The Pros that most reviewers miss regarding the Surface Pro 3

smoheath

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So I have been reading some of the early reviews and there are some major things reviewers forget to even mention that make the Surface Pro (1, 2, or 3) better than just a laptop or tablet.

1. (The Major One) The surface pro will replace your freakin paper notebook.

This is the main reason I was intrigued by the surface pro when it was announced in 2012 when I was doing my undergrad in mechanical engineering. It may be that reviewers, tech bloggers, reporters, etc haven't touched a paper notebook in ages but the truth is, a major portion of the pc/laptop market are students. The tech world would like you to think that people take notes on their laptops in class. However, from my experience, the majority of students (in general ed classes) still take notes with pencil and paper. When you look into any math, science, engineering, or art classes no one is typing their notes on laptops. The reason is that it is near impossible to quickly write an equation, sketch a figure, draw a schematic on a laptop with a keyboard and a trackpad.

Now for the surface pro proposition: what if you had all your handwritten notes from all your classes in one place? And what if all those notes never wasted a single sheet of paper and never took up any additional weight? What if all your notes were searchable and organized? Well guess what folks, any surface pro can do this for you with ease. Oh yeah and its a laptop (ish) and tablet.

Let me do a quick comparison for you. In my undergrad I took all my notes on paper. I would not be surprised if I accumulated over 15 lbs of notes in all those notebooks. Now I'm in aero engineering grad school I have not used a single piece of paper for notes or homework (besides reports). When I go to school now, all I take is my surface pro 2. I don't even need a bag. So If a student normally takes a paper notebook and a laptop and a tablet to school, that could be 4-7 lbs. If I take just my surface pro 2 (soon to be 3) it is only 2-2.5 lbs.

Now many of you might say, well, this is just college students. I would bet that in the business world, creating handwritten notes is still occurring, albeit much less.

2. No tablet is lap-able on its own except the surface. Yes the iPad air is light and you probably won't get tired holding it. But you still have to hold it. With the surface, you can plop out the kickstand, lean back and watch a movie. Yes there are cases for other tablets that address this issue, but those are add-ons which add cost and weight. I understand that as a laptop the surface isn't very lapable, but reviewers forget that no other tablet has a kickstand for hand's off entertainment. When they review other tablets they don't knock off points for not having a kickstand, but the surface gets knocked for a non-ideal implementation (their opinion). It drives me crazy.

3. Being able to snap two apps with adjustable sizes side by side is invaluable for multitasking. To the power laptop users, this is child's play compared to a desktop. But on a tablet, no one has implemented it as simply as Microsoft has. Yes, some Samsung tabs have it but only for certain apps. Even apple is considering it with ios 8. Reviewers seem to skim over it. But in actual use, being able to open two IE tabs side by side or word on one a PDF on the other is just amazing on a tablet.

Sorry guys and gals but that is my rant. Please add other benefits of the Surface Pro 3 over a typical laptop or tablet that many reviewers forget to mention or gloss over.
 

rurutia

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I've used TabletPC's since sophomore year of undergrad and I'm currently getting my doctorate in a math field. I can't agree more and it's very frustrating that people keep talking about this 'imaginary customer' like we don't exist. Like it's so impossible that someone would need to be on the go (on their feet), need to write fast notes, need good computing power at their disposal, and don't want to lug around a billion things because their bags are full enough. Because... that's students for you, in any computation/applied math field.

Personally, my dream set of devices is power desktop+phablet+hybrid. Phablet when I just need a tiny screen to 'consume' content on the go, also great for texting and Skyping. Hybrid for longer trips/when I'm going to be doing something for awhile and when I need computing power/productivity. Also allows me to remote into the power desktop when I need to do truly intensive computing work.
 
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rdubmu

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This is the biggest thing for me. I use it to take notes at every meeting at work and every class at school. OneNote is my #1 app I use!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

lovenokia

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As a high school student that goes to a school where everyone has to have an iPad, you have made very good points about the flaws of the reviewers. It is very frustrating because we still need a computer to turn in homework. The iPad doesn't have a great method for taking notes, while there are goods apps the stylus that you buy are terrible when comparing to the wacom pens or the n-trig pen on the surface pro 3. I myself will be getting a sp3, and cannot wait. The spilt screen multitasking is stellar, it pains me when I see students doing math homework when they have to multitask back to another app to see the homework problem then work back on the notes app.

Sent from my P6095 using Tapatalk
 
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maflynn

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I'm not sold on the SP3 being a great note taking product. I think I can write faster, and more legibly with pen and paper then with the stylus and SP3.

I tried this on an iPad and it failed miserably, though I acknowledge the iPad isn't designed with a stylus and the precision was lacking. I'm a pretty fast typist as well, so that may work out better as well :)

As for multitasking, I agree Windows is by far superior to what's out there and that's a huge plus.
 

anon(5445874)

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I'm not sold on the SP3 being a great note taking product. I think I can write faster, and more legibly with pen and paper then with the stylus and SP3.

I tried this on an iPad and it failed miserably, though I acknowledge the iPad isn't designed with a stylus and the precision was lacking. I'm a pretty fast typist as well, so that may work out better as well :)

As for multitasking, I agree Windows is by far superior to what's out there and that's a huge plus.

