And that’s when it hit me, OneNote is the Pro 3 killer feature. This is what makes it not just another tablet or a laptop, it’s OneNote and if you are not in the OneNote world, the competitive advantage of this feature diminishes the use of the device. But here is where it all made sense and not just with the Surface Pro 3.
I’ll be on vacation in the US late October/early November, and since electronics are a lot cheaper in the US than here, I’m going to buy a new laptop while I’m there. I’ve been debating the MacBook Air, Acer S7, and the Surface Pro 3, but when I line up all my needs and wants, the Pro 3 comes out so far ahead it’s just a humiliation for the other two.
The MBA is out of the question because I prefer the Windows version of Office (Office is hugely important for my line of work). On top of that, its display is far too outdated and low-resolution to warrant the total laptop’s price tag. The choice between the S7 and the Pro 3 is more interesting, but in the end, I know the quality feel of Surface devices first-hand. The lightness and thinness really stand out too (this photo really illustrates just how thin the Pro 3 really is).
Software-wise, I will use the Pro 3 as a laptop, and I like using Windows 8.x as a desktop operating system, so after disabling the horrid Metro crap it’ll be my ideal laptop. I’ll of course play around with all these machines before making the actual choice, but on paper, it’s no contest for me.
The whole OneNote stuff that this article highlights hadn’t even crossed my mind. I’m currently not really a OneNote user, and I don’t make a whole lot of notes as it is (my memory is creepy good – I remember almost every posted and submitted story on OSNews going back 8 years), but the idea of using the pen and quickly note down a thought and have it synced everywhere appeals to me.
I think the eventual sales figures for the Surface Pro 3 will not reflect its actual quality very well – much like how Windows Phone sales do not really match its quality either. It’s the reality of the market, and it’s easy to laugh it off ‘because Microsoft’, but remember that this reality affects many promising, quality products – which are not made by the big boys.
You can’t actually use the Surface pro on your lap as a laptop.
Well you can of course, just like you can balance a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard on your lap, but it will not work nearly as well as an actual laptop. The stand sucks on non-hard surfaces, and the weight distribution is completely backwards for use as a laptop.
Microsoft claims that the surface can replace a laptop, and it can, but not well. It has the power, but the ergonomics suck unless you only ever use your laptop on a desk.
If you want a laptop, buy a laptop. If you want a tablet, buy a tablet. If you want a hybrid that does both things sort of, but neither very well, buy a surface. Just don’t kid yourself that the Surface is a good laptop.
Not everyone uses a laptop on their lap. In fact, I rarely see people do so.
In any case, I cannot do it because ergonomics (my neck will hurt within seconds), and technically, neither should anyone else. Using a laptop like that is incredibly bad for your neck, shoulders, and arms.
You rarely see people using laptops on their laps? Thom, sometimes I think you live in an alternate universe. How do you use a laptop when you are on the train, or on a bus, or in a plane, or at an airport, or on the couch, or most anywhere where you might want to use a laptop? On your lap of course. Of course if you want a laptop only to use at the cafe then that is something else (and almost equally terrible as far as ergonomics go).
The only ergonomic way to use a laptop is docked to a proper desktop screen at the right height, with a separate keyboard and mouse. Of course if you only use it that way you might be better off with a desktop which will be far more powerful for less money.
As for note taking, there are far better devices for that. Like a large-screened phone with a pen, or a lightweight tablet.
On a plane, I’d use the tray on the seat in front of me. At an airport, they got tables. For everything else? A tablet
I find on planes there is more room without the tray..
But I’ve given up on laptops for a long time. Phone + wireless keyboard is enough when I travel.
And since when are the ergonomics of using a tablet any better than that of a laptop? It’s the same hunched, neck bent pose.
