The Surface Pro 3: A Laptop Tablet Crossover that Falls Short of its Full Potential

As I started using the Surface Pro 3, I was impressed by its impressive design and features. The device's sleek and premium build quality is undeniable, with a metal unibody construction that gives it a solid feel in the hand. The device's weight is slightly above average for a tablet, but this is somewhat mitigated by the comfortable kickstand, which offers study support up to 150° in use. This feature allows the Surface Pro 3 to rest at a helpful incline, providing more comfortable typing and usage.

The keyboard is another standout feature of the device, offering great tactile feedback and a satisfying "click" sound when pressed. The second prop the keyboard up about 15°, covering the screen's bottom bezel, so it rests at a helpful incline for more comfortable use while typing from first use, I was effortlessly touch typing within just a couple of minutes of using it. This was quite surprising and better than I expected.

However, there is one notable issue with the keyboard: it has a noticeably spongy sound and feel to it. While this isn't a major problem, it does detract from the otherwise premium design. The great design carries over to the now fully adjustable kickstand, offering study support up to 150° in use. It's slightly fiddly to initially open but once released offers the perfect combination of stiffness and flexibility.

The Surface Pro 3 also features two high-definition cameras on both the front and rear of the device, which are capable of capturing 1080p video. However, I was disappointed by their poor image quality, with noticeable noise, washed-out colors, and generally unpleasant-looking images. It's surprising that these cameras are not better, especially considering the high-end nature of the device.

One aspect of the Surface Pro 3 that may be familiar to Windows fans is its operating system, which ships with Windows 8.1. However, I found this OS to still be somewhat finicky and unpolished when used in a tablet form, particularly with a mouse and keyboard. Even with a trackpad, Metro interface feels finicky and unpolished. It's not a problem unique to the Surface Pro 3; it's the same for most Windows Ty tablets.

Fortunately, many of the apps available from the Windows Store do work well with touch input, and the device is incredibly smooth when swiping around the home screen. However, few desktop applications are optimized for tablet use, and most tasks require a steady hand or stylus. Speaking of which, connected via Bluetooth, the specifically designed Surface Pen for the Surface Pro 3 offers a precise pressure-sensitive writing and drawing accessory.

The pen works really well with apps like Fresh Paint, allowing me to create some impressive artwork with ease. However, it doesn't scroll the Metro interface at all and doesn't launch apps; it can only move app icons about, requiring either dragging the scroll bar or using your finger for scrolling or clicking. This is also true for the Chrome web browser.

The Surface Pro 3 demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to producing a genuinely great laptop-tablet crossover. However, I'm not sure that these improvements have gone far enough. Perhaps the real issue lies in whether or not one really wants a laptop-tablet crossover hybrid device. On the one hand, it's more portable than a laptop and has more power than a tablet; on the other hand, it's also much heavier than tablets and not as comfortable to use as a laptop.

Ultimately, the Surface Pro 3 is a complex device that falls short of its full potential in some areas but still manages to offer a lot. The mid-tier 128GB I5 model, paired with the official Type Cover keyboard, would be the recommended option, costing around £850 or $1,050. However, whether or not this device is worth buying depends on one's current circumstances and existing devices.

