Surface Pro3 refresh/ Surface Pro 4

[Uppgrayedd]

Some of you may be aware that Intel announced their Broadwell processors the successors to the current 4th generation Haswell processors. The significant change this new line brings is the reduced power consumption and heat produced that this new processors will not require fans to cool them at all. This will allow tablet manufactures to allow products to be much thinner as ventilation and fans usually contributes to a fair size of the PC tablet thickness.

My point is expect the newer Surface Pro to be much thinner than the Pro 3 and way better in power consumption. What are your thoughts. I'm still gonna get the Pro 3 but I spread know once the Pro 4 comes out I will be ditching Pro 3

 

[ytrewq]

The SP3 is already very thin at .33". There's no advantage to going much thinner than that. On the other hand, there would be some disadvantages to going much thinner. For example, if you go too thin, you can't fit a USB port. Also, people are crying out for MS to include a slot for the pen, which means the SP4 has to be thicker than the pen or the pen won't fit.

On the other hand, the lower power consumption and lack of fans would mean that you can get away with a much smaller battery, which will reduce weight and create room for a pen slot. I'm predicting the SP4 will be about .3" thick and 1.5 lbs or less. Battery life will be a bit better. Those are nice improvements, but not enough for me to wait. I'm getting the SP3 now. And if they want me to upgrade to the SP4, they're going to have to come up with more improvements than just .03" thinner and 1/4 lb lighter. Otherwise, I'll stick with the SP3 until the SP5.

 

[hotphil]

If Broadwell's 30% better on power and they want the device to be thinner, one thought is that they may just "design out" the improvement by using a 30% smaller battery.
That'd keep run-time more or less the same while they clear inventory of older products, but give a "premium" differentiator of thinness and new CPU.
Personally, I'd go the other way and keep the size, but increase the runtime. But hey, who knows!

 

[Uppgrayedd]

Thanks for the opinion. I guess I shouldn't get hyped too much for the Surface Pro 4 and just gladly buy the Surface 3. Even if i waited for Surface 4 rumors for Surface 5 will come out saying its much thinner and the cycle repeats its self lol. Getting the 256GB i7. Mainly getting it to replace my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition

 

[dstrauss]

If Broadwell's 30% better on power and they want the device to be thinner, one thought is that they may just "design out" the improvement by using a 30% smaller battery.
That'd keep run-time more or less the same while they clear inventory of older products, but give a "premium" differentiator of thinness and new CPU.
Personally, I'd go the other way and keep the size, but increase the runtime. But hey, who knows!

Why can't vendors understand that thinness for its own sake has diminishing returns. If Broadwell allows you to go fanless, then why not pack that puppy with more battery and other goodies (LTE, true Thunderbolt port, landscape and portrait kickstand?

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Why can't vendors understand that thinness for its own sake has diminishing returns. If Broadwell allows you to go fanless, then why not pack that puppy with more battery and other goodies (LTE, true Thunderbolt port, landscape and portrait kickstand?

This is what I believe will most likely happen. Keep the form-factor, go fan-less, and add more battery. It is also possible that they will add an alternative structural connector to allow for a keyboard cover that doesn't rely on the kickstand.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

It won't go fanless, unless you like your systems with less than 50% of the performance of the previous generation. You'd be lucky if you could build a system that could handle 4W of heat continuously using passive cooling without getting so hot you can't hold it. 30% increase in power efficiency does not make a 15W part (15W * 0.7 = 10.5W) work in 4W (or less) of continuous cooling capacity. Not to mention that power users will be looking for that efficiency to translate into a performance bump, not a loss...

 

[badMojo69]

At this point I'd say wait for the SP3 refresh/SP4 by years end. Worst case you'll be able to pick up the SP3 for about 1/2 price from Ebay.

 

[cdf3]

The SP3 is already very thin at .33". There's no advantage to going much thinner than that. On the other hand, there would be some disadvantages to going much thinner. For example, if you go too thin, you can't fit a USB port. Also, people are crying out for MS to include a slot for the pen, which means the SP4 has to be thicker than the pen or the pen won't fit.

On the other hand, the lower power consumption and lack of fans would mean that you can get away with a much smaller battery, which will reduce weight and create room for a pen slot. I'm predicting the SP4 will be about .3" thick and 1.5 lbs or less. Battery life will be a bit better. Those are nice improvements, but not enough for me to wait. I'm getting the SP3 now. And if they want me to upgrade to the SP4, they're going to have to come up with more improvements than just .03" thinner and 1/4 lb lighter. Otherwise, I'll stick with the SP3 until the SP5.

USB won't be an issue if Microsoft uses the new USB 3.1 Type C port. This, along with the Broadwell processor, will make for a much thinner device.

 

[ytrewq]

USB won't be an issue if Microsoft uses the new USB 3.1 Type C port. This, along with the Broadwell processor, will make for a much thinner device.

There are plenty of microUSB port options, but clearly MS thinks there is value in having the regular USB slot so you don't have to carry adapters. I prefer it as well. I have yet to hear anyone say that .33" is too thick.