Edited 2014-09-08 01:26 UTC
I can’t really speak for most on the subject since I’m visually impaired, but for me, a tablet is 100x more convenient when you need a screen right in front of your face
The Surface won’t fit on an airplane tray, the depth of the tray is about half of what is needed for the keyboard and the kickstand to both be on a hard, stable platform. Like others have said, the Surface is absolutely useless as an actual laptop.
But didn’t they design Surface 3’s kickstand to be better useable at multiple angles? I remember having read that it’s also more useable on one’s lap, too. I know there were complaints about these things in earlier Surface-models, but I was under the impression that things were improved a lot on the newest one.
Yes. When you flip it out it is frictionless until apx 20 degrees. After that there is considerable friction so you can adjust the kickstand to virtually angle from 20 to around 160 degrees (give and take).
Yes, in addition to the kickstand, the keyboard can attach to more of the surface, thus adding stability when attached. It gives a lot of extra stability, but it is not comparable to a laptop.
On a plane, couldn’t you just lean the display against the chair back instead of using the kickstand? That would give you more room for your arms as well, and even allow you to use the tray as a bit of a wrist rest.
I actually agree with Thom here. When I see people use laptops they almost always seek one or another way of placing the laptop away from their laps, whether by placing it on a nearby seat, a chair, a cardboard box, seeking a table to sit at and so on. It’s really, really rare I ever see anyone place it on their laps.
I could only guess why that is, but from my personal experience I find it really, really uncomfortable to try to use a laptop on my lap — it’s just simply too close — and they also tend to heat up on the underside that’s residing against your legs.
I would argue that depends. It’s difficult to write on a slick screen which offers zero friction in a moving vehicle, for example, whereas resting your wrists against the object you’re typing on using a keyboard generally would be easier. Then there are people like me whose hands shake and small, precise movements are difficult and thus writing anything legibly is difficult and time-consuming. And at least in the case of my Galaxy Note 1 even when I took the time to write real slow so as to make the text look remotely legible it didn’t understand it anyways because I was writing left-handedly.
Actually, I stumbled once on research which explored this, the ergonomics of working on a laptop …IIRC, close to perfect position was half lying, with your legs slightly angled (and supported), and a laptop on your, well, lap.
Not to mention your balls and your future (or lack there of) future kids.
I never used my laptop on my lap either, I always perfered 12″ and under laptops, I usually held it in my left hand and used the right for input while walking around. I still do this, I’ve never dropped a laptop in doing this even though I could always be found walking the crowded halls at uni taping away while going from place to place, dodging people and obstacles while never looking away from the screen. This was an even more impressive feat when I would read a full sized newspaper while reading.
I however HATE touch devices of all kinds, I even refuse to get a smart phone in favor of keeping my old feature phone till it dies or they stop allowing it to be used as a 3G antenna via bluetooth, you can have my netbook when you pry it from my cold dead hands. Though maybe the Pyra will be capable enough to replace my netbook when it’s released, since I have little need for a laptop these days, so something that fits in a pocket would be nice to ensure I always have it on hand should I need it.
IMHO it actually works better on your lap than an actual laptop because the heat is distributed away from my legs.
IMO the real issue with Surface ain’t that they can’t be used on your lap, that’s a minor inconvenience if anything compared to the real pain point of these devices: the keyboard sucks big donkey balls for anything other than the sporadic couple line e-mail.
No it doesn’t. I have a Surface 2 Pro with a type cover and it is no different to any other laptop keyboard I’ve used. In fact, it’s substantially better than a Dell we have as a dev pool laptop here at work.
isn’t actually using a laptop no your lap dangerous for your health, I remember seeing multiple report about how the heat could affect male fertility.
but again there is very little cases were you would absolutely need to balance the laptop on your lap (while commuting, on the couch, … ), and most of them sound very bad ergonomically (hand/neck related).
I have owned all 3 Surface Pro models and while I would somewhat agree with you regarding the first two models, I sincerely disagree with you when it comes to the SP3. Since the kickstand is flexible on its positioning you can use it on your laptop without issue.