Actually, I think my writhing is faster and better on my SP2 than on paper. And on top of that, my desk stays cleaner,
 

ohgood

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So I have been reading some of the early reviews and there are some major things reviewers forget to even mention that make the Surface Pro (1, 2, or 3) better than just a laptop or tablet.

1. (The Major One) The surface pro will replace your freakin paper notebook.

This is the main reason I was intrigued by the surface pro when it was announced in 2012 when I was doing my undergrad in mechanical engineering. It may be that reviewers, tech bloggers, reporters, etc haven't touched a paper notebook in ages but the truth is, a major portion of the pc/laptop market are students. The tech world would like you to think that people take notes on their laptops in class. However, from my experience, the majority of students (in general ed classes) still take notes with pencil and paper. When you look into any math, science, engineering, or art classes no one is typing their notes on laptops. The reason is that it is near impossible to quickly write an equation, sketch a figure, draw a schematic on a laptop with a keyboard and a trackpad.

Now for the surface pro proposition: what if you had all your handwritten notes from all your classes in one place? And what if all those notes never wasted a single sheet of paper and never took up any additional weight? What if all your notes were searchable and organized? Well guess what folks, any surface pro can do this for you with ease. Oh yeah and its a laptop (ish) and tablet.

Let me do a quick comparison for you. In my undergrad I took all my notes on paper. I would not be surprised if I accumulated over 15 lbs of notes in all those notebooks. Now I'm in aero engineering grad school I have not used a single piece of paper for notes or homework (besides reports). When I go to school now, all I take is my surface pro 2. I don't even need a bag. So If a student normally takes a paper notebook and a laptop and a tablet to school, that could be 4-7 lbs. If I take just my surface pro 2 (soon to be 3) it is only 2-2.5 lbs.

Now many of you might say, well, this is just college students. I would bet that in the business world, creating handwritten notes is still occurring, albeit much less.

2. No tablet is lap-able on its own except the surface. Yes the iPad air is light and you probably won't get tired holding it. But you still have to hold it. With the surface, you can plop out the kickstand, lean back and watch a movie. Yes there are cases for other tablets that address this issue, but those are add-ons which add cost and weight. I understand that as a laptop the surface isn't very lapable, but reviewers forget that no other tablet has a kickstand for hand's off entertainment. When they review other tablets they don't knock off points for not having a kickstand, but the surface gets knocked for a non-ideal implementation (their opinion). It drives me crazy.

3. Being able to snap two apps with adjustable sizes side by side is invaluable for multitasking. To the power laptop users, this is child's play compared to a desktop. But on a tablet, no one has implemented it as simply as Microsoft has. Yes, some Samsung tabs have it but only for certain apps. Even apple is considering it with ios 8. Reviewers seem to skim over it. But in actual use, being able to open two IE tabs side by side or word on one a PDF on the other is just amazing on a tablet.

Sorry guys and gals but that is my rant. Please add other benefits of the Surface Pro 3 over a typical laptop or tablet that many reviewers forget to mention or gloss over.

1 typing is faster, but hand writing on paper is more easily memorable, and less disrracting . there have been quite a few studies showing this. Personal preference is fine, though.
2 lapable... Like... A laptop ? Moot
3 I think I did this in 2005, with e17 , a Linux window manager. It was neat st first, then a yawner
(I don't use spell check or predictive typing)
 

anon(5445874)

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1 typing is faster, but hand writing on paper is more easily memorable, and less disrracting . there have been quite a few studies showing this. Personal preference is fine, though.)
Just saying, but with hand writing on paper, you have to remember it. Because those kind of notes are easily lost. I'll stick with the cloud :D I'll have those notes for 50 more years.
 

maflynn

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Actually, I think my writhing is faster and better on my SP2 than on paper. And on top of that, my desk stays cleaner,

You're making more great points for me to buy the SP3 :D

I've seen some internet chatter on the SP2 and note taking so while I have no direct experience with note taking on the surface pro, I saw some folks were unhappy with it. I may have to pop into my local microsoft store and play with the SP2 and note taking to see how it is. I don't know if they have any SP3s handy quite yet.
 

anon(5445874)

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You're making more great points for me to buy the SP3 :D

I've seen some internet chatter on the SP2 and note taking so while I have no direct experience with note taking on the surface pro, I saw some folks were unhappy with it. I may have to pop into my local microsoft store and play with the SP2 and note taking to see how it is. I don't know if they have any SP3s handy quite yet.

Just keep in mind, the sp2 works good but you can't pay too much attention to where your pen tip is because of the limits of Wacom tech. The Surface Pro 3 is WAY more accurate. The bigger screen helps too, along with the mode where you go strait into note mode. so the 3 is defiantly better.
 

mozman68

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I'm a long way from my days as a student and I can tell you, at least in my meetings, hand written note taking is key. I also do a lot of sketches as part of my notes. Having the ability to not only take notes but also easily share without running to the scanning machine would be awesome.

I just wish the red type cover was more "red" and less maroon looking.....hopefully it is just the pics.
 

ohgood

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Just saying, but with hand writing on paper, you have to remember it. Because those kind of notes are easily lost. I'll stick with the cloud :D I'll have those notes for 50 more years.

I have drawings from the first grade.

The game I played on the appleii at the public library is on a 5 1/4" floppy.

50 years you say?
 

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