Thursday, March 12, 2015

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 experience after 5 months

Since November last year I'm using a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as primary device for my daily work. I wrote multiple blogposts about my experience in November and December. For over 5 months I'm very happy with my choice, never had a doubt I made the wrong choice here. But still there are some minors left. Let's have a look at my experience so far. Pro's and Con's are taken from my post before.

Pro's (changes in bold)
-Fast (with i7 CPU, i5 performance don't know)
-Quiet (on battery always, on power not all the time)
-Battery (approx. 8/9 hours with Office and Internet open)
-12" display (sharp, resolution, pen support)
-Pen (great in presentations)
-Weight (1,1 kg with keyboard)
-New generation device, high wow factor!
-Windows 10 upgrade coming (waiting for RTM to upgrade)
-Kickstand (can be placed in all positions)
-It's both a notebook and tablet


Con's (changes in blue)
-Fan blowing (on power only, not all the time)
As mentioned in the links below, this is being caused by the Windows Installer Module and the Windows Installer Module Worker, which start in the background at random times and cause the CPU to work at higher speeds. This causes the heat and the fans to kick into overdrive. When stopping these processes in Task Manager, my Surface is as quiet as on battery in seconds! Hope that this issue is fixed when moving to Windows 10 in a few months. Otherwise a hardware replacement may be needed to resolve this.
-Out of sleep (when in sleep mode, it will wake up. for it seems because of the keyboard?)

Sometimes my device will go out-of-sleep, which is annoying because all open programs will be gone afterwards. Strange thing that no hibernation is used for this? For it seems the device stays on, till battery power is reached a critical state. After that the device turns down. Lucky me this happens around rarely and not always. Hope this issue is fixed also when moving to Windows 10.
-One USB port only (far too little to connect multiple devices!)

Last week I ordered a Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Surface Edition, because of this. The mouse works really fine, and benefit of it is a free USB port which I have now. Again no doubt I made the wrong choice here, and it looks great next to my Surface!
-Keyboard function keys (sometimes Fn is needed, sometimes not, which is confusing)

Well, you will get used to it ;)
-There is no insert key on the keyboard (mentioned by @scambler)
Didn't miss it myself actually. What I am missing on modern devices is the lack of pause key, which is really handy during PXE boot. Just have a look HERE for a workaround on the insert key.

More information about the fan blowing:
Fix found for Microsoft's Surface 3 overheating issues
Excessively loud fan, constant overheating during idle and light tasks
Tools To Simulate CPU / Memory / Disk Load (for testing purpose)

More blogposts on this topic:
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 first experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 second experience

1 comment:

  1. Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is not only a tablet but it also gives you the features and quality of PC. You can also called it a PC, it's gives you the next level generation and then you can taste the high speed and lots of other functions. Now let's look its specification that are "Intel Core i7" "RAM 8GB ROM 512GB" "Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro Update 64bit" "CAMERA Rear 5MP, Front 5MP" "Application Office Home and Business Premium". At the day of Christmas we are offering the best rates on our all products specially for Microsoft Surface Pro 3, So just place your order on TRD Electronics and enjoy this multi tablet.
    Microsoft Surface pro 3

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