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Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Announced (12", 3:2 aspect ratio, new stand)
- Thread starter enzo_gt
- Start date
Complex Shadow
Cudi Lame
I still whish they didn't zune the zune. I really wanted one, you know? I still do ... T___T
Septimus Prime
Member
With how much these things cost, they really should include Office.
StudioTan
Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
What's weird is that some of the cheaper tablets do. My Dell Venue 8 Pro came with office and it was $250.
I used that license on my SP3
The Zune was fantastic. I had one and used it every day. I switched to it from an iPod and was much happier with the overall experience. I still use the Zune software at work for my podcasts and music.
Septimus Prime
Member
Question: is there a way to simulate a right- or middle-click with touch controls? I'd like to be able to open new tabs in Chrome while still using my SP3 in "tablet" mode.
My zune HD was the most perfect thing in existence. To this day I regret selling it, I wish I had those limited edition crackdown ones.
Holding down the touch, I believe, emulates a right click.
Septimus Prime
Member
Yup, it sure does! Thanks!
Also, I found out that holding one of the buttons on the stylus (I believe the one closer to the clip) also turns your stylus touches into right-click. The other button is not middle click, though, I don't think.
TheLaughingStock
Member
The Surface Pro is already lighter, thinner, and more powerful than most laptops for sale. Press reviews go into what they think you should pick. Why would the tablet PC be the next wave in computing for Windows based off of what's happened since 2012?
EatinOlives
Member
Yep. People have been calling the "death" of the Surface since before the Surface RT 1 was even released.
elrechazado
Banned
Yeah my lenovo miix. 2 has full office. $199
Septimus Prime
Member
Okay, so since it's been a few days, here's a really quick and dirty review of that $25 case I bought.
Pros:
+It's only $25!
+It has a pretty classy, leather-like look and feel, and the flap that holds it closed is magnetic.
+It protects both the front and back of the device but still leaves room so you can use the charging port when it's closed.
+It's still pretty thin. Completely closed, it's less than an inch thick.
+Its design makes standing up the device at various angles easy, and the stand is fairly stable.
+The keyboard works pretty well, and since it's bluetooth, you can keep it far away from the device.
Cons:
-The back cover blocks the kickstand.
-It's still more than twice as thick as the device itself when it's closed.
-The pen loop is on the outside, so it doesn't really protect the stylus.
-You can't stand the device and keep the keyboard in the case at the same time if you want to use the keyboard.
Overall, I think it's well worth $25 to have this as a travel case, but I ended up ordering a type cover anyway.
Pros:
+It's only $25!
+It has a pretty classy, leather-like look and feel, and the flap that holds it closed is magnetic.
+It protects both the front and back of the device but still leaves room so you can use the charging port when it's closed.
+It's still pretty thin. Completely closed, it's less than an inch thick.
+Its design makes standing up the device at various angles easy, and the stand is fairly stable.
+The keyboard works pretty well, and since it's bluetooth, you can keep it far away from the device.
Cons:
-The back cover blocks the kickstand.
-It's still more than twice as thick as the device itself when it's closed.
-The pen loop is on the outside, so it doesn't really protect the stylus.
-You can't stand the device and keep the keyboard in the case at the same time if you want to use the keyboard.
Overall, I think it's well worth $25 to have this as a travel case, but I ended up ordering a type cover anyway.
Lone_Prodigy
Member
Oh man the SP3 is $700 for students (i3, 64GB). $200 more for the i5 and 128GB, but for that price you could get a Type Cover.
So, it turns out when you direct a USB fan at the processor on the SP3 it avoids the auto-throttle resulting in a 62% performance improvement over a non-cooled stock situation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC8rCeDMqFw&feature=youtu.be
The shitty cameras are really bugging me on the SP3. Would have been so cool to have been able to take photos of documents for ocr-ing.
I will definitely be upgrading next year if MS can be bothered to improve the cameras on the SP4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC8rCeDMqFw&feature=youtu.be
The shitty cameras are really bugging me on the SP3. Would have been so cool to have been able to take photos of documents for ocr-ing.
I will definitely be upgrading next year if MS can be bothered to improve the cameras on the SP4.Septimus Prime
Member
Anyone have any tips for how to make your handwriting not look like shit on OneNote? I'm slowly improving, but writing on glass with a spring-tipped pen is really hard.
The shitty cameras are really bugging me on the SP3. Would have been so cool to have been able to take photos of documents for ocr-ing.
It is annoying, but how good are the cameras on a MacBook Air by comparison -- it just has a single front camera, and it is just 720p.