Is it the exact same experience as a traditional laptop? No…but you can do it.
You can also use the device in your lap as you would an ipad when not trying to do serious business.
OneNote is really good at what it does. But Windows 8.1 was where the services integration really came together for windows. With skydrive and office really tightly packed in and tied up to your Microsoft account.
There’s even this ad from 3 years ago now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6rINBbneY
It can’t really be a killer feature when it exists for every other pc in the market for years. (If you want to be pedantic about this blog, every pen enabled touchscreen.)
Actually metro interface makes a lot of sense when used in a Tablet.
That’s been my experience too. I tried out a Dell Venue 11 Pro for a week, with both the laptop-style keyboard dock and the Surface-style keyboard cover. I actually enjoyed the Metro interface when holding it as a tablet, and docked to the keyboard it made for an excellent little laptop.
I’m still not ready to make the jump from Windows 7 to 8.1, so I went back to my dusty old workstation, and my wife’s full size laptop when I need a portable machine. Windows 8.1 on a tablet was a generally positive experience though.
Edited 2014-09-08 12:45 UTC
Didn’t you say “The MacBook Air is the best ultrabook.” just a few days ago?
http://www.osnews.com/permalink?595331
I am also considering the SP3. It is an amazingly thin, light, beautiful, powerful device. Too bad it didn’t exist when we bought a http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_Transformer_Book_TX30… earlier this year. That machine is almost perfect, but too heavy for my wife.
Yep, I’m beginning to think Thom just makes random statements so that if anyone calls him a fanboy he can point to where he said the opposite. He has a strong anti-apple stance, but then out of the blue he says all Apple products are superior except the iPhone.
Then in the next breath he says the Macbook Air is so hopelessly out of date that he wouldn’t even consider it next to the Microsoft Surface. Obviously both of those two things cannot be true at the same time.
Or, you actually read what is written and see that both statements are perfectly compatible. First, in the MBA comment, I stated very clearly that there is a difference between the vest in general and what might be the best on an individual basis.
Second, in this little story, I note several qualifiers for my personal situation that disqualify the MBA *for me* that do not necessarily apply to everyone (such as Office).
This is all very simple stuff. Learn to read before attacking me – as you always do.
It is indeed simple stuff. You are very well aware that you can run Windows on a MBA so your software argument doesn’t make sense.
And the hardware argument is exactly why I disagreed with you in the other topic.
Here is your quote from that topic:
Here is your quote from this topic:
No matter how well I read, those two statements are NOT “perfectly compatible”
And I didn’t attack you (this time). If YOU would have read what is written you would have seen the smiley.
Normally you are very balanced in your brand preference (you don’t really have one). That “Bullshit, every Mac is better” comment just didn’t make sense. I also see that you never responded to my comments in that thread but given the scores that my posts in that thread got I would say that my arguments made more sense than your statement.
You are running a great site that I visit every day. I like your topic-selections and learned a lot from the comments. But you like dishing out punches in your typical “snide remarks” section at the end of a post. Why don’t you accept a friendly tickle when you deserve one?
Edited 2014-09-08 08:37 UTC
I could, but my experience with running Windows on a Mac has been abysmal – unstable Apple drivers, horrible battery life, worse performance. So no, not an option.
They are. This post is talking about *my* preferences, what *I* want. I value a high-resolution screen, and deem the MBA one inferior for what *I* am willing to pay for a laptop. However, I know from personal experience that the average laptop buyer doesn’t care about that at all. Same about my very specific complaints about Office:Mac.
If a regular user comes up to me and asks for the best laptop, including pre- and after-sales support, to arrive at the best complete package? Nothing beats the MBA. If a user comes up to me with very specific demands? It might not be.
Which is *exactly* what I said in the comment – the part leos and you are leaving out: “…(note that this not mean that they are better for you).”
So yes, completely and utterly compatible.
I was replying to leos, not you
.
