- May 15, 2013
- 4,627
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Over the weekend, I decided to drop by my Local Curry's Mega Store as I was jogging past and check out the SP3. Here is a brief run down on my experience.
The device:
I must say, the videos do not do the device any justice at all... it is incredibly thin for a full featured x64 PC and pretty small (probably cause i have become accustomed to a 17inch laptop screen :grin
. Although there was some reflection on the screen, it did not make the screen unreadable (unlike some glossy screens).
The device was incredibly nippy, smooth and did not notice any micro stutter.
The kick stand, is incredibly stiff after you go beyond the second angle and it went down after using substantial amount of force. I must say for a brief moment I thought It was going to break! (That is how much force i put onto it lol).
The new cover
The touchpad was a revelation, compared to the previous covers as it was buttery smooth... not sure why they used the same felt material for the touch pad.
The keyboard is still the same as the previous one and no change in size of the keys or placement.
The multiple fingered gestures worked pretty well.
The weight:
This is purely subjective, to me it felt light as my 920 (which to me is light as a feather) and for a fully featured PC - that is no less than an engineering marvel.
The experience:
The rep who was demoing the unit, really knew his stuff and you could tell he was extremely passionate about the device. Which was very refreshing and was a change from the un-interested bias android / apple reps. I asked why he didn't tell the costumers they could have ran bluestacks for their android fix after the customers had left and he said I'm not going to push that on a windows tablet
The device, which was being demoed was actually his personal device therefore not tethered down to the desk. He had the i5, 256 version and the back was fairly warm to the touch. This was a given as he had been demoing the device all day (when I looked at the charge, he still had well over 70% left, which is surprising given it was late afternoon and constantly running over dozens of applications with the screen being barely turned off).
He did say that once you get the device, the first thing you should do is install the updates before anything else. In regards to battery life, it was pretty good and confirmed should get 8 to 9 hours with constant use. Therefore should last a couple of days if you are a very, very, very basic user - battery life of course really depends on what you usage habits and what applications you run.
The pen
Also he confirmed that the pen actually has two sets of batteries, the quadriple AAAA and two cell batteries (most reviewers only talk about the single AAAA battery).
Troubleshoot the Microsoft Surface Pen for Surface Pro 3
The fan:
It was barely audible and he confirmed he rarely heard it as well, however I will say this over time it may get louder (always has been the case for every laptop and netbook I have owned and repaired - unfortunately unlike these you can't open up the SP3 and clean the fan or replace the thermal paste :winktongue.
In regards to the device heating up, he mentioned it got warm but not incredibly hot that it would scald your hands.
I am still sold on the device, however I am going to wait awhile given there has been reports of the i7 model heating up by various users (probably a minority, however I am not taking that chance since we have no MS retail stores and other retailers haven't stocked the version I want yet - i7, 512gb).
So what has your retail experience been like and planning to get the SP3?
The device:
I must say, the videos do not do the device any justice at all... it is incredibly thin for a full featured x64 PC and pretty small (probably cause i have become accustomed to a 17inch laptop screen :grin
. Although there was some reflection on the screen, it did not make the screen unreadable (unlike some glossy screens). The device was incredibly nippy, smooth and did not notice any micro stutter.
The kick stand, is incredibly stiff after you go beyond the second angle and it went down after using substantial amount of force. I must say for a brief moment I thought It was going to break! (That is how much force i put onto it lol).
The new cover
The touchpad was a revelation, compared to the previous covers as it was buttery smooth... not sure why they used the same felt material for the touch pad.
The keyboard is still the same as the previous one and no change in size of the keys or placement.
The multiple fingered gestures worked pretty well.
The weight:
This is purely subjective, to me it felt light as my 920 (which to me is light as a feather) and for a fully featured PC - that is no less than an engineering marvel.
The experience:
The rep who was demoing the unit, really knew his stuff and you could tell he was extremely passionate about the device. Which was very refreshing and was a change from the un-interested bias android / apple reps. I asked why he didn't tell the costumers they could have ran bluestacks for their android fix after the customers had left and he said I'm not going to push that on a windows tablet
The device, which was being demoed was actually his personal device therefore not tethered down to the desk. He had the i5, 256 version and the back was fairly warm to the touch. This was a given as he had been demoing the device all day (when I looked at the charge, he still had well over 70% left, which is surprising given it was late afternoon and constantly running over dozens of applications with the screen being barely turned off).
He did say that once you get the device, the first thing you should do is install the updates before anything else. In regards to battery life, it was pretty good and confirmed should get 8 to 9 hours with constant use. Therefore should last a couple of days if you are a very, very, very basic user - battery life of course really depends on what you usage habits and what applications you run.
The pen
Also he confirmed that the pen actually has two sets of batteries, the quadriple AAAA and two cell batteries (most reviewers only talk about the single AAAA battery).
Troubleshoot the Microsoft Surface Pen for Surface Pro 3
The fan:
It was barely audible and he confirmed he rarely heard it as well, however I will say this over time it may get louder (always has been the case for every laptop and netbook I have owned and repaired - unfortunately unlike these you can't open up the SP3 and clean the fan or replace the thermal paste :winktongue
.In regards to the device heating up, he mentioned it got warm but not incredibly hot that it would scald your hands.
I am still sold on the device, however I am going to wait awhile given there has been reports of the i7 model heating up by various users (probably a minority, however I am not taking that chance since we have no MS retail stores and other retailers haven't stocked the version I want yet - i7, 512gb).
So what has your retail experience been like and planning to get the SP3?
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