Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Review

The tablet that can replace your laptop. No joke.

I hate laptops, like I really do hate them. As far as the ones I've used go which granted isn't many, they seem to be too huge and heavy, or too small and lacking in features, and sometimes unreliable hunks of crap. As a result I've always leaned towards tablets for portable computing but they are definitely less versatile than a full fledged PC in most aspects. Microsoft however decided to try and bridge the gap between laptop and tablet and after several so-so attempts, I think they finally got it right. Say hello to the Surface Pro 3.

Size compared to an iPad Air and a Galaxy Note 4.

Yeah I know the the Surface Pro 4 is out now but the differences aren't too drastic between the 4 and the 3 apart from the usual improvements in battery life and cooling. Remember when Bill Gates showed off the old tablet PCs running XP back in the day and nobody gave a crap? This is basically the perfection of that design. Because of how this tablet is designed, it's as competitive with laptops as it is tablets so it's going to be a little difficult trying to review something that aims to combine both since I have to constantly bounce between both sides of the spectrum with this thing. Ok, lets look at the hardware. This thing is pretty effing huge for a tablet, for a laptop it's a dream. It's built entirely out of magnesium and it feels very premium to the touch but I'm not the guy to go to if you want drop tests. It packs 12" inch 2K screen that dwarfs the iPad Air I have handy and it's roughly the same as the iPad Pro; this thing's main market competition. It's not unwieldy as a tablet but the scale of it might throw you off a bit if your used to using something smaller. There's not disk drive but for something of this size, that's okay also considering damn near everything has gone digital anyways. My particular model packs the Intel i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM, an Intel HD 5000 GPU, and a 256 GB SSD. This one retails for around $1500 bucks, it ain't cheap.

It's got a USB!

This is by far my favorite feature about the Surface that most tablets rarely ever have, even if it's only one; the USB port. This sucker open up the device to a whole new world of possibilities that the iPad and a ton of Android tablets can only dream of. It is a PC after all so it's already well ahead of the curve in tablet department. Along with the standard USB port you get a Mini-DisplayPort for hooking it up to a big screen, a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a microSD slot. The charging cable is a bit of beast packing a full blown power brick with another USB port so you can daisy chain another device off the brick to charge it too. However I don't think this cable works with the older models, just be aware. Being a PC it does have a fan and it will make a bit noise under heavy load. If you're a gamer, I managed to get mine to run games like CS:GO and Starcraft II fairly well. They don't look fantastic compared to higher end PCs as you would expect, but for a device with this slim of a form factor, it's pretty impressive. Asides from that you can get games from the Windows Store too or you can just stream your Xbox One to the tablet. I do believe this should be able to handle some more graphics intensive productivity software pretty well too like CAD and such since this is more of a productivity work machine than a game machine. As for it's battery life, it can clock in around 8 to 9 hours of use provided your not pushing the hardware to it's limits. Overall it's got more than enough power to satisfy most people's needs.

Shot of my backyard, my benchmark for cameras. Most phones do a better job.

I may as well talk about the camera too since it is hardware after all. There is a frontal camera but it's about as good as you can expect most newer laptop grade webcams to be, and it gets the job done well. The rear camera though is the focus here. It's 5 MP and it takes pictures and records video, that's all you really need to know about it. Yeah I'm being pretty vague, the reason why and this goes for almost all large tablets is that you don't really want to be using this hulking device to ritually take pictures with. It's too cumbersome for photography, especially when a phone or a regular digital camera can take notably better photos and record better video than the Pro 3 in a much smaller package. It's not a device for taking photos or video but if you want to edit photos or video effectively especially on the go, this is a great device to get it done.

The stretching has paid off.

The Pro 3 has got a notable improvement over the old model by improving the kickstand's flexibility. This kickstand can angle itself to almost any position and it makes huge difference depending on how you need to use the device, especially with the Pen. Speaking of the Pen, it's a great little tool. I found it weird that it used one AAAA battery but it's by far the most versatile stylus I've used on a tablet. It's a good size, very precise and it has some degree of pressure sensitivity. The purple button on the top of the pen is a direct shortcut to OneNote, Microsoft's note taking app and the two buttons on the side are hotkeyed by default to the eraser and select tools. For digital artist's or photographers, it's near perfect although the lack of major friction can throw you off a bit at first. If not, it great for taking down some quick notes when you need to.

Windows 10 tablet mode on.