Instead, I have a Lumia 1020 (41 megapixels!). I use the camera on that, and OneDrive sync the camera roll.
So, it turns out when you direct a USB fan at the processor on the SP3 it avoids the auto-throttle resulting in a 62% performance improvement over a non-cooled stock situation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC8rCeDMqFw&feature=youtu.be
The shitty cameras are really bugging me on the SP3. Would have been so cool to have been able to take photos of documents for ocr-ing.
Yeah this shit definitely needs to be fixed, the CPU thermals Broadwell will easily take care of, but the shoddy cameras, good lawd pls just spend the extra buck or two and put in some older smartphone snappers on both sides D:
i'm really tempted to get this, my account is still student status but...
wtf do i do with my surface pro 1
i probably can't even sell it for $450, which is ridiculous when consider this is a FULL COMPUTER, and it's an i5
sad really
It works for me, never had to do anything special. Plugged it into my receiver and it just did its things.
Finally got my SP3 with purple type cover. Adjusted to the device pretty quickly since I was using Surface RT before, almost a bit too easy that it didn't really feel like I'm using a new device. I think I'm still adjusting to the fact that I mobile device this capable at this size, but it'll probably be hard to go back to using standard sized laptops after this. Keyboard is more sturdy than I expected with the new magnetic strip if you're on a sturdy surface. FN+Caps is a godsend because otherwise it would be a pain to use F1-F12 keys on the type cover especially without a FN key on the left.
I also thought metro apps load pretty slow just because my Surface RT was underpowered, but with crappy internet connection at my parents, using metro apps is a terrible experience because sometimes they may take forever to load and fail randomly just because the internet isn't fast enough.
I do have a problem with keeping downloads on though. It seems like if I turn the screen off, downloads turn off too even while charging. So I basically need to keep the screen turned on at all times to keep downloading? Is this only a problem for desktop applications? Does having the dock somehow prevents this from happening?
I also thought metro apps load pretty slow just because my Surface RT was underpowered, but with crappy internet connection at my parents, using metro apps is a terrible experience because sometimes they may take forever to load and fail randomly just because the internet isn't fast enough.
I do have a problem with keeping downloads on though. It seems like if I turn the screen off, downloads turn off too even while charging. So I basically need to keep the screen turned on at all times to keep downloading? Is this only a problem for desktop applications? Does having the dock somehow prevents this from happening?
Ugh yeah I'm in the same situation. If I could get a trade in for my SP1 and get like $400 toward the 3 I would do it. Ugh is there also any chance new SP will have something like the Tegra K1 in future versions? That would make my combo perfect
Pegosaurus
Banned
where do you see this though?
I went to the Surface site and didn't see anything about student discounts
edit: I found it, it's actually $650 for the i3 which seems like a good deal. Is it worth it to buy this if I already have a laptop though? I'm in the market for a tablet, but I'm not sure if an iPad or something would better suit my needs. I'd like to use it for schoolwork mostly, and media consumption/games secondary. Would the i3 be good for that or would I be better off with an i5 or something? Also how does the SD card work on this? If I buy a 128gb SD card is it essentially the same as having 192gb of storage space?
I'm going to the US this Christmas. The prices are so different that I could get an i7 for the price of an i5 here in the UK. I could save even more if I'm allowed to use student discount in the US since I'm a student here. Can you get student deals in the Microsoft shop? Do you just need a student card?
Thanks
Thanks
BeforeU
Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
Honestly they are pretty cool about it. As long as you look like a student, age wise I mean. Then they won't even ask you for an id. In case if they do, all you need is a student ID. You can probably show them your UK one and I doubt they will even notice.
Fantastic. Was gonna get one sooner but this means I'll get an i7 for the same price. Cheers!
Septimus Prime
Member
As far as I know, once the device goes into sleep mode, it also shuts off all in- and outbound WiFi communications (I found this out while running a media server; it would just stop every 4 minutes, as the SP3 fell asleep). I've pretty much also resigned it to just leaving it plugged in or just touching the screen every once in a while.
Also, be sure to turn off fast restart (hybrid start up); that gave me some real problems with shutting down, restarting, or even just waking the device.
Looks like it was just something sketchy with my cheap Monoprice adapter. I bought the official unit and it works fine. Guess that solves that!
SerTapTap
Member
Had mine since the i5 launch, love it. Any Metro apps that are worth a damn? I keep looking in the store and meh. I like the Metro UI (for touch) but I got the device for it's creative not consumption based qualities, so I guess even android/iOS app stores aren't that great. surprised there's not at least some decent IM clients and an official Pocket client or something. All my cloud crap is Google too, which doesn't seem to help.