So you never explained why Macs are always “exponentially” better…but they are.
And “I value a high-resolution screen. However, I know from personal experience that the average laptop buyer doesn’t care about that at all.”. The average laptop buyer buys a 450 dollar machine and still cares about the screen resolution. That is why Apple “invented” Retina, suffered through the bad iPad 3 and made sure iPad Mini 2 had Retina (they could have chosen to increase battery life instead).
But I understand that from now on you will not complain anymore about pc’s/tablets/phones that have the “horrible 1336 x 768” because average users don’t care about that at all.
(I agree that BootCamp isn’t a good solution, but I have had quite pleasant experiences with virtualisation)
Edited 2014-09-08 11:03 UTC
Thom you are hilarious. So what you meant when you said that the MacBook Air is the best ultra book is that it is the best ultra book for other people? How amazingly arrogant.
Let me try this brand of logic. I don’t like the Galaxy Gear watch, but it is definitely the best watch for most people.
No, that kind of logic is actually perfectly valid. Realising that not everyone is like you (or that you are not like everyone else) is perfectly valid.
For example, the (Super)NES are the best game consoles for me. But I cannot call them the best game consoles for everyone. I could also call them “The best game consoles for people that don’t like 3D games”
“…Microsoft Office is hugely important in my line of work….”
Maybe it is time for a change?
Why? He clearly finds that it is the best tool for the job.
I love my SP3. I think I am a little weird/different in that Windows 8 has never bothered me. Is it the perfect OS?..by any means no. It’s quirky and jarring. However it allows me to have a truly portable machine that can be the powerhorse development box I need it to be while also be the light(-ish) weight tablet I want to be when couch surfing. Furthermore the resolution and aspect ratio are just right…thank goodness no more 16:9 which is really only good for movies. Not so great for writing, reading, etc.
OneNote certainly is awesome. I do miss the Wacom technology of the pen. It had better palm rejection, you didn’t need to register the pen with the screen before writing, and handled a lot of drawing better. It never felt right (as compared to writing on paper) but was good enough. This N-trig tech is great for writing on the other hand and it feels more suited for writing than it does for drawing etc. The pressure sensitivity is just not there.
Having said all that, the biggest disappointment for me in the SP3 is that if you use ANY virtualization technology on the device, it destroys the battery life. Something that Microsoft doesn’t advertise. Essentially if you put Virtual Box, VMWare, or turn HyperV on, the SP3 loses the ability to go into deep sleep mode which means that the SP3 only lasted 4 hours when awake and maybe 8 hours with on and off use. I would put the device to sleep ~20:00 and by ~08:00 the battery would be drained even if I had no VMs running.
There is something about the drivers that get enabled when virtualization is installed that is turned on that prevents the device from falling into deep sleep. Thankfully I have been able to maneuver around this issue by using online VMs, but please be aware of this issue before purchasing.
Other than that, the SP3 is my favorite machine and I am just surprised it’s not more popular.
Thank you! I have a now-ancient ThinkPad Tablet 2 and newer Asus Transformer Book T100 at work. I haven’t been able to figure out why the ThinkPad does so much better on the battery at idle. I’d bet money this is it! The newer Atoms have VT extensions, so I installed VirtualBox on the T100. When I get back to the office, I’ll verify this.
Again, thanks for posting about this. I think you’ve just helped me avoid quite a bit of frustration.
If you have VMs on, then it’s normal your battery life is crap because the Surface is basically on during “deep sleep”. Since the VMs have no idea about this, they will go on full steam ahead with their battery-destroying timers, etc.
But just turn off or suspend your VMs before going to deep sleep and you shouldn’t experience any battery difference, at all.
Except for HyperV. Since it is a bare-metal hypervisor Windows itself runs as a VM and you can’t really shut if off.
As I mentioned in my comment, even if I had my VMs turned off (not suspended or paused, etc., but completely off), I still experienced horrible battery life. In fact it made no difference if i had a VM running or not (or if it did make a difference, it was not noticeable).
