On the fence - used Surface Pro 3 or New 4

[drFrank]

Has anyone that upgraded from the Surface Pro 3 to the 4 'regretted' it or the opposite? So thrilled you are glad you made the jump?

Lightly used Surface Pro 3 - i7 - 8 gig RAM, keyboard, etc - I am seeing for less than $1k - This same price is what Costco and others (Black Friday Deals) are selling the i5 Surface Pro 3 and the Surface Pro 4 without the keyboard.

Thanks! - trying to decide which way to go but not spend foolishly.

 

[sharpuser]

I am glad I stayed with the Surface Pro 3, after upgrading the keyboard to the Type Cover 4 with Fingerprint Reader.

 

[drFrank]

That is one thought I had too - find a gently used pro 3 and buy the new keyboard.

The pen on the 4 looks great -

 

[RichBrownsDesk]

Is it a used one or refurbished one? Personally, I have never, one time, had a positive experience buying a used computer from a private party. It's never lasted more than a few months without major issues.

 

[hughlle]

They really are very similar. I am giving my SP3 to my partner as she is in need of something like it, so while i could have just bought another sp3 for 2/3 of the price, i had the money so just figured get an SP4. I tried it yesterday, and well, it was just a slightly different Sp3 to be honest. Unless a real power user then all the new details under the hood are pretty irrelevant.

Unless you are not fussed about price, then the SP3 is still a fantastic device with more than sufficient specs.

 

[sharpuser]

Currently
SP3 + Type Cover 4 + Surface Pen 4 + Windows 10 = Powerful computer at great price

 

[drFrank]

Is it a used one or refurbished one? Personally, I have never, one time, had a positive experience buying a used computer from a private party. It's never lasted more than a few months without major issues.

I have looked at used which are close to $1k - Costco has the SP3 128/i5 on sale Friday, Nov 20 for 900 which includes keyboard and office 365 - The deal is just ok since Amazon sells the same item minus the keyboard for 809. The advantage for Costco is the extra warranty and return policy.

My thought is to go for the sp3 i5/256 then buy the sp4 keyboard and pen -

 

[Michael Lovett]

Has anyone that upgraded from the Surface Pro 3 to the 4 'regretted' it or the opposite? So thrilled you are glad you made the jump?

Lightly used Surface Pro 3 - i7 - 8 gig RAM, keyboard, etc - I am seeing for less than $1k - This same price is what Costco and others (Black Friday Deals) are selling the i5 Surface Pro 3 and the Surface Pro 4 without the keyboard.

Thanks! - trying to decide which way to go but not spend foolishly.

I got the SP3 i7 hot off the press over a year ago. I had lots of teething problems and for the most part they've all settled down finally.

I would not want to go through another six months of Microsoft working the bugs out of the SP4 when solid SP3's are available and they're so close in performance for most chores. My vote: get the SP3. Just my two cents

 

[Foreverseeking]

the new type cover is 5x better than the old one. The new pen is an improvement too (more comfortable, the rubber is great, and has better pressure resolution, although that last one I wouldn't notice as i'm not an artist)

The fact the pen stores on the SP4 is also much better. The volume buttons are better located, the screen is brighter and bigger (although the size difference is not very noticeable). The temps on the i5 are 100x better than my wifes SP3 i7. You can cook an egg on hers, mine runes perfectly cool. The SP4 I7 is showing 60% better benchmarks as the SP4I5, so about 60% faster than the SP3 I7. The thinness of the device is noticeable, and although not a massive difference is nicer.

That being said, under 1000 bucks for an i7 sp3 is a deal, and likely offers better value *although you really must add the cost of the new keyboard into the equation, as you really really want it!

 

[PaulDentener]

Last month I was facing the same problem. Wait for the Surface Pro 4 or buy a second hand Surface Pro 3. I actually decided to get a Pro 3 for a nice price, try it, and upgrade to the Pro 4 should I remain using the Pro 3 (I have the nasty habit of spending a lot of money on gadgets and not use them anymore after a while ;-) )

Got a Pro 3 i7 256GB with type cover 3 and one year remaining Microsoft Store guarantee for 900 euros. Never regretted it since. After upgrading to Windows 10 TH2 I have NOTHING to complain about. It's fast, battery is actually very good now (was so so under Windows 10 RTM). Mine is quiet, meaning fans don't spin up during normal usage (web browsing, office work), but still plenty of power to spare.

I could easily get a 1000 euros for the Pro 3 and upgrade to the 4, which was my original plan, but actually I don't see any reason why. Maybe in 6 months or so, when all the kinks are ironed out I will have a second look. Don't want to trade in my perfectly working 3 for a potentially buggy 4 (I'm convinced they will fix all the issues, question is how long that is going to take).

Did order the Type Cover 4 though. Should arrive today ;-)

 

[Moonsurface]

I also have not upgraded from my i7 SP3 but I do have the new versions of both the keyboard cover and pen. The accessories are excellent - so well designed, the keyboard is truely amazing and a massive upgrade. On the SP3 the pen is only a slight upgrade on the old pen as the pressure sensitivity increases don't register that much but the new tips are fabulous. Both have made my i7 feel like new again. The only reason I'd consider upgrading to the SP4 now would be for the cooler running as my SP3 has been fairly solid, I've had some fan running issues and poor battery life lately but I've found that was probably due to Edge, so since I switched to using Firefox as my main browser I'm not hearing the fan anywhere near as much.

6 months time I might consider the i7 SP4... but until then I'm still happy with my Pro 3.

 

[saidgta]

Note that surface pro 4 with i5 cpu, is more powerfull than sp3 with i7, about 15%