I'm not going to touch much on Windows 10 itself(Hah) since I've already gave my verdict on it but I'll focus on it's tablet functionality. I will note I tried Windows 8 on this thing before I upgraded it to 10 and 8 is still pretty terrible, even on the Surface. It's better than on desktop but it won't matter since you have a free upgrade to 10, at least for the time being. Off the bat I can say 10 is a much better experience in tablet mode. In 10's tablet mode, the entire OS get streamlined into a more touch friendly system that looks similar to 8's Start screen but with all the counter intuitive garbage cut out. Here, Task View actually serves a purpose since the Task Bar does not display program icons and the only way you can quickly switch to and from running programs is through Task View. You aren't able to see the full desktop while Tablet Mode is on but alternatively you can just shut it off and perhaps turn on the full Start screen setting in place of it. It's still a very usable device in this mode and being a full PC, it can do things most other tablets can't; for example, one little secret weapon I have on my Surface is the Bluestacks Android Emulator which basically turns your Surface into a super powerful Android tablet at the push of a button. And this is where I feel like the Surface Pro 3 wins out completely over the iPad Pro. The Surface runs a full blown PC OS and can do everything your home desktop can do but the iPad Pro doesn't even run OS X so it's essentially nothing but a giant run of the mill iPad relegating it to a companion device. You would basically need both a Macbook and an iPad Pro to match a Surface Pro 3 in terms of capability and that really blows.

Type Cover attached.

Without the Type Cover though, the Surface does feel a bit naked especially when you consider laptops have the keyboard already built in. The Type Cover, though quite expensive at $130 basically converts your tablet into a laptop without sacrificing the Surface's already slim form factor. This new Type Cover is larger than previous models and feels more akin to a full sized laptop keyboard. The trackpad is also larger although I would prefer to have the mouse buttons separate from the pad itself instead of being built in. The Cover also comes with a slightly hoaky stylus loop since the Pro 3 got rid of the magnetized stylus holder but it works well even though it should have come with the tablet to begin with. With cover attached, it sits on your lap nicely and the revised kickstand makes it as adjustable as a full sized laptop. When the cover is flipped back or removed completely, the Surface goes straight into tablet mode and vice versa so it's pretty seamless transitioning between modes with the cover. It's not necessary since you can get away with the onscreen keyboard which works quite well too but if you want something physical to type on and something to protect your screen, this is a must have. Also, a fun fact. Because the Surface technically classifies as a tablet, so you can leave it in bags at most airport checkpoints and you can use it at all times on planes while others get the fake smile of "you need to put your laptop" away from the attendants. But I would just leave the Type Cover off at those times to prevent confusion. Cheating the system feels great, right?

Type Cover closed.

I know this review isn't perfect but there is just so much to cover on the Surface Pro 3. Again, it's designed as both a laptop and tablet killer so I have to bounce between both viewpoints quite a lot just to justify the device on both sides since it technically classifies as both. Since I touch on what felt like the main points, as a final verdict I'd have to say the Pro 3 is an excellent piece of tech. It's massive for a tablet but for a laptop, it's super slim and easy to manage and the powerful hardware crammed into this thing is outstanding. The stylus can serve as a powerful tool if you need it and the revised kickstand makes it that much more usable. Being that it runs full Windows, it makes it instantly more versatile than any tablet out there and the transitions between modes is near seamless. It's basically the best of both worlds, but it has a few problems too. The Type Cover feels like it should have came with the device to begin with, it's battery life is a bit worse than a lot of Android or iOS tablets out there but that's mostly due to the hardware this thing packs and it's literally the only tablet I've used that actually makes noise, not very much noise but still noise, also the rear camera feels like a bit of an afterthought. And above all, the hefty price tag on the Pro 3 and it's Type Cover is like a gut punch to your wallet, it isn't cheap, at all but you are paying for a quality product that set out to do what it's predecessors tried and failed to do but succeeded. Overall there's something for everyone with the Surface Pro 3, be it productivity like it was built for and it's good for a bit of fun too. Funny thing is, it's actually become my favorite laptop, or is it a tablet? I don't know, but I do remember myself saying things about how terrible Microsoft's mobile devices have been in the past and to end up liking one this much after all this time tells me they finally got something figured out. I can't wait to see what they cook up next.

Is It Better Than?

iPad Pro- Yes, I'm dogging on Apple again, I know but the iPad Pro is pretty much nothing but a big iPad like I said earlier. Okay, it has better battery life and runs a bit smoother thanks to the closed source refinement that is iOS but that's the problem: iOS. Not OS X like on a Macbook, but the same exact thing you find on your iPhone or iPad Air. That single fact instantly makes the iPad Pro less versatile than the Surface Pro 3 since it does not run a full PC OS. If the iPad Pro ran OS X it would be much more competitive against the Surface series but it's simply a companion device like I mentioned earlier and it can't outright replace a Macbook like the Surface can a Windows laptop. A lot of potential was wasted here. Next revision perhaps? We'll see in a year, or the year after, and so on.