Just returned my SP3 i5...

[ismaris]

Hi All,

I am a very disappointed customer. I have been following the Surface for years, and when I saw the new developments in the 3rd generation, I couldn't resist. I brought my Macbook Air into the store for an exchange, and walked out with an i5 SP3. Unfortunately, it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to sour on the device. I intended on this device being a replacement for my macbook air, as well as providing new functionality--that of a tablet. Part of what I used my macbook air to do was play games casually (Which, Microsoft says in their ads, is what the SP3 also provides). The SP3 has a newer i5 than my 2012 MBA had, so you can imagine how distraught I was when I found that it could not play any of my games at anything close to a reasonable framerate. What's more, when monitoring CPU usage while playing, I noticed that the processor seldom was able to run above 1 ghz, even though it is a 1.9ghz i5. The heat is so intense that my i5, for which I paid a pretty penny, cannot operate over 50% of its capacity. I play WoW (on low settings), Hearthstone, and various old RPG's, and my SP3 performed MUCH worse than my MBA did. These are not taxing games. What a disappointment.

Okay, I said, so maybe this isn't a gaming device (Even though Microsoft said it could handle casual gaming in their ads, and even though it has a better processor than my old MBA which COULD handle these games), so let me test this on something outside of gaming. I fired up excel and ran a large update operation on a spreadsheet. What happened? The device hangs, the fan whirls up, and eventually Excel crashes. Not what I expected at all. I returned my SP3 the next morning, and was sorry to learn from the Microsoft Store employees that they would not be able to return my MBA to me as I had traded it in for non-refundable store credit. I guess I learned my lesson here, but I just want to say how INCREDIBLY disappointed I am in this product. The SP3 in almost all respects is a beautiful device. It looks beautiful, the pen works amazingly well, the screen is gorgeous, and I love the keyboard and trackpad. However, if it cannot perform the basic tasks that the devices it aims to "replace" can, then how can I keep it? It would be a very silly choice for me to do that. Now I am struggling to come up with a device that I can get from the Microsoft store that will be better than my old Macbook Air. It's quite an unfortunate turn of events, and as much as I'd like to support Microsoft and this device, I have been soured by this whole experience.

 

[raqball]

My .02

I replaced a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina with i5 and 8gb of ram with the SP3 that has the i5 and 8gb ram.

I do not miss the retina MacBook Pro one bit, not even a smidgen... I think you may have had a faulty SP3 because mine does not get hot, nowhere even close. It gets luke warm, but that's about it. Also, I've never even heard the fan on SP3. I assume it's there and I assume it runs every so often but I've never heard it.

I don't play games so I can't comment on that but I do use The Verge as my graphics test. On my MBP this website shudders badly but on the SP3 is smooth as silk..

Maybe try an exchange as my Sp3 has been rock solid..

 

[malberttoo]

Hi ismaris, welcome to the forum.

Your tale is a sad one indeed, and I would hate to be in the spot that you're in.

But I have to ask, when these issues were going on, or even before you bought the SP3, did you do any research at all, or reach out to anyone for help, or ask what their experiences were?

I definitely understand your excitement of buying the new SP3, but I'm not sure I would have traded in my existing machine first, without having some info on the device I was going to.

If nothing else, did you try to exchange the SP3 for a different unit? The one you got sounds like it was faulty, and definitely could have had some troubleshooting done to it before the towel was thrown in so to speak.

I am definitely not making this a case of "blame the buyer", but from your account is sounds like you got a new SP3, had trouble with it, and returned it. Just wondering if you ever considered reaching out to this community while you were having issues. Most users doing exactly what you wanted to do are having very few issues.

 

[mitchellvii]

I'm trying to figure out why anyone would buy a business hybrid with weak airflow and no discrete graphics card and have any hopes to play games at enjoyable framerates? The SP3 is NOT a gaming rig and it's not intended to be.

