Surface 3 Compared to Gen 1 Surface RT?

[CoopII]

I pre ordered the first Surface RT when it came out and been using it ever since. Yes it still works and does everything I want it to do just some times pretty slowly. I am looking to upgrade to the Surface 3. I like the size and fan-less passive cooling of the Surface 3 over the power and fan based cooling of the Surface 3 pro.

I am worried because I am sure the Surface 3 is light years ahead of the Surface RT but review sites all seem to rate it as pretty good but users themselves seem to say it is slow laggy can't do this or that. So what is the general idea here? I is it a good tablet? I am not looking for a laptop or a desktop replacement I want to browse the web, pay some bills, play some flash games, read some books, Watch some movies and stream my Xbox one.

Are these sort of activities going to be lag filled long load time with this device that maybe I should be looking at a Surface Pro i3? I had kind of figured it would seem like a speed demon compared to my old RT. What is the general view here?

I don't really want to but would it play something like Minecraft say? Does the 2GB vs 4GB make a huge difference?

 

[worldspy99]

Hmmm....I will ask Sahib Lopez to chime in. He has the original Surface RT and just acquired the Surface 3.

 

[theefman]

Cant say my S3 would classify as "laggy", been a smooth experience since I got it at launch. However I don't use applications like PhotoShop which some do and due to the specs (atom chip and eMMC storage) for such programs it will certainly be slower. From your usage description though I'd say you'd enjoy the upgrade and I'd go for the 4GB version.

 

[tbsteph]

I replaced my Surface RT with the Surface 3 in May. My quick comment would be the 3 is a significantly a better device. Why you ask. OK,

1. Screen resolution of 1080P vs. 720P
2. Screen size - 3x2 vs. 16x9. Easier to hold and can be used in portrait mode.
3. Full Windows vs. the RT version
4. Significantly faster. Gone is the lag found on the RT.
5. High resolution pen available.

I'm not sure where you have been reading that the Surface 3 is laggy but that is not my experience. I'm sure one could bog it down by having too many apps open or trying to run Photoshop extensively. My suggestion would be to try one out at a local retailer.

 

[ADufresne]

I took the same upgrade path from the original Surface RT to the Surface 3 and echo the comments of the others above. I use my 3 primarily for Office 365, Mail, Calendar, browsing, video and music playback, and casual gaming. It has been fantastic. I wouldn't even think of the term "laggy" for any of those activities. Browser loading/rendering of the heaviest of sites is a bit slower than on a faster platform but not at all painful to me, certainly not as painful as browsing was on my Surface RT. I business travel fairly frequently and the Surface 3's size and weight, versatility, and battery life is indispensable to me on the plane.

 

[CoopII]

A couple sites users have reported lag and had a few YouTube video's to show some lag but some people have agenda's it seems so I thought I would ask here a site I trust. Glad to hear it is much faster then the RT as I thought it would be the benchmarks show it being much faster. I really do like my RT but my biggest issue is using Netflix for example, I pretty much have to reboot after or it won't come out of sleep and if I browse the web for more then an hour it gets very slow until I shut down IE and open it again. As well as the deep sleep mode when it comes out the Wi-Fi is set as limited and I have to toggle to another connection and back. Just some of the issue my RT has started to show up and made me think it is time to upgrade.

Well that and the fact that there will be no Windows 10.

 

[John Steffes]

Having a Surface RT device myself and a Surface Pro 2 (with windows 10 Pro), I have some suggestions, Now I have the 64G variant, not sure which version you have but a few things I notice on my Surface RT is when I went from Windows RT 8 to Windows RT 8.1 (as an upgrade) I had issues, did a reset from the recovery partition and have not had any issues since (had the laggy IE, Netflix, WiFi, Sleep)... but after the reset I have had no issues... Now the only issue I have is the space issue, the disk space must remain above 5G or more free, if you have the 32G version that is even harder to achieve. But I recommend a reset refresh, just to eliminate those other issues...

But the Surface 3 is a great upgrade, if I did not have both the RT and the Pro 2, I would have most likely jumped to the 3... But the issues for me is Office... Office RT 2013 is almost as good as the full version, and it is not just for one year, but for the entire life cycle of the device.... I am not a big APPS person, the APPS I do use all work fine for me, and then there is the update RT 8.1 Update 2 coming (they say in September)... Better start menu (based on Windows 10 Tech Preview, not the XAML version).

 

[CoopII]

Thanks my RT is a only 32GB with 64GB SD card. I have over 8GB free space now and removed the recovery portion to a USB key to give me the extra space. I did one full reset after going to 8.1 and it was a lot better but what has it been a year or two later and back to slowness. I may try another reset just to see.

Thanks Guys I think I may go ahead and get the 4GB Surface 3.

