Microsoft Surface Pro's - User Experiences?

Curious if anyone out there has one of these devices and what their experience has been with it.

I know I've been eyeing up a Pro3 model for some time but at this point I might as well wait for the Pro4 model (hopefully it will include Intel's new chip with better GPU). I was eyeing up the 256GB edition model... figure at least with that I can have things installed and still have plenty of room for extra storage on it. If I get really tight I could just get the 128GB model and use a USB3.0 flash drive if necessary.

Wanted to see what everyone thought of it in general on here compared to general reviews on it. Seems pretty good overall, but always better from us techy guys really judging it.

Give me a few days and I will let you know.

Pulled the trigger on a S3 i5, 8gb RAM, 256Gb SSD today. My trusty old beast (GX640) has grown long in the tooth. I was contemplating an ultrabook, but the ability to use One-Note and actually write my lecture notes in an electronic format was more pressing than having yet another full blown laptop. I did pick up a few accessories including a hard case, tempered glass screen protector and a sleeve. Everything added up the about $1500 shipped (incl. taxes). This was probably a bit more than I envisioned spending, but let us see if it was worth it.

I have had all of them and the newest hits everything just right for me. Only caution imo is the keyboard is not something you want to use for hours.

A few preliminary observations from the perspective of a first time tablet user's experience:

• The higher resolution screen makes a superb visual impression. You may have to crank the brightness up. It is set at a default 50% brightness.
• The on screen keyboard is surprisingly convenient to type on. (The type cover will arrive on Wednesday).
• The fan is loud, especially if you have a protective case (I have an "armor" hard rubber case) even if your CPU is at 40% load.
• The form factor is very convenient to read letter sized articles.

I'll keep you updated on how things go, or if you want me to test something let me know.

Yeah I was more just curious about the unit itself. I'm contemplating on getting this or really waiting for the Surface Pro 4 version.

Even light gaming on it curious on... thinking some steam games, non-high end type to play on it every once and a while.
Otherwise yeah word docs / notes / web viewing / movies / maybe some light CAD/3D operations.

Got a 4-5 year old lap top that's really long in the tooth here at home, and would be nice to have something to utilize around the house without whipping out my work laptop or hitting my desktop all the time. Wife is saying no to boarderline ok. Though as the laptop craps out more... she is leaning more toward a yes on it. Would be nice to have something with a touch screen since that is what the kids know how to use with tablets more so than anything. So hence why I'm putting the question up on this.

Thanks for the info so far guys. Much appreciated and very helpful.

I am setting this up to use VS2013, Mathematica and Lightroom, so I'll let you know how things go. I've been sidelined by a bug this past weekend.

Cool I'd be curious about VS2013 and Lightroom.
Maybe even web page development... but I would guess that would be under the worddoc type program and be perfectly fine for that.

Never used Mathematica before, probably not my area.

I have an original Surface Pro and really like mine. I think the larger size of the SP3 would be better suited for my uses, as sometimes the 10" original Surface pro can be a bit cramped. Also, the mouse pad on the type cover for the original pro is awful; I think they improved it some for the 3, but see if you can try it out in store first. Otherwise you could always use a bluetooth mouse or some other method.

For reference, I do most of my work on a desktop, and use my Surface Pro mainly for email, note-taking, and some word editing, internet browsing, and other light activities. I have also used it with IBM's SPSS software for crunching statistics in the middle of meetings and it handles that fine. For gaming I have played Plants v Zombies and FIFA 14 on it. I also came from a 5 year old budget laptop and the upgrade to the SP was very nice.

Super Nade - You've had it for a while now curious what you think of it after a month + of use.

I think I'm about to jump on it with taxes coming in here shortly, maybe tomorrow. Along with my old laptop the kids are using is on its last leg. I was almost waiting for SP4 but... from everything it seems it will be very similar, maybe slightly faster but nothing mind blowing if its using the processor that everyone's talking about right now.

I *LOVE* mine.
Bought the i7 256Gb 8Gb model and I use it daily.
Got the docking station and some mDP->VGA adapters and run 2x 23 inch screens off it.

Running VS2013 Pro no issues at all.
Starts as fast as my iPad (Always in sleep mode)
Charge is suitable for a day's work.
Played some Starcraft II and Diablo III on it (And while settings are set to low - it's very playable)
Point and Click games are awesome on it.

I've basically replaced my iPad all together and if work would let me (Bloody corporate policies - I'm a Senior IT Tech - I'm not about to get anything nasty on my personal machine!!) I'd use it for work too.


Fan does kick in quite often and is audible no doubt but with an i7 in something that thin - it's one of those "Of course it's going to be loud!" moments.
It's not loud enough to interrupt music/TV - if you have a PS4 it's similar in sound.

We'll I did get it. i5 256GB model. Though I did return it. Had it for just under a week.
While it seemed to work decent there was things that are a killer.
- WiFi Performance was... crap even sitting close to the router, even worse when further away barely connecting or disconnecting constantly :/
- While not major the graphics power seems like it was lacking. Sadly that is due to it throttling so much after a few min it basically makes blah.
- Some reason, and I know it was a program I installed and use regularly, every time loading up there is a Windows Host process that pegs the CPU at 30-40% constantly. Funny thing is other computers I have zero issues with this. I can terminate it but every single time i boot up or come out of sleep its there, which means its sucking battery badly (if lucky would get 2 hours of battery life when it was doing it).

On a plus side the touch screen, the size of the unit are great. The keyboard was better than expected and the unit was usable nicely in the lap. Overall performance when all said and done was good and would say great if it didn't throttle consistently.

I'll be looking forward to the potential Surface Pro 4 that has a lower wattage CPU/GPU (6W) which hopefully they have good heat distribution so it doesn't throttle constantly and keeps its performance at its peak levels without compromise.

Sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience - I got an i5 512 gig SP2 with 8 gigs of ram back in november, and I love it. You are correct about wifi however, you need to rollback the driver to an older version in order for it to work well - the only issue I've had, and am honestly shocked this hasn't been addressed in a firmware update.
PA had some really nice write ups about the surface line, starting with the SP1 http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2013/02/22/the-ms-surface-pro

And his most recent write up on the SP3 http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/06/16/surface-pro-3-update

I was pretty impressed how seriously they took his criticism on the SP3, and how quickly they went to work to fix what he thought should be fixed. I don't use mine for art much (unless you qualify drawing out chem structures as art), but it has been amazing for notes in class. I've dismantled my gaming rig so I can focus more on school, and the SP2 has been a very suitable replacement.

Thanks rescuetoaster, good links to articles.
Thanks for the tip on the wifi... sadly just didn't find it in time to try it out and hopefully by the time 4 roles around that is another item that is fixed.

Now just eagerly awaiting for 4 to get released or more details. When spending $1,400 you want to make damn well sure it works decently

deathman20 said:

Super Nade - You've had it for a while now curious what you think of it after a month + of use.

I think I'm about to jump on it with taxes coming in here shortly, maybe tomorrow. Along with my old laptop the kids are using is on its last leg. I was almost waiting for SP4 but... from everything it seems it will be very similar, maybe slightly faster but nothing mind blowing if its using the processor that everyone's talking about right now.

Click to expand...

One word. Fantastic! I will never buy a laptop again. Lightroom and Mathematica work like a charm. Zero issues thus far. I got the type cover, a screen protector and an "armored" case". The screen is superb!