i5 Surface Pro upgrade to i5 Surface Pro 3

[MMU]

I've had the original Pro since initial release and it has been a reliable everyday and travel workhorse. I use it mostly in tablet mode and with some difficulty (and the pen) use PS3, Canon's RAW converter, MS Word, MS Excel, etc. but it's really best when using the metro apps which are touch-screen enabled. It will become unstable and need a re-boot if I have lots of apps open and lots of tabs in metro IE.

Upgrading to the same spec Pro 3, what will I notice most?

Obviously, I'll have more screen real estate. Does this help functionality much? I run out of room when using the on-screen keyboard on the Pro 1.

Will the Pro 3 be more stable? Quicker?

Any other differences worth mentioning?

 

[malberttoo]

I've had the original Pro since initial release and it has been a reliable everyday and travel workhorse. I use it mostly in tablet mode and with some difficulty (and the pen) use PS3, Canon's RAW converter, MS Word, MS Excel, etc. but it's really best when using the metro apps which are touch-screen enabled. It will become unstable and need a re-boot if I have lots of apps open and lots of tabs in metro IE.

Upgrading to the same spec Pro 3, what will I notice most?

Obviously, I'll have more screen real estate. Does this help functionality much? I run out of room when using the on-screen keyboard on the Pro 1.

Will the Pro 3 be more stable? Quicker?

Any other differences worth mentioning?

I know it's not what you want to hear right off the cuff, but there is so much discussion on this board about this same topic!

The first point I want to make though is that if you're totally happy with your existing device, then probably a refresh/reinstall is in order, assuming you haven't yet done that.

Other than that... I personally was in the exact same situation, went from Pro 1 to Pro 3. Completely better experience. Number 1, form factor. The 3:2 display is the sweet spot for me, 16:9 IMHO is terrible on a tablet. Number 2, Overall larger, thinner, lighter. The Pro 1 never replaced anything of mine, as badly as I wanted it to. The Pro 3 replaced my laptop after 2 weeks.

I have the i5 8GB RAM, and have never seen a single performance issue on it, including Office, music notation, many tabs open in browsers, multiple Remote Desktop windows open.

Quite simply, I think Microsoft finally got on the right track.

My .02

 

[Liam2349]

You will see a lot more on the screen, as it's both bigger and higher res. Performance will be a bit better, but the main draw doubling, or perhaps even more than doubling your battery life.

I also really noticed the thinness.

 

[MMU]

Thanks for the feedback! I think I'll be upgrading very soon. I do wish they offered 8MB ram with the 128GB SSD (because w/cloud services 128GB is all I need).

 

[CrippsCorner]

I bet it's an awesome upgrade! Unfortunately I can't really afford to do the same at the moment... bring on the Surface Pro 6