Surface Pro 3 review

Recently I just picked up a SP3 because my laptop decided to crap out on me. Long story short, doesn't boot up and nothing but black screen.

This was the week to pick it up because of the $100 off the Pro 3 with i5, 8GB RAM and 256 GB HD. Just want I was looking for. For those wondering why not the i7 512 GB HD? Well because the i7 is not what I'm looking for and it heats up pretty quick. Then the processor throttles itself until it cools down or the tablet just shuts down. Not for me. Plus I have been using i5 for years without issues including video rendering.

-Pros
-Fast
-Compact
-Battery life
-1440p screen
-Pen input
-Nice Kickstand

-Cons
-Awkward position on your lap
-Windows 8.1 takes a little getting used too
-No where to store pen except externally
-No 512 GB option for i5 processor
-MicroSD not, not full size SD
-Only one USB 3 slot
-HDMI, VGA, network adapters are expensive ($25-$50)

Where do I start
I opened it the first day and notice how light it was and compact. I know I played with it in the store but this time I can fit in my backpack with a company laptop that is 15.6" without issues. Very light and I feel very little weight added to my backpack. First thing I did was play around with windows and within a few minutes, I got used to it but I still find myself hitting the wrong buttons but no biggie. Just takes a little getting used too. I then used it on my lap and it's awkward position and it will take a little getting used to but again no biggie. I mostly use my Android tablet for my day to day stuff but now I can use full windows. The keyboard is amazing. It's thin but typing on it isn't an issue like previous Surface pro keyboard. The buttons light up as soon as you touch a button so that is amazing. I wish there was a volume and display brightness button shortcuts but it doesn't. I'm not going to go through the specs or details since they are everywhere.

I started to load up my software-Office, 7zip, winamp and so on. This is the only time I got the SP3 to turn on it's fans to cool off. I was downloading, installing and of course playing around with a lot of the tablet's feature. The fans kicked in and it's noticeable but not as bad as other laptops when the fans kick in. Everything went though smooth. Then of course the windows updates came in so I did those as well. I had to put it on the charger for the Windows updates since it was around 1.3GB of updates. I let it do it's thing and once it was done, I was shutting it off and going to bed.

Next day, I figure LR6 is coming out and it's most likely $150 so I said screw it, pay the $10/month for CC and I picked up Photoshop as well. Photoshop has slight lag when editing a 25GB file PANO file not a lot of lag, noticeable but remember, it's a 25GB file. I then went to do spot removal, color changes and minor editing and it was smooth on a normal 30mb file. No lag at all. I figure, why not, and loaded up Lightroom alongside Photoshop and it ran smooth. Edited about 300 photos and each with little to no lag. I had all default settings on so I'm sure I could of optimized it. Overall, it handled both programs very smooth. Having the pen made editing much easier. If you have used a Wacom tablet, then this should come easy to you. I might not be using my Wacom tablet as much anymore now that I have a tablet with pen input. What becomes a problem is if your using the SP3 without the keyboard, you will find yourself missing those keyboard shortcuts. That is one thing I did not like but I do hope in the next LR, it's more touch screen friendly.

As for battery life, I was on 30% brightness and I had a 5:20 AM flight to go to San Fran. I fell asleep thorough half of it then woke up and transferred photos from my external HD to my SP3 which took about 10 minutes, then played around with LR and Photoshop for about 10 minutes and then I started to way a movie but 30 mins into it, I said this movie sucked so I stopped and ended up watching Pacific Rim at around 30% brightness. Most of the plane's window blinds were down and 30% was pretty bright and i could of lowered it but I just kept it as it. After that, I watched a stand up comedian for about 30 minutes before we landed. I was still well over 70% battery life. Wifi was off as well. I landed in SF and went to work and worked for about 3 hours while the SP3 was still on (sleep mode). I went to the hotel and used it from about 5:30 until 9:30 without charging it. I was running teamviewer and browsing the web training to learn Windows8 shortcuts.

This tablet is a power little beast in a compact size.

This tablet is not for everyone. I do travel a lot so tablet mode is perfect for me on the plane. I usually do not do work on the plane even with previous laptops. The kickstand and keyboard makes it an awkward for usage on the plane but I have the Incipio case and folds and can hold the tablet and keyboard easily on my lap. But this was a test. I most likely will not be using the keyboard on the plane and I will only do work at the hotel. But I do have the option for it. Will this last you from east coast to Hawaii, most likely not but it should last from a Boston to San Fran fight.

