How do you feel about the size/portability of SP3 versus your (former) SP2 ?

[kevinlevrone]

Hello,

I have the SP2 and I am interested in upgrading to SP3 sometime in the near future (possibly after the Broadwell version arrives - I already witnessed my SP2 becoming outdated 3 months after my purchase). I would like to upgrade because a larger screen would probably be better for me (I am a software developer). I have to say that my SP2 is still almost perfect for the job and is my only work/personal computer right now.

But I have some concerns about the portability of a possible SP3 because of the larger size. I never had any issues with the SP2 thickness and weight, I find them ok. The SP2 portability really helped me to be more productive because it was easier to fire it up and do some work when I had some free time (versus my old 14" heavy laptop). I dismissed the Dell XPS 12 because of portability concerns. After thinking about it I think that my ideal screen size would be the 11.6" with a 16/10 aspect ratio. A 3/2 aspect ratio does show more source code lines in editor but increases the screen size quite a bit over 16/10. A thin bezel design and no pen support (I have no need for the pen) would provide both large screen size and small overall size but I guess this will not happen anytime soon.

Do you feel you lost any portability with the SP3 because of the larger size ? I would especially like to hear from previous Surface Pro/2 owners, but any opinion is welcome.

 

[jnjroach]

I find it more portable due to its thinner and weight, I used to leave my SP2 on my desk for the most part and carry my S2 to meetings, now I take my SP3 with me everywhere.

 

[TechGod2014]

What he said ^

 

[scfoster]

Do you feel you lost any portability with the SP3 because of the larger size ? I would especially like to hear from previous Surface Pro/2 owners, but any opinion is welcome.

Just the opposite. The SP3 is substantially more portable than the SP2. The SP3 is thinner and carries the weight differently than the SP2. Also the larger size makes taking notes easier, not just due to the writing surface area but the physical size of the SP3. I can prop it on one knee (leg folded over the other) and discretely take notes in meetings. The size of the SP2 made this awkward for me.

If found with the SP2 that I was leaving it at my desk more often as time went on. That says it all. Hopefully that will not be the case with the SP3.

 

[mcsenerd]

I have every one of the surface versions right now in-house, and even with all of the "issues" surrounding the firmware/drivers on the SP3 right now, I still feel that it's as close to the "ideal" sized device that I've ever had. In much the way that I feel that the iPad Air pretty much trumps the iPad Mini, I feel the same about the SP3 vs. SP1/SP2. The aspect ratio works great for me, it's perfect for taking notes in portrait, the thinness and slightly reduced weight are both very noticeable in my opinion. I now actually find using the SP3 comfortable as an actual tablet and that's something that I always thought felt weird with both the SP1 and SP2.

 

[egiles]

Nothing new here to say really...I have an SP1 and now an SP3. I wound up basically not using the SP1 at all after a couple of months due to the 'clunky' and heavy feel of the device. I just don't see that happening with the SP3-as others here have said, it is much lighter and feels more balanced in your hand. Going to the 3:2 ratio screen was basically a perfect choice-plenty of screen real estate to work with, and portrait mode is now very useable-especially for writing notes in One Note.

 

[dleuen]

I went from SP1 to SP3 and was concerned the SP3 wouldn't be as portable. I find it way more portable than the SP1 for the reasons above. In fact I find it so portable it has replaced my iPad which I didn't expect. It really is the perfect size.

Not sure what kind of development you do but be aware that Visual Studio does not work well with this device because it switches you to Hyper-V. Your SP3 will not sleep, only power off/on and your wifi will need to be reset every time you boot up. Too bad VS has become such a piece of bloatware. For that reason you can't really use the SP3 for Windows development. Eclipse runs great though if you happen to be a Java dev.

 

[kevinlevrone]

Thanks everyone for your comments. It seems that the portability on the SP3 is not an issue and it's even better than SP2, which is nice to hear.

Not sure what kind of development you do but be aware that Visual Studio does not work well with this device because it switches you to Hyper-V. Your SP3 will not sleep, only power off/on and your wifi will need to be reset every time you boot up.

I'm using the SP2 with Visual Studio and Hyper-V/virtual machines and I don't have these problems. I'm sure that many SP3 testers were Microsoft employees so it has seen plenty of Visual Studio use during testing. If there are problems with the SP3, I am sure they will be fixed via updates. But even now I think that there may be some workarounds. I will keep an eye of threads regarding this issue though.

 

[ctitanic]

I was using a Surface 2 which is more "portable" than the Pro2 but the only difference that I noticed was the new screen ratio which makes the Pro 3 usability better at least for me. One more thing is that the Pro 3 on hand fees smaller than the perception that you get from the videos of it posted everywhere.

 

[unruledboy]

actually I prefer sp3 to be even bigger, maybe 12.5 or 13?

 

[MadCruzer]

Not sure what kind of development you do but be aware that Visual Studio does not work well with this device because it switches you to Hyper-V. Your SP3 will not sleep, only power off/on and your wifi will need to be reset every time you boot up. Too bad VS has become such a piece of bloatware. For that reason you can't really use the SP3 for Windows development. Eclipse runs great though if you happen to be a Java dev.

I don't understand this. I have VS2013 loaded on my SP3, and it runs fine on the desktop. I don't even have the Hyper-V role installed. I have compiled a couple of c# and VB projects without issue.

 

[scottysize]

Hello,

I have the SP2 and I am interested in upgrading to SP3 sometime in the near future (possibly after the Broadwell version arrives - I already witnessed my SP2 becoming outdated 3 months after my purchase). I would like to upgrade because a larger screen would probably be better for me (I am a software developer). I have to say that my SP2 is still almost perfect for the job and is my only work/personal computer right now.

But I have some concerns about the portability of a possible SP3 because of the larger size. I never had any issues with the SP2 thickness and weight, I find them ok. The SP2 portability really helped me to be more productive because it was easier to fire it up and do some work when I had some free time (versus my old 14" heavy laptop). I dismissed the Dell XPS 12 because of portability concerns. After thinking about it I think that my ideal screen size would be the 11.6" with a 16/10 aspect ratio. A 3/2 aspect ratio does show more source code lines in editor but increases the screen size quite a bit over 16/10. A thin bezel design and no pen support (I have no need for the pen) would provide both large screen size and small overall size but I guess this will not happen anytime soon.

Do you feel you lost any portability with the SP3 because of the larger size ? I would especially like to hear from previous Surface Pro/2 owners, but any opinion is welcome.

While I"m not a SP2 owner, I did come from the iPad and MacBook Pro 15.5". I sold both and I am very happy with the portability. It actually fits in my murse or man purse better than the iPad Air, only because it's bigger. Yes, I know that doesn't make since. I have Timbuk2 and the iPad Air was too small and would move around in it. I never damaged the iPad, but was always nervous about it. The SP3 fits in the bag perfectly and doesn't move around. The MacBook wasn't portable at all.

So, my 2 cents. I do love having a full blown version of a computer with me for the size of a large tablet.