The Surface 3 Review
by Brett Howse on May 4, 2015 9:00 AM ESTSurface 3 Design
For those familiar with the Surface line, and especially the Surface Pro 3, looking at the new Surface 3 is not going to shock you. It is certainly an evolution of the line and not a revolution. It still features the same magnesium body which really feels great in the hand. It really is unlike aluminium in feel, and I find that the Surface 3 texture gives plenty of grip, unlike some polished devices.
Microsoft paid a lot of attention when building these tablets, and their efforts are clearly seen all over. I have already discussed the kickstand when it is open, but when it is closed, it sits absolutely flush with the body, and the body has an angled edge to it, which the kickstand also must have. The power button and volume button both fit very snug and have a great clicky feel.
The biggest and best change to the design is what carries over from the Surface Pro 3; the 3:2 aspect ratio. 16:9 is really not ideal for a tablet in either orientation. In portrait mode, it is much too tall and skinny, and in landscape mode, the tablet is too long and can feel unbalanced.
Surface 3 over Surface 3 Pro
The move to 3:2 is a revelation for tablet use, and the Surface 3 is a much better tablet than even the Surface Pro 3. It is smaller, thinner, lighter, and just easier to hold. The smaller version is really quite good to use in portrait mode, which is something that could never have been said of Surface RT or Surface 2. I’m not sure if we have found a “perfect” aspect ratio for a tablet, but 3:2 offers a lot of advantages and very few drawbacks. It is better in landscape for actual productivity tasks thanks to the extra vertical space, and better for portrait because of the more balanced width.
One of the other great design features that Microsoft has been able to incorporate into the Surface line is front facing speakers. Sound does not travel well through things, so having the speakers pointed backwards just can’t compete. The best part of the speakers on the Surface line is just how inconspicuous they are. There are two tiny slots on the upper sides of the tablet (when in landscape) and they blend in surprisingly well with the black bezels, to the point where you may not even notice them unless you have the device in the right kind of lighting. We will see later on just how well they sound, but the placement of them is great.
The port selection is good too, and this is what helps Surface to be a laptop. There is a mini-DisplayPort on the upper right side, and just under that is a USB 3.0 port. This full sized port lets you connect almost anything to the tablet. In addition, there is an audio jack at the bottom right side, and in between the USB and audio is the charging port.
Microsoft has always used a proprietary charging connector on all of the Surface devices. The original Surface RT had a magnetic charger which would stick on to the device, and light up. It was reversible too, so you could connect it either way. The original had some issues with connections, and they tweaked the design. However for the Surface 3, they have ditched that connector completely and went with a standard micro-USB connector.
The use of micro-USB has some advantages and drawbacks. The advantage is that you can now charge the Surface 3 with any cord you already have for almost all smartphones (only Apple doesn’t use micro-USB) so that is a win. The drawback though is that micro-USB charging is generally power limited to only a handful of watts. A typical phone charger may only be five watts, and some of the better ones will be ten. The Surface 3 comes with a thirteen watt charger. Later we will see what effect that has on charge times, but it really is not a lot of power.
I think it is a missed opportunity to not be forward leaning on the charging port and use a USB Type-C connector. This would keep the reversible nature which is much better than what they have now, and Type-C can handle much more power (without ever going out of spec) offering them the opportunity to supply a bigger charger. Going to micro-USB now feels like a step backwards to be honest. Because the Surface already has a full sized USB port, you don’t run into the problems like the Macbook where it is only one Type-C. Type-C is the future, and not seeing it on this device makes it take a step back in the past.
The bottom of the Surface 3 keeps the now familiar magnetic connector and pins for the keyboard, and a groove runs along the bottom for the keyboard to fit in to.
On the top of the Surface is a slightly different color strip of plastic which will be the RF transparent window for all of the necessary antennae. I like that they did not try to color match the device because the contrast makes for a much nicer look, and trying to color match metal and plastic can end up looking poorly, especially over time. The plastic strip also features the 8 MP rear camera.
When you look at tablet design in the Windows world, there really is Surface and everything else. The device just feels solid, and the magnesium finish is so great to hold in the hand. The fit and finish of the Surface is as good as any other device on the market.
