docked (the dock has a 4A charger, but I guess that extra power is for the USB ports, etc. so it doesn’t charge the device any faster).

For an overnight non-usage test, I put the Surface away at the end of the day (5:30pm) with 69% battery remaining. When I opened it at 8:01am the next morning, it was down to 66%. It must have gone into hibernation because it did quickly boot when I pressed the power button. The Surface Pro 3 uses a feature in Windows 8.1 called InstantGo which lets it stay connected to network resources even when the screen is off. After 4 hours of non-use, the unit will go into hibernation. This is a big improvement over the original Surface, which wouldn’t seem to last being “off” overnight.

Weight/Size Comparison

  • original 1st gen Surface Pro: 3lbs, 4oz (tablet, type cover, power adapter)
  • Samsung Ativ Book9: 3lbs, 14oz (laptop, power adapter)
  • Surface Pro 3: 3lbs (tablet, type cover, power adapter)

See more comparison photos below.

OneNote and Note Taking

I’ve been handwriting my notes on tablets for a long time, going back to Note Taker HD on my first iPad, then LectureNotes on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with its excellent (but small) S-Pen. I had never used Microsoft OneNote before for actual digital ink note-taking but found my initial impression of it and the Surface pen very satisfying. My handwriting seems messier than usual, although that could be that I still need to get used to writing on the new device. I think in the apps I’ve used in the past had some sort of “smoothing” going on which slowed down the ink writing and made it neater. I’m still playing around with the settings and configuration in OneNote to tweak it just the way I like it and have also not had a chance to really put the pen through its paces for pressure sensitivity, etc.

I have two problems with using the Surface Pro 3 as my note-taking device. First, the back of the case is too slippery so when I’m writing I find the tablet moving around on the desk under my hand. Putting a sheet of paper underneath the tablet seems to help. Also, using it a note-taking device turns the tablet into a near-unitasker. I would not be able to (easily) participate in a Skype call and take notes at the same time since the camera angle would be wrong (laying flat on the desk the camera would be pointing at the ceiling) and I’d have to keep switching back and forth between OneNote and whatever other apps I might need to use during a meeting. I may just need to adjust how I work, but before when my PC and note-taking device were separate, it was easier.

 

So the Surface Pro 3 has replaced the Samsung Ativ as my primary device at work and on the road and I’m pretty happy with it so far. There are already Surface Pro 4 rumors making the rounds in the tech press. Most signs point to an October release with Windows 10 (which I’ve been testing on my 1st gen Surface), but the recent trade-in programs and cost reductions could point to an earlier (summer?) launch. That would figure … 4 months after I get a new toy, a newer, better one comes out. 😉

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