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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augiem - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Running [a full desktop OS] in the [ulv] tablet space is completely unheard of...romprak - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
There are folks who will defend Apple to the hilt for the way they charge for extra storage, but then claim that Microsoft is pricing the Surface 3 too high. This is a premium device, made of quality materials, with a quality screen, and runs full 64-bit Windows, with real ports (USB and Displayport), with expandable storage. I think it is priced very reasonably. I think if they could drop the keyboard to $99, I think that would make a difference in perception. $129 stretches comfort perhaps a bit too far and gives sticker shock.Skywax9016 - Monday, May 18, 2015 - link
Unfortunately, they are not simply competing with iPad in the market. They are also competing with other Windows Tablet/Hybrid devices. When compared to what a PC does better, there a more than a few Windows Tablet/Hybrid devices that can perform better than a Surface 3 for around the same price. When compared to what a Tablet does better, there is iPad and other plethora of Android tablets available which can perform better than a Surface 3 for around the same price.I actually like the Surface 3 really, but it seems that it is somewhat stuck in the middle by not excelling in anything compared to other competing products. Maybe, a faster internal storage can actually help to boost performance, but right now, maybe it's a product that doesn't suit me well enough.
Gunbuster - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Why, oh why are they still using that f-ing terrible Marvell Avastar WiFi/Bluetooth...MarcSP - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Great review! It would be nice to ask Microsoft about the battery life. They promiss around 10 hours of video playback, and you got much less (and also much less that other reviewers, that got at least 1 hour more than you).SpartanJet - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
I'd bet anything they were using Chrome for the tests, aside from the fact its a front for free data mining for that Ad company, its a horrible battery drain on these mobile devices.Brett Howse - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
For tablet mode, I used Modern IE, and for notebook it was desktop IE.I spoke to some other people who have tested the device, and they were testing it at a lower brightness level which is going to impact the battery life a lot since the display is the main power draw.
lilmoe - Monday, May 4, 2015 - link
Which program do you use for the video playback test? What type of video file?id4andrei - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Jarred Walton once tested the state of video playback in relation to battery drain on Windows. VLC is the Chrome of video players. The most power efficient video players are the video app(modern) and the tried and true windows media player(in this order).MarcSP - Tuesday, May 5, 2015 - link
Thanks for the clarification :-), but what about the software for video playback and the video format? As other said, it can affect quite a lot the result.