Buy Surface Pro 3 now or wait for 4

[GoodBytes]

I think you are right. It will come later in the year. Maybe October.
The reason I am thinking this is:
-> Skylake is not out yet, and expected to come at the end of the year. Broadwell is not exciting. Might as well end up being a Surface Pro 3.5, where it will have nothing over SP3 beside the CPU and better camera with auto focus.

-> They released Surface 3, without doing an event (beside a small press event). The Surface 3 is targeted heavily at students. This is done as "just in time" before school start season. They would have not done this, if the SP4 was around the corner. If it was, both would be announced together. The Pro 4 is a flag ship system, so it makes sense to make a big press event for it. Why make a big event for a system that is slow, can really charge when turned on, and nothing really special, beside price, somewhat.

-> Microsoft needs to fix the throttling problem of the Surface Pro 3.. so a more power efficient CPU (Skylake) is a must.

-> Windows 10 development needs to be completed to know which feature to implement to really stand showcase Windows 10 with the Pro 4. For example, they can implement a keyboard cover that when you flip it on the back, it auto0switch to tablet mode.

-> Link to the last point above, the device needs to be 100% Windows 10 ready. That means that not only hardware needs to have official, solid, reliable, and optimized Windows 10 drivers, but also that it will get continuous support, and not "Yea here are Windows 10 drivers, and next month the hardware is dump, because: here look a new model!" type of situation.

-> Need to see what other manufcatures have in stores for Windows 10 system to make a device that stands apart.

 

[hughlle]

While you are right in that the s3 is targeted at students, so is the sp3. There are whole heap of students who want their device to do a bit more than internet and word processing. While i would not say no to an s3 i would never accept one over my sp3 for my university work. Even simply becuse of the screen size.

It would make more sense to wait for a better SOC to use, but it would also be pretty silly to essentially abandon an entire market segment, student, which i imagine they really wish to make a big market segment.

Also bear in mind that companies do not always wait to get the best hardware in their device they can, but will often just make sure that it is comparable or slightly better than the competition. So while skylake would be a good selling point, not having it would not prove that detrimental because it's not like reviewers can list it as a con because apple have X but MS don't.

 

[GoodBytes]

I didn't say that SP has abandon the student market. It is still marketed to them. But the S3 is a filler, as the SP4 is coming out later with Skylake.

While you are right on that last point. It isn't for flag ship products. Not for companies like make high-end systems, where the main goal is to go and say: Here is what we can do. Microsoft is your ordinary Dell, or HP. They aim to be Apple... old Apple.

 

[drolem]

I think you are right. It will come later in the year. Maybe October.
The reason I am thinking this is:
-> Skylake is not out yet, and expected to come at the end of the year. Broadwell is not exciting. Might as well end up being a Surface Pro 3.5, where it will have nothing over SP3 beside the CPU and better camera with auto focus.

I'm at least 95% certain that the new Pro will come out within a week of Win 10 and it will have broadwell. Maybe not as exciting as skylake, but it is a well tested CPU that uses less power compared to the SP3 CPUs.

-> Microsoft needs to fix the throttling problem of the Surface Pro 3.. so a more power efficient CPU (Skylake) is a must.

No, not a must. It would be a nice to have, but I'd be very surprised to see it in the SP4.

-> Link to the last point above, the device needs to be 100% Windows 10 ready. That means that not only hardware needs to have official, solid, reliable, and optimized Windows 10 drivers, but also that it will get continuous support, and not "Yea here are Windows 10 drivers, and next month the hardware is dump, because: here look a new model!" type of situation.

Methinks making sure that it has Win 10 drivers is the easiest of all.

 

[macster]

Just for giggles what do you think the prices will be per the configurations? I think that the price will be around $900.00 for the baseline model with the mid price model around $1500.00, or so with the type cover and some "stuff." But ... Any way, I'm getting ready and will wait for the pioneers to go first then I'll settle in later. I probably need to budget around $1800.00 just to be able to buy all of the "stuff" that I'll need. I do think that the SP4 will be worth the wait though.

