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TechCrunch and Others On the Microsoft Surface Pro 3
TechCrunch's video introduction (not intended as a full review) to the recently introduced Microsoft Surface Pro 3 has mostly good things to say about the device. Reviewer Alex Wilhelm compares it to his MacBook Air, and though he's not sure that the Surface is a better fit for all-day typing than the 11" Air (slightly larger, slightly heavier than the Surface), he says the Surface does a good job of integrating input options (both finger and stylus input) that the Air -- and most laptops -- just don't have. The Washington Post's Hayley Tsukayama also compares the Surface to the Air, rather than to an Android or Apple tablet, writing, "It's heavy for a tablet, sure, but light for a laptop at 1.7 pounds. And while it doesn't have the array of ports that laptops do, you can make do with the two that it does have, a mini-display port that's good for presentations and a USB 3.0 that's good for, well, everything else. You will probably need a hub to get everything you want of this, though. (Or you could go to using Bluetooth accessories, which the Surface Pro 3 will also support.)" Ars Technica has an informative hands-on review as well, but one which parts from these by emphatically describing the Surface as a tablet, not a laptop; Ars reviewer Peter Bright gives high marks for many aspects of the design and materials, though he says his experience with the included pressure-sensitive pen was "problematic." (His initial sample pen had to be replaced, and even when it did work, it lacks tilt sensing.) Troubling for anyone who would prefer to use it as a laptop, Bright says the Surface 3 is better than its forebears but still an awkward fit for using on an actual lap, and that despite the improvements Microsoft's made it therefore isn't quite the system he's looking for.
Costs more than the laptop and tablet it is supposed to replace and not actually better than having seperate units.
I give it credit for the improvements that is has made, but the price is too damn high!
From TFA:
"The pen doesn't include the tilt/orientation support that the high-end Wacom pens support. In this regard, it's no different from the previous Surface Pros, as they didn't appear to have tilt support either. If this is a feature you want in a tablet, you'll have to fork out for one of Wacom's extraordinarily expensive Cintiq devices."
Anyone expected pressure-senility and tilt support for under $2k?
Don't miss the Penny Arcade Surface Pro 3 feedback, as it gives some good solid thoughts on usability hiccups - which it sounds like Microsoft is going to great lengths to address quickly.
His take is especially interesting because he uses it heavily for art.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's an improvement upon the SP2, and we have not one, but TWO developers using them here as their primary desktop.
8GB ram, Core i5, reasonable (if limited in variety) connectivity options. These guys are developing significant C++ code (~1.4mil lines of code over 30 or so projects with a total build time for ~3 hours from scratch, ironically they're compiling everything from scratch in closer to 2 hours, SSD in the SP vs SAS RAID5 our normal workstations use I guess) without any productivity loss, same desktop monitors as their old PCs, same keyboard/mouse, just running on a small tablet.
The only real issue is lack of storage (we do machine learning / computer vision, our test sets are about 3TB worth of video/images/annotations) which can't be stored on these tablets for obvious reasons.
These are plenty usable as replacements for laptops, and in some cases even desktops - if you don't have the need for a high powered GPU.
Wow. Is the NAME that important?
I don't care if it's called Zhiang Zhun Chi or Apple iMcProAir. I care about whether it's solidly built, has good battery life and allows me to use the same software I use on my laptop. I also couldn't care less if the brand name has a history of unfortunate releases. Maybe they learned from their mistakes. if reviews are good and I like it during the 30 days I am allowed to return it, why not keep it?
Shunning a product simply because you don't like the name is retarded.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Yes, all 3 generations of Pro can have security turned off in the BIOS to allow a Linux install. But running Linux and actually doing anything aren't the same, there aren't properly configured drivers for a lot of things (as can be common for laptops). Even on the Windows side drivers initially held back the SP1 because Wacom hadn't released a compatible binary. The SP3 uses N-trig for the pen so it might be easier to get working but the Wifi, Bluetooth and even the advanced touch covers have all proven difficult to get working drivers on the SP2 and the hardware seems to be mostly the same in the SP3. You may find yourself with a screen and a USB port and not much else.
Not logging in since I got a security certificate warning ...
