Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 23, 2014 3:55 AM ESTDisplay Analysis
I published an analysis of Surface Pro 3's display shortly after receiving my review unit. For those of who you haven't seen it already, the results and analysis are reprinted below.
With Surface Pro 3, Microsoft finally accepts that while 16:9 may be a great aspect ratio for watching movies but it's not optimal for a multi-purpose tablet. The tablet features a 12" 2160 x 1440 display (RGB stripe, not RGBW/PenTile), which ends up being a 3:2 aspect ratio. The difference is immediately noticeable in notebook-style use. While the Surface Pro 2 was never quite all that comfortable to use as a laptop, Surface Pro 3's display makes it substantially more laptop-like. There doesn't appear to be a big impact to tablet use either with the larger display. Particularly with Windows 8.1's split screen mode, the larger display ends up working extremely well. The LCD continues to be laminated to the cover glass just like with previous Surfaces.
Default 150% Scaling on Surface Pro 3, the 2160 x 1440 display behaves like a HiDPI 1440 x 900 display
Color accuracy is improved out of the box as well. The original Surface Pro had a display capable of being quite accurate, if calibrated, but out of the box it was a bit of a mess. Microsoft slowly improved out of box calibration over the years, eventually culminating in what we have today with Surface Pro 3.
Max brightness drops a bit compared to Surface Pro 2, likely due to the Pro 3 having 50% more pixels to light. Black levels at max brightness are pretty good, thanks in part to Microsoft's optically bonded LCD/cover glass stack. Contrast ratio remains competitive with previous designs.
Grayscale accuracy is the biggest issue with the new display, green levels are just way too high:
Our basic sRGB gamut test paints a great picture for Surface Pro 3. Full saturation color reproduction is excellent:
The saturation sweep also looks solid:
Unfortunately Surface Pro 3 doesn't do so well on our GMB color checker test. Part of the problem is its performance in the grayscale swatches included in this test:
Overall the Surface Pro 3 display is a huge improvement over the previous two generations, but it doesn't quite meet the high standards set by some of the other competitors on the market today from both notebook and tablet spaces.
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chizow - Monday, July 14, 2014 - link
Picked one up mainly for the wife's upcoming semester. But great device, thoroughly impressed and it fixed many of the original problems I had with the original (thickness, battery life, screen size). I ended up buckling on price but I think overall you get more RAM/storage than when it launched 16 months ago. I still think MS needs to include the Type Pad for free and introduce a cheaper version to really win the tablet market, but this is definitely the MacBook killer and laptop replacement for me.dehrman - Monday, November 17, 2014 - link
+1 on the grayscale issue. Deal-breaker for me. Took pictures at the local Best Buy to show how truly awful the grayscale rendering is:http://www.danielehrman.com/blog/2014/11/17/the-on...
Max22258 - Friday, December 5, 2014 - link
After having bought a surface pro 3 without the keyboard, I decided to get the keyboard a week later. To my surprised to installed the keyboard and cover i had to do a complete refresh of the system otherwise I had errors loading the driver. In this day and age where I can add anything to my computer or laptop seamlessly i found that adding a Microsoft device to a Microsoft not a pleasant experience. I have found that their support is excellent thought. But I was always one step ahead of the support person but this is because I have been a computer geek for so many years. In case you are looking at this review I suggest that when buying a surface 3 you buy the overprice keyboard. In my book it should have been included with it. Actually I do not like windows 8, I wish there was 2 option when installing, one for tablet and one for PC or laptop. Come on Microsoft think outside the box a little. What about the license key that I cannot have, if I update this tablet in the future with a new window I do not get to keep the key for another computer????Max22258
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