I also wanted to add:
If you are considering the Surface 3, I would wait a few more months. There is no doubt this product was rushed to market for the fall school purchases.
Compared to my 2, the 3 is less stable, has a shorter battery life, and also errors on reporting said battery life. Once below 30 percent the accuracy gets very poor.
I have had a case open with Microsoft on this for 2 weeks. Net, they want to totally reload the OS on the machine. Which removes everything and brings it back to a as new state. I don't want to do this, because I have already loaded office, (if you have ever tried to get an installation of office to reinstall without 20 support calls, you know what I mean).
The latest firmware (from what I can tell there have been 2 major firmware updates), fixed the wifi issues. However by default Microsoft limits the available power management to only balanced, and gives the user much less control, both when "high performance" or "power saver" times are needed. You can get the 3 to accept this, but I am not sure if in doing so, you are running the hardware as optimally as can be done. If you want to get to the 3 power manage states, I have written how here:
07/09/14 Power Options on Surface Pro-3–How to improve your WiFi Connection with Hyper-V
I believe that Microsoft will get this fixed along with the other problem, with hardware updates, behind the covers, which is typically how this is done anyway. My 2 was purchased at the end of the lifetime curve, is much more stable, and has a BETTER battery life. I have the 8GB 256MB versions of both. The 9 HOUR OF LIFE claims are bogus at least for now. The 3 can't get anywhere close to 9 hours. I have tested it with the specs that Microsoft claims (internet only, with no bluetooth on) screen brightness to totally low, you might get 5 to 6 hours.
When you really think about it, it's not surprising. The 2 has a bit larger battery pack (you can find various websites where they have taken both of them apart) so the 3 was supposedly using a new battery tech, more efficient Lithium cells that weight less and last longer. They may get this done with a hardware refresh to later models.
ALSO, my 3 runs hotter. Most times I run it with the AC plugged in the fan comes on within 15 minutes. If I tether to the Phase One camera, and run in balanced power, after about 10 minutes the fan comes on. The entire unit gets hot to the touch on the upper right back, which must be where the processor is. The 2 will go 30 to 40 minutes before the fan comes on unless I have it out in bright light. The outside heat and humidity in Arkansas right now does not lend itself to extended use of either machine.
One plus, to me the screen of the 3 is excellent, seems easier to read outdoors and for sure makes the use of tethering easier as I prefer the size of the screen, i.e. more a normal ratio, not the more panoramic size of the 2 screen.
Manvex case fits perfectly also.
Paul
If you are considering the Surface 3, I would wait a few more months. There is no doubt this product was rushed to market for the fall school purchases.
Compared to my 2, the 3 is less stable, has a shorter battery life, and also errors on reporting said battery life. Once below 30 percent the accuracy gets very poor.
I have had a case open with Microsoft on this for 2 weeks. Net, they want to totally reload the OS on the machine. Which removes everything and brings it back to a as new state. I don't want to do this, because I have already loaded office, (if you have ever tried to get an installation of office to reinstall without 20 support calls, you know what I mean).
The latest firmware (from what I can tell there have been 2 major firmware updates), fixed the wifi issues. However by default Microsoft limits the available power management to only balanced, and gives the user much less control, both when "high performance" or "power saver" times are needed. You can get the 3 to accept this, but I am not sure if in doing so, you are running the hardware as optimally as can be done. If you want to get to the 3 power manage states, I have written how here:
07/09/14 Power Options on Surface Pro-3–How to improve your WiFi Connection with Hyper-V
I believe that Microsoft will get this fixed along with the other problem, with hardware updates, behind the covers, which is typically how this is done anyway. My 2 was purchased at the end of the lifetime curve, is much more stable, and has a BETTER battery life. I have the 8GB 256MB versions of both. The 9 HOUR OF LIFE claims are bogus at least for now. The 3 can't get anywhere close to 9 hours. I have tested it with the specs that Microsoft claims (internet only, with no bluetooth on) screen brightness to totally low, you might get 5 to 6 hours.
When you really think about it, it's not surprising. The 2 has a bit larger battery pack (you can find various websites where they have taken both of them apart) so the 3 was supposedly using a new battery tech, more efficient Lithium cells that weight less and last longer. They may get this done with a hardware refresh to later models.
ALSO, my 3 runs hotter. Most times I run it with the AC plugged in the fan comes on within 15 minutes. If I tether to the Phase One camera, and run in balanced power, after about 10 minutes the fan comes on. The entire unit gets hot to the touch on the upper right back, which must be where the processor is. The 2 will go 30 to 40 minutes before the fan comes on unless I have it out in bright light. The outside heat and humidity in Arkansas right now does not lend itself to extended use of either machine.
One plus, to me the screen of the 3 is excellent, seems easier to read outdoors and for sure makes the use of tethering easier as I prefer the size of the screen, i.e. more a normal ratio, not the more panoramic size of the 2 screen.
Manvex case fits perfectly also.
Paul
