Surface 3 Pro - 12" w/ i7

[rsutoratosu]

And many other fancy stuff

 

[C1]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-no-laptop-tablet-193607609--finance.html

 

[ninaholic37]

Here are your SP3 i7 options:

Intel i7 / 256GB - $1549.00 + $130.00 (Touch Cover) = $1679.00
Intel i7 / 512GB - $1949.00 + $130.00 (Touch Cover) = $2079.00

http://surface.microsoftstore.com/s...ductDetails/Surface-Pro-3/productID.300190600

 

[rituraj]

Changes:

Good ones: Thinner, lighter, bigger screen, 2160/1440, i3/i5/i7 options, kickstand adjusts from 22 to 150 degrees and any angle in between. better scaling in photoshop. Dedicated new photoshop cc specifically for sp3. Better fan claimed.

"Bad" ones: Ntrig instead of wacom, stylus sold separately, requires battery, less levels of pressure sensitivity (256 IIRC), (may have addresed the edge accuracy issue, I don't know
But the presentation shows quite good feel and close to paper experience.)

Not changed: connectivity and ports, type cover still sold separately, still no slot for the pen,

Overall I think they have been listening to the customers and forum feeders regarding what's expected. Many issues have been addressed and a few have not.
I am curious why they have switched to n-trig though. May be lower cost and thinner layer of digitizer or something I have no idea about. But as long as it is accurate and feels like real handwriting it shouldn't be a problem except for those who require 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity as a primary thing.

Overall I think even without a next gen processor, the changes are enough to call it a next gen product.

 

[desura]

I'm intrigued by the change to Ntrig. By the presentation, they say that the stylus is much more accurate, without the "parallax" effect, basically meaning that pen input is always accurate.

 

[zerodeefex]

"stylus sold separately"

This is untrue. The stylus comes with it

 

[Cogman]

Overall I think even without a next gen processor, the changes are enough to call it a next gen product.

I agree. I think around December or January we are going to see a refresh, Surface 3.1 if you will which will essentially be surface pro 3 with broadwell inside.

My guess is that MS was planning on Intel to have broadwell out by now.

 

[rituraj]

"stylus sold separately"

This is untrue. The stylus comes with it

That's good news. Every other site was giving their own version of details initially and apparently I became a victim. IIRC it (sorry i forgot which site, followed a google search result) even mentioned a price of about $50 which I also found bogus given that the earlier models had it included. But one thing that bugs me is they don't have a place to put the pen on the device itself (even after 2inches of size increase) but can be clipped to the type cover which again is sold separately. What are they thinking?! It's such a great piece of engineering but these are small things they really need to consider.

 

[darlasxm54]

basically meaning that pen input is always accurate.

 

[Lonyo]

That's good news. Every other site was giving their own version of details initially and apparently I became a victim. IIRC it (sorry i forgot which site, followed a google search result) even mentioned a price of about $50 which I also found bogus given that the earlier models had it included. But one thing that bugs me is they don't have a place to put the pen on the device itself (even after 2inches of size increase) but can be clipped to the type cover which again is sold separately. What are they thinking?! It's such a great piece of engineering but these are small things they really need to consider.

It's a larger pen, so having a physical place to put it would screw up the design.
If it was a tiny stylus then you would be right, but it's a pen-sized pen by all accounts. which makes it much better to use, but also problematic to store.

 

[screwd01]

Does anyone know what i3 is in this?

 

[corkyg]

Does anyone know what i3 is in this?

According to Paul Thurott's review, it is the 4020Y.

"The entry level Surface Pro 3 model offers a dual-core Intel Core i3 4020Y processor with Intel HD Graphics 4200. It offers a clock speed of 1.5 . . ."

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Surfacepro Artist

Here's a good site to read about the pen and digitizer. He also has reviews of most other active digitizer tablets/hybrids.

It's from an artist's POV of course, but lots of info about drawing on it.

 

[Liberator21]

I have wanted a Surface Pro since they first one came out. I use a first gen Surface RT now for almost everything, and the included Office suite is pretty useful. I wouldn't want to write a novel on the thing though.

Anyhow, instead of getting more affordable they are touching $2k for the well-equipped model. Bummer. It is pretty cool to see videos of the Pro 2 running Minecraft and even Battlefield 4 though. The Pro 3 should be even better!

 

[wasabiman123]

^they're not making it less affordable, the pricing is the same since the Pro 1 (which I lovingly own), the 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD model is basically 1200$~ with the keyboard. Now they're just giving you more options for RAM and storage, I agree the markup is retarded considering the price of those items in retail. But hey every OEM seems to do that with RAM/Storage so I guess we can't blame them, they don't want to majorly piss off their hardware partners.

 

[billclutterman]

I think MS would have a game changer if they just packaged in the keyboard. I don't think people like seeing it advertised incessantly with the keyboard only to find out it's almost $150 more. It's a muddled presentation.