Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Worst surface pro – This surface pro is not a reliable tablet.. Worst table I have. Cannot rely on using it for work as the system tends to crash every now and then. After using the tablet for 6 months, the system brings up a blue screen saying the pc has ran into a problem and needs to restart. It happens so often that it finally decided to crash the whole… Read more

system. Brought back to Microsft and was replaced with a new tablet. Still have the blue screen happening at least once a month, mention it to Microsoft requesting for a refund but was informed they would not able to refund as it has passed the "return" period.

Now I am stuck with this hopeless tablet.

Worst computer I have ever owned – After using this computer for only two and a half years the fan started making a loud whining noise, apparently because the bushing had worn out. The local guy couldn't repair it because the screen is glued on and trying to unglue it will break the screen. So I called Microsoft and they told me no problem. Send it to them and for $750.00 they will fix it. I will never buy a Microsoft computer again.  Show details

A very good and reliable machine – I was looking for a real tablet and laptop replacement computer. The iPad is clumsy to use for many tasks. This unit is good as a tablet and also as a laptop with full laptop functionality. I find the keyboard stand works well on my lap and the keyboard was great to use. I missed the insert key, but this forced me to learn to better use VIM. … Read more

The good:

A real computer. Access to a real file system, run most Windows software. Terminal services workwell.

Worked without any problems for 2+ years. (It has only been dropped twice from about knee height.)

The pen stylus work amazingly well.

The screen size is great for general use and the touch functionality works well.

The upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10 when smoothly, I remember no problems.

The not so good:

Battery life could be better. I am still getting 4+ hours after 2 years

The machine looks relativly fragile, a full high, above hip height drop will probably damage it. I was warned when purchasing a screen replacement would be very expensive. Hence keep the kids away from it.

It is not computationally or graphically powerful and is not a desk top computer replacement. (However it is suitable dor normal office software use.)

It is a bit big and heavy compared to a standard tablet only, but the extra feature are worth it.

It it expensive compared to a simarly featured laptop, the toy tablets do not compare.

The ugly: non to report

Alright, many problems though – I am a high school student and I always seem to have homework or watching movies or just casually browsing the web which I always enjoy doing on my computer more than my mobile phone. I was given this laptop for christmas 2015 and used it all throughout the year. I noticed many problems about 3 months in. It usually took a very long time to boot… Read more

up and I'd usually have to do all weird things to get it to boot up (Hold power button down, power+volume button etc.) - I still have to do some of these things. I also get these "ghost fingerprints" which is like someome is tapping my screen yet both my hands are away from the screen and touchpad so I sort of have to "hit" it to get it to click and start working again. Also, the top half of my screen isn't even touchable anymore and the start button on the right of the screen doesn't work either. I have tried many things to fix this with no success. And I can't restart my laptop either as I'd lose all my documents and my teachers would kill me :) Anyway, I also have that my keyboard, this is usually rare, but it stops working and I have to detach it and reattach it for it to work again. Battery life is also pretty terrible. Takes 3 hours to charge just to have it done again in 3 hours straight away. It also dies when on sleep mode very quickly. I own an IPhone 6s and it had 86% and my laptop had 97% and as I was using them both at the same time, my laptop died a lot quicker. My laptop dead with my phone still having 36% was quite astounding. The camera quality is also very bad so for a photography student/person, this isn't the greatest. I've also had the charger broken. I also have had many new phones recently so I move my phones photos' from my phone to my laptop, but with having only 1 USB port, I can't. I take good care of this laptop and it was a lot of money which I don't think it was really worth at all.

Although a good laptop despite all those faults, would not buy again.

If I knew on Xmas Day 2015 what I know now, I'd definitely have taken it back then and there.

Love it! Perfect mobile platform. Windows 10 just makes it better! – Best mobile platform as far as I am concerned. Windows 10 makes this tablet/notebook even better. If you are not running Windows 10 on these devices, then you need to. Windows 8.x was an okay platform, but Windows 10 by far out performs, and out features any previous version by a long shot. I run 2-3 virtual machines straight off an external… Read more

SSD drive via the USB 3 port with no problems at all. These VMs perform as though they are running off the internal SSD drive with no noticeable speed decrease. The i5 performs well under this stress, and still allows me to run my software development IDE with no problems.

I have replaced the original Surface Pro 3 pen with a Pro 4 pen and find this performs much better, and is more comfortable to use. The docks are expensive, but I do recommend them if you use this as your main computer in your home as well as your mobile device. The new Pro 4 docks can run 2 external monitors, and your Surface makes up the 3rd monitor.

