Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Surface Tension
Rating: 7/10 Very good, but not quite great
- $1,430, as tested (including Type Cover)
- · More info from Microsoft
- Reviewed by Tim Moynihan
- May 23, 2014 |
- 6:30 am |
- Categories: Gadget Lab, Reviews, Tablets, Tablets & E-Book Readers
The $130 Type Cover keyboard works best when laid flat on a table. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The backlit Type Cover keyboard should really be part of the Surface Pro 3 base package instead of a $130 extra. It’s essential. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The included pen looks, feels, and acts like a ballpoint pen–you hold the purple button down on the butt end of the pen for a few seconds, and it pairs to the tablet–and it’s impressively precise. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The Surface Pro 3′s kickstand stays rigidly in place across roughly 136 degrees of motion instead of locking in at a couple of angles like previous versions. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The 12-inch Surface Pro 3 (left) and the Surface Pro 2 (right). Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The Surface Pro 3 is a full-bore Windows 8.1 computer. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
SIMILAR GALLERIES
The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 can probably replace your laptop. The big question is: Are you willing to pay the price and make some compromises in order to let it?
The latest productivity-minded tablet PC out of Redmond is an outstanding piece of hardware. If you want a leaner, lighter, full-featured, touchscreen-equipped alternative to a Windows laptop, it is well worth considering. It’s less than half an inch thick, weighs less than two pounds and boots up in under 10 seconds–sometimes as quickly as five. It feels absurdly light in your laptop bag; I actually had to check whether it was in there a few times. Just as importantly, its charger is super-light too.
The version of the Surface Pro 3 I tested was the mid-range model in the lineup, built around a 1.9GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. It costs $1,300. You’ll need to tack on another $130 for the essential Type Cover. It only does Wi-Fi (no LTE for you), and the battery life largely depends on whether you’re streaming Netflix for several hours straight. I got roughly 8 hours of usage from intermittently typing, downloading software, installing it, listening to music, and watching a few minutes of video here and there. When I fired up Netflix and just let it ride, it drained the battery in about five hours.
If you’re looking for the type of tablet experience you get from an iPad, do not buy it. The Surface Pro 3 is good, but it’s a completely different animal. It’s the type of device that makes sense in an office environment, a powerful grab-and-go machine fit for running to your next meeting or working on the train. But the world has generally made its mind up about what tablets like the iPad are for. They’re for reading and playing games and watching movies and firing up IMDB to quickly look up what else Scott Bakula has been in.
The Surface Pro 3 can do all those things. It also can crank out spreadsheets and run Photoshop or AutoCAD, just like a laptop. But these days, many people want physically distinct devices for work and for play, not a half measure solution that does both. Changing hardware triggers a different state of mind. I’m working, I’ll use my laptop. I’m playing, I’ll use a tablet. You need breaks from both.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
The Surface Pro 3 does the “play” side of the fence quite well, just in an entirely different way. It’s a very nice portable touchscreen PC, and it also excels in some ways as a tablet. It’s particularly great as a lean-back video-viewing device, not just because of its nice screen and workhorse internals, but also because of its versatile kickstand. And when you’re using it as you would a tablet, its 2,016 x 1,440 touchscreen looks sharp and responds smoothly to your pokes, swipes, and taps.
It’s just more of a tablet PC than a tablet, a touchscreen-equipped productivity machine instead of an app-centric coffee-table device. It just feels a bit too bulky for prolonged handheld usage. It’s a much better TV than it is a book.
The app situation doesn’t do it many favors, either. There are plenty of big-name apps like Netflix and Photoshop Express and Threes! and Dropbox, but there are just as many big names missing from the Windows Store. No Spotify, no Instagram, no Candy Crush Saga (for better or worse). You just aren’t getting the same app ecosystem or attention from app developers as you’d find with an iOS or Android device.
But this is where the Surface Pro 3 swings open doors other tablets deadbolt shut. This is a full-bore Windows 8.1 computer. You’re not stuck in some appless void because you can download and install full desktop versions of GIMP and Spotify and play Flash games in your browser. And that browser doesn’t have to be Internet Explorer because you can download Chrome or Firefox or Opera or any browser that runs on Windows 8.1. The Store may be barren, but the overall application ecosystem is far more robust than iOS or Android, even if it isn’t necessarily optimized for a touchscreen device.
