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Surface Pro 3
- Thread starter yogeewan
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Yes it will work fine. I have mine docked and connected to two Dell U2414H screens in a daisy-chain configuration. Everything runs really smoothly outside from an occasional hiccup in scaling on the SP3 screen. I did have to read the manual to get the daisy-chain working though.
Yeah the lack of a pen silo is a real negative IMO. I find I never have the stylus handy. I really miss my Lenovo thinkpad tablet 2 with the built in Wacom stylus. Heck I miss the 4G on that as well, another caveat with the SP3.
Lack of pen silo is a non-issue since mine goes into a slim Incase shoulder sleeve along with charger, other junk and has pockets for a couple of pens. What's convenient about the Helix2 and other Wacom based devices is you can reuse your Galaxy Note pen but NTrig on SP3 has better edge accuracy.
For CPU performance such as with Winrar benchmark Core M 5Y10 is about 20% slower than i5-4300U and there's no noticeable throttling on both over extended run. Where Core M excels is under heavy iGPU and CPU load where throttling is a non-issue compared to the more aggressive i5 throttling. For example, running Microsoft fish bowl benchmark in IE set to auto the Core M was consistent at ~120 fishes and was hardly warm to the touch whereas i5 eventually throttled down to 1 fish as it warned up even with full fan speed. This is more of a worse case though so you'll unlikely to see it.
For virtually everything else except the above and battery, SP3 is a little better with esthetics, design, build quality, screen size/quality, screen edge pen accuracy, kick stand, more mature drivers/fewer quirks, etc.
May just keep the Helix2 and wait for SP4 with Core M.
Here's my impressions of the SP3 since having it for a little more then a week.
I have to say that the more I use it, the more I'm really enjoying the computer.
I've not taken it out and about, that will come shortly but using it around the house, its been quite mobile. I'll be taking it into work next week, so I'll get a better assessment of battery life.
I'm finding the the pen to be more useful then I initially thought I would. The screen is gorgeous, pixel density is great, the text is sharp and crisp. Performance is good. I realize I'm not pushing the machine, i.e., not running games. For my needs, it has plenty of power. The touchscreen is great even in using it as a computer (as opposed to a tablet), I find sometimes swiping the screen or scrolling down is better with the screen then the touchpad.
One oddity was trying to get Vmware workstation running, at least able to run a full 64bit os. I had to jump through all sorts of hoops for some reason. Maybe its my inexperience but from googling, I basically had to install Visual Studio from MS, making sure I include the WP phone SDK. This turned on some sort of option to allow 64bit virtualization (weird I know).
I was toying with the idea of throwing OS X in a vmware session, but after looking at the work required, i.e., patching vmware to unlock it, then having a boot loader, etc, etc. I decided against it. I have multiple Macs at home anyways.
In messing around with it, seeing what it could do, I decided to wipe and reinstall. The process was smooth, and worked very efficiently. I have nearly all my apps on the SP3, with the exception of iTunes. I'm still trying to figure out how best to configure and use that, i.e., use a DAS or a NAS to hold my music (I have both).
I'm also looking for a backup app that replaces the same level of functionality as Carbon Copy Cloner. I have a couple on my short list (Macrium Reflect and easeus backup).
Overall, I'm very pleased with the computer, I was worried, after using it for a while, I'd start getting buyers remorse, but that's not the case.
Nothing is perfect and the SP3 does have its flaws, partly because of the platform, and partly design choices, like putting the windows button on the left where you hold the tablet. With windows you need to deal with a gazillion updates.
I have to say that the more I use it, the more I'm really enjoying the computer.
I've not taken it out and about, that will come shortly but using it around the house, its been quite mobile. I'll be taking it into work next week, so I'll get a better assessment of battery life.
I'm finding the the pen to be more useful then I initially thought I would. The screen is gorgeous, pixel density is great, the text is sharp and crisp. Performance is good. I realize I'm not pushing the machine, i.e., not running games. For my needs, it has plenty of power. The touchscreen is great even in using it as a computer (as opposed to a tablet), I find sometimes swiping the screen or scrolling down is better with the screen then the touchpad.
One oddity was trying to get Vmware workstation running, at least able to run a full 64bit os. I had to jump through all sorts of hoops for some reason. Maybe its my inexperience but from googling, I basically had to install Visual Studio from MS, making sure I include the WP phone SDK. This turned on some sort of option to allow 64bit virtualization (weird I know).