These devices can definitely replace your desktop and notebook, but do expect to pay a bit more.

Great For School Work – Got this for my daughter's schoolwork (year 10), no problems with it for the various tasks she uses it for. All the Microsoft Suite, web surfing, even some basic video editing and it has no lag and has maybe frozen once. Keyboard connects and disconnects very easily, typing isn't hard. Solid device for what we use it for.  Show details

Microsoft Surface pro 3 Review – First impression of hardware is very good Of Course, Screen Quality is gorgious Full HD IPS Pannel. I think Pen digitzer is the most merit comparing other window tablet. Intel's 4th generation CPU, haswell processor, gives surface tablet more lasting battery life. The only cons is pen noise, When this goes through some hard woring, Pen whirls making noise. But Apart from this, Overall well made product.  Show details

Good device – Overall good device. I bought the i3 version, and it is fine for most tasks, but can get caught up some times under heavy load. 64GB is plenty when used alongside a MicroSD card. Display is among the best, even in 2017, as is the tablet pen input. Would highly recommend purchasing the type cover 4.  Show details

Good item / poor operative system – It is a shame The item is great and it has hue potential. Unfortunately ruined by a completely crap operative system. I have 3 PC devices. No matter what you do they will work like a charm for the first few months. Then, with no reason, they will start malfunctioning, driving completely insane. I had been using a pen form month until it started… Read more

behaving erratically with several programs for no reason. Is great Microsoft rebrands his machines, maybe producing a version of their operative system that is not always poor could help.

Great but has its downfalls – I unfortunately dropped my surface out of warranty and the screen costs over $700 to repair, as well as the computer frequently overheating and they're is no Microsoft shop in Perth. Otherwise the surface is terrific, it runs everything well, the graphics and speed are excellent and its nice and lightweight.  Show details

Fan is extremely loud, crashes a lot, overheats quite often – Fan is extremely loud, crashes a lot, overheats quite often. Does have the Xbox app which is useful however it does glitch quite often. Not sure if I would recommend the surface pro 3 to other people. It was also an expensive produce and if you require to replace the charging cable or pen it is also rather expensive.  Show details

Excellent replacement to traditional tablets – I mainly use the surface pro for my client meetings and I found it much easy to carry around while using all the features of a fully equipped PC. The touch screen functionality add up to the value as it helps to replace my tablet and laptop with this perfect device. The stylus allows you to take notes while receiving client feedback and lets you… Read more

store them easily. I broke the screen once and it was easy to get it fixed although it costed a bit much..overall experience has been great!

Amazing while it lasts (which isn't long...) – Perfect device, as light as carrying a paper notebook around, replaces both a laptop and a tablet, gorgeous drawing program, the stylus functionality is awesome for taking notes in class... I raved and raved about my awesome device and became totally dependent on it. Yeah, the accessories are costly to replace and the battery life kind of… Read more

sucks... but it was worth it.

Or so I thought.

After less than 2 years, it's hard drive failed while it was sitting on my desk one day, and I'm left with nothing. Prior to that, the stylus failed but the awesome surface store replaced it. There were various other problems with it that they fixed (can't fault their service).

But in the end, after less than 2 years I have a useless $1300 square of metal, and will never be buying a Microsoft product again.

Best PC Notebook Laptop – I have owned mine for over 18 months now and have found it a really good combination computer, it allowed me to let go of a desktop PC completely. Then I found I eventually also let go of my iPad and now only use the Surface Pro and a mobile phone. This helped me reduce expenses overall as I am no longer updating some devices due to minimising. Surface Pro cost more upfront but eventually you will see the savings in $$$ and time it saves you.  Show details

A fantastic tablet, with an added bonus – yes, this has been refreshed with the surface pro 4 and soon the surface pro 5 will be out late 2017. But really, the surface pro 3 delivers in so many areas. Its almost as powerful as the pro 4. The pro 4 pens work on the surface pro 3. Its a lot cheaper now that's its a couple years old and it runs windows 10 fantastically. It comes down to… Read more

your needs... if want the latest and greatest get the pro 4 or even wait for the pro 5. If you want something that works well and costs more then half the price, then get a pro 3.

