Surface pro 3 review idea

[hiyayhi]

Just a thing that I thought for when Linus gets his SP3.

Try running Steam in home streaming on it.

Just an idea, what do you guys think?

[wng_kingsley7]

@LinusTech

[JAKEBAB]

Is he even going to get one?

 

It would be cool to like have a 360 controller hooked up and play something.

[hiyayhi]

Is he even going to get one?

 

It would be cool to like have a 360 controller hooked up and play something.

He announced on the WAN show that he would order one.

[JAKEBAB]

He announced on the WAN show that he would order one.

Oh damn I always miss the live version always have to wait hours for it to come to YouTube coz twitch playback is terrible

[hiyayhi]

Oh damn I always miss the live version always have to wait hours for it to come to YouTube coz twitch playback is terrible

Yeah, I usually miss it because of work but I can't work at the moment so I can but I almost missed it today.

[beebskadoo]

I run in home streaming on my surface pro 2. It works really well on a lot of games but it's too much of a variable right now. I mean there are games that run excellently and there are others that are crap. For example, I can play dark souls, hitman absolution and Just Cause 2 just fine at around 30-45 fps average, but skyrim and grid runs like ass with constant frame drops. In home streaming still has a ways to go.

Just my 2 ¢

[GoodBytes]

If you want performance, just look at Surface Pro 2 rev 2 benchmarks. It has the same CPU as the med range model.

(let's face it the Core i7 model is a horrible choice, it's just a slightly faster dual core model).

I have the Surface Pro 2, and I think it is truly a fantastic device, it has really surpassed my expectations. So if anyone is interested in such device, the Pro 3 is no doubt a superb choice.

What I love about my Pro 2.

-> The pen. Many don't realize but the pen isn't those silly tablet stylus. It's the real deal. And it is not like most other device with one. It is really good, really high precision compared to the rest on the market in the consumer space of tablet, and palm rejection is excellent. The simply fact that it support hovering, makes websites have no problem being navigated. And OneNote is simply superb. Amazing for school, amazing for work. The Pro 3 uses N-Trig technology, so we have to see how it fairs out. The down sides is that it is 256 level of pressure detection, while Wacom's (Pro 2 and 1) is 1024, and it does show when you write (assuming you write recursive) the difference, and does require a battery. But the up side, is that you don't need to do some calibration where you need to get a program or command line to do it, as Windows only has a generic "for all tablets" calibration only. But it looks like this time will be different for the Pro 3. While the calibration is something you do once and you done, and is based on how you hold the pen when you write, it is definitely nice to just have a pen that works really well out of the box, especially if you don't plan on drawing, but rather note taking, or drawing graphics, sketching, doing/drawing diagrams and such, which is the focus of the Pro 3.

-> SUPER clean. Like, when you install Windows on your system, the Surface Pro series is more clean of bloatware than your work. It's so lean that you have the bare bone drivers only, with the exception of the Intel graphics control panel. A small lie, it does some with a Office 2013/365 downloaded app. But that is only a few MB, and assuming you have Office, you any case need it, as you don't have an optical drive, and are going to get it in any case. But assuming you do, it uninstalls in a flash, and leaves nothing behind. Recovery image included inside, no complication to re-install. You can do it on the bus, if you want (although, you obviously need network connection to get the updates, and your software, obviously. But you get what I mean)

-> Best Windows experience. It is a joy to use a device where everything works out of the box. I have to try really hard to find issues with my Surface Pro 2. While with other OEMs, takes a second. And it sucks when it is an engineering/design problem which can't be solved. Although, to be fair, the device is not perfect, it has issues, but to me, they are not an "in your face" issue, which is something I quickly see with many Thinkpads, and Dell home high-end home (XPS) and business class systems, and I am personally wondering if they are more Windows bugs rather than anything.

-> High build quality. This is something I have a feeling that people forget. They look at the specs and look at the price, and start comparing, ignoring the build quality which does mater. I mean they did drop the Surface Pro 3 on stage and it was fine (granted on carpet, but still). And another thing that people forget, is the touch screen and pen, and if they don't forget about it, they forget how good they both are.

Anyway. All in all, I think that if you are considering it, I think it is a great device. I have the Pro 2, and I expect the Pro 3 to be even better. One thing I appropriate form Microsoft, is that at no point in time, they went and said "Ok it's good enough". Every aspect of the device is being attempted to be better. The touch pad is being improved, the screen (the panel itself), the pen, the cameras (although I don't think anyone cares about them), the power connector, and so on. Personally, I can't wait to see what is in store for the Pro 4 with Broadwell CPU.

[AMD Lover]

Oh damn I always miss the live version always have to wait hours for it to come to YouTube coz twitch playback is terrible

Watch it on twitch thats what i do, archive

[I5ZQ8]

I would like to see him try this as well. It would make for an interesting view on something that no one else will test. 