I was toying with the idea of throwing OS X in a vmware session, but after looking at the work required, i.e., patching vmware to unlock it, then having a boot loader, etc, etc. I decided against it. I have multiple Macs at home anyways.
In messing around with it, seeing what it could do, I decided to wipe and reinstall. The process was smooth, and worked very efficiently. I have nearly all my apps on the SP3, with the exception of iTunes. I'm still trying to figure out how best to configure and use that, i.e., use a DAS or a NAS to hold my music (I have both).
I'm also looking for a backup app that replaces the same level of functionality as Carbon Copy Cloner. I have a couple on my short list (Macrium Reflect and easeus backup).
Overall, I'm very pleased with the computer, I was worried, after using it for a while, I'd start getting buyers remorse, but that's not the case.
Nothing is perfect and the SP3 does have its flaws, partly because of the platform, and partly design choices, like putting the windows button on the left where you hold the tablet. With windows you need to deal with a gazillion updates.
Nice update maflynn!
Personally, I am still happy with Acronis True Image as my CCC alternative. I've even used VMWare to boot images it has created which makes it almost as useful as CCC.
B
Second True Image. We have used it for nearly a decade for keeping images of all of our computers at the office. I pair that with Crashplan for offsite, incremental, automated backup.
The Windows button is far better in its new location, IMO, than the previous generations where it was centered at the bottom in landscape, but I guess it really depends on how you normally hold the device. The real issue is that it's capacitive, not physical so simply brushing it triggers it. This is never, ever an issue on the iPad. You can disable it with the Surface Hub program in the app store, but that app doesn't hold its settings reliably.
The Windows button is far better in its new location, IMO, than the previous generations where it was centered at the bottom in landscape, but I guess it really depends on how you normally hold the device. The real issue is that it's capacitive, not physical so simply brushing it triggers it. This is never, ever an issue on the iPad. You can disable it with the Surface Hub program in the app store, but that app doesn't hold its settings reliably.
Macrium reflect is pretty good. Also take a look at veeam endpoint backup. Veeam is big in virtual backups and this is their first product for physical computers. Works very good. I used it to backup and restore my sp3 to test.
http://go.veeam.com/endpoint
http://go.veeam.com/endpoint
My SP3 i5 has been envious of the fanless Helix2 but no more since toggling off Intel Turbo Boost with Throttlestop 7 utility. Microsoft really needs to include this toggle built-in as it greatly enhances the user experience for those not needing more than 1.9GHz base clock in favor of fanless, noise free video chat, longer battery life, etc.
For those preferring Chrome but don't like the fact that it's more resource intensive and tends to warm up the SP3 more than IE trying putting "chrome://flags" in the address bar and enable "Override software rendering list". Made a huge difference for me like playing YouTube.
If you prefer Internet Explorer for the smoothness but are annoyed by ads and the instability it causes to IE I highly suggest installing Adblock Plus 1.2 (1.3 wasn't stable for me) from the link in the second post:
https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=27057#p113772
And, a few additional tips you might not know about.
To toggle between Windows shortcut keys and function keys on Type Cover hold Fn+Caps.
If you need a full on screen keyboard in tablet mode when you don't have Type Cover attached, bring up charms by swiping in from right edge of screen, go to Settings>Change PC>PC and devices>Typing and enable "Add the standard keyboard layout as a touch keyboard option" at the bottom.
If you find yourself triggering the Windows capacitive button by accident and want to disable it you can do it through device manager (press windows key and x), expand System devices and disable Surface Home Button.
So much happier with the top few changes. One thing I'd like to see is a translucent option for the on screen keyboard.
For those preferring Chrome but don't like the fact that it's more resource intensive and tends to warm up the SP3 more than IE trying putting "chrome://flags" in the address bar and enable "Override software rendering list". Made a huge difference for me like playing YouTube.
If you prefer Internet Explorer for the smoothness but are annoyed by ads and the instability it causes to IE I highly suggest installing Adblock Plus 1.2 (1.3 wasn't stable for me) from the link in the second post:
https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=27057#p113772
And, a few additional tips you might not know about.
To toggle between Windows shortcut keys and function keys on Type Cover hold Fn+Caps.
