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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Da W - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
I use touch on the desktop all the time and it woks well.ablejo26 - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
You obviously don't know what you are doing on windows 8.1, I switched from mac air with the pro 2 and its way better. If you are not into learning new OS that's fine to stay with the old as it does the job but if want an experience that gives you a touch and type then do it you wont regret it.mmrezaie - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
Maybe you are right. I am from oss (linux/unix) world, and as far as I am thinking about it, it feels like two distinct os, and not one unified shell. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea very much, but in the end I returned it because I couldn't see it as developer friendly. I use my macbook air a lot since I am always getting remote shell from my servers.basroil - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
"far as I am thinking about it, it feels like two distinct os, and not one unified shell. "In that case you know linux is a schizoid, since bash is completely different to your desktop environment (despite being necessary and also allowing most software to run), and then each desktop environment is different (gnome, KDE, etc). Hell, it's even crazier because you can't actually expect your program to work out of the box on all systems even if they run the same base OS! (mostly because of desktop environment and default packages)
In windows, you have powershell if you need it, and you never NEED to develop for WinRT and Windows.h concurrently.
darwinosx - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Oh so he's not doing Windows 8.1 the right way...got it.I'll take an Air over the compromised device any day.
kyuu - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Your Air is a compromised device, as all laptops are. Compromises are made in the name of portability. Calling the SP3 a "compromised" device as though it's some sort of derogatory term is silly. Engineering is all about compromise.Voldenuit - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
Yeah, $500 to jump to the 8GB/256GB config is pretty steep.$799 for the base model isn't bad, but you're getting severely compromised RAM and storage and a less capable CPU. As Anand says, the type cover needs to be included as standard at all price points, and the higher SKUs are just too expensive for me to stomach (YMMV).
fokka - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
exactly this. the jump from 256gb to 512gb is $400, while a new 512gb msata evo costs 280 bucks.basroil - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
The 512gb one isn't necessarily an evo, like the 128gb one that sure as hell isn't (hynix unbranded). If they swapped it out for a 840pro or similar I bet you wouldn't be complaining (costs about 400 )tential - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
I agree with you but this is MSRP launch day prices. Give this a month or two and you'll see much lower prices. I wouldn't be surprised if the model Anand tested for $1299 was $900-1000 In November.