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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TremecsSTi - Friday, May 29, 2015 - link
I just found there is a very large elephant in the room that in 259 comments nobody has brought up.I had read this review and was still on the fence about what to buy but was leaning toward the iPad Air 2.
I went in to the store determined to walk out with an iPad Air 2 if nothing else so I could learn the ecosystem (This is my 3rd attempt to do so but I always balk at the cost of Apple products).
After picking up both tablets and comparing them the weight difference did not bother me as much as I thought it would. The 128/4 gb Surface 3 was $599, the 64/2 gb iPad Air 2 was $589.
Looking at the lack of ports on the iPad I started looking at accessories to be able to connect it to everything, $30 to hook it up to my monitor, $20 to hook up my camera, $30 to hook it up to my TV, $89 for a keyboard, $69, for a mouse! $829 for the iPad Air 2 and I did not even get to the covers. So I am typing this from my $718 Surface 3 ($599 + the $119 type cover) with double the ram and double the storage, micro USB, Micro SD, USB, Micro HDMI built in.
Looks like Apple lost out again but I just cannot justify the cost versus what you get. The quality of Apple products is hard to beat but the Surface 3 is very close and with twice the storage and ram for less money I could not pass it up.
blackcrayon - Saturday, May 30, 2015 - link
The Surface 3 looks like it's only about half as powerful as the GPU in the iPad, I guess if you aren't doing anything graphically intensive (games) it won't matter... Otherwise I cringe at the idea of trying a 3D game that's expecting what's normally available on Windows (i.e. Windows games aren't going to be optimized to run on such a slow GPU).khanikun - Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - link
You do know that Windows does everything a tablet does and did it before tablets were on the market? Also anyone who's invested money into any platform will have a hard time moving off that platform to another completely different platform.As for mixed bag, it's an all-in-one type device. Every single all-in-one type device has compromises. I don't have the Surface 3, but I do have the Surface Pro 3. Works great as both a tablet and as a notebook, so long as you don't actually want to use it in your lap. That's the only real downside that I find.
Now, for the Surface 3, I find it being more of a resurgence of netbooks, except in an all-in-one tablet like device. A device that can do it all, albeit not great, but well enough. Not to mention it does it not quickly, as it uses cheap internals, to keep costs down. The problem with this is the fact that MS gave it cheap internals, but decided to build a quality chassis with quality accessories. So the price point was brought down, but not down enough to satisfy everyone's wants. Sure, MS could have built this thing in a cheap plastic chassis and provided no keyboard or stylus option at all and left consumers to fend for themselves and this would have brought the price down below that of less functional iOS/Android tablets, but this would have also infuriated many consumers.
Really though, I find that MS did this right, minus the keyboard. The price point isn't unreasonable, when compared to less functional iOS/Android tablets. It's size and weight is well below that of convertible laptops. I just dislike the keyboard. Not it's feel or function, just that when you set it up in it's elevated position, it makes using the taskbar via touch, downright useless. I find myself having to remove it from the elevated position to access the taskbar via touch or use the crappy touchpad.
Ferrr - Wednesday, December 2, 2015 - link
I have a Surface 3 LTE, purchased in October 2015 with all updates duly installed. On the screen appear random clicks, like if I was touching it (but I don't) at full speed, making appear menus, opening files, starting apps etc. making the device unusable.I had reset the device to no avail.
Additionally, I experienced other problems:
- "Autorotate on" appears on the screen when working with the keyboard attached (so, not rotating at all) stopping the device for some seconds.
- A full charge needs 5-6h, with the device plugged in and switched off. If you want to work while charging the device, you will have a hard time: it charges extremely slowly (12h minimum needed) and in most of cases, if you have 2 or 3 "normal" (not very high energy consuming) apps open at the same time (outlook, word, edge), the device will keep on discharging, even plugged in.
- The device loses battery when on sleep mode at a very alarming pace (around 5% per hour)
I purchased the device in the US and I work in Russia. Now, with a worldwide guaranty, and in spite of having a filial in Russia, Microsoft asks me to ship the device, to pay for the shipping, to be delivered the new one in the US, and to pay the shipping again to my home in Russia...
And the screen problem is known since 3 years, with thousands of people complaining on forums.
Shame to Microsoft to keep on selling these crappy devices.
If you don't know how to make computers and how to deal with customers, please stay away and let others like Apple do that.
I deeply regret the day when I entered the Microsoft store to buy this.
Someone else is experience the same ordeal?
q8wii - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Thank you