Surface Pro 3: Six Months Later

[hughlle]

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

That is nothing but your opinion is it not?

And read my post after that. Why not bridge the usb from the power port so that while not docked, you could use a second port at it's full potential. Or is that bridged with the existing usb port, meaning that if you dock the surfaces usb port becomes semi useless?

simply put, do you have any proof to back up your claim or are you just guessing. I prefer facts to guesses.

I'm more inclined to agree with moonsurfer on this, than that the draw form an extra usb controller would make the surface un-sellable.

 

[jnjroach]

That is nothing but your opinion is it not?

And read my post after that. Why not bridge the usb from the power port so that while not docked, you could use a second port at it's full potential. Or is that bridged with the existing usb port, meaning that if you dock the surfaces usb port becomes semi useless?

simply put, do you have any proof to back up your claim or are you just guessing. I prefer facts to guesses.

I'm more inclined to agree with moonsurfer on this, than that the draw form an extra usb controller would make the surface un-sellable.

No it is not my opinion, it is what was told to me by the Surface Product Engineers who designed and built the device.

 

[GreyFox7]

I reckon it'll be on the list for the future though.

Possibly on the next redesign in the Skylake build when power and size requirements of other components will drop and battery improvements will combine to enable an overall system upgrade. However with the proliferation of wireless devices the need for USB connections may decline. Although a battery powered port-a-dock might be useful.

 

[hughlle]

No it is not my opinion, it is what was told to me by the Surface Product Engineers who designed and built the device.

Interesting.

So my other question. Is the usb port bridged with the power ports usb, or is it a seperate controller?

although to be quite fair, i've heard a lot of rubbish from hardware engineers, and heck, even my panay tried to claim the surface was fanless :lol: And not to mention, blaming a products shortfallings on apparent hardware limitations, such as battery, is a very common practice.

Nah, i don't beleive that it was purely battery reasons.

 

[jnjroach]

Interesting.

So my other question. Is the usb port bridged with the power ports usb, or is it a seperate controller?

although to be quite fair, i've heard a lot of rubbish from hardware engineers, and heck, even my panay tried to claim the surface was fanless :lol: And not to mention, blaming a products shortfallings on apparent hardware limitations, such as battery, is a very common practice.

Nah, i don't beleive that it was purely battery reasons.

No one ever said that was the only reason, but it was one of the major reasons....

 

[hughlle]

No one ever said that was the only reason, but it was one of the major reasons....

Well you can have your opinion, i'll have mine. I don't for a second believe that an additional usb port would have had that much on an impact on battery.

 

[GreyFox7]

No one ever said that was the only reason, but it was one of the major reasons....

Something to keep in mind with respect to Connected Standby is everything added has to be considered in power management which adds more complexity. Its not just adding components but enabling their management in circuitry, drivers, and management software as well. Turning it on and off at the right times etc.

 

[Moonsurface]

It may well have been something that was fixable, but not within the timeframe needed to produce a device that could be fully tested, manufactured and then released to the public, such is life, it is pretty amazing that they changed so much else on the surface within the relatively short timeframe between SP2 and SP3.. must have been stress city in the product development team!!

 

[GreyFox7]

It may well have been something that was fixable, but not within the timeframe needed to produce a device that could be fully tested, manufactured and then released to the public, such is life, it is pretty amazing that they changed so much else on the surface within the relatively short timeframe between SP2 and SP3.. must have been stress city in the product development team!!

Id imagine they are well under way on the next version with Broadwell and working on a Skylake design as well.

 

[jnjroach]

During the Gen 2 launch Panos said they had the next 5 versions under development...

 

[Nuspieds]

Manufacturers' battery life claims are seldom based on real-world use cases; at the end of the day, battery life is dependent on how you use the device.

So even if you had zero USB ports, this does not immediately guarantee better battery life than a similar device with 1 or more USB ports. Again, it all depends on how you're using the device. Attach a USB hub with all sorts of data/CPU-intensive peripherals to your single-port device and what's that going do for you versus someone with the two-USB version of the same device and is using less-intensive peripherals on both ports?

I can't believe that the lack of a second USB port was driven even in part by the drain on battery life. I believe that it had to be mainly driven by engineering. But if for some reason just having a port--even if unused--eats away battery life, then I take back all that I stated above.

Having stated all that, though, I for one would jump for joy to have a second USB port; however, I do not understand what the big deal is for people to buy a hub. I have 10-port hub for home when I am "docked" and I have a 4-port mobile one that I use when I'm travelling.

The reason that a second port would be beneficial is that these days people own a non-Bluetooth device that needs to be permanently connected (keyboard, mouse, fingerprint reader, etc.) and said devices can also be in the same category as the Surface: Mobile. So for those of us who have such devices and are mobile with the Surface, yes, one USB port is restrictive but, again, I don't see the big deal in using a mobile hub.

Nevertheless, there definitely is value in having two ports. Beyond two, for sure get a hub; but in today's world, two should be the minimum for such a device as the Surface Pro.

For those who say Bluetooth, sorry, but it is never always the (best) answer. As an example, I tried/used several Bluetooth keyboards in my "docked" profile at home; eventually, I gave up and switched to a USB receiver-based keyboard. Though I am perfectly happy with my Type Cover while mobile, imagine if I were not and relied on a mobile USB receiver-based keyboard. Surely you can see how beneficial it is to have one port dedicated to our most important always-connected peripheral and then the second port would truly be used for the as-needed devices.

The Surface Pro 1 replaced my ThinkPad--not the SP2 or SP3, but the SP1. Now Microsoft is marketing the SP3 as "the tablet that can replace your laptop." So it should come as no surprise that owners want laptop functionality from their Surface Pro.

For me, though, the Surface Pro is still young and I am more than happy to make compromises in the meantime. It really is no big deal to use a hub; there are numerous varieties on the market from which you can choose that best suits your needs.

 

[Telstar1948]

I've had my i5/8/256 for some months now, and I only have two areas of concern, none of them having to do with the number of USB ports:

1) Scaling is a pain. I use my SP3 in portable mode as I am right now typing this at my kitchen counter, but I also use it docked at my desk with two external monitors and all sorts of other devices attached to it. This whole issue of scaling is my major dislike.

2) Smaller item but nonetheless a pain: the touch pad is hard to use for finer work. Just lifting your finger off the touch pad will, in most cases, cause the cursor/pointer to move sometimes completely off what you're trying to click on. I truly love the type cover and use it a great deal; but the touch pad is weak compared to the fruit brand touch pad.

We all have things we wish were better, for sure. Overall, I'm very, very happy with my SP3. It's just in my use case scenario that the two items above cause me to complain.