Thin and Light. Not so sure about battery life – I purchased a Surface Pro 2 and something went wrong with it so I went back to JB-HI-FI. Luckily They offered me a free exchange for Surface Pro 3 (yes!) My experience with this device is so far positive. It is thin, light and perfect for those who need to carry their laptops most of the time. The battery life can be a bit short.  Show details

Crap – Recently I purchased a Microsoft product surface pro tablet for my sons schooling we r talking about a billion dollar company my son accidentally slipped out of his sleeve and cracked the screen Microsoft asked me to send it back to them they would not fix nor replace it was only 6months old I was extremely dissapointed with Microsoft for the way… Read more

it was treated it was a accident but it did not matter I can understand why their rich billion dollar co they have no passion I was lucky I took out insurance thru jb hi fi who were fantastic Jamestown store it's fixed now but that's not the issue they do not back their product like Apple do they cover for everything next time it will be apple for me a company that sheared passion tha jb hi fi for ure passion in after sales service Microsoft shame on u

Overpriced Rubbish – Purchased this tablet computer for school and college use, turned out to be a big mistake. To start with the device was never that reliable, battery life was a mere 4 hours compared to the maximum of 10 hours that Microsoft states. That doesn't even include the device draining all its battery from 80% to 0 over a lunch break while in sleep mode.… Read more

Even an ipad with consistently last 9 hours and stay in sleep mode for weeks on end if not used often. Aside from battery life issues the were issues with the touchpad stopping and requiring a restart to fix the issue, also overheating issues even when watching a simple HD video on youtube which is a joke as many lower spec devices can do this without even breaking a sweat. Windows 8 was terrible with the operating system being really unstable and crashing with constant bugs. Windows 8 worked completely fine on my other non Microsoft devices just to make that clear.

I cant understand why a device that is meant to promote the "ease of use and simplicity of windows" can be so unreliable. Using the surface pro made me want to switch to an android based tablet, which meant throwing away many of the widely used features of Windows.

After about a year and a half the device got stuck in a boot loop which I managed to fix be reinstalling with whole operating system. A month after it happened again and I could not fix it despite a wide range of knowledge of diagnosing computer issues. Took is back to JB hifi and they said they could only replace it with a "Brand New" device. So I went along with everything and after 3 weeks of not having a device for college my device showed up. One look out of the box I could see that is was not a brand new unit like I had been promised as there were many scratches on the rear of the unit compared to the almost zero on my previous device. I went along with setting it up only to discover this device would not boot. So back to the store for them to finally refund the device and stay way from all surface products for good.

Do not waste your time with this product. Its Very expensive and you dont get much in return.

100% failure rate in less than 1 year – In my company the IT department migrated hundreds of employees (if not thousands, not sure) from a 2009 era HP notebook to the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 in early 2015. One year down the track there is been a near 100% failure rate. That is, almost everyone has had a catastrophic failure requiring a new tablet, some people are still going on their… Read more

original, or some are now on their second, third or fourth tablet.

The failure rate was much higher than the previous HP Business notebook. Here are the most commonly seen problems:

• The black screen of death. When taking the tablet out of sleep mode, the screen flashes, then no longer works at all. Even after fully charging the tablet, doing a hard reset or the “volume+power on for 15 seconds”, it doesn’t get the tablet to work. These tablets need to be exchanged for new ones.

• Tablet doesn’t re-image properly, even after multiple attempts.

• Lots of problems trying to load add-on support software like SQL Server express.

• Cooling fan is on almost all the time and the back of the tablet is quite warm to touch

• Cracked screen. We keep our tablets in very secure and safe bags such as Targus Laptop bags, and yet a few people have found their screens cracked when nothing could have caused it, ie the bag wasn't dropped, there wasn't anything in the laptop bag that touched the tablet or the keyboard cover

• The keyboard permanently loses communication with the tablet, even after changing all the settings, reseating the connection, performing the hard reset as mentioned above doesn't fix the problem. Even Microsoft support recommends taking the tablet back to them if this problem occurs.

• The dock is very sensitive, just touching anywhere on the tablet or dock causes the tablet to think it has undocked. You have to push the two sliders in very hard to establish communication.

• Often monitors loose communication with the tablet. The dock knows the tablet is there, is charging the tablet and the dock indicator light is on, however the monitor loses communication. The whole dock needs to be power cycled to re-establish communication.

• Tablet doesn't charge when on the dock. Everything else is working fine, connection to external monitor, network but the tablet doesn't charge and in some cases nearly fully discharges.

• Tablet randomly turns on. As such, often the tablet completely discharges itself. As such the tablet doesn't hold charge when switched off. After being switched off for a day or 2, all the charge is lost.

The concept of the device is good however Microsoft REALLY need to work on the reliability, the passive cooling, robustness of this device, the reliability of the standard connection on the bottom right and the robustness of the operating system in this tablet environment.

Support by Microsoft is 3rd rate, with HP there was a 1 business day return of any notebook we set them, with MIcrosoft it is 3 days.

Later, some people tried the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, and the same problems were present.

