Surface Pro 3?

[SaltedSquirrel7]

Hi all,

Hoping for some input on a dilemma chaps!

I am looking at Surface Pro's, however I am contemplating which one to go for. On Microsoft's website (in the UK), the Surface Pro 3 with 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM is ?1,100 (can get this ?100 at another particular retailer), but the 512GB Surface Pro 2 from MS is more expensive at ?1,279 however this comes with the type cover plus a ?10 voucher, so I'm wondering if people think it's worth the more for the older H/W with the bonuses, or is it better to get the newer hardware - which presumably has faster components, cooler running, better battery etc.

Alternatively, I could get a Surface Pro 1 with 128GB for ?379?

P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong place!

Thanks Guys!

 

[xandros9]

Internally, the Surface Pro 2 and 3 are about the same (performance-wise) and I would spring for the 2.
However if the increased size, new kickstand among other small differences are worth the smaller disk and lack of cover included, then sure, a 3 is fine.

Now the Surface Pro has a one-position kickstand, unlike the 2, which has two positions. It's pretty much a 2, except with bit more than half the battery life, give or take. But adding on the Power Cover can make it a tempting device. Although looks like that memory configuration is the smallest.

Now I believe I missed some stuff, others can fill it in, I think I caught the gist of it.

 

[rdubmu]

If you get the Surface Pro 1, it's only worth it with the power cover


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SaltedSquirrel7]

Hmm, I'm actually quite tempted by the Surface Pro 1 the more I think about it. 128GB would probably be enough, and I have a 64GB Micro SD card kicking about somewhere from my old Lumia 720 to expand if necessary.

How much would the battery life improve with the power cover do you reckon, and is it even available in the UK? I don't recall seeing it, but I will do some digging! Also, what is the max size MicroSD card it would take?

 

[xandros9]

Hmm, I'm actually quite tempted by the Surface Pro 1 the more I think about it. 128GB would probably be enough, and I have a 64GB Micro SD card kicking about somewhere from my old Lumia 720 to expand if necessary.

How much would the battery life improve with the power cover do you reckon, and is it even available in the UK? I don't recall seeing it, but I will do some digging! Also, what is the max size MicroSD card it would take?

I think the battery life with the Power Cover would be put to roughly in the Surface Pro 2/3 range and perhaps even higher. However it will cost you. ($100 USD used, $200 USD new IIRC)

I don't think you will have to worry about maximum SD card size, the ones it can't take probably don't exist yet. (even the Lumia's who officially say "up to 32 GB" have been reported to take 128 GB cards)

Personally, I find 120 GB on my laptop to be a bit too small. (but considering I have autodesk inventor and other heavy tools as well as various games taking up space, for more mundane stuff you should be fine)
But I could definitely live with 128 + 64, I think I should go pick up another SD card thats larger than this 16 GB one I have dedicated to Starcraft 2.

 

[rdubmu]

I get batter battery life on my sp3 than on my sp1 with power cover

One thing: the sp3 is much lighter and a bigger screen


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[Coreldan]

Personally, I find 120 GB on my laptop to be a bit too small. (but considering I have autodesk inventor and other heavy tools as well as various games taking up space, for more mundane stuff you should be fine)
But I could definitely live with 128 + 64, I think I should go pick up another SD card thats larger than this 16 GB one I have dedicated to Starcraft 2.

How's that working out for you? Running SC2 out of a MicroSD? I'm getting the 64gb i3 version and while I don't plan to game on it really, I'd like to be able to pop into WoW every now and then while on the go, but a full installation of that would be like 20-30gb, so it would probably have to go on an MicroSD card.. I have a class 4 though (mostly for music) in my current Surface RT that I thought I'll take for this purpose, but I wonder if I'd need faster for a game?

Also, any idea what is the highest support size for a MicroSC card on SP3? I suppose SDXC works, btw?

 

[xandros9]

How's that working out for you? Running SC2 out of a MicroSD? I'm getting the 64gb i3 version and while I don't plan to game on it really, I'd like to be able to pop into WoW every now and then while on the go, but a full installation of that would be like 20-30gb, so it would probably have to go on an MicroSD card.. I have a class 4 though (mostly for music) in my current Surface RT that I thought I'll take for this purpose, but I wonder if I'd need faster for a game?

Also, any idea what is the highest support size for a MicroSC card on SP3? I suppose SDXC works, btw?

I don't think we'll have to worry about hitting a maximum SD card size ceiling just yet.
I have a 16 GB Class 10 (I think) microSD card. SC2 fills it up almost completely, there's only, IIRC, 50~ MB or so free.
Performance, load times aren't too bad at all by my standards, the bottleneck is my laptop's old integrated graphics.
I don't know for sure if a slower card will cause significant issues.

 

[SaltedSquirrel7]

Thanks for all your responses guys, it's a great help!

I reckon if I can sell my current laptop and iPhone, then I will actually go for the SP2 with free cover - 512GB, 8GB RAM and Haswell in such a small unit is appealing, plus I can hook it up to a monitor and dual screen

 

[RajeevT]

Also, any idea what is the highest support size for a MicroSC card on SP3? I suppose SDXC works, btw?

You don't need to worry about it as xandros9 said. Even the Surface RT can handle 128GB Micro SDXC, and since it's a standard if the firmware is written properly then future SDXC cards up to I believe 2TB will work. Rest assured your device will be dead and gone by the time those come out!