I'm a big fan of the surface pro 3; I got it specifically to let me do editing while traveling and was absolutely thrilled at what it could do.

I agree with all of your cons, but I will point out that the pen can be stored where the power cord attachment point is - I wouldn't do this for long term storage (use the loop on the keyboard instead), but for temporary on-off usage, I find it convenient.

I have fallen in love with the kickstand, especially at or near full extension. I find when it is like this on the desk, it makes the whole touchscreen/pen combo just come alive. It also works nicely for when I'm on the sofa with my knees up/bent a bit.

I must say, I am an Apple guy, and always had iPad's, but the idea of a Tablet with full Lightroom just for my photo editing ... very appealing !!, I am tempted by this one, of course, if Lightroom had a full App for the iPad ... i'd rather that (the cloud sync does not bother me)

shikhan wrote in post #17307469
I'm a big fan of the surface pro 3; I got it specifically to let me do editing while traveling and was absolutely thrilled at what it could do.

I agree with all of your cons, but I will point out that the pen can be stored where the power cord attachment point is - I wouldn't do this for long term storage (use the loop on the keyboard instead), but for temporary on-off usage, I find it convenient.

I have fallen in love with the kickstand, especially at or near full extension. I find when it is like this on the desk, it makes the whole touchscreen/pen combo just come alive. It also works nicely for when I'm on the sofa with my knees up/bent a bit.

I have the Incipio case for it and it has a loop for the pen. Great for throwing the tablet into your backpack and this case is the thinnest I've seen. I am very surprised by what this can do. Just a power house.

NullMind wrote in post #17307666
I must say, I am an Apple guy, and always had iPad's, but the idea of a Tablet with full Lightroom just for my photo editing ... very appealing !!, I am tempted by this one, of course, if Lightroom had a full App for the iPad ... i'd rather that (the cloud sync does not bother me)

It takes a little getting used too because I'm used to the keyboard shortcuts but I'm learning.

How is the screen- can it be calibrated?

The screen is great and I'm pretty sure it can be calibrated. Not sure how it works with a Spyder or silimiar program but you can manually adjust the colors in the color management option in the control panel.

The screen itself is very bright and texts are sharp. Color contract is really good considering its factory preset

Interesting read. I am currently thinking over a Macbook Air and he only lightweight windows alternate is the SP3... but I am not totally sold on my Surface RT2 enough to want another. Really need the copying and editing whilst travelling option and the RT usb port does not seem to like a small hub and 2 devices... so wonder how the pro handles a card reader and HDD simultaneously?

I was also in the same boat with the MacBook air but when it came down to it, the MacBook air's only pro was battery life. For a lower price, I picked up the SP3 with i5, 8GB RAM and 256 SSD. I went with the SP3 because it can be a tablet which is what I wanted and a full laptop which not what I was looking for until my laptop died on me. SP3 did not have the battery life of the MacBook air but with what I have experienced, this battery life is up there.

Surface RT is not even on the same league as the Surface Pro. Think of the RT as a Canon S120 and the Pro as a Canon 1Dx. Pro uses a high end i5 processor meanwhile the RT uses a ARM processor which is what is used on mobile phones. I used Lightroom and Photo shop easier and smoothly. I was able to edit files on my MicroSD card and again, no lag either. I have music playing which editing and it ran like it was nothing. No heating up and just smooth. Do not think of the the Pro as a tablet but instead a mid-high end laptop. Whatever Microsoft did, this was a home run.

The next thing I am looking at is the dock which is $200 and can be found on Amazon for $150. It allows the tablet to snap in and gives you 2-USB2 and 2-USB3, 3.5mm audio jack, display port and RJ-45 port and still charges your pro.

I have a Sypder4 elite. It did take me a few attempts to successfully calibrate the screen (originally had some colour casts) but got there in the end.
I increased the screen brightness to reach 120cdm^2, I can't remember what it was at the factory settings but I think that the native brightness may have been a little dim to calibrate accurately. I ran lightroom for a while first though (I have the I5 8gig ram version) to warm it up a little to optimise more for colour accuracy under load.

