Surface Pro 3 Wish List!

[joga]

My #1 request on the wishlist?

Have it in stock!

(Yes, after waiting more than 3 months that SP2 (256) will become available here in Europe and checking the stock in the online store a couple of times each day, I am already frustrated.)

Thats a good point. I'm trying to get the SP2 256GB in Germany, but it's out of stock everywhere. It's like MS don't want our Money.


What i wish:

- Make 8 GB available for all disk size, at least for the 128 GB
- thinner (max. 10 mm)
- lighter (200gr)
- improved battery by at least 50 %
- more scratch resistance
- use the case color of the Surface 2 (it looks awesome)
- 802.1 ac wifi

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8

 

[GoodBytes]

Thats a good point. I'm trying to get the SP2 256GB in Germany, but it's out of stock everywhere. It's like MS don't want our Money.

Did you try trowing money at our screen... a few credit cards might also help.
While I can't comment on Germany. The only way I was able to my Surface Pro 2, is just bookmark the Microsoft online store webpage on the Surface Pro 2 section. And just check it every day, like 5-8 times including week-end. It showed up, ordered it, and about 1h later, sold out.

 

[Guybrush]

I have been lucky, I found my sp2 256 easily in Italy

 

[chuzz]

Bigger Screen!
Bigger Screen!
Bigger Screen!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Choice of screen size!
Choice of screen size!
Choice of screen size!

Seriously though... it's all about choice at the end of the day, 2" bigger and it wouldn't fit in where I use my Surface, so if they do make it bigger, I hope they keep the old form factor as well. Same as the new iPhone's that will come out really. I much prefer a smaller phone so I hope they keep that option too!

 

[SteveMark]

Are there any drawbacks to having a 64 gb drive and addinga 64 gb micro SD instead of buying a 128 gb drive?

 

[GoodBytes]

Yes.
Your microSD card, even if you go pick the fastest available. Will run at snail paste compared to your SSD. So that storage will be slow. In addition, microSD card is unidirectional. You can read OR write. Not both at the same time. Making that if you use it something that is being read and you write at the same time, you slow the entire process, as now it tries to manage a bit of read and a bit of write, trying to share that.

In addition, while I can't confirm this as I don't have a microSD card, but they are reports that there is an issue with the Surface Pro 2, where the CPU goes to ~30% under load when a microSD card is inserted, reducing battery life.
It's best to keep it as insert in, do you file transfer, and pull it out.

In addition, you can't merge the space of microSD and the SSD as 1 drive. Well you CAN, via Storage Space (never tried to confirm), but you have the above issue.

 

[mennogreg]

Are there any drawbacks to having a 64 gb drive and addinga 64 gb micro SD instead of buying a 128 gb drive?

Depends, but not much. The SSD on the Surface will be much faster than a microSD card (for example, transferring a 50GB file onto the hard drive via USB 3.0 will be faster than transferring it onto the microSD), but if you purchase a high quality (fast read/write) microSD card, the difference will be minimal outside of scenarios like that above. Most people keep music/video/documents on there's, on mine I actually run (desktop) apps from it, and I've never experienced any measurable difference in performance. There are also 128GB microSD cards out there now.

You also have to factor that a 64GB SSD on the Surface Pro does have space allocated for the recovery partition and the OS; I don't have the 64GB version so I can't tell you for sure, but it's probably ~40GB available for actual use. The next Windows 8.1 update next month is supposed to reduce the amount of space the OS needs (but that only applies to new systems with the update), though I can't say whatever reduction it provides would be worth waiting two months for.

The short answer is it depends on what your needs are.

 

[wditters]

I already listed my wishes earlier, but I now must be frank. I love the Surface Pro 2, but based on my recent experiences I now have found THE absolute DEALBREAKER for any future Surface series (I hope Microsoft is reading this):

LOSE.THE.MARVELL.AVASTAR.WIFI.BLUETOOTH.CARD Microsoft! And like any other serious and committed vendor put in a separate Intel Wifi Link and Broadcomm Bluetooth card. \

The Marvell wifi performance when used on 2.4Ghz drops to almost zero when a Bluetooth device is connected. And what's worse, the Bluetooth card gets saturated when you combine BT mouse, keyboard and a headset for VOIP/Lync purposes. All the Thinkpad, Macbook ultrabooks etc that I have been using in the past had absolutely no issue with handling this simultaneously. But on the Surface Pro 2, this definitely kills my user experience, and Microsoft has been blatantly ignoring this issue ever since the SP1

So Microsoft, I hope you read this. Redesign this aspect or my next machine will definitely not be the new SP3 ....

 

[CrippsCorner]

Absolutely you're right and it's definitely the weakest aspect of the Surface I've found...

Luckily I've found a way round it by using 5GHz Wi-Fi, but I shouldn't of had to spend an additional £70 (on an AirPort Express) just to make my Surface run properly!

 

[SteveMark]

Thanks to GoodBytes and mennoreg for the detailed answers to my question. It seems it's probably safest to purchase a unit with 128 gb to start with, although I think I could always arrange it so that program files would be stored on the 64 gb hard drive and only docs and music would be on the microSD. My current computer has been in use for 4 years and my hard drive still only has 99 gb on it. Of course, i don't have videos or much music on it.

Another question: Does anyone have a good idea as to when the Pro 3 will be released?

 

[GoodBytes]

End of the year, it looks like. It would seam that Microsoft follows a yearly upgrade cycle like other manufactures. As the Pro 2 was released in October, expect around that time for the Pro 3.
Microsoft is keeping quiet on the SP3, so we know nothing about it.