When you’re using that software, the Surface Pro 3′s touchscreen and included Bluetooth pen can breathe new life into traditional desktop applications. The pen looks, feels, and acts like a ballpoint pen–you hold the purple button down on the butt end of the pen for a few seconds, and it pairs to the tablet–and it’s impressively precise. Writing with it feels natural. In OneNote, I was able to write legibly within a single row on a digital sheet of graph paper. In GIMP, the pen gave me very precise control over image-area selections–much easier than using a mouse. And you have never seen Microsoft Paint shine like this! For people who use Windows and prefer taking handwritten notes, sketching, or fine-tuning images, it offers benefits over traditional laptops without having to buy extra peripherals.
The Surface Pro 3′s kickstand is mighty important to the overall experience too. For the most part, it’s wonderful: It stays rigidly in place across roughly 136 degrees of motion instead of locking in at a couple of angles like previous versions. This gives you a ton of freedom in finding and finagling the best ergonomic match for your lap. When you’re using the Surface as a tablet, it comes in handy due to the larger size and weight. One potential weak spot is that the kickstand’s hinge system is exposed to view, and it seems to be made out of a very hard plastic. It doesn’t seem like it will break or lose friction with repeated usage, but the exposed mechanics may increase the chances of that happening.
Which brings us to the backlit Type Cover keyboard, which really should be part of the Surface Pro 3 base package instead of a $130 extra. It’s essential. If you’re using the Surface Pro 3 with its strengths in mind, you’ll be using it in landscape orientation, in desktop mode, with this keyboard cover attached. And when it’s set up that way, the Surface Pro 3′s screen seems like the perfect size and shape.
The Type Cover is bigger and better now, but the black version is the only one that isn’t garish. It has a second magnetic strip that runs lengthwise across the top of the keyboard. Fold it upward and the keyboard now latches onto the Surface Pro 3′s lower bezel, giving you a bit of downward slope on the keyboard to make on-your-lap typing a bit more comfortable. It feels oddly hollow when you’re typing on your lap. The keyboard works best when laid flat on a table.
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
There is one particular posture where the Type Cover is most awkward: Sitting on the ground, or in bed, with your back against a wall. I just couldn’t find a combination of the kickstand angle and the keyboard angle that felt right; it needed either a heavier keyboard or a longer kickstand. There’s also a trackpad below the keys, and it’s bigger this time around, which is a welcome addition.
It does its job, but you don’t have to use it. The Surface Pro 3 has a USB 3.0 port for a real mouse, a thumbdrive, or a beefier USB drive. It’s closer to the top edge of the Surface in landscape mode, so your USB mouse cord will dangle down from the port in dorktacular fashion. Still, being able to plug in a mouse and go to town is great option. There’s also a Mini DisplayPort interface above that USB port, as well as a MicroSD slot hidden under the kickstand. When the Surface Pro 3′s $200 docking station comes out later this year, the charging station will offer four USB connections, an Ethernet port, and support for external monitors.
During my hands-on tests, which consisted of typing out this review, downloading and running most of the software I usually install on a Windows machine (Spotify, GIMP, Netflix, a few games, Dropbox, etc.), and trying to drain the battery as quickly as possible via Netflix streams, I didn’t notice any performance compromises as compared to any laptop I’ve used for work. In terms of hardware compromises, there are a few: The speakers are comparatively weak and tinny-sounding, you don’t get the same array of ports or a user-serviceable battery as you do on a laptop, and as much as the Type Cover makes an admirable effort, it can’t quite live up to the comfort of typing on a decent laptop keyboard.
Ultimately, whether you’d like the Surface Pro 3 to replace your laptop boils down to a value proposition. Is it worth paying a premium for an ultra-slim device that provides full Windows PC functionality? That is what this machine is, and if you are the target market for it, you will use it as a laptop 70 to 80 percent of the time. Similarly configured Windows laptops with touchscreens, Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage cost at least a few hundred dollars less. It’s a machine that makes a ton of sense for business deployments, road warriors, casual photo editors, and artists. With the Surface Pro 3, you’re paying not just for the individual components, but for the sheer thin-and-lightness of it all.
Pricing
| Shop At | Price | In Stock? | Seller Rating | VeriSign Secured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $999.00 | Yes | 1.00 | ||
| Surface Pro 2 10.6" 128 GB Wi-Fi Black Tablet PC (1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 4200U, 4 GB DDR3, 128 GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 4400, Windows 8.1 Pro, LED Backlight) prices from PriceGrabber.com | ||||