If you already own a decent tablet or laptop, it doesn't make sense to buy the Surface Pro 3, as it won't offer significant advantages in either form factor. On the other hand, if you're looking for a premium device that offers both portability and desktop performance, the Surface Pro 3 is worth considering. However, one must carefully weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe Microsoft Surface Pro 3 available worldwide since August 2014 attempts to combine the portability and ease of use of a tablet with the power and functionality of a laptop in other words content consumption and content creation it's an idealistic product that aims to bring the futuristic concept of a combined personal and professional device to reality a product where you can play games and watch Netflix on the sofa or in bed and at the same time have the horsepower to drive multiple monitors and intensive applications at the office does it succeed well let's take a look Microsoft has clearly taken on board the issues that plagued the first two surface Pros pretty much everything has been improved over its predecessor it features a bigger higher rare screen and it is also significantly Slimmer and lighter and 9.1 mm thick and weighing 800 G the famous kickstand is now fully adjustable no longer restricted to just two positions the bezel has gone on a diet too producing a screen to body ratio of 72.8% that's even better than the iPad Air combined with Superior Bild quality quality this all translates to be a premium more portable and fundamentally more enjoyable device to use the internal Hardware ranges from a very basic but still competent Intel I3 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of SSD storage up to a powerful Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage with such high-end specs come a similarly high-end price tag starting at £620 $770 and rising to an eye watering £ 1,350 or $1,800 all models come pre-installed with 64-bit Windows 8.1 and offer the latest AC Wi-Fi 5 megap front and rear cameras a fullsize USB 3 AM mini display port stereo speakers and a Micro SD card reader useful for expanding the internal storage or transferring files the screen is a big beautiful 12in 2160 x440 display which calculates to 216 pixels per inch slightly less than comparable met the MacBook Pros but sign significantly more than the more common 10tb laptops or Ultra books text and images are sharp and colors are vivid it's a great screen but let down by slightly poor viewing angles brightness and color saturation drop quickly as you view from off center in addition the screen is extremely glossy and highly reflective of any light source it became nearly unusable outside on a sunny day and even indoor use the glossy finish can become distracting interestingly the display actually has an aspect ratio of 3x2 this is a significant change from the 16x9 of earlier surface Pros and most laptops and so it more closely resembles that of an iPad with it 4x3 aspect this affords it a More squarish Design this can be good for web browsing as with many websites you're not seeing lots of weighted space out side of the content which we get with 16 by9 and it feels more magazine or book like to hold which is usually more comfortable when using as a tablet in terms of performance it really depends what spec you opt for when you buy it there's certainly a difference in intensive applications performance between an I3 and an i7 processor and multitasking will be smoother if you've opted for the 8 GB Ram option so it's difficult to comment on performance when it can vary from device to device but essentially it features the same sort of Hardware that most of the mid to high-end laptops and Ultrabook use don't expect to play graphically intensive games or consider it for highend workstation tasks but it's no slouch either in general use combined with a fast SSD it'll perform well enough for everyday tasks from office apps to more demanding photo or video editing scoring similarly to the MacBook Air and benchmarks without a dedicated GPU it'll never have the grunt of a workstation laptop or desktop PC so opting for the i7 option above say the I5 is a bit unnecessary the highr display and Powerful processes results in a fairly average battery life it lasted 7 hours on the power Mark Benchmark combining video playback and web browsing with brightness at 50% and Wi-Fi enabled many other tablets hybrids and laptops are pushing 10 plus hours so there's certainly room for improvement in this regard it's reasonable to consider the Surface Pro 3 as a laptop replacement given its Hardware spec and Microsoft's own marketing of it so it's a shame that in order to fully realize it potential itial you have to Fork out a further £120 or $130 for the type cover keyboard attachment although expensive it offers a multi-touch trackpad orbe a bit too small fully backlit keys and does actually work quite well the keys have an impressive amount of travel despite the whole keyboard being just over half an inch thick the type cover attaches to the Surface Pro with magnets in two places the first provides the main connection with enough strength to actually hold the full 800 G device without losing grip pretty impressive stuff although I wouldn't recommend doing it often the second props the keyboard up about 15° covering the screen's bottom bezel so it rests at a helpful incline for more comfortable use while typing from first use I was effortlessly touch typing within just a couple of minutes of using it this was quite surprising and better than I expected the only real issue here is it does have a noticeably spongy sound and feel to it it's not a major problem but does detract from the otherwise premium design this great design carries over to the now fully adjustable kickstand offering study support up to 150° in use it's slightly fiddly to initially open but once released offers the perfect combination of stiffness and flexibility it's great for flat surfaces like discs not so great for legs after a short amount of time I find myself constantly adjusting the angle of the stand as it started to feel like it was stabbing into my legs becoming quite uncomfortable both the front and rear of the device offer 5 megap 1080p video capable cameras it's a shame they're pretty rubbish though these photos taken with the front and rear camera show similar levels of noise washed out colors and generally unpleasant looking images it's poor even tablets and stands out among otherwise high-end components so far we've looked at the main features of the Surface Pro 3 but something we haven't yet considered