In May of 2015 a friend got pushy and persuaded me to purchase the "Surface Pro 3" this was still during my time while I was still active in the United States Navy and needed something small, compact, and powerful to use in my berthing, shop, or on the mess decks of the ship. I needed something that was more powerful then a standard android tablet, with a real operating system, and I've never been a real fan of Apple products while I respect them, they're not for me. Skeptical I was at first remembering my neglected Surface RT that was in the closet somewhere gathering dust. I ended up deciding on the on the REFURBISHED i5/256GB model with the 8GB or RAM and got a type cover for it.
Keep in mind this was a refurbished device from Microsoft's Amazon store, lets talk about that for a little bit, while the device was refurbished (it came with a sticker that I immediately pried off stating that it was indeed) my first impressions were as of anyone's, it is a beautifully crafted device, with a beautiful screen and it just felt cool. It started off like a champ after a few painful moments of making sure drivers were up to date and all the updates were installed. I was living in Port Orchard, Washington where it is relatively relaxing to go outside so that was the first thing I did, I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed outside. I will say that the back light of the device in outdoor conditions leaves a little to be desired.
The device ended up doing what I had felt what it was designed for, though I was disappointing, it often felt like something was holding it back, but it played light games well, some emulated and some not such as CIV V (nothing larger then a standard map size mind you), Gratuitous Space Battles 2, FTL and KoTOR ran really well on it. Watching videos on YouTube were a dream the black bars at the bottom actually ended up being a blessing is disguise due to the the play bar not taking up any video real-estate, the display was gorgeous and vibrant and the touchscreen worked really, expectionally well. (Albeit, I still dislike how much of a fingerprint magnet it is, and find myself constantly cleaning it).
It was small, great for reading books, studying for the advancement exam and doing drawings in One Note and keeping records. The 3:2 aspect ration made reading a simple breeze, especially in portrait mode. I couldn't use it at work due to being in proximity to classified information, but more on that later. I found myself more and more ignoring my MSi GE-70 in favor of it unless I was doing some serious gaming, (not that I had much time).
I got out of the Navy in January of this year, and the device had a HARD 8 or 9 months of daily use, and it held, the battery life was still great, the device suffered through no lagging over time, no defects nothing, I will have to give it to Microsoft refurbishment team, they really hit the nail on the head for this one. I started using the device less in favor of my desktop because I was unemployed and frankly had no use for it. So I put it on a shelf.
Then something miraculous happened, I started using it again, be it for watching movies, doing some bathroom reading, playing some CIV on my off days when I was not able to drag myself out of bed, drawing some more, writing notes, pondering about life the universe and everything. It was still a daily device, until about March of this year, the Wireless card had went bad on it and no longer connected to the Internet. I went to the Microsoft store here in Milwaukee and surprise! They exchanged it, one for one, right there, they even persuaded me into picking up the new Surface Pen for 60$, let me tell you, if you use the surface pen and still don't have the new one, go get one. It is totally worth the $60 dollars I paid for it.
With the windows 10 upgrade the device ran like a bat out of hell, faster, stronger with better battery life and no longer having to suffer through the Windows 8 Metro UI, after that I got a job, I think our fastest computer is still running a celeron? At work this thing kicks ass and takes names, everything from spreadsheets, doing reviews, filing reports, doing online training, conference calls. With the seamless integration between my Note phone, my desktop and my surface, all my important documents are always with me in a format that is easy to use. Military records, paychecks, pictures of things from work and documents and even some light video editing.
Last month I sold my laptop, and I don't miss it, and I don't need it. Selling it helped my friend ascend to the the PC as well.
Are there flaws with it, of course there are, it gets hot, the material isn't the strongest, it doesn't perform in sunlight, the fan is a constant annoyance, and now sometimes the touchscreen is unresponsive until I hit the windows key, and I highly doubt I could have written this on it. But there is something to be said about a small form factor device with a true operations system and damn good specs.
I hope this helps someone decided or at least realize that there is a place for a product like this, if this helps you or dissuades you let me know, and if you have ANY questions don't hesitate to ask.