 

[prlundberg]

I also own an original RT and now a Surface 3. Unfortunately, yes, I do see a lot of the same kind of issues in the 3 on Windows 10 that I have had in the RT. They are not enough to make it unusable but they are frustrating.

Browsing is an issue. Edge is still pretty buggy and not fully functional. Alternate browsers like Firefox and Chrome scroll so poorly they are barely usable.

There are considerable lags and glitches all over. To be honest, my S3 is laggier than my older Samsung devices (a Galaxy Pro 8.4 and Galaxy S5). And they are not good. My type keyboard also misses a lot of keystrokes. The touch responsiveness is poor... often times I can see full well that I touched a tile for example but it won't open unless I do a slight pause when I touch it. It seemed OK with Windows 8.1 but 10 is another story completely. Battery life is also a disappointment (I get less than 4 hours with light browsing) as is the charger, which requires a 2.5A microUSB to even work and then takes over 5 hours to charge. Live tiles sometimes work and sometimes don't. Weather pretty much never works unless I open the app. And when I do open it, I have to hit the home button for it to refresh. There's lots of little stuff like that, I could almost write a book on it.

I ran my S3 next to a 5 year old entry level Core I3 laptop running Windows 7. The laptop still blows the S3 away in performance.

I had liked my RT when I first got it, but then 8.1 and IE11 made it almost unusable for day-to-day stuff and relegated it most to kid use. I'm afraid I'm seeing the same kind of trends with my S3, enough so that I am considering returning it. I'm growing tired of always feeling like a beta tester. From all the reviews I really thought Microsoft had finally pulled it together but my personal experience is telling me otherwise.

I do tend to actually use the Surface to its potential. I have 3 Microsoft and 1 local account set up on it and also use OneDrive and Office. Perhaps that's why my experience is so poor.

So I guess to answer your question, yes the S3 is a definite step up from the RT. At its price point you really need to ask yourself if it's the best match for your needs. It's still unique and does stuff no other tablet can do. But purely as a tablet there are better choices out there.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I also own an original RT and now a Surface 3. Unfortunately, yes, I do see a lot of the same kind of issues in the 3 on Windows 10 that I have had in the RT. They are not enough to make it unusable but they are frustrating.

Browsing is an issue. Edge is still pretty buggy and not fully functional. Alternate browsers like Firefox and Chrome scroll so poorly they are barely usable.

There are considerable lags and glitches all over. To be honest, my S3 is laggier than my older Samsung devices (a Galaxy Pro 8.4 and Galaxy S5). And they are not good. My type keyboard also misses a lot of keystrokes. The touch responsiveness is poor... often times I can see full well that I touched a tile for example but it won't open unless I do a slight pause when I touch it. It seemed OK with Windows 8.1 but 10 is another story completely. Battery life is also a disappointment (I get less than 4 hours with light browsing) as is the charger, which requires a 2.5A microUSB to even work and then takes over 5 hours to charge. Live tiles sometimes work and sometimes don't. Weather pretty much never works unless I open the app. And when I do open it, I have to hit the home button for it to refresh. There's lots of little stuff like that, I could almost write a book on it.

I ran my S3 next to a 5 year old entry level Core I3 laptop running Windows 7. The laptop still blows the S3 away in performance.

Wow, that's pretty surprising.

As for microUSB charging, I thought that was a boneheaded move by Microsoft and a significant reason why I won't upgrade to the Surface 3. I prefer the proprietary magnetically attached charger that is used on the previous gen Surfaces.

II had liked my RT when I first got it, but then 8.1 and IE11 made it almost unusable for day-to-day stuff and relegated it most to kid use. I'm afraid I'm seeing the same kind of trends with my S3, enough so that I am considering returning it. I'm growing tired of always feeling like a beta tester. From all the reviews I really thought Microsoft had finally pulled it together but my personal experience is telling me otherwise.

A month or so ago I picked up a Surface 2 (after not having one for a year). The performance, stability, and battery life has been exactly what I was originally expecting and hoping for from the Windows RT-based Surface devices. Prices for like-new S2 units on eBay are pretty good (I paid $117 for a 32GB S2 + black TypeCover + 32GB microSD + Incipio case)

II do tend to actually use the Surface to its potential. I have 3 Microsoft and 1 local account set up on it and also use OneDrive and Office. Perhaps that's why my experience is so poor.

Multiple accounts take up additional storage space but have no impact on performance or stability.

ISo I guess to answer your question, yes the S3 is a definite step up from the RT. At its price point you really need to ask yourself if it's the best match for your needs. It's still unique and does stuff no other tablet can do. But purely as a tablet there are better choices out there.

Well said.

 

[CoopII]

This is what I have been reading on other sites about the Surface 3 so now I am wonder if I should be looking at the i5 surface instead or not even a Surface all together, I guess back to more reading up on what is out there or possible to come.

 

[noobchief]

This is what I have been reading on other sites about the Surface 3 so now I am wonder if I should be looking at the i5 surface instead or not even a Surface all together, I guess back to more reading up on what is out there or possible to come.

