Jun

My Out of the Box Experience With Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3

I’m no stranger to Microsoft’s products. I’ve been using Intel laptops since 1993. In the tablet arena, though, I’ve been devoted to Apple’s iPad. I love the UI, the rock solid performance, and plethora of apps for it. For the longest time, I’ve resisted getting an Android or Windows tablet. With the recent announcement by Microsoft about the latest iteration of Surface Pro 3, and the positive reviews it received, I thought the time has come to give a Windows tablet a shot. Last Saturday, I took the plunge! Microsoft touted it as a laptop replacement, which is exactly what I’m trying to do: To replace my Toshiba Portege Z835.

I brought the Surface Pro 3 home from a local Microsoft Store at South Coast Plaza. They offered me to unbox it at the store, but I had to be somewhere else, so I had to unpack it the next day. For the most part, it was rather painless. I had enough experience with setting up my own PCs and laptops, so I assumed this should be pretty straight forward. But, I hit a couple of snags with the Surface Pen, which I don’t particularly like. Using the pen to navigate Windows is clumsy. During setup, it crashed after setting up the bluetooth pen. Windows also crashed while my daughter were playing with it on Freshpaint drawing app. I’m kind of curious why Microsoft is pushing for the pen. I believe the pen is not that useful for business use, unless my job is graphics design – which I’m not.

All in all, the experience has been pretty good. I truly like the big 12″ display as a tablet, for reading news off Flipboard (Metro app) and The Old Reader (web app). I also like the smaller and lighter AC adapter, for easier transport. I’m still trying to gauge the battery life, but so far I was able to use it for hours and still have 45% battery life. The keyboard feels nice, as I’m able to comfortably write this blog post. I’ve also installed and configured all of my necessary business apps, so I’m good to work with it, on the road!