i3 owner thoughts?

[Coreldan]

I realize there are other threads, even pinned ones, that ask about user reviews and the likes, but I'm specifically asking for i3 owner experiences, so I hope it warrants a new thread.

So, anyone who got the i3 version and how do you feel about it? Is it still snappy enough with enough power for your needs and what are your needs?

I'm battling between a Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3. Both have their pros and cons, but I'm on a budget (which is a pro for SP2) which would mean that if I go for SP3 it's gonna be the cheapest config.

 

[badMojo69]

Get a used SP2 or wait for Ebay and get the SP3 in October or November.

 

[rdubmu]

The i5 128 comes with a faster processor and double the memory for only $100 more. I would shoot for that one.

Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

 

[alisaad619]

The i5 128 comes with a faster processor and double the memory for only $100 more. I would shoot for that one.

Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

it's 200$ price jumb betwean the i3 and i5

 

[Coreldan]

The i5 128 comes with a faster processor and double the memory for only $100 more. I would shoot for that one.

Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

Yea but when the device with a type cover is already exploding all budgets it's hard to justify that, especially when the i3 is probably sufficient just fine. I can't give up my desktop PC anyways cos I still do some occasional gaming with it. Maybe in a few years I will consider a Surface with enough power to just get rid of my then-quite-aged-desktop.

Can't find any second hand SP2s around here but chances are I'd lose money trying to go for SP2 first and then SP3. My Surface RT still works mostly fine, just getting a bit fed up with it crawling at times when multitasking after all these updates.

MS Store Finland currently offers free type cover with SP2. I'm expecting SP2 prices to further drop when SP3 comes available at the end of this month, so an SP2 would probably be at least 200€ cheaper and still have an i5. I also love the color and the color on the SP3 is almost enough to put me off from buying one, but I guess I could handle it, cos the other improvements seem great..

 

[alisaad619]

I realize there are other threads, even pinned ones, that ask about user reviews and the likes, but I'm specifically asking for i3 owner experiences, so I hope it warrants a new thread.

So, anyone who got the i3 version and how do you feel about it? Is it still snappy enough with enough power for your needs and what are your needs?

I'm battling between a Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3. Both have their pros and cons, but I'm on a budget (which is a pro for SP2) which would mean that if I go for SP3 it's gonna be the cheapest config.

I think the surface pro 3 12 inch screen, lighter thinner body and better battery is making a big different

to me the i3 pro 3 is a better choice than the i5 pro 2

 

[Coreldan]

I think the surface pro 3 12 inch screen, lighter thinner body and better battery is making a big different

to me the i3 pro 3 is a better choice than the i5 pro 2

Thanks for your input. I suppose you are happy with the performance of the device? I don't really use any actually heavy software like some people, the heaviest it would get is Steam (not even the games, but the chat). Since it doesnt really matter what config you take, you still cant play properly, it makes no sense for me to put a lot of money into such config. This is still first and foremost a mobile device for me. My Surface RT has served me very well but I figured for my next device I still rather have a full Windows 8 cos there are still those times when I need it even on the go.

That color still makes me unsure, I do a lot of public speaking and for that I'd prefer to have a dark, subtle coloring such as with SP2... and no, I will never put a skin on a Surface

 

[Coreldan]

The i5 128 comes with a faster processor and double the memory for only $100 more. I would shoot for that one.

Sent from my Surface Pro 3 using Tapatalk

Yeah.. no. The difference in here is 200€ between the two configs and like I already said in the other message, even that i3 version is making my budgets pop

Still hopin for any i3 owner input!

 

[Dan Strong1]

spoke to a couple on Reddit, said performance has been fine

 

[Slater_GS]

Yeah.. no. The difference in here is 200? between the two configs and like I already said in the other message, even that i3 version is making my budgets pop
Still hopin for any i3 owner input!

We have both an i5 and i3 SP3 here at work. We also have two SP2's and I own a Surface RT. I have not gotten to play with the SP3's as much as I'd like, but the little I did, I saw no/little distinguishable difference in the i3 and i5 for basic tasks.
For more intense programs. Both ran photoshop and premiere perfectly. Editing really large RAW files or rendering video projects go a bit smoother on the i5, but for 90% of the tasks I saw little difference.
Go here and you will see that the i5 definitely has better benchmarks, but in a lot of normal usage scenarios for a light user like you, I would think that you would see very little difference.
You shouldn't have any problems having Steam for chat, a few office applications, Skype, e-mail, browser and a few other apps open on the i3 unit.

You seem like a light duty user at best and with budget being a factor, if you are looking at SP3, then the i3 version is where I would put my money if I were you. I will be buying an i3 myself because I have a desktop for all of my gaming and heaving duty modeling and rendering. The nice thing is I know the i3 can do any of the things I want in a pinch and do them adequately. Those times are few and although maybe not quite as good as the i5 could do it, it is not worth the extra cost for my needs.