That sucks, seems like connected standby has it's implementation issues. Hopefully it's less of a problem when I get to a place with better internet connection. Haven't had any issues with restarting the device yet so I'll leave it on for now.
I was looking through the store again when I got my new SP3 and here's what I found that seems to be worth keeping around. Some of these are useful just because you can pin items to the start menu to keep track of them and get notifications while others are just pretty to use in tablet form.
Tools
Reading List (save stuff for offline reading later)
Drawboard (PDF annotation, almost a must alongside OneNote)
OneNote MX (Note taking)
Package Tracker (track your shipments, has cloud sync)
Orchid (Amazon price tracker, but seems to not work for me right now)
Remote Desktop (nicer to use than the desktop ver.)
Skyscanner (Flight ticket search)
Torrex Pro (only serviceable torrent app)
Clipboard (useful to copy stuff from apps to text using the share charm, not sure if still necessary in 8.1 but was very useful when 8 launched)
mobile.HD player (if for some reason you want a video player app, it works fine in most cases but has problems with subtitles sometimes)
Kindle (it's so slow and you might as well get the desktop app, but it's more suited for tablet use)
Skype/Twitter/Facebook (useful tools plus you get notifications in metro)
News (you don't need them all)
NexGen Reader (RSS reader)
Flipboard (News reader)
News Bento (News reader)
Finance (default bing app, pin indices you want to track)
Entertainment
Metrotube (nice looking YouTube app)
Film Closet (awesome looking movie tracker/xbmc-lite)
TV Closet (ditto for TV series)
Watchlist (alternative for TV Closet)
Manga Z (manga tracker plus reading, but developers seem to have abandoned it)
Manga Comics (a newer alternative, lacks functionality but is nice to look at)
There's also a good amount of cooking apps that looks and functions well, but I've stopped looking at them since I don't cook as much anymore. Cocktail Flow is still one of the most amazing looking apps using metro, apps like AllRecipes, Chef, Food Network are also worth exploring. The default bing apps like news, travel, and food are all worth looking at as well. But yeah, if you just look around without knowing what you want, most of the apps you find in the store are mostly uninteresting.
Also anyone explored the multiple Android emulators now out there on their SP3? I'm having trouble installing most of them due to my crappy internet connection right now, but I want to have one around because some mobile apps (banking and authentication for example) are really useful to have around. Bluestacks is the most popular of course, but there's also Genymotion, DuOS-m, Andy, YouWave, etc now with different people claiming a different one is better.
Need some advice.
I want to get a Surface pro 3 for my wife (she's a student). Right now she uses are really crappy old HP laptop. I am confused about either getting the i3 or i5. Will the i5 really make a difference?
i do not think she uses any taxing programs mostly office, browsing, movies. Maybe some light photoshop or picture editing for images on her DSLR.
Im sure anything I get will be better than her laptop but I want it to be able to last her a bit. To the people with i3s do you notice any performance issues? Also if i need to get i5 do I need the 8gb?
Only other thing is the HDD space but i guess I can get an SD card to make up for it.
I want to get a Surface pro 3 for my wife (she's a student). Right now she uses are really crappy old HP laptop. I am confused about either getting the i3 or i5. Will the i5 really make a difference?
i do not think she uses any taxing programs mostly office, browsing, movies. Maybe some light photoshop or picture editing for images on her DSLR.
Im sure anything I get will be better than her laptop but I want it to be able to last her a bit. To the people with i3s do you notice any performance issues? Also if i need to get i5 do I need the 8gb?
Only other thing is the HDD space but i guess I can get an SD card to make up for it.
SerTapTap
Member
I'll download some of thems tonight. Cocktail flow sounds good...I have a margarita blender and I like mixed drinks but haven't really learned how to make too much outside of margaritas and daiquiris.
Did Flipboard ever get Zite's learning algorithm? I used to use Zite all the time on my phone, but the crash-factory that is the Android version eventually frustrated me so much I stopped. Now I just look at twitter when I'm bored and on the go.
I started trying some games on the SP3--not too shabby, really. I ordered a mini displayport to HDMI so I can use the bedroom TV, thanks to DS4 Windows I can bluetooth sync a DS4 with minimal fuss. Played some Mercenary Kings and Skullgirls. High DPI mode seems to confuse Skullgirls (always launches in a window?) but MK runs great. Seems like I can get 3D stuff running alright if I make some fairly heavy sacrifices visually. I'm less bothered by the black bars than I expected.