I don't know about you man, but I love my i5 SP3

 

[realwarder]

I have the RT and had the S3 for a few days from work. It was very smooth with W10 and was a pleasure to use.

Sure, its not an i7 but its not supposed to be. That is what the Pro is for.

As a daily browser, email and light app device it seemed fine to me.

 

[CoopII]

Ya I am comparing Prices and not sure an i5 at $1200 is worth the extra power compared to the Surface 3 4GB at $770....

Canadian prices if you are wondering,

 

[sahib lopez]

I pre ordered the first Surface RT when it came out and been using it ever since. Yes it still works and does everything I want it to do just some times pretty slowly. I am looking to upgrade to the Surface 3. I like the size and fan-less passive cooling of the Surface 3 over the power and fan based cooling of the Surface 3 pro.

my thoughts are nothing but good things about my surface RT. it runs like a champ and no slow downs yet. I do like that my surface 3 runs a bit more cooler than my Rt but its not by much. if you enjoined the fan-less RT I think you will enjoy the surface 3.

I am worried because I am sure the Surface 3 is light years ahead of the Surface RT but review sites all seem to rate it as pretty good but users themselves seem to say it is slow laggy can't do this or that. So what is the general idea here? I is it a good tablet? I am not looking for a laptop or a desktop replacement I want to browse the web, pay some bills, play some flash games, read some books, Watch some movies and stream my Xbox one.

In my Opinion I think the surface 3 is a great successor to the RT. I can say that I like the screen panel that they used, it works for my typing needs and also have fun with it. I think the surface 3 will fit your needs,

Are these sort of activities going to be lag filled long load time with this device that maybe I should be looking at a Surface Pro i3? I had kind of figured it would seem like a speed demon compared to my old RT. What is the general view here?

You have to keep in mind that the surface pro 3 is bigger and you are going to get some fan noise. Sometimes when I use my little sister pro 3 the fan noise isn't really a big deal but you can hear it.
All in all if you liked the RT and held onto it for this long I say get the surface 3 64GB version if you want to just install apps but the 128 GB one if you plan to run desktop apps. I'm happy with my 64gb one and I'm using it for programming class in C++ and it works well

 

[prlundberg]

As for microUSB charging, I thought that was a boneheaded move by Microsoft and a significant reason why I won't upgrade to the Surface 3. I prefer the proprietary magnetically attached charger that is used on the previous gen Surfaces.

Yeah, it's definitely one of those things that sounded good at first because one tends to make a lot of assumptions about a standardized interface. But once I realized it took over 5 hours to charge and that none of my existing chargers would charge it I became quite frustrated. I could understand a less powerful charger taking longer...but to not charge at all is unforgivable.

 

[CoopII]

In my Opinion I think the surface 3 is a great successor to the RT. I can say that I like the screen panel that they used, it works for my typing needs and also have fun with it. I think the surface 3 will fit your needs,

Thanks I guess this is what I was thinking or feeling when I first looked at upgrading to the Surface 3. I am more then happy with the RT now and what I use it for just getting older and slower. My son has a RT as well but got his a year + after I did and his doesn't have the same slow down issues as mine does. I am sure the never one had slightly better parts and build then my first off the line one. Anyways I am looking at tablets still and I think still leaning towards the Surface 3.

 

[michail71]

Most of the negative stuff probably comes from running windows 10 on the Surface 3. Bad battery drains in sleep, inconsistent WiFi, sometimes high system CPU usage, odd behaviors with the touch screen and a non-functioning Surface app are all common problems.

I've load tested mine and it seemed amazingly fast. But if you take it to a meeting, use it in front of people or have an emergency it starts acting up and will run slow or get the above issues I mentioned.

You'll get Windows 10 all setup and running fine and you'll think it's great. Then the gremlins start sneaking up.

Perhaps it just needs to be rebooted instead of going into sleep?

 

[prlundberg]

Most of the negative stuff probably comes from running windows 10 on the Surface 3. Bad battery drains in sleep, inconsistent WiFi, sometimes high system CPU usage, odd behaviors with the touch screen and a non-functioning Surface app are all common problems.

I've load tested mine and it seemed amazingly fast. But if you take it to a meeting, use it in front of people or have an emergency it starts acting up and will run slow or get the above issues I mentioned.

You'll get Windows 10 all setup and running fine and you'll think it's great. Then the gremlins start sneaking up.

I was happy with the performance on 8.1, but that only ran a few days before I upgraded. So yes, I agree that Windows 10 is probably the main issue, but it's very disappointing they couldn't do a better job on what should be a reference device. I do like Windows 10 in general but the glitches are driving me nuts.

 

[illegaloperation]

Surface 3 is able as fast as a 2009-era laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo.

Whether that is enough is entirely on you.