My reasons to go SP3:
- Screen is beautiful and I prefer holding the SP3 vs the SP2. It feels much less bulky and personally I like the 3:2 ratio
- New Kickstand is fantastic!
- Along with the kickstand, the new keyboard is really nice with the magnet strip to stabilize
- New trackpad is 1000x better
- New pen is much better. Feels like a pen and not a toy. Also I much prefer the less latency that the N-trig offers than the Wacom on the SP2. Personally have never liked Wacom, even dedicated hardware that we used on our Mac Pro's at university. Too much latency.
- Battery
- I personally love the color

For the additional $200 of the i5, you get 128GB vs 64GB, i5 vs i3, and 4200 vs 4400.
If that $200 also got you the 8GB, I would have to think a bit harder.
I already have a 128GB microSD to largely increase my space if I want, kind of prefer the lower heat/less throttling that the i3 will experience and the 4200 vs 4400 is not important for what I do.

My thoughts with my limited experience. Good luck.

 

[Coreldan]

Thanks, what a great answer! Now I still need to figure out how much I actually dislike the new color and whether I can justify the difference in price

 

[Slater_GS]

Thanks, what a great answer! Now I still need to figure out how much I actually dislike the new color and whether I can justify the difference in price

Just want to follow up with a few more comments since I didn't really touch much on it.
Seeing as budget is a large factor, I want to also comment on the SP2 and when/why you might want that, because it is a fantastic setup as well.
For me, I can often find the SP2 for $300-$400 cheaper (your difference is probably not that extreme) than the i3 SP3. That makes it a tough choice!

If these things don't matter to you, then the SP2 might be perfect!
- Touchpad is mediocre. I am fine with it overall, but a lot of people can't stand it.
- More latency on the pen input and the pen is not as premium. It does have more pressure levels though, but for note taking the input latency is what knocked the SP2 out for me.
- 2 position kickstand. Not a big deal to me (although I love the new kickstand) as it still works great.
- Keyboard doesn't attach on with magnet for more stability. If you aren't using it on your lap a bunch, this isn't a big deal.
- 16:9. Personal preference and usage, either way the screen is still great.
- A bit heavier and thicker/bulkier.
- Battery life isn't quite as good, but not bad either.
- 10.6" vs 12" screen

The i5 actually gives better performance in the SP2 than the SP3 because the SP3 throttles pretty hard if using pretty intense programs or games due to trying to maintain a certain temperature threshold. So if pure performance was your goal, the SP2 will actually outperform the SP3 (unless you get the i7), but since that isn't your goal and you have no need for all that performance, then that shouldn't really factor into your decision.

So if the list from above isn't an issue with you, then get the SP2 to save yourself some money! If any of those things are deal breakers (for me it was the pen), then get the SP3.

 

[Luke Praeuner]

I personally love the color of the device. If your issue is thinking it might stand out, then I think the color is just fine. Its a bona fide gray (about the same as a MacBook). Pair it with the black typecover and it will be as incognito as a Surface device could possibly be :winktongue:

 

[Coreldan]

Im proud to stand out as a Surface user, but what I mean is that I use my tablet at work in scenarios where I'd rather not stand out regarding using a tablet in the first place due to conservative audience (church), that's why I'd prefer the old dark titanium color.

The old color was also good to make people instantly realize its not an iPad

 

[sleestac]

I initially purchased the SP3 i5. Loved it... was fast and snappy. I returned it after 25 days due to a malfunction with the kickstand! Received a quick refund from MS! Went to Best Buy to purchase the i3 because I had a feeling that I could do the same tasks with the i3 that I could with the i5. And guess what? It could! I mostly play games from the app store, perform tasks with Office, surf the web, and watch movies via streaming or external DVD player. Performing these functions (for me in real life time and 1st hand experience), the i3 is just as fast as the i5.
Initially, I was reserved to making the downgrade switch from the i5 to the i3... but as of now... I am happy to have saved $250 and switched to the i3!
One more thing to be aware of, but was no issue to me. You will only have about 35 gigs of free space out of the box. For me, I use the clouds and an SD card, so I'm ok with that.
Hope this helps you with your decision!

 

[vertigoOne]

I went with an i3 SP3. Works perfectly for me so far.

It plays minecraft pretty well.

Used One Note and a reader app side by side last night for a lecture... amazing how much of a difference the screen ratio and new pen makes for this purpose. This is my planned main use for it, secondary will be my usual tablet tasks such as email, RSS, web browsing, video streaming, etc. The DV8P may be relegated to permanent terminal duty at my desk.

I sold my last laptop when I made this purchase, but I am also hanging on to some more powerful desktop and tablet hardware for heavier tasks. I do plan on installing some lightweight productivity software just to see where the i3's limits are. I don't think I will bother with the heavy Autodesk software, but probably sketchup to start.

Edit: Had an opportunity to try out a few more things. Sketchup ran very smoothly for simple modeling. 'Eidolon,' an early access survival game with simple but beautiful graphics was easily playable. 'Sir, you are being hunted' runs, but I had to turn the graphics down quite a bit to get a steady frame rate. The sturdiness of the new type cover is significantly better for gaming on the lap (using a trackball helps as well).

