Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 23, 2014 3:55 AM ESTTablet Performance
The tablet performance comparison is as ridiculous as it's ever been. Surface Pro 3 is substantially faster than any ARM based tablet on the market. Web pages load quicker and you can play a completely different caliber of game on the device.
Tablet GPU Performance
All news isn't good though on the tablet front. Surface Pro 3 still struggles to behave completely like a tablet, despite finally gaining support for Connected Standby. Waking up the device from sleep still requires around 1300ms, a period that sounds small but feels like an eternity compared to an Android or iOS tablet.
WiFi
Marvell remains Microsoft's partner of choice when it comes to the WiFi implementation on Surface Pro 3. The updated design features a Marvell Avastar 88W8897 SoC supporting 2-stream 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0. The SoC also features NFC support but it's not leveraged in Surface Pro 3.
WiFi performance is better than on Surface Pro 2. Peak performance improves from around 160Mbps to 260Mbps when connected at an 866Mbps link rate. I didn't notice any weird behavior or poor performance when connecting to WiFi networks, although as 2-stream 802.11ac implementations go this is hardly the fastest.
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MarcSP - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/tablets/micros...kedesh83 - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
I picked mine up last Friday and I am loving it. I took it to class and used OneNote to write all my notes for the day. It worked really well. I was also able to install sketchbook pro 6 and sketchup and do some quick design work. I have the 8GB/256GB model. I was coming from an Asus T300-LA which was too cumbersome, and an iPad 3 which was too limited.vision33r - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
That's a pricey notebook you have there. My $2 yellow notepad is jealous but still works well.bkydcmpr - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
do you know what "sketchbook pro 6" he was talking about is?Razzy76 - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
But your yellow notepad can't turn into a laptop like Surface Pro 3 can ;) Yes Surface Pro 3 works just as good as a laptop.. I have one. No one can tell me it's not a laptop. And it's great as a tablet as well. I really love the Surface Pro 3. /advertisingruthan - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
It looks that it is still without 3G version, i need to be mobile.. so im not interested in.bkydcmpr - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
I think microsoft didn't do that because macbook air doesn't have 3g or lte either. I wish microsoft could have done better but they are so scared to move ahead of apple too much.ymcpa - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Or more likely they found that the vast majority of tablets and laptops sold don't have built in mobile broadband. Most people don't want to pay monthly for another data connection. Plus they would have to make another SKU that will require the wireless carriers to sell. We already see that salespeople at the carriers stores don't push devices that are not android or Apple. I personally find that tethering to my phone works well and is free.joaoasousa - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Bluetooth tethering?..... I would never pay for another subscription when I can use my phone's 4G.skiboysteve - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Get a USB 3g / 4g / lte stick and you are good