is one of the most fundamental aspects of the device the operating system shipping with Windows 8.1 there are still many people and I count myself among them who feel it's still far from optimized for touch devices with a mouse and keyboard even a trackpad is great but in a tablet form anything beond the initial I'm still going to call it Metro interface feels finicky and unpolished it's not a problem unique to the surface it's the same for pretty much all windows Ty tablets you may disagree and suggest simply using the trackpad on the typ cover or using a Bluetooth or USB Exel or Mouse which were all good options but diminish the portability and enjoyment of a tablet experience of course many of the apps available from the Windows store work well with touch and it is incredibly smooth swiping around the home screen but few desktop apps are optimized for it and most tasks require a steady handle or stylus speaking of which connected via Bluetooth the specifically designed surface pen for the Surface Pro 3 offers a precise pressure sensitive writing and drawing accessory for £30 or $40 it works really well with apps like fresh paint this is me attempting to show off my drawing skills by coloring this bird picture I'll confess I didn't draw all of this it also works well as a finger substitute for precise clicking and somewhat mitigates my ELO rant about how difficult using the desktop can be annoyingly though it doesn't scroll the Metro interface at all and it doesn't launch apps it can move app icons about but you either have to drag the scroll bar at the bottom or go back to using your finger for scrolling or clicking this is also the case for the Chrome web browser it's not going to compete for professional use an area dominated by the superior wcom devices but it's fun and has some use the Surface Pro 3 demonstrates Microsoft is definitely on the right track to produce a genuinely great laptop tablet crossover I'm just not sure that these improvements have gone far enough perhaps the real issue here is one of a more fundamental question do I really want a laptop tablet crossover hybrid thing sure it's a bit more portable than a laptop and definitely more powerful than a tablet but it's also much heavier than tablets are not as comfortable to use as a laptop depending on your point of view it's either the best or worst of Both Worlds the model I'd recommend is the mid tier 128 GB I5 in addition although not required I would strongly suggest you pair it with the official type cover the magnetic keyboard that provides a reasonable substitute for a typical laptop keyboard combined this mid-range option will cost about £850 or $1,050 would I buy one well It's Tricky I think the only scenario where i' seriously consider buying the Surface Pro 3 is if I don't already own a decent tablet or laptop if I already owned either or both it doesn't really make sense given the cost so as always it's a matter of personal preference but also current circumstance since you should consider what devices you already own if you own an iPad or equivalent Android tablet you're unlikely to use the Pro 3 in its tablet form similarly if you own a good laptop or Ultrabook you're probably going to use that for serious work or desktop applications it's an exciting combination that results in a frustrating compromise I hope this has been helpful this has been a review of the Surface Pro 3 by the tech chat please like And subscribe if you like these videos thank you very much for watchingthe Microsoft Surface Pro 3 available worldwide since August 2014 attempts to combine the portability and ease of use of a tablet with the power and functionality of a laptop in other words content consumption and content creation it's an idealistic product that aims to bring the futuristic concept of a combined personal and professional device to reality a product where you can play games and watch Netflix on the sofa or in bed and at the same time have the horsepower to drive multiple monitors and intensive applications at the office does it succeed well let's take a look Microsoft has clearly taken on board the issues that plagued the first two surface Pros pretty much everything has been improved over its predecessor it features a bigger higher rare screen and it is also significantly Slimmer and lighter and 9.1 mm thick and weighing 800 G the famous kickstand is now fully adjustable no longer restricted to just two positions the bezel has gone on a diet too producing a screen to body ratio of 72.8% that's even better than the iPad Air combined with Superior Bild quality quality this all translates to be a premium more portable and fundamentally more enjoyable device to use the internal Hardware ranges from a very basic but still competent Intel I3 with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of SSD storage up to a powerful Intel i7 with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage with such high-end specs come a similarly high-end price tag starting at £620 $770 and rising to an eye watering £ 1,350 or $1,800 all models come pre-installed with 64-bit Windows 8.1 and offer the latest AC Wi-Fi 5 megap front and rear cameras a fullsize USB 3 AM mini display port stereo speakers and a Micro SD card reader useful for expanding the internal storage or transferring files the screen is a big beautiful 12in 2160 x440 display which calculates to 216 pixels per inch slightly less than comparable met the MacBook Pros but sign significantly more than the more common 10tb laptops or Ultra books text and images are sharp and colors are vivid it's a great screen but let down by slightly poor viewing angles brightness and color saturation drop quickly as you view from off center in addition the screen is extremely glossy and highly reflective of any light source it became nearly unusable outside on a sunny day and even indoor use the glossy finish can become distracting interestingly the display actually has an aspect ratio of 3x2 this is a significant change from the 16x9 of earlier surface Pros and most laptops and so it more closely resembles that of an iPad with it 4x3 aspect this affords it a More squarish Design this can be good for web browsing as with many websites you're not seeing lots of weighted space out side of the content which we get with 16 by9 and it feels more magazine or book like to hold which is usually more comfortable when using as a tablet in terms of performance it really depends what spec you opt for when you buy it there's certainly a difference in intensive applications performance between an I3 and an i7 processor and multitasking will be smoother if you've