M~

 

[hughlle]

Just for giggles what do you think the prices will be per the configurations? I think that the price will be around $900.00 for the baseline model with the mid price model around $1500.00, or so with the type cover and some "stuff." But ... Any way, I'm getting ready and will wait for the pioneers to go first then I'll settle in later. I probably need to budget around $1800.00 just to be able to buy all of the "stuff" that I'll need. I do think that the SP4 will be worth the wait though.

M~

I would not be surprised if the prices are not identical to the SP3, if not lower. The success of the SP3 should really have allowed MS to achieve some economies of scale, and if it is the same form factor, they may even be able to re-use some of the manufacturing processes and R&D they've already invested into, such as the kickstand and shell.

If it is any higher, I will simply not buy it. Sure the SP3 is a great device, but it's still a lot of money at the end of the day for something that in my opinion, is really that capable so far as performance goes. I mean it's often just a bit of a pain browsing multiple tables, with certain site software bogging the machine down till the browser locks up.

 

[macster]

I hope the heck that I am wrong I would really like to get a SP4 i5/8GB/256/ type cover/pen/ and gotta have stuff for ~$1500.00. If you are using Chrome like me, I feel your pain.

M~

 

[GoodBytes]

So why use Chrome? It not even that good anymore.
Plus with the tracking by Google... I would avoid it.. You should really read that privacy policy

 

[hughlle]

So why use Chrome? It not even that good anymore.
Plus with the tracking by Google... I would avoid it.. You should really read that privacy policy

I couldn't care less about tracking. I'm not trying to hide anything. If it were enforced by every browser on every person then that is one thing, but given there is a choice to be tracked or not, i'm not fussed. I'll happily take chrome over IE even simply for the ability to effectively block popups. Saying that, IE is my main browser, with chrome for specific instances which rely on add-ons. Other than that I don't use it because of the resource usage, but I still find it from a functionality POV to be insurmountably superior to IE or Edge. IE/edge to chrome is what apple is to android.

 

[macster]

I couldn't care less about tracking. I'm not trying to hide anything. If it were enforced by every browser on every person then that is one thing, but given there is a choice to be tracked or not, i'm not fussed. I'll happily take chrome over IE even simply for the ability to effectively block popups. Saying that, IE is my main browser, with chrome for specific instances which rely on add-ons. Other than that I don't use it because of the resource usage, but I still find it from a functionality POV to be insurmountably superior to IE or Edge. IE/edge to chrome is what apple is to android.

Well said. I actually use them all, but find that Chrome just functions better for most of the things that I do. Anyway, Chrome helped me to realize that I needed 8GB minimum of Ram on my next tablet.

M~

 

[GoodBytes]

It is not about "nothing to hide, I am innocent", it is about your right to privacy. Rights that was battled for year after year after year. Your personal day to day activity is your right to be private, and not for collecting, building a profile that knows you more then your mother, and selling it to anyone without your knowledge. It is your basis rights which you are willingly allowing to be violated.

You are great choices of web browsers:
-> Firefox
-> Opera (uses same engine as Chrome now. S it is basically the same web browser these days)
-> And in Windows 10 you have the super fast Edge web browser (tested, really impressive!). Add-ons support will be coming as well (sadly after Windows 10 is released, but not too late), using the same add-on technologies as Firefox and Chrome.

 

[GoodBytes]

Well said. I actually use them all, but find that Chrome just functions better for most of the things that I do. Anyway, Chrome helped me to realize that I needed 8GB minimum of Ram on my next tablet.

M~

Firefox allowed me to use a system with 2GB of RAM perfectly fine, assuming I do Office, web surfing, music listening, and video watching
Allowing more RAM free to be taking by my productivity software, which is what I get

In addition, you don't need a car battery with your mobile device due to Chrome eating your battery life. You can get all day battery with any web browser, including Opera using Chrome engine, which is hilarious.

Chrome used to be awesome, it used to be this lean mean machine, but now I don't think interns even coded this.
It is not even high-DPI supported or touch screen support. Mind you, Firefox isn't either... well... high-DPI works on the page for Firefox, but the GUI.
So I guess part high-DPI support. Anyway.