All that said, it was actually not too bad out of the box really.

Neilyb wrote in post #17309191
Interesting read. I am currently thinking over a Macbook Air and he only lightweight windows alternate is the SP3... but I am not totally sold on my Surface RT2 enough to want another. Really need the copying and editing whilst travelling option and the RT usb port does not seem to like a small hub and 2 devices... so wonder how the pro handles a card reader and HDD simultaneously?

The Surface Pro 2 or 3 is as capable (or even more capable) as the similarly sized, fully tricked out MB Air. I picked a Surface Pro 2 for myself over the MB Air, but picked the MB Air for my daughter for university.

Bob_A wrote in post #17310300

Using the Surface Pro 2/3 with a pen isn't much better than using the touchpad on the MB Air. If you occasionally use Excel or Word then carry a small wireless mouse with you (for the Mac or the SP) ... way less frustrating.

I have the Type Cover 2 for my SP2. Works fine except for the touchpad area which is pretty awful. Hopefully the SP3 Type Cover is better.

The i7 version of the SP3 sounds appealing, however I'm not convinced that MS has solved some overheating issues and I'm certain battery life is poor compared to the i5. For a device like this the i5 is good enough IMO, just don't think it will be a replacement for your desktop (the MB Air isn't either).

Battery life for my SP2 isn't as good as an iPad or Android tablet and not quite as good as the MB Air. If I'm not watching movies I can get close to 7 hours use with Bluetooth off and brightness turned down. The SP3 may be a bit better.

I'm ok with the choice of microSD. Small form factor yet still gives you a way to expand storage by 128 GB for about $120. Currently I use a spare 2GB microSD card instead of a USB memory key.

The screen size for the SP2 makes it a poor choice for Photoshop (not that you'd want to use a small screen laptop for PS anyway), but it's ok for LR if you run with some of the panels hidden. The SP3 should be much better in this regard.

I have StartIsBack+ installed on my SP2 to give me a proper Win 7 type start menu. I also disable the charms, corners, etc. I'm probably >95% of the time in desktop mode. Any modern apps I use are also launched from the desktop taskbar.

I hope some of the above helps!

-The new type cover is amazing and typing on it feels more like a laptop instead of a flat surface. I like it alot. The touchpad is also improved but still not as good as the Macbooks pro/air but this is really thing and it feels pretty good.

-I wished there was a 512GB option for i5 since it's perfect. My SP3 only heated up once where the fans needed to kick in but I was doing a lot to the point where it's rare. Installing programs, playing with games, surfing the web and transferring files for about 30 mins then the fans kicked in. I stayed away from the i7 due to the heating and throttling issues. Plus the new generation i5 is more then powerful enough to do photo editing and basic video editing without overheating.

-From reviews, the SP2 and SP3 should have similar battery life. The SP3 has a better processor but also higher screen resolution.

-I wish it took SD cards since I find them more reliable and cheaper.

-I'm used to a 13" screen so the SP3 is just slightly smaller but it's now a tablet so I can bring it closer. It's probably the smallest I would ever go for editing.

-That's a good program but I decided to just try and stick with Windows 8 and it's actually not that bad. Not as good but learning it is not too bad. But Windows10 should improve and bring back the older style menu.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase. I do wish the keyboard came with the tablet but then again, the price is slightly higher then comparable ultrabooks with similar specs but the SP3 is more compact and better battery life from all the reviews I have looked at.

I use my partners SP3 while traveling and agree that you need to get the keyboard!!

I got this to make up for the lack of usb inputs and also for the need of ethernet connection when hotels/rooms offers direct connect other than using their horrible wifi.

http://www.amazon.com …age_o07_s00?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

RandallB wrote in post #17308426
How is the screen- can it be calibrated?

RHChan84 wrote in post #17308857
The screen is great and I'm pretty sure it can be calibrated. Not sure how it works with a Spyder or silimiar program but you can manually adjust the colors in the color management option in the control panel.

The screen itself is very bright and texts are sharp. Color contract is really good considering its factory preset

I too find the screen to be good. I did not bother with calibration. well I don't edit pictures or work on it other than using it to browse and small stuff. then again I don't calibrate any of my monitors :P I don't bother because I can spend $$ and time on it but when someone else views it, it will be different.