How is the core M3 varient holding up?

[SteelSteve]

So my primary hone laptop is getting long in the tooth and the monitor hinges are breaking so it's time to look for a replacement. Currently I also have a Surface 2 (RT), and an ASUS T102HA (Atom). The RT I don't use any more and the ASUS is good for basic web browsing and reading (Nook App). I was wondering if the Pro M3 could take over all duties and in addition run things like quicken and turbo tax. The 4gb and M3 have me a little concerned, but for $599 they are hard to pass up

 

[ochhanz]

So my primary hone laptop is getting long in the tooth and the monitor hinges are breaking so it's time to look for a replacement. Currently I also have a Surface 2 (RT), and an ASUS T102HA (Atom). The RT I don't use any more and the ASUS is good for basic web browsing and reading (Nook App). I was wondering if the Pro M3 could take over all duties and in addition run things like quicken and turbo tax. The 4gb and M3 have me a little concerned, but for $599 they are hard to pass up

, I take it you are talking about the m3-7Y30 in Surface Pro 5 / 2017? The cpu is fine, I have a Surface Pro 1 i5 and the m3 is a bit faster so should be fine for basic tasks (browsing, office etc) and the igpu is pretty good. Also the cpu is energy efficient which is a big plus since that means better battery life and less problems cause of less heat.
The 4gb ram could be a problem, depending on how many apps and tabs you have open otherwise it does not matter. My device also has 4gb ram, I can even use pretty advanced stuff like Blender (simple models), browse fine with 10 tabs or such or do some indie games on it, just not everything all at once.

You do not mention the SSD but I just wanted to mention this: you should be able to plug in a microSd card in the Surface Pro to add more storage (just be sure to get a fast & good card, just check Amazon for reviews and read/write specs).

So yes if you do not expect to run everything at once on it and do basic stuff on it. No if you are talking about Surface Pro 4 instead of 5; cause 4 was/is problematic (lots of screen issues).

 

[HeyCori]

I don't own any Core M3 devices, however, I know it's a massive step up from the Surface 2 and T102HA based on benchmarks I've seen. So if you're wondering if the Core M3 can handle Quicken, Office, browsing, no worries for it can without a problem. (Actually the system requirements for Quicken are pretty low and I'm guessing the same is true for Turbo Tax). Furthermore, $600 is a pretty solid price and hard to pass up. The only other thing I could recommend in that price range and form factor is the Surface Go 8GB. It could still handle all the things you want to do but with a little extra RAM for multitasking. Granted, I'm not seeing any sale prices for the Go so the Pro M3 at $600 is still a good deal, unless some holiday sales pop up around the 4th.