[TheGosuStandard]

Is he even going to get one?

 

It would be cool to like have a 360 controller hooked up and play something.

 

You probably can connect it as their was a 2 week bundle offer for the pro 2 that included the pro 2, a controller and 2 games. 

 

I'm really eager to test out if this can replace a notebook and pen fully. 

[FrozenIpaq]

You probably can connect it as their was a 2 week bundle offer for the pro 2 that included the pro 2, a controller and 2 games. 

 

I'm really eager to test out if this can replace a notebook and pen fully. 

 

There's nothing preventing him from attaching a wired or wireless xbox 360 controller to the Surface Pro 3.

 

On the topic of in-home streaming - the machine will have more than enough power to play streamed games - the real hurdle is network performance / wifi performance.

[beebskadoo]

If you want performance, just look at Surface Pro 2 rev 2 benchmarks. It has the same CPU as the med range model.

(let's face it the Core i7 model is a horrible choice, it's just a slightly faster dual core model).

I have the Surface Pro 2, and I think it is truly a fantastic device, it has really surpassed my expectations. So if anyone is interested in such device, the Pro 3 is no doubt a superb choice.

What I love about my Pro 2.

-> The pen. Many don't realize but the pen isn't those silly tablet stylus. It's the real deal. And it is not like most other device with one. It is really good, really high precision compared to the rest on the market in the consumer space of tablet, and palm rejection is excellent. The simply fact that it support hovering, makes websites have no problem being navigated. And OneNote is simply superb. Amazing for school, amazing for work. The Pro 3 uses N-Trig technology, so we have to see how it fairs out. The down sides is that it is 256 level of pressure detection, while Wacom's (Pro 2 and 1) is 1024, and it does show when you write (assuming you write recursive) the difference, and does require a battery. But the up side, is that you don't need to do some calibration where you need to get a program or command line to do it, as Windows only has a generic "for all tablets" calibration only. But it looks like this time will be different for the Pro 3. While the calibration is something you do once and you done, and is based on how you hold the pen when you write, it is definitely nice to just have a pen that works really well out of the box, especially if you don't plan on drawing, but rather note taking, or drawing graphics, sketching, doing/drawing diagrams and such, which is the focus of the Pro 3.

-> SUPER clean. Like, when you install Windows on your system, the Surface Pro series is more clean of bloatware than your work. It's so lean that you have the bare bone drivers only, with the exception of the Intel graphics control panel. A small lie, it does some with a Office 2013/365 downloaded app. But that is only a few MB, and assuming you have Office, you any case need it, as you don't have an optical drive, and are going to get it in any case. But assuming you do, it uninstalls in a flash, and leaves nothing behind. Recovery image included inside, no complication to re-install. You can do it on the bus, if you want (although, you obviously need network connection to get the updates, and your software, obviously. But you get what I mean)

-> Best Windows experience. It is a joy to use a device where everything works out of the box. I have to try really hard to find issues with my Surface Pro 2. While with other OEMs, takes a second. And it sucks when it is an engineering/design problem which can't be solved. Although, to be fair, the device is not perfect, it has issues, but to me, they are not an "in your face" issue, which is something I quickly see with many Thinkpads, and Dell home high-end home (XPS) and business class systems, and I am personally wondering if they are more Windows bugs rather than anything.

-> High build quality. This is something I have a feeling that people forget. They look at the specs and look at the price, and start comparing, ignoring the build quality which does mater. I mean they did drop the Surface Pro 3 on stage and it was fine (granted on carpet, but still). And another thing that people forget, is the touch screen and pen, and if they don't forget about it, they forget how good they both are.

Anyway. All in all, I think that if you are considering it, I think it is a great device. I have the Pro 2, and I expect the Pro 3 to be even better. One thing I appropriate form Microsoft, is that at no point in time, they went and said "Ok it's good enough". Every aspect of the device is being attempted to be better. The touch pad is being improved, the screen (the panel itself), the pen, the cameras (although I don't think anyone cares about them), the power connector, and so on. Personally, I can't wait to see what is in store for the Pro 4 with Broadwell CPU.

I got the original pro a month or so back. I was looking for something that I can take to work that is fast and easy to use so I went with the Pro. Well a few weeks after having it I had no complaints other than the screen started to budge towards the top of the screen, a few days went by and the issue got worse, I could actually see the screen separating from the casing so I decided to return it. Well something I didn't know is that BestBuy didn't have any in stock at the store and were at that time sold out online, so I upgraded to the Pro 2. I appreciate the battery life on it, I get about 8 hours of light use on it. (If I change with the CPU settings and keep the brightness all the way down and turn off wifi I can get close to 10 hours of web browsing) Ever since the firmware update earlier this year all of my complaints about battery life have been remedied. I don't use it with the keyboard, the onscreen keyboard is sufficient for most web browsing, though I wish it supported Swype typing. So far I am impressed with the performance though I have encountered a few bugs here and there and sometimes the screen doesn't like to resume from sleep. Also there doesn't seem to be an option to turn on Bluetooth music streaming. I know it can be done on windows 7 and other windows 8 products but I still haven't seen how. But all in all it's been a decent experience with minimal complaint on my end. 

