Surface Pro 3: Six Months Later

[jnjroach]

Because when ports are there people use them for things like Y cables and dongles....

Seriously though, when building a mobile device you have to take into account everything that will draw power, it goes into the calculation of what size battery and how long expected battery life will be... this is one of reasons I believe they under powered the one USB Port....

 

[GreyFox7]

Why would it use more power if you're not using it? Surely if nothing is plugged in, no additional power is being used.

Chips and controllers use power just being ready doing nothing.

Huh, I thought I posted this but its still here... that happened twice today

 

[hughlle]

Because when ports are there people use them for things like Y cables and dongles....

Seriously though, when building a mobile device you have to take into account everything that will draw power, it goes into the calculation of what size battery and how long expected battery life will be... this is one of reasons I believe they under powered the one USB Port....

It is irrelevant though. That is like saying that by allowing the screen to be turned upto a maximum of X brightness instead of Y, they had to use a bigger battery. No, if you turn it up to X then you do so knowing that you'll just get a lower battery time. If i plug a mechanical harddrive into the one port available, i understand that i'll get less battery use than if i didn't plug one in. Or did they increase the battery capacity when they decided to give the keyboard backlighting? I doubt it, more than likely it was just left as granted that if you ahve the backlights turned up all the way it will impact the battery life. this is just common sense. the more you tax the device, the lower the battery life.

And greyfox, i have no engineering background, but i can't imagine that an extra usb controller would use so much power while doing nothing that it would require a bigger battery.

Microsoft don't have to defend anything, they state quite clearly that battery life is based on your usage, as is common sense.

 

[daniielrp]

Why would it use more power if you're not using it? Surely if nothing is plugged in, no additional power is being used.

But if you're not using it, then why do people want an extra one?

A fair review, I think.

Author Paul Thurrott's opinion:

Dislikes:
- Needs second USB
- Small screen
- Ecosystem only now emerging

Personally I so rarely use the USB port I see no need to have an extra one. I use the SP3 as a portable device, and as a portable it rarely if ever has anything external plugged in to it.

I'm pretty happy with the screen size, though I'd be interested to see what a 13" or 15" would be like.

Again I use mine completely as a portable, every once in a while I may plug it in at work to a monitor, and even then my peripherals like K/B and mouse are all bluetooth.

If you need more ports, legacy hardware and bigger screen, then the SP3 is clearly not the device for you, nor did MS ever claim it could be.

 

[hughlle]

But if you're not using it, then why do people want an extra one?

So you ALWAYS have something plugged into your usb port? I guess this is not the case for most people. So by your argument, why have a usb port at all.

No, it is because it offers potential use when circumstances require it.

 

[SeeVuPlay]

I use to read his articles, and listen to the podcast, but just got sick of the ridicule and the complaining. If you listen to that episode where he just complains about the single USB, and then explains how silly one usb is because ms makes mice with usb transmitters, and he goes round and round.....and i went from listening to the podcast weekly to listening once every 3 months.

I havent found where i needed another usb. I would like for MS or someone to create another keyboard as well, with a battery. that I would love!

 

[Moonsurface]

So far the only time I've used a USB hub is when on a desk, and I only used it because I preferred having a cardreader plugged into the hub rather than the actual device sticking out of the side, I didn't actually use more than the one port... so far that's been kind, and like @daniielrp I mainly use my surface as an ultraportable tablet/laptop and thus rarely want anything attached to the sides of it sticking out of the port

I'm so glad I'm the customer that MS designed the device for ha ha!

 

[jnjroach]

It is irrelevant though. That is like saying that by allowing the screen to be turned upto a maximum of X brightness instead of Y, they had to use a bigger battery. No, if you turn it up to X then you do so knowing that you'll just get a lower battery time. If i plug a mechanical harddrive into the one port available, i understand that i'll get less battery use than if i didn't plug one in. Or did they increase the battery capacity when they decided to give the keyboard backlighting? I doubt it, more than likely it was just left as granted that if you ahve the backlights turned up all the way it will impact the battery life. this is just common sense. the more you tax the device, the lower the battery life.

And greyfox, i have no engineering background, but i can't imagine that an extra usb controller would use so much power while doing nothing that it would require a bigger battery.

Microsoft don't have to defend anything, they state quite clearly that battery life is based on your usage, as is common sense.

There is no such thing as a zero sum addition in hardware, adding additional components will impact the over all power draw, used or not.... everything they did was carefully planned for functionality and to maximize battery life.

 

[hughlle]

There is no such thing as a zero sum addition in hardware, adding additional components will impact the over all power draw, used or not.... everything they did was carefully planned for functionality and to maximize battery life.

How much on an ipact does that have though? 5 minutes off battery life, 5 hours? I wouldn't be surprised if they only have one usb port because the inside is packed to maximum capacity.

 

[Moonsurface]

How much on an ipact does that have though? 5 minutes off battery life, 5 hours? I wouldn't be surprised if they only have one usb port because the inside is packed to maximum capacity.

As the wife of someone who is a project manager / product development manager at a company designing very high tech products with very high specifications I can tell you there will be many reasons why this might not have been done.. it could have been on the wish list but practically impossible at the present time due to all the technical reasons mentioned, problems with design, perhaps problems with the way the board was designed for electrical connections, thermal issues with components, then of course there's pressure to release, deadlines, budgets - all manner of things can change the product. It may never have been on the original list for inclusion after all as a reasonably normalish sized tablet to even get one full size USB 3.0 port is a plus. I reckon it'll be on the list for the future though.

 

[hughlle]

As the wife of someone who is a project manager / product development manager at a company designing very high tech products with very high specifications I can tell you there will be many reasons why this might not have been done.. it could have been on the wish list but practically impossible at the present time due to all the technical reasons mentioned, problems with design, perhaps problems with the way the board was designed for electrical connections, thermal issues with components, then of course there's pressure to release, deadlines, budgets - all manner of things can change the product. It may never have been on the original list for inclusion after all as a reasonably normalish sized tablet to even get one full size USB 3.0 port is a plus. I reckon it'll be on the list for the future though.

Well that is exactly how i see it. I can't beleive that there is only 1 usb port due to battery reasons. I can't see how an extra usb controller could effect that battery to the point that they couldn't market and sell the device. Nope, i don't buy it for a second. So far as i'm concerned it is for a type of reason like you list, that it was physically impossible for this iteration.

Heck, if they've got an additional controller for the power socket on the device, surely if they had space inside, or just on the board, they could have just bridged that to the second port so that while not docked, battery wouldn't be effected (because surely then that power socket with it's usb controller is draining battery right) nor the charge the second port could get due to the power socket not using any usb current unless docked.

 

[jnjroach]

How much on an ipact does that have though? 5 minutes off battery life, 5 hours? I wouldn't be surprised if they only have one usb port because the inside is packed to maximum capacity.

It impacted enough that they omitted the second port....