Three is a magic
number when it comes to competitive forces in a market to drive down prices and
churn out value and innovation, so therefore we might be in a golden age with
the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
Say what you will about Microsoft, they are nothing if not
persistent. Historically, I've seen them
start out way behind in markets, but they keep on going when they're committed
to something, they listen, they learn, and they get better. When I saw them release the first version
of the Surface, it had the inklings of a dream machine. From then until now with the Surface Pro 3 they've
done a fabulous job of iterating towards that ideal, and I knew this was what
I'd been waiting for.
Of course it's not
all dreamy. Everything negative that
tech bloggers have said about the Surface Pro 3 is true, and I wouldn't say
that they are being nitpicky with issues they point out. There are definite opportunities for the next
iteration, but it's the best combination of all other alternatives at the time,
and FOR ME, it's a great fit.
Since I preordered
the Surface Pro 3 and got it the day it was released, I've been using it a
little over three months now. This review is not just a first impression, it's road tested. In this post I'm attempting to
do the following:
- Give some advice if you're on the fence about buying one
- Give some tips & tricks if you own one
- Document the issues/opportunities that I see (and I hope Microsoft is listening to this part)
If
You're on the Fence
If you are a power
user, the type of person to always click the advanced
button, then you'll likely be very happy with the Surface after you get
acclimated. Give it at least a month.
If you're NOT a
power user, but you use a Windows based laptop daily, I'd say it's a 90% chance
you'll love the Surface. Give it two
months. Some of the 10% exceptions to
this would be:
- You don't need the mobility because you stay in mostly one place
- You type A LOT and do not like the keyboard (I actually type a lot and like the keyboard, but that's a personal preference)
If you're an Apple
fanatic, then I'd say it depends on how much of a fanatic, and how dependent
you are on Windows. If you're even
reading this, then I'd say it's a 50/50 chance you'll find the Surface at least
acceptable if not great, but give it at least three or four months (you'll need
extra time to get used to Windows 8).
For all users,
before buying a Surface, you should think of it as a really lightweight laptop
or a laptop like tablet and not an iPad that does laptop stuff. It's form is tablet like, sure, but it's
function works more like a laptop and therefore the usage pattern follows a
laptop-like experience. For example,
before driving somewhere I try to remember to shut it down or put it in
hibernate to further preserve the battery.
Furthermore, since it is a full computer, it's susceptible to all the
whims of the software you install on it, which can require task manager to
close a runaway process for example.
Surface
Pro 3 Tips & Tricks
- It takes a while to remember you can touch the screen, which is way more efficient, so force yourself to do it. Once you do, you find yourself trying to touch the screen of all other computers.
- The keyboard has a not-so-intuitive toggle for function/media keys. "Fn-Caps Lock" to toggle… At first a coworker and I thought that ALT-F4 didn't work on metro apps… nope, it does, turns out it was just the FN keys were toggled off to use the "media" keys instead. Once leaned, it's fine.
- This is more a Windows 8 thing but when finger tapping a button or link, in general users will tap slightly above the target… this also might vary by orientation of the device, but I've noticed that it's usually slightly above the target. Before you develop the dexterity to know the ultimate point of your finger, it takes 3-5 times as many finger tap orientation adjustments necessary to get it right. Give yourself time to get used to that and practice it a bit. I think Microsoft should research adding neural net learning in Windows 8 to better predict what you "want" to do when you touch the screen. If they're working on it, and it works well, it will be brilliant (Windows 10 maybe?). Remember I said it first.
- There are two places you can force a password on wake-up. In the screen saver, or in the power options. The screensaver is the only one that lets you force a password after a certain amount of time has passed. I set my machine to go to sleep after 2 minutes, but don't require password on wake-up. Then I set the screensaver to require password after 30 minutes, that way I get the best battery life, but don't have to incessantly keep typing my password all day.
- When the Keyboard is in the "up" position, it's hard to touch the icons on the taskbar, so I increased the vertical height of the task bar (right click on the taskbar, uncheck "Lock the Taskbar", drag the Taskbar up by the resize handle at the top, then right click and check "Lock the Taskbar").
