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Forbes Revisits the Surface Pro 3, Which May Face LG Competition

Posted by timothy on from the plusses-minuses dept.

Forbes writer Marco Chiappetta revisits Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 half a year after its U.S. debut, and finds the tablet-laptop hybrid has held up pretty well, but suffers some dings worth knowing about before jumping at holiday sale prices, pointing out a number of scenarios where a full-fledged notebook, even if it’s roughly the same size, will be the better choice. I’ve found that the Surface Pro 3 is ideal for users that will likely fire the machine up when sitting at a desk or when in a conference room-type environment that has a table. The Surface Pro 3’s performance is plenty good for everyday computing and office applications, and the screen is top notch. Using the Surface Pro 3 as a notepad with its stylus is also very useful. In fact, over the course of the device’s life, Microsoft has issued a number of firmware, driver, and OS updates that have improved the overall responsiveness and usefulness of the Surface Pro 3. For those who want a laptop, though for actual laptop use, the Surface is an awkward fit. However, a thin, tablet-convertible, touchscreen laptop may appear soon from LG, as well.

6 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Have't looked at one at all. by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can install Linux on it. Whether you can get everything to work well is another matter, though.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  2. Re:Have't looked at one at all. by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's pretty much the problem with Linux on any machine. If you buy the machine specifically for running Linux, there are plenty of options that will run without problems. However if you pick a random machine at the store, odds are there will be some part of the hardware that has less than optimal drivers.

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    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. Try reading the article.... by CountBrass · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is about the SP3 not the SP2 and the article addresses the question of display scaling.

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    Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
  4. sigh... by CountBrass · · Score: 5, Informative

    The SP3 doesn't use a Wacom digitiser... it uses one from N-Trig.

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    Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
  5. Re: Not a Tablet by gcnaddict · · Score: 4, Informative
    October 25, 2014, via ComputerWorld:

    After two years and nearly $2 billion in losses, Microsoft's Surface turned a profit in the September quarter, the company said Thursday.

    October 31, 2014, via the Motley Fool:

    The Surface Pro 3, released earlier this year, is selling far better than its predecessors, and for the first time Microsoft has recorded a positive gross profit for the Surface business.

    It would do you well to source timely things, sir.

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  6. Surfaces suck by JThundley · · Score: 1, Informative

    I recently started working with the Surface Pro 3 and it blows, hard. Microsoft makes the hardware, the drivers, and the operating system yet none of these things work properly. I ask myself why these things don't work properly, but then I remember who is behind it. I'm going to list a few of the issues I've run across so far, and I'm sure I'll find more.

    I've had issues where the keyboard cover (which is made specifically for the surface) stops working for no reason. Device Manager says there's no driver installed, so you install a driver but Device Manager still says there's no driver even though there were no errors reported. The only fix was to "refresh" Windows, which means reinstalling windows on top of the other install and re-installing all your programs. Very time consuming for a device made for the Surface by the same company that should just work.

    Doing regular driver updates stopped the Surface Dock ethernet from working. Again, I had to reinstall Windows. All I did was Windows Updates that came from you-know-who.

    One of the firmware update drivers makes the firmware update device fail to start. Device Manager says to reboot to make it work and they provide you with a reboot button. You click the reboot button, your system starts rebooting, but then you get an error saying you can't reboot because the subwindows from Device Manager are open and need to be closed first! Why even give the user a reboot button if they're not allowed to click on it?

    I also see the display weirdness that people complain about. Some fonts look super crisp and nice on it's high resolution display, but others are blurry and ugly. If you change the resolution and then VNC into the machine, your mouse cursor is actually in a different position on the device and you can't really click on anything.

    I've had trouble booting Linux on them too, but maybe I've just been doing something wrong. This has stopped me from imaging the software installs.

    I would never want a Surface for myself.