Review: SP3 and Win10 2 weeks later

[webosdropout]

Received a brand new SP3 fully loaded at work a couple of weeks ago. Also got the docking station and the Surface mouse (the flat bendable one).

Frankly the form factor of this device and accessories is what Apple used to be famous for. It?s practical, ergonomic and well build.

I immediately updated to Windows 10 and after a few initial hiccups it?s for the most part a smooth and stable OS. I had no problem transitioning from 8.1. I love the Cortana search (typed) although I find any voice search (Cortana, Siri) is gimmicky ? hardly see anybody use it. Especially in a work environment.

As a desktop device it?s fantastic.

However my level of frustration is when I go from a desktop mode to a tablet mode. MS touts this as ?A tablet that replaces your laptop?. Well I?m sure given enough time and resources MS will get it right.

However in the meantime here?s my frustration with this unit.

Transition issues from Desktop to Laptop: It seems whenever an accessory is disconnected from the SP3 (docking station, keyboard) the SP3 coughs up a fur ball. For example, on the lock screen the screen keyboard will not come up no matter what I do. I then have to re-connect the Keyboard and type in my password.

In some instances when I take my SP3 on the road and it cannot connect to a WIFI network, it will refuse to open some metro app such as ?Mail? but not limited to those who want to access a network. Absurdly, If I put the SP3 in airplane mode, these apps will then open.

File explorer: Why oh why could they have not done a re-design of file explorer for Metro? I tested a couple of 3rd party apps but it?s not what I?m looking for. If it?s a tablet, make it look like a tablet. Why do I have to stare at file names or thumbnails. Why not do something like Ibooks, where I can see the first page of the documents? As it is, file explorer is too small for tablet purpose.

Baked in video / camera capture: If it?s a tablet where are those apps? Phones and tablet have had those for years. There?s a camera app but it is ridiculously under powered. Of course no options to program any buttons for quick launch. As it is, I have found no simple camera/video capture metro app.

Pen: Pen Silo would have been nice ? not a deal killer. I?m hoping future revision of windows will make the buttons programmable.

Write everywhere handwriting recognition: So clicking the pen brings up OneNote (metro). Try as I might I cant get it to default to the full OneNote application. And why cant one note recognize hand writing? For that matter it would be nice to write directly in a Word or Excel doc for instant HW recognition rather than bring up the keyboard>handwriting feature. Not a deal killer but nice to have.

Edge Browser: Cortana wont work if you default to another browser. Edge does not allow add-on or nested speed dial similar to Opera. Edge is fast and I?ve had no issues but I jump back n forth between Opera and Edge.

System resources: this has me & IT stumped. I have to watch Task Manager like a hawk to see what resources ?System? is consuming. Right now its sitting at 310MB with very few programs opened. It seems to use more resources as the day go on and even if I terminate most of the applications it won?t go down. I have to do a clean re-boot. I suspect the fan & heating issues some have been complaining about is due to this.

Look & feel tablet mode: many of the way of doing things are not obvious. To snap 2 or more apps together I had to watch a Youtube video to figure it out. To this day, I?ve not been able to snap more than 2 apps on the same screen.

I also think it would be a good idea to nest apps in the same tile (ie similar to Ipad hold n drag one app on top of another to create an app folder).

Ultimately, rather than being "A tablet that replaces your laptop? it is really a laptop trying (poorly) to become a tablet.

If I had to rate my experience so far this is what it looks like:

Hardware: 9/10
Win 10 Desktop: 7/10 (I?m sure things will even get better soon on that front)
Win 10 Tablet / Metro: 3/10 ? I imagine this will take at least a year MS to mature to mode to be an alternative to any tablets out there. Need to focus on user experience.

So overall I?m impressed with the SP3. Glad I have it. But somehow underwhelmed and disappointed in the user interface in tablet mode. I hope MS is doing serious work to improve this facet on Win10.

I was going to buy a Surface 3 for my son who?s needs an update to his Ipad. But since my SP3 coughed up a few fur balls when I was trying to demo things to him, he was less than impressed.