- Enable Hibernate on the Shutdown Menu options
- The kickstand is awesome. Look for some innovative uses and reply in the comments. I've found some rather interesting ways to use it such as:
- On the treadmill/stationary bike, the kickstand prevents it from sliding off
- Over the knees while sitting up against a wall
- I changed my power options to warn me of low battery at 35%, then hibernate at 30%. The reason for this is if I come back to my surface after a long period of not using when it wasn't charging, then I'll have at least 30% battery to do something productive before having to charge. If you'd like to do the same, go into Power Options and click "Change plan settings" then click "Changed advanced power settings"… in Battery -> Low Battery Level -> On Battery set to 35%. And in Battery -> Critical Battery Level -> On Battery set to 30%. And make sure that Battery -> Critical Battery Action is set to "Hibernate" (it should already be set this way by default). Then click Apply and OK!
- I'd recommend after you get everything installed the way you like, to create a custom refresh image to better leverage the new refresh feature in windows 8 in case you have issues later: http://www.howtogeek.com/108944/how-to-create-a-custom-refresh-image-in-windows-8/
Issues/Grievances/Ideas
for Improvement
Note: I know some of
these are because of Windows 8. I think
all devices would benefit from those improvements.
- My highest Wish List item would be LTE integrated into the device. If a new version of the Surface came out with this and I had the extra money, I would buy a new Surface just for that. My wife has an iPad mini with LTE and it is DARN convenient to just pick it up, look up a movie time for example, and put it down. With the Surface, sometimes I'm out and need to do something that takes two minutes and I only have two minutes available. This sounds nitpicky but it takes too much to tether sometimes that I won't even bother because I'll spend the whole allotted time getting the cell phone hotspot connected and not be able to get anything done. Then try doing that while you're ON the phone.
- If I put it in my bag and forget to force hibernate it gets really hot. I don't know what could or should be done about this, but it would be nice to not have to worry about it. If it magically hibernated when it went into my bag, that would be cool.
- I have the reported keyboard issue that takes a few seconds to work around. Basically the keyboard stops responding. I always curl the "hinge" part of the keyboard under the machine and then flip it back and it comes back on. That's easier than taking it off and easier than flipping the entire keyboard underneath. Still, it can get annoying.
- The specs on the camera says it's 5 MP, but even if it is it can't focus on anything close up, which is all I would use the camera for, as a makeshift scanner. It's useless for that. It's very grainy and pixelated and there is no angle or lighting that can make use of it… the only thing I haven't tried is another camera app. It's not a deal breaker for me, I use my phone's camera, but it would save me a step to be able to take pictures of documents.
- I wish that in the power options when you choose to require password on wake-up from sleep, it let you set a timer that you could require password only after it's been asleep for a configurable amount of time, such as 30 minutes or so. When using the screen saver trick, you have to wake the computer up, it flashes like it's going to log in, then it relocks the screen, which you have to unlock again.
- One improvement that might be cool in the future is on the underside of the kickstand, when extended, to make it a little more comfortable to hold, or perhaps an accessory for that. Sometimes I might walk around using it with the kickstand extended because it's a natural pattern to pick it up, keep working, then soon after put it down. The kickstand is awesome, but a little uncomfortable to hold when extended, granted that wasn't an intended use case. Basically the hinge on the underside hurts my fingers when carrying.
- When the machine gets to the hibernate battery level, it will hibernate without warning and it's very confusing… sometimes I don't even realize that it went into hibernation, at first thinking there is some problem with the machine… when I click the power button and see the "SURFACE" text come up, only then do I know that it hibernated. Instead, a better user experience would be if Windows 8 prompted you "Your system's battery level is Critical and will hibernate in One Minute" with just a "Cancel" button. And when the machine is hibernating, it would be nice to know that the process is happening. Windows 7 did this fine with a progress bar while hibernating.
- I had the reported WIFI issue on mine Surface. After sleep mode I had to toggle airplane mode or WIFI in order to reconnect. Many people do not seem to have this issue and it seems to be slowly getting better with driver updates. I'd suggest testing your machine for this issue immediately when you get it before setting up everything. I'm to the point now that it's much less of an issue, but you should be aware of it so you can quickly exchange the machine if you have it.
- One setting I changed and ended up changing back was to make Chrome the default browser because of an issue in Windows 8 where the metro IE doesn't show in the start menu if IE is not the default. Despite my preference for Chrome, the touch based IE is MUCH better than any alternative when browsing in a tablet like fashion. Having to launch chrome manually hasn't affected me much, but the metro IE should stay available even if IE is not the default.
I know I'm on the
sidelines here, that is, I don't get paid for coming up with ideas for products
and product improvements for departments like Microsoft Research (that would be
a dream), but from what I see, I really like the direction they're going with
the Surface.
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