The workload of our IT department has shot up dramatically after this migration due to the very high rate of failures. We no longer consider this to be a serious business device or personal computer but just a toy.

Stay away and save for Ipad or else – After one year and half, charger/adapter starts sparking and buzzing, stylus went wrong after 2 months too. It is under warranty both by JB HiFi & Microsoft but none of them is doing what they are supposed to do. Say Microsoft, why is it too hard to get warranty straight away from retailer?

Good platform but bad design – Bought the surface pro, not a bad platform but the size makes it not as powerful as you'd expect from an i7 with 8 gb memory but as a tablet notebook pretty good however it's no good when the screen literally cracks in front of you. Didn't drop it, it simply cracked. I think it may have been a temperature change as I took it out of a cool air… Read more

conditioned car into a really hot day and then crack screen.

Contacted Microsoft send it back to them and their response is it's been dropped yet there are no marks on the rim at all nothing.

What a waste of money. Like iPads the design of running the glass to the edge is jsy prone to stress cracking.

Bane Of My Life – Do not buy surface pro. They have sent me faulty product time and again. First they sent me one with bad coating which had marks on it as well, second electrocuted me and third was delivered with a crack and still electrocutes me. They voided my warranty due to the crack they have made and blamed it on me. To make things worse they voided my… Read more

warranty then. When I bought a surface pro 4 the touch screen was not even working. Surface pro products are dodgy AF. Please do not get sucked it by how good it is as the quality of product is NOT worth the price you paid for. Worse still the customer service is shocking. The battery life on this surface pro can be as short as 2 hours, a far cry from 8 hours as stipulated in their website. It often heats up with the fan running like an F16 taking off, leaving your ears bleeding dry and your skin as crisp as a pork belly skin out from the frying pan. If you're thinking of buying it, think real hard.

Unreliable! – I purchased 1 tablet and the touch screen stopped working after 1 month. I then took it to be replaced and the replacement that I was given would not connect to the keyboard. I realized this one didn't work either within half an hour. I was given a third tablet. This one is under a year old and it is not connecting to the keyboard again. I am a… Read more

full time student and I do not have time for a tablet that never works. I saved up for a very long time to purchase this product and I have been extremely careful with it.

The JB Hi Fi staff lied to me about the warranty that I was getting. They told me it was a replacement warranty and it was a repair warranty - so not I am studying with no computer.

Three tablets breaking within a year, and most my friends are experiencing similar issues despite being very careful with the product. Unbelievable!

support is completely woeful – I purchased an SP3 in Feb. By April, the wireless had failed. I spent about 35 hours with MS support trying to get it resolved, then replaced. I had to re-start from scratch, and re-do all the trouble shooting again and again. Now it' December, and still yet to replace / resolve the issue... I will not buy a MS hardware product worth more than $200 again.

I love It! – I have owned my Surface for about 5 months and I love it. The colour and resolution is just beautiful and apart from a couple of teething problems after the installation of windows 10 has worked beautifully. The keyboard is very nice and after a little practice will be easy to use along with the ability to be used as a tablet makes this device an… Read more

excellent option. I know that they are a little on the expensive side but when you actually compare what it has with the equivalent competition, I think you will find it to be a good purchase.

Perfect! Best laptop I've ever owned – This is easily the best laptop I've ever purchased. Lightweight, powerful and doubles as a tablet. The pen is great for note taking during meetings, If I write neat enough it will even convert it to text. I also have this plugged into an external monitor at work with a wireless keyboard and mouse for that desktop feel.

Great tablet – This is truely an innovative brilliant tablet very easy to use great functionality the stylus pen is also great for taking notes quickly or drawing pictures. Would highly recommend if you use window platform computer no need to keep a desktop anymore this can do it all and I have only had a week and am still working out all the things it can do. You will not be disappointed with the surface pro this has now replace my IPad.

Surface Pro 3 a great body shifter – I was due to replace one of my work laptops and during my research came across the Surface Pro 3. This has turn out to be a good choice as i can use it as a laptop or a tablet. It loads quickly, has great screen resolution and speed. The cons are the back of the machine does get hot when being used, need to be careful of this. I use office 365… Read more

linked to a cloud account. This allows my to keep the machine clean with little stored directly on the Surface pro. I think by keeping it lean and mean it runs faster. It also allows me to access any file from anywhere in the world while traveling. Any files that need extra security are loaded onto a secure external drive. The usb port on the surface are a great feature lacking on most tablets, this allows you to download files or photos on the go. Handy to be able to keep the your DSLR camera downloaded of photos.