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MrSpadge - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Using legacy apps (which are still called programs) should be fine with the pen. Except for the high DPI display - depending on how legacy the app exactly is.Alexvrb - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
It runs touch-friendly modern apps (including Universal apps which will be getting a boost in the near future) as well as more traditional software. You can use just about any external accessory that you can with a regular PC. If you use the dock and a larger monitor this can even replace the desktop for many users. In many ways it is more versatile than the devices you mentioned.stephenbrooks - Saturday, May 9, 2015 - link
Actually a lot of programs designed for mouse input (click and drag) work pretty well on a touchscreen Windows machine. The main problem is the buttons tend to be too small for fingers.It would be great if Microsoft could have an option to magically enlarge GUI elements a bit when in touch mode.
jaydee - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
When I say lack of apps, I mean as designed as portable tablet. That's what MS is touting, it's a tablet and laptop in one.Of course it has tons of apps as a Win8/10 device, but if that's all you're really after, why buy something that straddles the line between laptop and tablet? Why not an XPS 13 or Spectre x360? Proportionally few of those Windows apps tend to run real well on a 10" touch screen with a resolution of 1920x1280.
It just seems to be in an odd place. I'm not sure what it does really well, other than its display. CPU/RAM/SSD are all compromised as a laptop and it's too expensive for what it does as a tablet. It's not "bad" by any means, I really do *want* to like it, it just doesn't seem to do the laptop thing well enough, be a tablet at a low enough price point. And I'm someone who would like to replace my iPad Air with something convertible like this. But if I'm going to buy a laptop that can also be used as a tablet, it's either going to have to have higher performance, or be cheap enough to not feel bad replacing in a couple years, and I don't feel either with this (particularly with accessories). I'm much more apt to get the i5/8GB/256GB HP Spectre x360 @$1,000, while more expensive, I feel much better about thinking about using for the next 5 years, compared to the Surface $600 + type cover + dock @ $930 and still has a tablet mode. The Surface Pro 3 is nice, but I'm not sure what it offers over the Spectre x360, at a sales price of ~$1,130 (retail $1,300), not to mention being a gen behind with Haswell still. If history is any indication, I will like the SP4 as a product, but probably not at it's price point.
Impulses - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
If the base model included 4GB and/or they at least threw in the pen for free with certain combos, it'd be more enticing. It's still an attractive package for people who just want a secondary system, but a lot of those are just gonna end up with cheaper tablets or more capable laptops.Even tho it's significantly cheaper than SP3, and it's exactly what a lot of people said the base Surface should've been all along, it still feels like less of a value proposition than SP3. Better storage and Type C might've made it more appealing...
As it is it feels too much like something they'll refine significantly for the next rev... Big EDU discounts could sway things tho. A simple $100 student discount would make it a $530-630 hybrid competing against $400-500 tablets and $750+ laptops, much better sweet spot.
simard57 - Thursday, May 7, 2015 - link
Costco has a bundle that includes keyboard and pen for $100 more over the 2GB and 4GB modelsillegaloperation - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
How much is portability worth to you?The HP Spectre x360 weigh over twice that of the Surface 3.
Also, why is the Dock being factor into the price? The Dock is nice to have, but it's hardly essential.
The0ne - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Just curious, what apps are you missing one the Windows platform? For someone like me who would use this for work, I can't imagine an app that is not available that I would use. You mean it doesn't have the hundreds and thousands of useless apps that are in all markets? Always confused by this statement.jaydee - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
In order for it to be considered a good "tablet", it has to do all those things that tablets are known for. Apple and Android have this tremendously large ecosystem that many people are vested in and there's a huge selection for. Obviously "entertainment" apps are going to be useless for people who use this for work. Just like the "productivity" apps aren't useful for those who use it for entertainment, etc. Certainly, the Windows tablet is a better match for a certain type of productivity user like yourself, then a gamer per se. What a tablet has come to be, for many people though is a ubiquitous device that transcends both genres and I don't see that in the Windows platform. Not to mention the fact that Apple/Android tablet users are going to have a hard time switching over if they've invested a decent amount of money into their Apple/Android apps.Like I said, I really want to like this device, but it just feels like too many compromises as a laptop and a mixed bag as a tablet. Does that mean that it's not a great device for some people? Absolutely not! I just don't see it doing one (laptop) or the other (tablet) well enough to break through mainstream and be a big seller at this price point. As other people have mentioned, if it were a lower price or included accessories or faster storage or Core-M instead of Atom were here, I would probably feel much different, but it's too many compromises as is.
Gigaplex - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
With Windows 10, Microsoft is aiming to bridge the "App gap" by making porting of iOS and Android apps to Windows fairly trivial.