The Surface 3 Review
by Brett Howse on May 4, 2015 9:00 AM ESTWi-Fi Performance
For networking, the Surface 3 features the same Marvell AVASTAR 802.11ac network adapter as its big brother. I have seen a lot of the firmware updates for Surface Pro 3 over the last year being network related, so hopefully they have all of the bugs out of it by now. During my time with the Surface 3, I did not have any issues with it. It is a standard 2x2:2 setup, and the top of the Surface 3 has a plastic section to act as a RF window.
The average speed during our TCP test was just about 350 Mbps, which is not too bad but well off of the Broadcom devices, which can see over 500 Mbps.
Speakers
The Surface 3 features to forward facing speakers hidden in the display bezel. It makes for a nice look, and having the speakers facing you helps a lot with stereo and should help with the overall sound quality too.
The Surface 3 is not especially loud, and the frequency response is about what you would expect for a small device with no room for proper speakers. There is almost no sound below 150 Hz, and around 15 kHz the sound drops away. Maximum volume I observed while playing music was 76 dB(A).
Camera
This tablet has two cameras, with the rear camera being an auto-focus 8 MP unit, and the front facing camera is actually a decent camera as well, with 2304 x 1536 resolution shots. The one quirk with the front facing camera though is that it really works best when the kickstand is in the first position, and because this is not a laptop with an adjustable hinge, you will always be limited to where it points.
The rear camera though is surprisingly good, even in low light. I am still not a fan of using a tablet to take pictures, but if you have to, this one will please you.
It will work in a pinch, but I will stick to my smartphone when I can.
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nikon133 - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Very inclined to finally replace my old ThinkPad Tablet 2 with Surface 3.Better battery life would be good, but close to 8 hours of tablet-mode browsing and video watching should do.
In addition, I love how kickstand works on SP3 and it's presence - even in simplified form - makes big difference for me. Looking at scores, this might even be able to handle some light Lightroom work - the most demanding task I have for my laptop at present - so it could fully integrate my tablet and laptop needs, leaving me with tablet and desktop only. One device less to update, charge, maintain, buy in a first place - sounds good to me.
Novacius - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
In my opinion, it's too heavy compared to a iPad Air 2 or so. And it's too expensive: Its starts at 599€ in Germany, the Pro variant only costs 90€ more.damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Then people moving from the Ipad 4 will be more than happy with the S3kyuu - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Thanks for the review, Brett. No more nagging from me. ;)The one thing I am missing is the Dolphin benchmark. Were you unable to run that?
As far as the S3 itself goes; while I cancelled my preorder for it, I only did so because I was able to get a good deal on a Core i5 SP3 on ebay. For the price, it's still a lot more capable than a comparably priced iPad, and I wouldn't have been sorry to have it. And iPads still don't have a built-in way to prop themselves up, which I consider an indispensable feature nowadays. I am disappointed that the storage is a bit on the slow side given that we have some pretty fast eMMC (not to mention UFS) nowadays. And the battery life results are a bit worrisome.
metayoshi - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Dolphin benchmark on this thing? Believe me when I say this, my old Core i7-860 couldn't run Dolphin that well, save for a very few select games, and it's one of the reasons I upgraded to a Core i7-4790K last September. The Atom x7-z8700 is nowhere near the performance of the Core i7-860, and much is closer to the Core 2 Duo SU-7300 that was in the Asus UL30Vt that I had around the same time I built my Core i7-860 in early 2010. There's no question, this thing will suck running the Dolphin benchmark.I'm actually getting a Surface 3 myself, but it's definitely not for running the Dolphin emulator.
NA1NSXR - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
This was the tablet I was waiting for, except it isn't. The choice of Atom over Core M is unacceptable to me, so as hard it was to wait for an iPad-sized device to bring full Windows, I will have to pass.kyuu - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
If this had Core M, the price would barely be less than a Surface Pro.damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Core m? You do know that the Lenovo Yoga devices, with Core M, have a fan! You might as well just go for the Pro 3.zodiacfml - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Nice, but its kinda bit late considering laptops based on the Core M have been getting thinner and quite reasonable in cost especially the Asus.Or is it just pricing, for the price without the keyboard it is pricey even with the good display.
I can only see this good for business or work where a tablet is being used for business/company software.
meacupla - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
There's really one big difference between microsoft and asus.Microsoft will replace your product with little questions if you are dissatisfied with it, or it's really broken.
Asus will take you on a wild goose chase, if they ever admit there is something wrong with their product.