My wife's Surface Pro is an odd beast. It's fast. Well made. (Largely) free of bloatware (and what little there was, like the Expedia app, was easily defenestrated).
But she rarely uses it as a tablet (says she likes Metro, but doesn't like Windows' habit of bouncing her between Work and Play UIs [Office user], so in went Start8 and ModernMix so she can do her thing exclusively in Work mode). Refuses to use the stylus. If she wants to randomly surf the web she grabs either her phone or an actual tablet. Metro and the touch interface got so in the way of what she needs to do (work away from the office) that she's unlikely to ever willingly use Metro; I don't think she's alone in this. And, for better or worse, Metro is how MS pitched the Surface.
Microsoft faces an uphill battle to get people to work past these entrenched habits and odd (OS-related) design choices.
FWIW, I think MS would've had an easier time with market acceptance of the Surface Pro if the launch of Win 8 / Metro had been better handled. It's very hard to take a tool designed for production (specced and priced like an ultrabook) seriously if it boots into a UI designed for consumption which makes it look like an expensive, chunky iPad. And the situation wasn't helped much with naming confusion with the Surface which is (was?) an iPad competitor.
I know how shitty the old ones were, I won't consider buying anything from Microsoft called "Surface" -- ever.
Most of the reviews for the Surface Pro have been good. See this for example. The primary drawback that I've always seen mentioned is price.
For $400 a lot of people would like this tablet, but at $800 for the cheapest, it becomes less interesting. On the supply and demand curve, they just pushed demand down by increasing the price.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
How about Surface Pro 3 Update 1?
I come here for the love
The Surface Pro 3 could be the best tablet I've seen so far to actually substitute for a paper notepad and stack of printed reading material. As a biology graduate student, I can envision several use cases that aren't well served by any other devices:
1) It could be the electronic lab notebook that so many scientists have been waiting for. Even though I use a desktop to write protocols and analyze data, I always end up using paper at the bench. If I write up a protocol, I print a copy so that I can carry it to the bench and scribble notes as I go. Similarly, for small and medium scale data collection, I record the data on a notepad and only later transcribe it to the computer. With OneNote, a good stylus, and a good aspect ratio for portrait, this could conceivably replace the binder full of papers I keep at my lab bench. (Difficulty: is it water and solvent resistant? Can it be covered in plastic without overheating or blocking the touch screen?)
2) This could be the best tablet for reading big stacks of 8.5x11 inch PDFs. It's got the right display size, aspect ratio, pixel density, and again the styles could be pretty handy. A 10" tablet is too small, particularly with a low resolution screen. Fingertips or capacitive styluses are too imprecise for highlighting and note taking. On the other hand, I find reading it tedious to read much on a desktop, even with a good monitor. At 800g, the Surface Pro 3 isn't even that heavy by paper standards: the textbooks I have next to me are 1-3 kg, and I have many stacks of journal articles that weigh more than 1 kg.
3) Finally, it could be a good tablet for the sorts of image manipulation I do. If it's good enough for Gabe at Penny Arcade, it should be more than good enough for my modest needs. I spend a lot of time with Inkscape and Paint.net making figures for presentation and publication. (I even, I am ashamed to admit, use PowerPoint vector graphics more than anyone ever should.) It's never anything fancy, but I bet a good screen and stylus would be faster than doing everything by keyboard and mouse. Plus, I can use all of my usual scientific image processing software, and directly transfer processed images to other programs for further manipulation.
All of these uses are purely as a tablet or desktop replacement. I can't even see much use for the type cover to be honest, I'd rather just use the dock so I can plug in a real keyboard and mouse along with an external monitor.
However, it's way out of my grad-student budget. I'll be waiting for price drops (and other competitors) as I save up enough money. Or perhaps my research advisor has money budgeted for lab computers.
The exact words (my emphasis) go:
All x86-based Certified For Windows 8 PCs must meet several requirements related to Secure Boot:
They must have Secure Boot enabled by default.
They must trust Microsoft’s certificate (and thus any bootloader Microsoft has signed).
They must allow the user to configure Secure Boot to trust other bootloaders.
They must allow the user to completely disable Secure Boot.
For 400 bucks, you can't even buy the processor, screen, battery, SSD and RAM.
Seriously, you have to be realistic.