Looking into the issue more, you will find that some people suspect (for Virtualbox and VMWare) it is the networking virtualization driver that prevents things from going to a deep sleep. HyperV flat out prevents the device from going to sleep.
It doesn’t affect all Windows 8 machines though…it’s kind of hit or miss in my experience.
I only got great battery life when I completely uninstalled Virtualbox.
This sounds very weird. In any case, the network filters are completely unnecessary in VirtualBox. NAT networking (the default) doesn’t require any filters nor “networking virtualization”.
Bridged networking (which does) is mostly useless on most wireless networks either way…
So I’d say that you if suspect it’s the network filters causing it you can safely remove them.
Your assessment is about the same as everyone else’s re: bridged networking. Unfortunately i had/have to use bridged networking because as a developer I sometimes do code reviews or pair with another developer and need to open up my machine to someone else on a network.
One’s solution might be to use NATing and then just open a port in the firewall that goes directly to a port forwarded port to the VM. However when NATing in Virtualbox, it NATs only to the loopback adapter and not the external interface and therefore I have not found a successful way (in Windows) to get NATing and external access to the VM. But if you know of a way to accomplish this, I would love any suggestions you have!
If I didnt need the bridged networking, I could keep virtualbox, uninstall the bridged network adapter, and see if that solves all my problems.
From what I understand also, the SP3 suffers from clock speed ramp down due to thermal issues. I watched a podcast made by Surface fanatics, where the main lead guy returned his Surface 3 pro and went back to Surface 2 pro because the 3 would frequently drop the clock speed at inappropriate times and cause issues in audio recording and video editing. Now, that doesn’t sound like it would affect Thom, but as a gaming device or something approaching a work station, it’ll be a bit of an issue.
You’ll probably find that once ‘Windows 9’ aka Threshold is released with the windowed metro applications plus other changes then the experience should be a whole lot more pleasant. The Surface 3 Pro is a good replacement for those who are currently lugging around with a laptop but want a tablet form factor without giving up the flexibility a traditional laptop brings – hopefully Microsoft will keep sticking to developing their own hardware because god knows right now the quality of PC hardware is pretty abysmal – looking at HP and Dell being the two largest offenders when it comes to shipping butchered Windows installations and buggy hardware.
What causes LibreOffice/OpenOffice to be less important than MS Office? In my experience, officer workers tend to use MS Office because of familiarity not because of macros. Unless you have a customized excel file sent to you as your main application for office work, it doesn’t make sense to me that tech news writers will use MS Office for anything else.
I don’t think Thom gets paid to be a tech news writers. Isn’t he a translator by day?
Office alternatives fail at even properly displaying simple Word files. I need to be 100% certain that files my clients send to me look the same here as on their computers. Office alternatives cannot give me that guarantee by a long shot.
And trust me, I’ve done the comparisons. Please, I know what I’m doing when it comes to running my company. It wouldn’t be doing as well as it does if I didn’t
.
Edited 2014-09-08 06:24 UTC
Thom,
Can you explain why MS Office for Mac is no good for you? I find it easier to use and actually handles large documents (> 100 pages) better than its windows brother (Office 2010)
I do most of my large document production on the Mac just because I find the Mac versino of Office to be a better product all round (Office for Mac 2011)
I can’t speak for Thom, but his complaints about LibreOffice reminded me of it actually being crash compatible with Word for Windows on certain documents created with Word for Mac. This has happened to me more than once.
As for handling large documents, I’ve seen a Mac slow down to a crawl under the load of a mere bachelor thesis (30 pages?). Office is a bloated pig no matter which platform, and YMMV.
Model, RAM, processor, OS X version? That is otherwise absolutely anecdotal. I’ve seen a Windows PC do the exact same thing. It all depends on the environment.
