Surface Pro3

At the end of August the Surface Pro3's were released here, to my very great delight.

I took about an hour off work that morning to go out a obtain one, as stock was extremely low. Like super low. The first store and went to had none and the second and only other store that'll sell them only had two of the particular model I wanted (i5, 256GB). So I walked on into the store and walked out with a brand new Surface 3.

I went back to work and at lunch time I opened her up and it was absolutely beautiful. After spending a few minutes setting it up I noticed one huge issue - Windows wasn't activated, and wouldn't activate. When I got home I phoned up Microsoft and they told me that the OEM chip was corrupted and I had to return it to the store.

So off I went back to the store, and after some discussion I managed to get them to replace it, with the only other one of that model they had. I took it home and opened this new one up, and then set it up... and... dead pixel.... it had a bloody dead pixel.

Off I trudged back to the store to get another replacement. The problem however is that they didn't have any of that model left and I definitely didn't want to downgrade. So I had two options - wait for them to get another one in, which could take a week, or get the model up. So I paid the difference and walked out with an i7, 8GB, 256GB model (of which they only had one).

After all that pain I'm happy to say that this is the best purchase of my life, and perhaps even the best PC I have ever used. This thing has replaced my laptop, tablet and desktop PC.

So if anyone here is thinking about getting one, but isn't quite sure - you won't be disappointed. Even after all the arse pain I went through to get mine I'm still oh so extremely happy. Not only is it fast as balls, but the i7 has really good integrated graphics that is super capable of playing anything I chuck at it. These things are seriously a 5 star bit of kit.


So why am I telling you all this? 'cos goats are chill peeps.


Seriously though, if you have any questions about these things let me know. I'll be happy to help.

Wait, wut, you could use the surface as a Cintiq? (stylus on the left side?)

Can you play Warband?

Integrated graphics

Seems like a device that you don't really need between a phone and a laptop. It does everything a laptop can but not as good as a laptop, and doesn't do everything a phone can so you still have to get a phone. It gets trashed by a desktop's raw power and is only slightly more portable than a laptop.

Where exactly does this thing fit in?

My boss wanted a Surface Pro last year, so I got one to support it.

The good: The smallest device you can join to a domain (why the **** can you not join windows phones or rt tablets to domains? MS has a monopoly on that one thing, and they don't ****ing touch it. So ****ing dumb.)

The bad: It's not really bad at things

The  : It isn't better than a laptop, because you need a ... surface... to use it on. Using it on your lap is harder than playing violin with one hand. It isn't better than a desktop, because the screen is squint-worthy. It works better than a tablet, but it is god damn hefty.

Is it worth getting? Yes, if you want a tiny device to do big things. If you won't have a use for a small form factor device you need to rest on tables to use, it's probably not for you.

Asulador said:

Wait, wut, you could use the surface as a Cintiq? (stylus on the left side?)

Can you play Warband?

Click to expand...

Perfectly well, on all the highest settings. And that is a stylus, yes. The digital ink is awesome and there is a button on it that brings up a new note when pressed. No matter what you're doing.

Splintert said:

Integrated graphics

Seems like a device that you don't really need between a phone and a laptop. It does everything a laptop can but not as good as a laptop, and doesn't do everything a phone can so you still have to get a phone. It gets trashed by a desktop's raw power and is only slightly more portable than a laptop.

Where exactly does this thing fit in?

Click to expand...

Aye, integrated, but very good integrated. I use it as a tablet, laptop and desktop. It's more powerful than most laptops I come across and way lighter and thinner too and now that they have a kickstand that can be positioned in pretty much any angle it's perfect for lap usage.

When I want to use it at my desk I can plug it into a dock attached to a screen and mouse and keyboard. In terms of raw processing power it will do anything I throw at it. I run VMs on it, I develop on it, I use Photoshop, ACAD and the likes on it and it doesn't even hang or stutter for a moment. The graphics can't compete with good dedicated, hell no, but I'm not asking it to.

So where does it fit? It fits well as an all-in-one device. At work it's perfect for tablet use with the pen for taking notes in meetings, etc. At home it's perfect for web browsing and development, be it at my desk or on my lap.

With a screen size of 12" it is smaller than most laptops, but at the same time the resolution is 2160x1440, and absolutely gorgeous. And just to reiterate it has the power of a desktop in a super thin 800g form factor.

The greatest benefit for me is having everything in one device. I don't have to transfer stuff between computers. Everything is just there, always, no matter how I want to use the thing.

So have much are they paying you to viral market it?

$12.

Well that's a decent amount, you didn't get shafted, cheers.

Yeah, I was quite happy with it.

Sadly I just don't see these things ever replacing a solid laptop. I like the concept a lot, but the implementations are not there. They need to give it a hard case keyboard that allows it to stand up like a laptop. I would glad take the additional weight for something like. And they could simply allow it to undock from the keyboard like those fancy dell laptops.

Yeah, a model like the asus transformer would be worlds better.