When using the SP3 for its intended use - a business and consumption hybrid, it is a dream come true.

 

[TeknoBlast]

I'm trying to figure out why anyone would buy a business hybrid with weak airflow and no discrete graphics card and have any hopes to play games at enjoyable framerates? The SP3 is NOT a gaming rig and it's not intended to be.

When using the SP3 for its intended use - a business and consumption hybrid, it is a dream come true.

Agreed. The only gaming I do on the SP3 is whatever is available through the Windows Store. Games that I have with Steam....that's why I have a beefed up desktop for.

 

[GreyFox7]

Hi ismaris, welcome to the forum.
Your tale is a sad one indeed, and I would hate to be in the spot that you're in.
But I have to ask, when these issues were going on, or even before you bought the SP3, did you do any research at all, or reach out to anyone for help, or ask what their experiences were?
I definitely understand your excitement of buying the new SP3, but I'm not sure I would have traded in my existing machine first, without having some info on the device I was going to.
If nothing else, did you try to exchange the SP3 for a different unit? The one you got sounds like it was faulty, and definitely could have had some troubleshooting done to it before the towel was thrown in so to speak.
I am definitely not making this a case of "blame the buyer", but from your account is sounds like you got a new SP3, had trouble with it, and returned it. Just wondering if you ever considered reaching out to this community while you were having issues. Most users doing exactly what you wanted to do are having very few issues.

Sometimes you have to wonder

 

[marcux]

I know, seriously, who would attempt to play a game on the sp3 that was advertised to work on the SP3! Amazing same thing happens to me. Business class device? Last time I checked it wasn't just advertised to business. Stop trying to protect the device, it's broken, I returned mine too, and have many others. I'm 100% sure many, many others have returned theirs as well because of overheating. If the problem didn't exist, why do you see so many topics on the forums on it?
Fanboys need to protect their investment i guess.

 

[raqball]

Why so rude and angry?

It's just a PC and not worth getting bent out of shape over. If it works for those who have it then that's great, if it does not work for your needs then return it and be happy.

I don't think I've ever continued to visit a forum for a product I no longer own, but I guess that's just me..

Life is short, be happy

 

[atoms83]

I have the i5 8GB model and I play some WoW every now and then locally on the sp3 itself. It performs pretty well at native resolution and low settings.. fine enough for me to do what I need to do like check AU's or whatever. If I wanted to play a bit longer, I added the wow a.exe to my steam games list, and streamed WoW from my gaming rig in the office. Works very well, especially if you have a higher end NVIDIA GPU. You can add any game to steam as long as you can bypass the specific games launcher.

My fan does come on and it does get hot sometimes.. but that's going to happen. There is a program mentioned on another thread that unthrottles the CPU and works very well..

 

[mitchellvii]

Life is short, be happy

I don't know about you but my life's taking damned FOREVER.

 

[wynand32]

Fanboys need to protect their investment i guess.

I've never understood why it's considered perfectly acceptable by some to log into a forum and complain about a product, but it's not okay to point out that you're not experiencing it. Seems to me that it's important for folks visiting a forum to know whether or not a problem is widespread, and the only way to determine that is to collect enough evidence one way or another.

And "fanboy"?!? I do believe that it's more legitimate (i.e., informative, helpful, etc.) to post about a product that one still owns, than to post about a product that one doesn't. What should we call the latter, if the former are "fanboys"? Trolls?

 

[ismaris]

Thanks for your reply atoms83. I am debating whether or not I rushed into my return, and I am considering requesting an alternate device on the chance mine was particularly "hot". I really like the device a lot in all other regards.

As for the poster asking why I bought a "business class" device as a gaming rig: I didn't. I bought a device that claimed it could replace my macbook air, and one that claimed it could play casual games. It couldn't. As I said, there is a chance I could have jumped the gun on the return, but to say this is purely a "business class" device is to willfully ignore Microsoft's own marketing.