The original number of funny typos / autocorrects(?) in the above post was intriguing ;> (especially “It wouldn’t be dying as well as it does”
)
PS. But does MS Office give 100% certainty that files look the same?… I seem to recall it also had some “internal” compatibility issues here and there.
No it doesn’t. If you open any office document in a newer version, you have the potential for the file to be altered. For example, I used Word 2013 at work and opening older Word native docs (in say, 2010 Docx format) will work. But saving them, I’ll get a “Word will save this in a newer format” type warnings, and from that point onwards, the document can look subtly different.
Like Thom, my wife is a professional translator. When she went freelance, we had to introduce a copy of MS Office into our formerly Office-free household. OO / LO’s conversion of Word files is perfectly adequate for everyday purposes, but it is not good enough when you’re working with files that are close to production-ready. If you regularly send back files where the formatting changes, even if only subtly, clients will take their business elsewhere.
I’m obviously not a professional translator, but this is something that’s always seemed odd to me (as an outsider). If you want text translated, then just send the text. Once the text is translated, then it’s up to the original user to stick it into their document and do all the formatting and whatnot. It’s always seemed backwards to me that translators are expected to also format documents, and do layout, and typesetting, and all that other non-text-related stuff.
It’s also something that’s aggravated me a lot at work when collaborating with others on text. Everyone wants to send around completely formatted Word documents while working on the actual text of the document, instead of worrying about the text first, and the layout/formatting last.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back to plain text editors for all my document creation needs. Fill in the text content first, get that all proof-read and sounding good. Then copy/paste into a word processor/desktop publishing app for the actual layout, formatting, typesetting, printing, etc. Otherwise, I’d spend too much time trying to format, bold, highlight, indent, etc my text while writing it, and it would takes hours to write up something simple.
But, as I said, I don’t do translation work professionally, so there’s obviously more at play here. It just seems backward to me.
Edited 2014-09-08 19:22 UTC
Alas, that’s not how it works. Every translator wishes it worked like that – but it doesn’t.
That’s what I figured.
Gotta love client demands. 
I’m guessing this is more to do with the differing formatting rules in source and target language? The rules vary greatly, even between US and British English.
For Thom OSNews is a hobby…
OneNote was always the part I hated most of the Office suite.
I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but I’ve found OneNote to be the best part of Office for what I do with it. I can get by with Libre/Open Office for what little word processing and number crunching/tabulated data processing I do, but OneNote is by far the best note taking app I’ve ever used on a PC. The fact that it syncs up with whatever phone I’m using, be it Windows Phone or Android, is what puts it over the top for me. My memory isn’t what it used to be when I was a young man, so taking and keeping good, portable, fully synced notes is an absolute necessity.
I actually used Evernote for many years, but after they lost edits a few times I decided it wasn’t stable enough for me and moved all of my notes to OneNote and backed them up as text files locally for added measure (so far OneNote hasn’t failed me, but I don’t trust any synced storage 100%).
I too love OneNote. I’ve been using it for about 3 years now. I still use Evernote (as evernote has MUCH better plugin support for browsers).
OneNote is confusing at first, because it is not intuitive in any way. It just happens that a few years ago I got into the personal wiki world (tiddlywiki being the best) and stumbled on the fact that OneNote can be used as a personal wiki, with deep links, searchable document attachments, and all, and since office 365 using onenote for collaboration is great! You can share onenote workbooks and people can make edits and such without owning office…for free!
Add in the really good OneNote mobile implementations (the android version just added stylus support!) and the web implementation, it makes the onenote ecosystem really compelling.
Thom, could I suggest you test the Type Cover keyboard extensively before buying it? If the shop will let you, or if you have a friend who owns one, try doing a few hours of normal work on it. It is a very good keyboard in many ways, but it feels a bit like typing on the lid of an empty cardboard box. This was fine for short stretches of work, but I found that it had dramatically cut my speed when I was working with long documents (i.e., involving a couple of hours of typing). You may not have this problem, but it’s not the sort of thing you notice until you’ve used it for an extended period of time.
