Surface Pro 3 Wish List!

[Korlon]

Hmm, my wish list...
1) change the power connection. I appreciate the way the magnet snaps the power connection in place, but the angle along the sides make it cumbersome when the surface is in my folio case.
2)100% agree that there needs to be stylus silo
3)onscreen keyboard needs an "alt" button
4) mini to VGA adapter should be included in the box
5) more battery life
6) stop nickel and dimming on cord length
7) more durable material on track pad
8) a real track pad on the keyboard cover

And, if MS does this next one I'll buy three surfaces....

9) an apple iPad in the box, just so I can toss it in the trash in front of all my "cool" iPad friends

 

[GoodBytes]

The on screen keyboard does have an Alt button
Do Win+I, and go under Change PC Settings, then go under PC and Devices -> Typing. Then you'll find the option: Add the standard keyboard layout as a touch keyboard option., Turn it On.
Now when you have the keyboard, click on teh option to change keyboard, and you'll see an added keyboard layout. Select it, and voila!

VGA is already discontinued. The adapter that you buy is actually a converter. It has a chip inside, that converts the digital signal to analogue... which then your monitor or projectors convert it back to digital (it's retarded that is why it's been dropped)

I agree with #9

 

[skellington]

Lots of good ideas. I agree with most of them. MS has a long history of finally getting products right on the third revision. Hopefully the SP3 will be all good and incorporate the popular ideas from this thread (not that they are listening to us but I'm sure they have had similar thoughts).

One of the more controversial ideas might be making it larger, but a 12" - 13" screen would be nice (with a high DPI). But then again, if you put together a lot of the wants in this thread, are we really just asking for a Yoga2Pro with a digitizer or even the thinkpad Yoga (which already has a digitizer)? Hmm....

Thoughts on other suggestions:

-- full size SD reader (sure why not, bigger capacity cards available then)
-- pen silo (a lot of people are on board with this, the SP is thick enough that it should fit with maybe a little bit of tweaking)
-- slimmer, lighter (would be great, but something's gotta give with all the features expected, maybe they can use more plastic or something to shave off some weight and maybe less scratch prone)
-- discrete GPU (personally I don't see this happening given the power cost of a dGPU and the rapidly improving intel GPUs. The Broadwell GPU should be quite good)
-- no fans (I can't see this happening either given that people like the high performance of the machine. Broadwell heat should be less though)
-- mini dp to hdmi/vga cables are way too expensive, $40!! for a cable that costs $8 from monoprice
-- another USB port would be nice

Here's to hoping SP3 gives us a bunch of the upgrades we're wanting.

 

[kevinlevrone]

I think the original poster has a great wish list. I'm not sure why no one does at least a laptop with very thin bezels. I can understand the tablet reasoning, but why not making a laptop with thin bezels ? I don't think it's the lack of technology, phones have thin bezels (look at the LG G2 for really thin).

I would add this:

- Option of keyboard with laptop-style hinge and extra USB ports, like the Dell Venue 11 Pro and Asus Transformers have. I suppose this can also be done for the current Surface models (without the USB ports).

- 11.6" screen models.

- Option of cheaper tablet without a digitizer and pen (there are so many industry areas that don't care about digitizers and pens - like software development and many others).

 

[CrippsCorner]

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.

Just typed this is in another thread as well but have you tried running the Surface on a 5GHz connection? The bluetooth slows down because it conflicts with the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection. When I changed to 5GHz all my problems went away

Even then my maximum is 14Mb/s so you should be bloody glad with what you've got!

 

[Chfin]

- Weight, 100g reduction is a good start.
- Increased battery life, by 1 hour.
- To be able to store the pen INSIDE the surface pro
- More adjustable angle for the kickstand (although the two angles is good improvement as it is)
- Release the power cover with backlight and with higher battery capacity at surface pro 3 product launch (and not months later, power cover 1 is still not released or any date has been set). Maybe with colors for power cover 2, just like what they did for type cover 2.
- Fix the power connector (sometimes it's tricky getting it in place)
- Better CPU/GPU processing power

 

[GoodBytes]

Here is an idea. A glass surface that reduces reflections drastically, all by being more starch resistant.
The Surface Pro 2 is sadly too reflective. Maybe I am used to non-glossy, but it would be nice.

 

[wditters]

These are the items I miss most on my SP2 8/512 that otherwise would make it the perfect corporate mobile warrior device for me.

- Fingerprint for easier logon
- Internal stylus silo
- Additional USB 3.0 port
- 3G/4G
- Smartcard slot

 

[Tekn0]

- 12.5" screen (high DPI)
- Replaceable battery
- Another USB 3 port

 

[stranger4all]

As far as my wish list goes

* faster processor
* 8GB RAM and 512GB drive in less price
* Smart and compact charging cable , as the current one is very difficult to fit into any sleeve/bag , don't get it why cant they make the charging plug smart so that its pins fold inside and the cable can easily fit in the bag. or let alone remove the cable completely and make the adapter directly pluggable like Apple have done.
* Cameras on the SP2 are a joke for a 1000USD plus machine, they should be upgraded to the Surface 2 cameras or even better.
* Increase one USB port.
* Make a similar pen holder on the top also like the one on the side so when the SP3 is charging one can put the pen there.
* the screen size is just perfect just wish the profile can be trimmed a bit more, make it more thinner exactly the size of the USB port
* scrolling works on web pages via the provided pen flicks
* Option of selecting the same color as that of the surface 2 silver.
* Pre loaded Office 2014
* type cover 3 should have a track pad like the keys so it is similar in use and have actual buttons on the touch pad like the typing keys.

Now this is my wish list which can be easily implemented. i would for sure be buying one if these are done.

 

[GoodBytes]

Now this is my wish list which can be easily implemented. i would for sure be buying one if these are done.

No not really.. I mean not all the points. You have some points that can't

As mentioned, if you look at teardown images of the Surface Pro 1 and 2, there is no room for an additional USB port., unless they change the kick-stand system. 512GB SSD's, the good ones that Microsoft uses, which is part of the key component that makes thing extra fast in this device, are expensive. Now for sure, price is dropping, so it will be a bit cheaper, the next Surface Pro (assuming they don't do anything that increases cost).

Pen holder, while there is no room inside, but I am going with that things can always be brought closer (increasing the cost of the device), to have space where you have nothing side (no battery, no circuit board, no ports connector in the way. The pen is too thick. Remember, it has a button. Unless you want to lose that button to make it fit. AND in addition, you want it thinner... that means that really, the pen wont' fit at all, unless you want a thin pen like the Nintendo DS ones, which I doubt you want.

As for the track pad. Well the reason why the current one doesn't have buttons, is that if you move your finger on the button area, notice how the mouse is being tracked. It was done to maximize surface area. So, to make what you want, they can either change to a 16:10 display, which would make the device taller, which would allow physical buttons, or use that extra space to make the touchpad bigger which is also needed.


One thing I am surprised no one wished for, but how about more durable keys that doesn't get wear out by the table surface when the device is moved arround, let alone the screen. My keyboard is not even a month old, and the corner of some keys ware out. I already replaceable it, thinking it was a manufacture error, but nope, apparently it's normal. Shame for 130$.

 

[mtalinm]

I've never heard mine come on, and I run the thing with two external monitors and do lots of heavy statistical processing. They came on all the time with my first-gen SP, but they seem unnecessary for this model.

I use my kid's Surface 2 (non-Pro) whenever he's not looking because it is so "light and fluffy" by comparison to the slab that is my SP2.

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.