 

[Guzzler3]

Re: SP3 and Win10 2 weeks later

When MS did the advertising of "A tablet that replaces your laptop”, they were talking about Windows 8.x. And I have to say, W8.1 on the SP3 really, really worked with "A tablet that replaces your laptop”. Once you got your head wrapped around the idea of customizing the start screen with your most used apps/programs, and that programs ran on the "desktop app", life was good.

W10 on the SP3 isn't quite there, yet. I rolled back to W8.1 on my SP3 and was happy, till the other day the W10 update popped up, again. I decided to try W10, again, after the last Service Release 1 to see if things improved. It hasn't. I'm still debating on going back, again to W8.1.

 

[Jon Silver]

I rolled back to 8.1 on my Surface Pro too. Handwriting ruined on Win 10. Shall only try it again once I hear handwriting panel from 8.1 has been brought back.

 

[Tsang Fai]

I agree that Microsoft has not done enough for "tablet mode" - basically the "tablet mode" only affects the UI behaviours at the OS level instead of at the app level. Yes, for File Explorer and many other built-in apps, there should be a real tablet mode.

Nevertheless I am quite happy with Windows 10 on my SP3. I would not go back to 8.1.

 

[Guzzler3]

I rolled back to 8.1 on my Surface Pro too. Handwriting ruined on Win 10. Shall only try it again once I hear handwriting panel from 8.1 has been brought back.

That was ONE thing I found opposite to you. I felt it was the one thing that MS really improved, as it read my handwriting really well, compared to W8.1.

 

[spasell]

My major issue is with OneNote now on 10. On 8.1, I had zero issues keeping my hand resting on the tablet while writing. Now, when I do that, it will pop up the keyboard, try and copy/paste, etc. I've tried using both Desktop and Metro version and it does the same thing.

Additionally, now the Pen is going a little spastic on me. I'll be in the middle of writing and then, it just stops working. If I hit the pen cap, it'll call up a new note, but still won't write. I have to close OneNote all the way down, and then, start again, to make it work. Total nightmare as I am usually in meetings taking a note in front of a customer, etc.

While I appreciate the start menu, notification area, and the removal of swiping all over the place, I do think Cortana is pretty useless and when left on, closing the lid, it absolutely murders the battery in connected standby. I know this is an issue as I've done experiments with it.

With Cortana left on, closing lid, after 4 hours, the battery goes from 100% to 82%, a drop of 18% and the back of the SP3 is warm.

When I turn it off, I lose 2-3% and doesn't even feel warm at all. At times, I've lost 0% as well.

I like the fact you can snap two or three windows together but on this sized screen, two is probably better and would have limited use outside of editing documents or transferring info, which I can see coming in handy.

I hope they fix the pen issues (I'm not the only one having them) and battery life problems that occur without having to neuter the op system.

 

[Guzzler3]

Additionally, now the Pen is going a little spastic on me. I'll be in the middle of writing and then, it just stops working. If I hit the pen cap, it'll call up a new note, but still won't write. I have to close OneNote all the way down, and then, start again, to make it work. Total nightmare as I am usually in meetings taking a note in front of a customer, etc.

I too ran into this issue. Oddly enough, I would unscrew the pen to open it (to the AAAA battery), then screw it back together, then the pen would work again. I thought I was having issues with a dead battery, but with a new battery I still had the same problem. Went back to W8.1 and everything just worked.

 

[Loc Ngo]

I too ran into this issue. Oddly enough, I would unscrew the pen to open it (to the AAAA battery), then screw it back together, then the pen would work again. I thought I was having issues with a dead battery, but with a new battery I still had the same problem. Went back to W8.1 and everything just worked.

I have had this unresponsive pen problem since Windows 8.1. It's exactly what you said. Pen went dead, I had to unscrew the pen then screw it back. And the pen was magically revived. That was the story of 8.1. Now my pen goes dead at times. But what I need to do is to hit the top button to open Onenote, try to draw something and the pen goes alive. It's weird.