If you need a full on screen keyboard in tablet mode when you don't have Type Cover attached, bring up charms by swiping in from right edge of screen, go to Settings>Change PC>PC and devices>Typing and enable "Add the standard keyboard layout as a touch keyboard option" at the bottom.
If you find yourself triggering the Windows capacitive button by accident and want to disable it you can do it through device manager (press windows key and x), expand System devices and disable Surface Home Button.
So much happier with the top few changes. One thing I'd like to see is a translucent option for the on screen keyboard.
Good tips! Nice to know there is another way to disable the home button other than through the non-functional Hub.
I'm not sure I'm convinced that disabling Turbo Boost is going to increase battery though. Everything I have heard in recent years is that faster processors, even if they consume a bit more power when boosted, are better for battery life because they can get more done in the time they are boosted, and thus can 'race to sleep' faster. The exception is when a slower processor has a lower minimum state and workloads are low. Anandtech did a comparison of battery life between the i3 and i5 SP3 and demonstrated exactly this - the i5 has better battery life in Desktop and under heavy workloads, despite being 15w to the i3's 11.5w. The i3 did better when they constrained the test to the Touch side of things with a light workload where the i3's ability to idle to, I think, something like 6w instead of 10w came into play.
I have not been bothering with ABP because Microsoft's own tracking protection lists have been doing a good job and are easy to toggle, even in Touch IE.
I'm not sure I'm convinced that disabling Turbo Boost is going to increase battery though. Everything I have heard in recent years is that faster processors, even if they consume a bit more power when boosted, are better for battery life because they can get more done in the time they are boosted, and thus can 'race to sleep' faster. The exception is when a slower processor has a lower minimum state and workloads are low. Anandtech did a comparison of battery life between the i3 and i5 SP3 and demonstrated exactly this - the i5 has better battery life in Desktop and under heavy workloads, despite being 15w to the i3's 11.5w. The i3 did better when they constrained the test to the Touch side of things with a light workload where the i3's ability to idle to, I think, something like 6w instead of 10w came into play.
I have not been bothering with ABP because Microsoft's own tracking protection lists have been doing a good job and are easy to toggle, even in Touch IE.
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damn girl....you got willpower!Ended up getting the 128gb model. I haven't opened it yet!
I don't think that's an apples to apples comparison since you have to account for energy consumed by the fan. Seems more wasteful to turbo clock, kick on the fan then throttle while keeping the fan running. Other benefits of fanless is less wear and tear and avoiding dust accumulation that degrades cooling ability when it's inaccessible to cleaning.
If you haven't checked out Chrome Canary definitely do. Was torn between the workflow benefit, correctness and stability of Chrome but it wasn't as smooth as Internet 11 with its glitches. Chrome Canary adds the smoothness to Chrome and although it's classified as development it's working very well so far.
https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html
https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html
I was looking at Arconis, and it looks like it will fit the bill, but since I have bitlocker enabled cloning the drive is not supported. Still it looks like a solid backup solution.
Finally got to play with the SP 3 in person. Was very surprised at how accurate the touch input with my finger was in non metro standard x86 apps. I was playing around in non metro IE and could hit all the menus and buttons with my finger quite accurately. Based on this thread I was expecting it to suck
I know people love their tablet centric apps, but my first impressions are that they matter less than I had imagined.
Yes--thats true. I use only x86 software on my sp. i do like the ms touch/metro browser, though
I get your point...but I dont really care about all those peripheral apps--and if i did i would put them on my phone. I would counter using you tube in IE is much much better than any ios app. I have a mini but pretty much use the surface full time. Both great devices
Historically mobile browsers were inadequate to run web apps that's the reason why apps exist. Personally, I prefer to use one app, my browser, to access all web sites than hassle with wasting storage space and time downloading an app per web site and notification spam by default is a non-issue unless I want it.
iOS tablets in general were designed for a different time to deal with inadequate cooling, thickness, battery life, as well as operating system and programs, limitations which do not exist anymore. Personally I don't understand why consumers like to use old technology like that, although the package is super super nice every time I pick up an iOS device that primitive OS just hits me hard. I'm not a big app guy though, they just seem like overly simplified watered down affairs.
That is a very narrow (but popular) view of what apps are. A small percentage of apps are nothing more than app-ified website but there are many more that offer functionality that are not tied to a website.