Otherwise, it’s a great machine. The screen is very good, and the 3:2 aspect ratio is well suited for working with documents. Its weight makes it quite handy to carry around (although I don’t quite get why people care about thinness), and I was quite surprised by how much I used it as a tablet (albeit usually with desktop apps). The keyboard issue was ultimately a killer so I no longer have the machine, but I would have probably hung on to it if there were a better keyboard available.
The keyboard is not a huge issues for me, since I’m not planning on doing the actual translation on the device (that will remain on my desktop). The biggest use case is sitting/lying on the couch, doing the final revision (i.e., reading and make very small changes here and there). This process can also be done late at night in bed, or early in the morning as I wake up.
But yes, if I were to do the actual translation process, I would not use the Surface for it – in fact, I would not even consider a laptop at all. That’s the job for a 24″ display, proper keyboard, and real mouse
.
In all of those situations your not actually sitting at a table. I think you will have problems with the keyboard.
It seems to me like your trying to find a justification to buy the SP3 and that is fine, but given all of your current requirements I dont think its the best fit for what you want.
Its too big to be a tablet and too small to be laptop, but if you want it its your money feel free to get it.
Just an fyi the dell xps 13″ broadwell refresh is coming out soon with a qhd display and windows 8.x its around the same dimensions as a 13″ macbook air, not officially announced but worth considering / looking into.
Theres also the windows versions of the Asus transformer and it has a solid keyboard.
There is also the Lenova yoga ultrabooks flip the keyboard use it as a tablet flip it around and use as a laptop not sure about screen res possibly qhd.
By Christmas I expect broadwell refreshes for all of the above and with that spec, performance and battery boosts. Personally I wouldn’t rush into buying anything this close to hardware updates.
I am not a big surface fan. The keyboard/cover that they keep pushing is just too low quality for me to see it as a laptop replacement. I am more interested in the other 2 in 1s coming out, like the HP x2 series, or the Samsung ATIV Smart PC. They have hard sturdy (and weighty) keyboard attachments. The Surface 1 and 2 were complete busts for my laptop workflows, the type covers were way too mushy and had too much give (and too little feedback) to be comfortable for any length of time to bang out a paper or do some Visual Studio development, etc. From reviews, the new surface 3 type cover is slightly better…
I cant wait to hear some hands on from you guys!
I don’t care much for Windows anymore – don’t hate it but don’t like it either – so I never really felt the desire to have any of MS portable devices. Like, never. Debian and Android both fulfill my needs perfectly.
But I’ve started to notice a trend lately where people are treating their tablets as a cheap Wacom Cintiq replacement and from the reviews I’ve read, the Surface Pro 3 comes out on top in that regard.
The Surface with a stylus CAN be successfully used to do digital art even if it kinda lacks the pressure sensitivity that the actual thing offers which is kinda moot point for me anyway, as I don’t think I ever noticed any difference going above 1024 levels. They tested it with Photoshop, Illustrator, Manga Studio and others and the response has been overwhelmingly positive with a few caveats here and there.
And all that for a fifth of the price of a Cintiq (at least the bigger, fancier models). The difference in cost savings would be most likely two times that here in Brazil.
I usually draw at the house as digital painting takes a very long time so it is not something you really do on the go, with your friends, etc. But it would be nice to have a portable device that I could take with me everywhere and doodle a few sketches. As long as it doesn’t drive me to bankruptcy in the process, that is…
Even Wacom itself is noticing the trend and is taking measures to jump onboard as they just announced brand new models of styluses to be used with the iPad and I believe it is just a matter of time before they’ll make them for Android and MS tablets as well.
/me needs to check this thingy when it becomes affordable
The Surface 3 doesn’t use the Wacom digitizer. I’ve heard mixed reports. The Wacom is a much nicer technology for drawing. Surface pro 2 is still a better option in that respect.