 

[Coreldan]

I checked the finnish MS Store website and noticed the i5 configs have started to appear as sold out, so I had to preorder the i3 just in case it runs out of stock.. I guess I can still return it if I come to the conclusion (will try to get hands on in a physical MS Store in near future), but had to secure mine

 

[MartyB]

I am a new owner of an i3 model. I vacillate, but having seen the reviews (by Anand, mostly) I figured this would probably do. Mostly I edit and write books, and I do some developing. The i3 itself (according to Anand) performs at about 20% below the i5 model, which is just not that bad. The only real concern was with disk space: I've used a 32Gb Surface RT for the past year and a half, so I've figured out how to make that space work out. Mostly, I have offloaded a few things to the sdxc card and I've learned to keep windows\installer clean. I am aware of the growth of the windows folder as time goes by, but they can actually be controlled if you know how. Currently, I have full office and VS2013 installed, as well as a variety of other things (PhotoShop CC). In addition, I have a large document folder synced through Onedrive. All of that has left me with 26Gb of free space. That's plenty. I can keep it that way by being vigilant about cleaning out folders, and moving (mklink /J is your friend) the expanding windows folders to the sdxc. There is a chance of failure there, but all my files are synced to Onedrive and my development projects to a foundation server, so at worst, I'd have to reinstall. Never happened on my RT.

I was worried about VS2013 and its performance on a i3, but frankly, this is much faster than my main desktop. My desktop is stupid powerful, but runs with a traditional hard drive. Compiling is not so much about cycles as it is about reads and writes, so even visual studio runs faster than I'm used to. Loads quickly, runs as it should.

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded the larger disk space, but the 20% performance difference really does not bother me that much. From what I understand, the i5 and i7 models have an issue with throttling anyway.

The big thing for me is the screen real estate. The 16x9 was always a bummer for me: it's just too short for editing books. This feels much better to me. So far, I'm a fan. I've had no issues, other than endless updates the first day. I've also noticed that a lot of people complain about battery life right when they get it: I always wonder if they've transferred a bunch of files that are being indexed. For me, the first day, the battery was weak, but that was because the damn thing was indexing thousands of documents. Once that was done, I was left with perfectly good battery life. I'd say, depending on what I do, between 6 and 9 hours.

 

[Coreldan]

I am a new owner of an i3 model. I vacillate, but having seen the reviews (by Anand, mostly) I figured this would probably do. Mostly I edit and write books, and I do some developing. The i3 itself (according to Anand) performs at about 20% below the i5 model, which is just not that bad. The only real concern was with disk space: I've used a 32Gb Surface RT for the past year and a half, so I've figured out how to make that space work out. Mostly, I have offloaded a few things to the sdxc card and I've learned to keep windows\installer clean. I am aware of the growth of the windows folder as time goes by, but they can actually be controlled if you know how. Currently, I have full office and VS2013 installed, as well as a variety of other things (PhotoShop CC). In addition, I have a large document folder synced through Onedrive. All of that has left me with 26Gb of free space. That's plenty. I can keep it that way by being vigilant about cleaning out folders, and moving (mklink /J is your friend) the expanding windows folders to the sdxc. There is a chance of failure there, but all my files are synced to Onedrive and my development projects to a foundation server, so at worst, I'd have to reinstall. Never happened on my RT.

I was worried about VS2013 and its performance on a i3, but frankly, this is much faster than my main desktop. My desktop is stupid powerful, but runs with a traditional hard drive. Compiling is not so much about cycles as it is about reads and writes, so even visual studio runs faster than I'm used to. Loads quickly, runs as it should.

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded the larger disk space, but the 20% performance difference really does not bother me that much. From what I understand, the i5 and i7 models have an issue with throttling anyway.

The big thing for me is the screen real estate. The 16x9 was always a bummer for me: it's just too short for editing books. This feels much better to me. So far, I'm a fan. I've had no issues, other than endless updates the first day. I've also noticed that a lot of people complain about battery life right when they get it: I always wonder if they've transferred a bunch of files that are being indexed. For me, the first day, the battery was weak, but that was because the damn thing was indexing thousands of documents. Once that was done, I was left with perfectly good battery life. I'd say, depending on what I do, between 6 and 9 hours.

Thanks for the reply, good insight. I also come from a 32gb first gen RT, so I'm not too concerned about the storage. I'll offload to cloud and to the MicroSD as much as possible and only put mandatory things on the SSD. I wouldn't really even need much legacy software, but there are times that I do miss a few on the go. Perhaps if there was a Surface 3 (non Pro) with pen support I might've just gone for that.

Some years in to the future I'm thinking about replacing my desktop with a Surface and a dock, but for now the budget is against it and seeing that the new WoW expansion is coming soon, I'll probably still need a gaming PC for those few years too.

 

[Coreldan]

Where does this power come from?!

SP3 i3 running WoW in a 25 man raid (although at low settings, although you cant really tell the difference when zoomed out in a raid) with 30-40 fps. Only problem is that I need more USB ports to play properly, gotta get an USB hub for that.