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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Luc K - Thursday, May 7, 2015 - link
Battery life of both Yoga 3 Pro and the Asus T300 Chi are not anywhere close to this one.Then again completely different kind of devices.
This Atom CherryTrail CPU is actually newer than Core M but different kind of line of CPU's obviously.
MattVincent - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
The 64gb doesn't bother me but the 2gb of ram seems like its just cutting corners. Price goes up way to fast once you add on the accessories. They shouldn't be charging for the pen.TEAMSWITCHER - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Ya think? I just checked MacMall.com, and I can get a 2015 11" MacBook Air for $819. That includes an Intel Core i5 CPU with HD6000 graphics, a decent keyboard, industry leading trackpad, PCIe SSD, Thunderbolt port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and MagSafe Power. The display on the Surface might be a little better, but the atom CPU and archaic storage are very more worse.I own an 2013 11" MacBook Air and have found it to be a very capable machine. The screen is small, but workable thanks to OS X's excellent full-screen app / virtual desktop implementation. When I'm in my office, I connect it to my 27" monitor, Apple Keyboard, & Magic Mouse and use it like any other desktop.
The Surface 3 possesses only one redeeming quality - a Pen. How bad are you willing to let Microsoft screw you over for a Pen? If the answer is "brutally" then buy a Surface 3.
xthetenth - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
The screen isn't just small, it's wildly archaic with a low res and bad panel technology. I'd also love to see you try to use the air as a tablet. If you don't need a tablet, don't get a tablet, get an ultrabook.RafaelHerschel - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
I considered a MacBook Air, but the screen was unacceptable at the price point. I'm sure that will be rectified in the future, but for now there are inexpensive Windows alternatives with much better screens.AnyOny24 - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
If you want to talk about that price point you should talk about the Pro 3 core i5 which supports tablet mode / touch, the same pen you're talking about, bigger / better screen... silly comparison.damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - link
Or I can just buy the S3 along with a £20 BT keyboard.BlueBomberTurbo - Thursday, May 7, 2015 - link
Actually, the screen on the Surface 3 is the best portable screen you can get next to maybe the new Macbook. The Air's screen was terrible for anything requiring any level of color accuracy. You know, the artsy stuff that you can apparently only do on a Mac.The other redeeming qualities are its size and weight. I know I bought it specifically for those and the screen, as a portable workstation for my photography. When you cram lots of lenses and a couple camera bodies in your backpack, you're already hauling around a good amount of weight. A well-spec'd laptop certainly isn't going along for the ride, too.
lokhor - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Worst thing about the dock on the SP3 is that the angle cannot be adjusted so its virtually useless if you want to have it set up as a secondary screendigiguy - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Laughing out loud at the "bulky and heavy" comment. This tablet weights less than the ipad 4 and I was not hearing people call that bulky and heavy.... Better, this tablet has a whole inch more screen surface that the ipad.... But this is partly the fault of reviewers that call this a 10 inches device, like the ipad.... Why the ipad, that is 9.7 inches, is 10 inches and this one, at 10.8, is not 11 inches? Increase the screen size of the air and the weight will also go up, while still being a bit lighter, not to mention ipad 4 and below.I have a 600g 10.1 inches windows tablet and it feels very light and pleasant to hold with one hand, just awkward with its 16:9 ratio. The surface will feel more balanced.
Concerning storage speed, the 128GB model offers better performance (see this accurate review for more details http://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-Surface-3-T...
Having said that, this is the performance with the encrypted SSD. Personally I decrypted the SDDs in all my tablets (Surface pro 3, HP Stream 8, etc.) and the performance, especially the sequential one, has significantly increased.