Overall a little heavy for a tablet, like a better battery life and maybe a stiffer keyboard, it is inclined to flex and bounce a bit as you type. If the future models are as good as this i will not be going back to laptops.

Very Slow, and hard to find solutions – I connect my pro 3 to monitor and when I took it off only part of the screen is working. the top 20% of the screen is appeared in black. I try to contact them after coming back from work and their support is closed after 5 PM Sydney time. Waste of money and crap machine

Not what I expected, or was it? – First with the good: The Surface Pro 3 is a powerful tablet. It's not some iPad or Surface RT with an ARM CPU incapable of running desktop applications, it comes in either Core i3, i5 or i7 configurations and up to 8GB RAM. My model has a Core i7, 256GB storage and 8GB RAM. It's nice to have such a thin and light tablet capable of running full… Read more

featured software like Visual Studio and Photoshop.

But onto the bad...

The CPU on the Surface Pro 3 has a lower clock speed than a traditional laptop, and that makes sense because of the smaller battery and lower cooling potential (small enclosure). The bigger problems sit with charging, the pen, the keyboard cover, the trackpad, the battery and more than anything, the operating system.

The Surface Pro 3 can be connected either a touch or type cover. Despite being sold as an optional accessory it's more of a necessity as Windows is barely navigable on a 12" touchscreen. Unfortunately, the cover is pretty terrible. The keyboard itself is fairly nice to type on, but sometimes even picking the tablet causes the keyboard to drop out and stop functioning. The only way to fix it.. To reconnect the keyboard. The same happens with the trackpad, which is also quite small and terrible with tracking. Next, onto the surface pen. The pen is of a good build quality, but falls short with quite a bit of lag and no decent place to put it. If you buy the keyboard it comes with a loop to hold the pen, and despite appearing to be designed to attach to the keyboard the material makes it impossible without falling off. How about charging and battery though? The battery is unpredictable. Life is nowhere near that of my MacBook Pro, but since it's a x86 tablet that's alright. But some days it lasts the entire day, and others it's dead in a couple hours with no additional applications open. Also, the battery is consumed heavily when on sleep. Taking the surface off charge in the morning and leaving it a full day on sleep with give you a nearly dead battery at the end of the day. As for charging, the connector which appears to be a MagSafe ripoff falls out all the time, and just recently the AC cable that connects to the power brick broke and only works on an angle, I had to get a replacement. Finally, it runs Windows. That's something of personal opinion but Windows I see as an Operating System that isn't ready to be run on low energy machines. Even powering on when the tablet inevitably completely locks up is a hassle as after force powering off the PMU seems to have trouble realising I want to turn the system back on.

TL;DR: A decent tablet with a good feature set, but a lot of problems which make it impractical to rely on.

Amazing... very helpful for students – very easy to carry around and the processor is fast enough to make it a replacement of a laptop at classrooms. With win10, its performance has increased manifold. the surface pen along with the pro 3 makes it very easy to take notes during class, or if you are creative you can doodle with it while the lecturer bores you.. ;)

Great replacement for my old laptop – I've been wanting to upgrade my old laptop and iPad and finally decided on the Surface Pro 3 to kill two birds with one stone. With the keyboard attached it's the perfect size to work on, a big enough screen to open word and excel docs. Once the keyboard is removed it's a great tablet. I've loaded all my fav apps and am enjoying the portability of the surface pro and the bright touch screen.

A great device and exceptional support – Enough grunt, great interface, I use the stylus all the time. I had it in a laptop bag and the screen got a crack in it - I took it to the warehouse in Botany on Friday and received a new one on Tuesday. I lost the nib to the pen and complained that the postage was steep at $11, so they listened and I got the replacement with no postage charge. … Read more

Had some issue with Windows 10, and the online chat solved them quickly and efficiently. I cannot fault this device nor the support. My wifes' ipad pin was forgotten last week, and the poor lady has to run through 100 hoops to get it fixed, one of which involved clearing the device completely, then reloading something.... basically the poor thing lies there unused now, I am confident that if she had the surface support team in her corner she would be using the thing already.

A few more details:

A fan comes on on this i7 512GB ssd model when I am playing games (StarCraft 2) for a while, it does not bother me at all, but it is noticeable.

The back lighting for the type pad seems to have been disabled since the windows 10 upgrade, but I am confident there will be a fix when I look for it.

I write java code on this with netbeans, works very nicely.

I have ableton live 8 installed and it works nicely with native instruments komplete 9 ultimate, a novation impulse keyboard and a focusrite forte usb powered interface. Screen is a little tight but one gets used to it.

I use a usb 3 powered hub I purchased from MSY to expand the single usb slot and this works well, was only $18 or so.