opted for the 8 GB Ram option so it's difficult to comment on performance when it can vary from device to device but essentially it features the same sort of Hardware that most of the mid to high-end laptops and Ultrabook use don't expect to play graphically intensive games or consider it for highend workstation tasks but it's no slouch either in general use combined with a fast SSD it'll perform well enough for everyday tasks from office apps to more demanding photo or video editing scoring similarly to the MacBook Air and benchmarks without a dedicated GPU it'll never have the grunt of a workstation laptop or desktop PC so opting for the i7 option above say the I5 is a bit unnecessary the highr display and Powerful processes results in a fairly average battery life it lasted 7 hours on the power Mark Benchmark combining video playback and web browsing with brightness at 50% and Wi-Fi enabled many other tablets hybrids and laptops are pushing 10 plus hours so there's certainly room for improvement in this regard it's reasonable to consider the Surface Pro 3 as a laptop replacement given its Hardware spec and Microsoft's own marketing of it so it's a shame that in order to fully realize it potential itial you have to Fork out a further £120 or $130 for the type cover keyboard attachment although expensive it offers a multi-touch trackpad orbe a bit too small fully backlit keys and does actually work quite well the keys have an impressive amount of travel despite the whole keyboard being just over half an inch thick the type cover attaches to the Surface Pro with magnets in two places the first provides the main connection with enough strength to actually hold the full 800 G device without losing grip pretty impressive stuff although I wouldn't recommend doing it often the second props the keyboard up about 15° covering the screen's bottom bezel so it rests at a helpful incline for more comfortable use while typing from first use I was effortlessly touch typing within just a couple of minutes of using it this was quite surprising and better than I expected the only real issue here is it does have a noticeably spongy sound and feel to it it's not a major problem but does detract from the otherwise premium design this great design carries over to the now fully adjustable kickstand offering study support up to 150° in use it's slightly fiddly to initially open but once released offers the perfect combination of stiffness and flexibility it's great for flat surfaces like discs not so great for legs after a short amount of time I find myself constantly adjusting the angle of the stand as it started to feel like it was stabbing into my legs becoming quite uncomfortable both the front and rear of the device offer 5 megap 1080p video capable cameras it's a shame they're pretty rubbish though these photos taken with the front and rear camera show similar levels of noise washed out colors and generally unpleasant looking images it's poor even tablets and stands out among otherwise high-end components so far we've looked at the main features of the Surface Pro 3 but something we haven't yet considered is one of the most fundamental aspects of the device the operating system shipping with Windows 8.1 there are still many people and I count myself among them who feel it's still far from optimized for touch devices with a mouse and keyboard even a trackpad is great but in a tablet form anything beond the initial I'm still going to call it Metro interface feels finicky and unpolished it's not a problem unique to the surface it's the same for pretty much all windows Ty tablets you may disagree and suggest simply using the trackpad on the typ cover or using a Bluetooth or USB Exel or Mouse which were all good options but diminish the portability and enjoyment of a tablet experience of course many of the apps available from the Windows store work well with touch and it is incredibly smooth swiping around the home screen but few desktop apps are optimized for it and most tasks require a steady handle or stylus speaking of which connected via Bluetooth the specifically designed surface pen for the Surface Pro 3 offers a precise pressure sensitive writing and drawing accessory for £30 or $40 it works really well with apps like fresh paint this is me attempting to show off my drawing skills by coloring this bird picture I'll confess I didn't draw all of this it also works well as a finger substitute for precise clicking and somewhat mitigates my ELO rant about how difficult using the desktop can be annoyingly though it doesn't scroll the Metro interface at all and it doesn't launch apps it can move app icons about but you either have to drag the scroll bar at the bottom or go back to using your finger for scrolling or clicking this is also the case for the Chrome web browser it's not going to compete for professional use an area dominated by the superior wcom devices but it's fun and has some use the Surface Pro 3 demonstrates Microsoft is definitely on the right track to produce a genuinely great laptop tablet crossover I'm just not sure that these improvements have gone far enough perhaps the real issue here is one of a more fundamental question do I really want a laptop tablet crossover hybrid thing sure it's a bit more portable than a laptop and definitely more powerful than a tablet but it's also much heavier than tablets are not as comfortable to use as a laptop depending on your point of view it's either the best or worst of Both Worlds the model I'd recommend is the mid tier 128 GB I5 in addition although not required I would strongly suggest you pair it with the official type cover the magnetic keyboard that provides a reasonable substitute for a typical laptop keyboard combined this mid-range option will cost about £850 or $1,050 would I buy one well It's Tricky I think the only scenario where i' seriously consider buying the Surface Pro 3 is if I don't already own a decent tablet or laptop if I already owned either or both it doesn't really make sense given the cost so as always it's a matter of personal preference but also current circumstance since you should consider what devices you already own if you own an iPad or equivalent Android tablet you're unlikely to use the Pro 3 in its tablet form similarly if you own a good laptop or Ultrabook you're probably going to use that for serious work or desktop applications it's an exciting combination that results in a frustrating compromise I hope this has been helpful this has been a review of the Surface Pro 3 by the tech chat please like And subscribe if you like these videos thank you very much for watching\n"