Did Flipboard ever get Zite's learning algorithm? I used to use Zite all the time on my phone, but the crash-factory that is the Android version eventually frustrated me so much I stopped. Now I just look at twitter when I'm bored and on the go.
I started trying some games on the SP3--not too shabby, really. I ordered a mini displayport to HDMI so I can use the bedroom TV, thanks to DS4 Windows I can bluetooth sync a DS4 with minimal fuss. Played some Mercenary Kings and Skullgirls. High DPI mode seems to confuse Skullgirls (always launches in a window?) but MK runs great. Seems like I can get 3D stuff running alright if I make some fairly heavy sacrifices visually. I'm less bothered by the black bars than I expected.
SerTapTap
Member
Does anyone notice any poor performance when using a paging file? I disabled mine out of habit but only have 4GB (I knew this could cause issues). I occasionally get the low on RAM warning when starting a game but when I look in task manager it's at ~65% ram tops. I suppose I should turn on the page file though.
How fast/slow is the microSD card slot? If I put some rarely used games on there would they even be worth trying to play?
It has a higher # for HD graphics, I assume it's better to say the least, can't find any comparisons though. The i5 seems about the best balance for price, but I didn't really get it for gaming (but it's a nice bonus). Surprised there's no benchmarks out yet, been around for a week or so I think.
How fast/slow is the microSD card slot? If I put some rarely used games on there would they even be worth trying to play?
It has a higher # for HD graphics, I assume it's better to say the least, can't find any comparisons though. The i5 seems about the best balance for price, but I didn't really get it for gaming (but it's a nice bonus). Surprised there's no benchmarks out yet, been around for a week or so I think.
I just backed this on Kickstarter. Looks pretty cool, particularly if there will be enough hardware votes to get an SP3 tailored version.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mmv/console-os-dual-boot-android-remastered-for-the-pc
Yes, that much is clear, but it was remarked in the Anandtech review of the i5 version that the CPU/GPU are throttled when under load due to thermal reasons. IIRC the HD5000 is built a bit differently, so it could be heat isn't as much of an issue.
SerTapTap
Member
Thanks for this! No throttling at all would be better obviously, but that doesn't seem too bad.Oh, managed to find this, looks like it does throttle a bit less:
SerTapTap
Member
I think there is a way to disable throttling at your own risk, not sure how well/if it works, haven't messed with it. Would be interested in hearing people's experiences. I OC my desktop pretty heavily but this thing's pretty expensive and harder to cool/monitor for temps.
Septimus Prime
Member
How are the thermals on the SP3 in general? My i7 overheated last night and hard locked until I turned it off and had a USB fan blow on it for about an hour. That seems pretty atrocious to me.
SerTapTap
Member
Running an i5 here.
Certainly never had it hard lock, gets fairly warm in some situations--oddly playing almost any form of video, using even 12-25% of CPU, will kick it's fan on and generate a fair amount of heat (Chrome seems pretty bad about this though, I've caught chrome idling at 25% for no apparent reason. Then again, I've been using the canary and more recently Beta because of better touch support).
Even when playing games or stuff it's never gotten to burn-your-hand hot externally, but I've mostly been using it for web browsing, chat, general laptop replacement stuff. Very little gaming, havent' tried encoding a video on it or streaming from it or anything.
Do make sure it's 100% up to date though. It took like 3 reboot cycles to get mine ALL up to date, and there's some significant fixes like a wifi bug that are patched, no idea if that could be related to overheating.
They didn't reach 125k
Most of the Kickstarter backer levels come with a certain number of votes by which supporters can indicate which hardware they want the developers to focus on. So even though they didn't reach the stretch, there is still a pretty good chance they will work on Surface Pro if they get enough votes (I'm going to use all my ten votes for Surface, obviously).
Septimus Prime
Member
Yeah, it's completely up to date, but it keeps locking up, for some reason.
I was actually using OneNote during a meeting earlier today, and it completely hard locked and couldn't even be rebooted.
Maybe I have a dud unit. =(
I'd get it exchanged, it shouldn't be hard locking.
Septimus Prime
Member
Hmm... according to this thread, http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...3-freeze/8262c98e-b33c-455a-a968-ee574f6d74ff, f.lux could be the problem. I'm going to try to uninstall it.
EDIT: More info: http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/28wgla/getting_crashes_freezes_or_bsods_remove_flux/
EDIT: More info: http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/28wgla/getting_crashes_freezes_or_bsods_remove_flux/