I’m still lucky in that I frequent this board to learn and share information and I have some background knowledge of pcs and technology in general, but there is no way my wife or parents would be able to fix some of the issues I’ve encountered. (But then again, they might not have tinkered with it as much as I have
) I won’t say that’s who Apple products are for, but they are both content and
loyal Apple customers.
Totally agree, no matter how great the SP3 is (its super amazing for sure), its not really that easy to work with compared to Apple's 'just work' philosophy and products, although it involves 2 separate devices to do the same task.
I disagree, price not withstanding which I agree that it's over priced, the keyboard does make a great cover, so tell me how it fails as a cover? would love to hear it... several occasions the cover saved my screen, one time I dropped something on my SP3 and thank god for the cover it saved my screen from cracking! had I not have the keyboard/cover on the screen it would have surely cracked/broke.
Its too heavy as a cover, seriously. As a matter of fact, the total weight of the tablet+cover is almost identical between the SP3 and SP2 (only 60g difference). Basically, the Type Cover cancels all the much-needed diet that the SP3 did in the first place. And its not like we should detach the cover every now and then, as what Panos said in the original Surface announcement, the cover was meant to be attached to the device all the time, don't detach it very often.
Then there is the keyboard itself. Sure, it is a decent keyboard, but when we dont use it, it shouldve disappeared, yet it doesnt. When you have it folded to the back, you cant hold the device freely without hitting the keys. It just detracts the tablet experience that the SP3 had significantly improved in the first place. Especially in portrait mode, theres no way I could hold the SP3 without hitting the keys. It doesn't disappear when I have it as a base for the kickstand as well. Theres always things that you keep thinking when youre using it compared to a regular cover, things like "if its wet, will it break?" or "make sure theres no strings around, or it could rip a key off the keyboard". Those things stop it from being a good cover.
IMO, I would love to get a Touch Cover for the SP3, which is clearly a cover-first and keyboard-second. Maybe its not a particularly great keyboard, but at least it does its main function properly, as a cover.
tldr, if you use the cover, you lose lots of improvement that the SP3 brought over the SP2.