Surface Pro 3 Wish List!

[skellington]

Haters gonna hate, but what do people want in the SP3!?

-- Fix all of the power and cover bugs!
-- 12" screen without making the form factor much bigger (by making the bezel much smaller and only increasing overall size a bit)
-- Make the covers slightly bigger to match bigger screen and give them a bigger trackpad (with a smooth material) now that there's more room
-- A place to store the pen (I love the pen but it's annoying to always have to manage where it is)
-- Magnetic holding of covers when they are closed (so they stay closed unless you give them a good tug)
-- Magnetic sensing of cover in closed position instead of the unreliable accelerometer
-- 4G LTE support
-- Lighter, longer battery life, faster CPU and GPU (these are obvious)

Even though I've been highly critical of MSs QA on the current SPs, I like the platform and have not given up on it yet.

--skell

 

[al2fast]

I like your ideas, here are wishes:

Full Size SD card reader
Better Cameras
Internal stylus storage (this is a wish list, right)
swappable battery and while you're at it give me access to the SSD!
Low power connected standby like the RT devices have
a better WiFi adapter or get the driver figured out for this one so my 130Mbs connection doesn't drop to 65Mbs when Bluetooth is on. Better yet, make sure it is 802.11ac. This is a flagship device for MS.

I think the hardware is pretty nice and I think it's a given that the CPU/RAM/SSD/Screen will be up to the current latest and greatest come next release.

I shouldn't have had to go through 3 SP2 to get one with a good kickstand, I agree they need to step up the QA.

My other beefs are not with the surface, but with Windows 8 and my biggest one is the micro SD card being mounted causing the processor to run at like 30%, but that's documented.

 

[eee]

SD card reader
Connected standby like ARM and Atom devices have
Make display larger by reducing the size of the bezel while keeping the outer dimensions the same
20mp camera on the back - for scanning and for communicating by taking photos for work and using them for design, annotate them, 3d scan etc
Better WiFi with lower power draw

 

[GoodBytes]

Here is the problem with making the display larger.... the pen will be even worse on corners. The digitizer already extends outside of the screen. It stops around where the camera is. So either youl make the display larger and lose the camera, or stay the way it is, At least until wacom can improve further it's technology. OR you have Microsoft switch to N-Trig, but then everyone will complain how sucky it is, because you can't write small and you can't do a smooth circle either due lag. It will look like a decagone or something.

If you want a place to store the pen, either the device will have to be thicker, or the pen thinner, which both will have people complaining. So no. While not great, Microsoft currently solution is the best. However, they could have implemented a pen holder on the keyboard.

As for GPUs, sadly Nvidia and AMD don't seam interested. Well, to be fair, AMD low powered GPUs are for their APUs only... they don't have them seperated. They want to push their CPU+GPU combo chip. And that means sucky CPU perofrmance, but good GPU performance. I don't think many people here would appreciate that. And Nvidia, well their low end GPUs (the ones that don't consume much power) are old Fermi architecture (GeForce 400 series) renamed again and again ad again to please OEMs to keep selling these old chips in newer systems, acting like it's any better. And their better, actual GPUs that you wnat to consider, are not very power efficient and are put in portable gaming systems and portable workstations. Its sad.
They do have a kick-ass new Tegra processor, called the Tegra K1, it features a full GeForce 600 series GPU (Kepler). No limited GPU like before, or by other manufactures. This is the real deal with full DirectX and OpenGL support, and provides remarkable performance compares to the rest of other tablet GPUs, and better than Intel best offerings, all by being fanless. Rumor suggest that it will be on the Surface 3. Sadly, Nvidia isn't pulling out the GPU to make some osrt of ultra low voltage GPU. Like AMD, they only want it (or as it seams) to be with the Tegra CPU chip. Shame.

 

[Philtastic]

I have two wishes other than typical next-gen improvements (better CPU/GPU). The first is for a chasis that doesn't scratch as easily as this Mg alloy thing does. Basically, anything scratches it. I might slide it a tiny bit on a table and I got a scratch on it. The second wish would be for them to focus on making the Pro lighter by 0.5-1 lb since it is still a bit cumbersome to hold up. This would be make it even more of a portable device which is the whole point.

I like the internal stylus holder idea above as well. I've almost lost my stylus twice on the subway because my coat caught on it and pulled it off.

 

[kc912]

Better pen storage, Sim reader (4g etc), more RAM (considering the price of RAM and the price of a surface Pro 4GB of RAM is poor), like others have said, a better camera. Other than the obvious stability/update issues nothing else really, this device really is awesome.

 

[kristalsoldier]

If I were to buy a Surface Pro 3 (and I may just consider it if a few things that I am looking for on the Surface 2/3 does not happen), my main priorities would be (1) thinner profile (2) lighter weight (3) longer battery life (min. 8 hours of active web browsing since it appears that browsing kills the battery on the Surface 2 a lot quicker than most things).

I won't mention robust updates because I expect MS to deliver that by default - though, as we all know, MS has been slacking on this.

 

[GoodBytes]

Better pen storage, Sim reader (4g etc), more RAM (considering the price of RAM and the price of a surface Pro 4GB of RAM is poor), like others have said, a better camera. Other than the obvious stability/update issues nothing else really, this device really is awesome.

Actually RAM is not that cheap. They use the fastest RAM the CPU support 1600MHz, and not the usual 1333MHz or 1066MHz that other manufactures put normally, and it also ultra low power DDR3, which cost more as the chips needs to be of the highest quality to operate under low voltage with solid stability (LPDDRR3).

 

[mtalinm]

Kill the fans, they are not needed.

That will help make it thinner / lighter

 

[jnjroach]

Kill the fans, they are not needed.

That will help make it thinner / lighter

The would either need to throttle the CPU or move to the "Y" CPU instead of the more powerful CPU they are using now which is part of the appeal of the Surface Pro 2 over the Tap 11, Venue Pro 11, etc.

 

[GoodBytes]

Actually the fan is needed. fanless design, means be prepared that the device get really warm, and throttles. Then you'll complain about that.
1 fan solution could be made. That will reduce weight, and prevent the above, especially with Intel next gen CPU. However, I would prefer a dedicated GPU from AMD or Nvidia and keep the 2 fans. This would mean:
-> No more software compatibility list. Anything you run will run above and beyond (no error messages, or not working features)
-> No more game or program crash due to lack of support of certain DirectX or OpenGL API's
-> Improved multiple display support. Plug and it works, perfect, all the time. It knows that you want to extend your display.
-> Allow to reduce the screen refresh rate to boost battery life
-> No color banding (increase colors), because it doesn't use Intel stupid battery saving technology that does this.
-> Higher efficiency per performance.
-> More performance than Intel.
-> Easy driver upgrade. No specialty drivers.

So why not? It's a worthy upgrade.

 

[godson594]

I would like:
12-13 inch screen
Wacom with a higher level of pressure sensitivity + a silo to hold it
A keyboard that the screen snaps into that has a hinge so you can do ANY angle - Trackpad like a macbook
Longer cord on the charger + 2 USB charging ports
Better cameras
AC Wifi
Faster cpu+gpu is a no brainer -
Docking station with multiple display port out, hdmi IN, giga ethernet and a ton of USB 3.0 ports - HDMI in = use surface screen as monitor for another device if need be
A better Surface branded mouse - one that actually has back / forward buttons
Carrying cases made for our device by Microsoft
Some real quality control would be appreciated, drivers should work flawless out of the box and not require users to (tweak) things
Covered MicroSD port to avoid losing the microsd card