 

I am excited for the Surface Pro 3, I really want them to optimize it for battery life out of the box, yeah they are quoting 9 hours but I want to see 12, that way it crushes the macbook air. The thin form factor and the nice metallic finish really makes it look premium (though I think it would be cool if their were an option to have it in black like the Pro/Pro2)

[GoodBytes]

So far I am impressed with the performance though I have encountered a few bugs here and there and sometimes the screen doesn't like to resume from sleep. Also there doesn't seem to be an option to turn on Bluetooth music streaming. I know it can be done on windows 7 and other windows 8 products but I still haven't seen how. But all in all it's been a decent experience with minimal complaint on my end.

I don't have any Bluetooth speaker/audio device to test that, let alone any Bluetooth anything, so I don't know.

But for the sleep issue, are you using Picture Password? 'cause I nice that it is buggy. It's not the Surface Pro 2, as all the bugs related to it, I can replicate on my desktop, and this is what I mean when I said, the device also showcase Windows bugs. They are issues I can replicate on my desktop.

If you do use Picture password, just draw a big circle, and then it will show... but it will identify the circle as part of the gesture of the password, so you need to restart it, which is annoying. I was hopping for update 1 to fix this, but nope. Maybe Windows 9 (or Update 2, or 8.2)

I am excited for the Surface Pro 3, I really want them to optimize it for battery life out of the box, yeah they are quoting 9 hours but I want to see 12, that way it crushes the macbook air. The thin form factor and the nice metallic finish really makes it look premium (though I think it would be cool if their were an option to have it in black like the Pro/Pro2)

The MacBook Air 11inch, which is the closest device, has 7h battery life. For some reason people look at the big 13inch model, which is what was said on stage and pushed by Apple marketing.

Look at Apple website: https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook-air/specs.html

9h only. with, as you said, a bit of effort, we can get 10 even I can push 12h out of my Surface Pro 2. So the Pro 3 would be much less of an issue.

[beebskadoo]

I don't have any Bluetooth speaker/audio device to test that, let alone any Bluetooth anything, so I don't know.

But for the sleep issue, are you using Picture Password? 'cause I nice that it is buggy. It's not the Surface Pro 2, as all the bugs related to it, I can replicate on my desktop, and this is what I mean when I said, the device also showcase Windows bugs. They are issues I can replicate on my desktop.

If you do use Picture password, just draw a big circle, and then it will show... but it will identify the circle as part of the gesture of the password, so you need to restart it, which is annoying. I was hopping for update 1 to fix this, but nope. Maybe Windows 9 (or Update 2, or 8.2)

The MacBook Air 11inch, which is the closest device, has 7h battery life. For some reason people look at the big 13inch model, which is what was said on stage and pushed by Apple marketing.

Look at Apple website: https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook-air/specs.html

9h only. with, as you said, a bit of effort, we can get 10 even I can push 12h out of my Surface Pro 2. So the Pro 3 would be much less of an issue.

Well the surface pro's battery is a tad bigger than the 11 inch MbA. I suppose that the difference in battery life could very well be due to the screen resolution.

Also another gripe that I had was the Magnetic connector is really hard to plug in, especially in the dark. I hope the new style improves things in the 3!

[GoodBytes]

Well the surface pro's battery is a tad bigger than the 11 inch MbA. I suppose that the difference in battery life could very well be due to the screen resolution.

Also another gripe that I had was the Magnetic connector is really hard to plug in, especially in the dark. I hope the new style improves things in the 3!

Well it's not that you can't I find it just as hard as the MacBook Air, however, the difference, is that the MacBook Air is not painted black, so you don't see or have light scratches. Here we do, and we care, so it is a bit annoying.

Yes, they did improve it. It look like they put the put magnets on the sides of the connector and make the connector bit in plastic to avoid scratching

Also the power brick is smaller.

(can't find a better image or side-by-side comparison)

[beebskadoo]

Well it's not that you can't I find it just as hard as the MacBook Air, however, the difference, is that the MacBook Air is not painted black, so you don't see or have light scratches. Here we do, and we care, so it is a bit annoying.

Yes, they did improve it. It look like they put the put magnets on the sides of the connector and make the connector bit in plastic to avoid scratching

Also the power brick is smaller.

(can't find a better image or side-by-side comparison)

Yeah, I can't wait for the reviews of this thing to come out. Makes me want to return my pro 2 and wait for this thing!