I think the future is the Lenovo Yoga hinge form factor.
But SP3 is a great executive device, and a Surface 3 with less features for less money will be a great device for anyone.
Once Yoga 3 and Surface 3 are out, THEN we’ll be playing with power.
I checked one out in a store, and it is a nice, well-made piece of hardware. The keyboard folio is not the best keyboard, and it’s not quite the same as a laptop in terms of feel or structural rigidity, but it’s good enough for most uses. For when it’s not, I have a Logitech bluetooth keyboard, as well as a full-size one Sony makes (for the Playstation of all things, but it works fine with a PC). Plus, being able to separate the screen and keyboard generally improves ergonomics in my book.
Only shortcomings I saw in it as a primary laptop for my intended VM-running use were limited storage (512 GB) and memory (8 GB). But if I didn’t already have a Panasonic G1, I’d buy one in a heartbeat.
If nothing else, I hope the Surface 3 (and the Ipad Air, and to a lesser extent the Macbook Pro Retina, Panasonic Toughpad 4K, and a few other machines) help put an end to the 16:9 display curse that has haunted us for the last few years. I want a screen I can do something on besides watch movies again.
Thom, if you get one and you get a chance, boot up a liveUSB Linux distro or BSD image on it. I’m curious how well alternative OSes would be supported, by accident or otherwise.
I gave a few Linux distros a try when I had a Surface Pro 3 – this was just out of curiosity, as I had by then decided that I wouldn’t be keeping it. Ubuntu 14.04 came closest to working out of the box. WiFi partially worked, but was erratic. Also, I couldn’t get it to connect on 802.11ac, only 802.11g. The Type Cover did not work at all (there is a kernel patch which fixes this). Bluetooth did not work either, but could be made to work by installing drivers from the manufacturer’s website (although, obviously, this means you need to have a USB keyboard at hand). None of the hardware buttons worked. The pen worked somewhat, but not well.
There is now a patched kernel which resolves a lot of these issues for Ubuntu. I would assume most of the patches can be manually applied for other distros.
It’s fast, the screen is fantastic, my apple display adapters work. OneNote is better than expected. The keyboard cover thing is fine, I thought it would be rubbish for extended use – but I got used to it within an hour or so and have no complaints and I spend all day writing.
I just replaced a 2nd gen MacBook Air with a Surface Pro 3 – i5, 8Gb etc. I travel a lot and at the time the Air was the best best hardware for the price. I really liked it and used it as my only laptop for 3 years – even went out and got an iMac for the kids, but never really considered myself a Macista. I got rid of the Air for the usual reasons – No MS Project or Visio – which I’ve tried to work around for the last 3 years, using Parallels and Bootcamp and all that, but at a philosophical level was never really satisfied with those solutions. Not to mention the space and reliability issues – parallels = heat
So last week I got the Surface. The OneNote integration is slick, use it much more than I expected. The physical arrangement is a bit clunky at times – put on desk face down, fold up stand, tilt unit onto stand, fold down keyboard etc. But the size and weight help me overlook that.
When I occasionally use it on my lap I use the onscreen keyboard which 1.) works well enough to type for quite long periods – followed by extensive edit sessions 2.) stops me working too much with a device on my lap. Windows 8.1 is very familiar as I’m never more than 2 clicks away from the guts of Vista – which I find reassuringly bizarre. On the whole I’m very happy – it’s so light and fast and light. Don’t miss Finder at all – glad to be shot of it actually, will miss terminal though.
I have saved up the cash, the CPU and battery life are exactly what I need… All I’m waiting for now is an update to the display, then I’ll buy a new MacBook Air.
whats a more expensive variation of a lenovo 11e? A ruggedized laptop with the ability to fold all the way back into tablet mode. I guess I really really like my x130e (work linux) and x131e (home chromebook) a ton, probably more so since they aren’t running windows.