Walked Into MS Wanting to Love the Surface Pro 3, but Didn't, What Am I Missing?

[bluegrass]

I really want to know because I really want to like the surface because I really want to show some powerview awesomeness to my clients on a tablet and then fly home playing some game on a xbox controller.

1. So I'm not clear. Have you bought a Surface 3 yet? If you did, some of your disappointments will fade after you've played with it for awhile and fall in love with all the positive points the Surface has going for it and Metro Office is released.
2. You might get some funny stares if you break out an Xbox controller on the plane.

 

[Capt Crunch]

1. So I'm not clear. Have you bought a Surface 3 yet? If you did, some of your disappointments will fade after you've played with it for awhile and fall in love with all the positive points the Surface has going for it and Metro Office is released.
2. You might get some funny stares if you break out an Xbox controller on the plane.

Just bought it yesterday. The 30 day return policy made it easy. I'll take it with me on the next couple business trips and see how it works out.

I'm pretty sure any funny stares will be quickly followed by blind envy.

 

[fonzman78]

I'm pretty sure any funny stares will be quickly followed by blind envy.

Yes, that's the beauty of the Surface devices. You don't need to talk folks into it. Just sit next to someone on a plane or open one in a meeting, start using the features, and the questions will come naturally. You don't have to say anything to them as they will start talking to you. The envy begins right away.

 

[Capt Crunch]

Bad news guys, I returned it.

I'm just not quite in the niche that the surface was designed for. I have a laptop workstation that I use to crunch big data. I bought the surface because, after moving into a more managerial role, I thought I could use something lighter and fulfill my tablet desires.

First the good. I love the metro interface. In my mind, no other OS comes close, especially the live tile menu and the multitasking. I found the gestures to be completely intuitive and extremely useful. I also loved the hardware. The fully adjustable kickstand was fantastic and I loved opening it all the way and typing on the on-screen keyboard. I never broke out the type cover unless I was doing Real Work.

The bad:

1. The office products weren't in the metro interface. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but the office products on my wife's iPad are amazing, and significantly better than their desktop counterparts for a tablet.
2. As a corollary to the above, the fact that metro OneNote != OneNote 2013 is very annoying. Sharepoint is already somewhat finicky, and relying on a cloud service to sync the two application on the same device bordered on stupid, especially when I got on the plane and tried to consolidate some handwritten notes.
3. The surface was slightly unreliable. The wifi driver decided to disappear, making me lose all wifi ability. A restore brought it back, but nothing ever worked the same... office kept asking for credentials, OneDrive Business stopped syncing reliably, and the live tile for my pictures app stopped working (which flipped through pictures of my newborn, a major reason I liked the tiles!). Microsoft actually gave me a new unit because I was about to hop on a plane and wanted a reliable device, but the new unit stopped displaying the on-screen keyboard after attaching the type cover and the detaching it, rendering the tablet close to useless until a restart.
4. It chugged on my data models. I was hoping it wouldn't be that bad, but it was. My fault really for building it on 3 years of invoice data.
5. The app ecosystem, or lack thereof, got to me. I always kind of scoffed at people that whined that they couldn't get the social app du-jour on windows, but it was annoying to have no LinkedIn app, Spotify, and others. Plex for Windows 8.1 is better than any other device, however.

As I said earlier, ultimately, I'm not the customer Microsoft was catering to. I kept on wanting to stay out of the desktop mode, but the ability to do both is literally the point of the surface. I ended up doing all my real work on my workstation, and then got grumpy when the surface didn't behave like the tablet I actually wanted.

My heart wants to have a single device for content creation and content consumption. Empirically, however, I use two devices even when given the option. Apple has stated explicitly that that is their model, laptops for a full OS experience, and a tablet for a tablet experience. I don't like the idea but it works. I don't think I'll get another apple laptop as long as there is a surface, however. I'm typing this on my macbook air and wish I was back on the surface.

At the end of the day I think I'm going to keep using my workstation (out of necessity) and replace the macbook air with an iPad. That said, the firesale Surface 2's are tempting...

 

[megatronium]

Good luck Capt Crunch!

 

[olimjj]

Bad news guys, I returned it.

You never did mention what SP3 model you purchased?

The SP3 was not intended to replace a Laptop Workstation.

The Metro version of OneNote was meant for those who did not purchase Microsoft Office (which includes the desktop version of Note); and for those wishing to stay in the Metro environment. They of course must be synced if you use both.

Since you mentioned OneNote 2013, I assume you purchased a Microsoft Office 2013. I am curious to know in what capacity other than UI, you found Microsoft Office for Apple was superior to Microsoft Office 2013 (desktop version only at the present time)

You only had the unit for 12 days before you decided to return it even though you had a full 30 days to fully evaluate it. Perhaps you could have used the extra time here at the forum for some suggestions/solutions to the problems you were having.

 

[malberttoo]

Bad news guys, I returned it.

I'm just not quite in the niche that the surface was designed for. I have a laptop workstation that I use to crunch big data. I bought the surface because, after moving into a more managerial role, I thought I could use something lighter and fulfill my tablet desires.

First the good. I love the metro interface. In my mind, no other OS comes close, especially the live tile menu and the multitasking. I found the gestures to be completely intuitive and extremely useful. I also loved the hardware. The fully adjustable kickstand was fantastic and I loved opening it all the way and typing on the on-screen keyboard. I never broke out the type cover unless I was doing Real Work.

The bad:

1. The office products weren't in the metro interface. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but the office products on my wife's iPad are amazing, and significantly better than their desktop counterparts for a tablet.
2. As a corollary to the above, the fact that metro OneNote != OneNote 2013 is very annoying. Sharepoint is already somewhat finicky, and relying on a cloud service to sync the two application on the same device bordered on stupid, especially when I got on the plane and tried to consolidate some handwritten notes.
3. The surface was slightly unreliable. The wifi driver decided to disappear, making me lose all wifi ability. A restore brought it back, but nothing ever worked the same... office kept asking for credentials, OneDrive Business stopped syncing reliably, and the live tile for my pictures app stopped working (which flipped through pictures of my newborn, a major reason I liked the tiles!). Microsoft actually gave me a new unit because I was about to hop on a plane and wanted a reliable device, but the new unit stopped displaying the on-screen keyboard after attaching the type cover and the detaching it, rendering the tablet close to useless until a restart.
4. It chugged on my data models. I was hoping it wouldn't be that bad, but it was. My fault really for building it on 3 years of invoice data.
5. The app ecosystem, or lack thereof, got to me. I always kind of scoffed at people that whined that they couldn't get the social app du-jour on windows, but it was annoying to have no LinkedIn app, Spotify, and others. Plex for Windows 8.1 is better than any other device, however.

As I said earlier, ultimately, I'm not the customer Microsoft was catering to. I kept on wanting to stay out of the desktop mode, but the ability to do both is literally the point of the surface. I ended up doing all my real work on my workstation, and then got grumpy when the surface didn't behave like the tablet I actually wanted.

My heart wants to have a single device for content creation and content consumption. Empirically, however, I use two devices even when given the option. Apple has stated explicitly that that is their model, laptops for a full OS experience, and a tablet for a tablet experience. I don't like the idea but it works. I don't think I'll get another apple laptop as long as there is a surface, however. I'm typing this on my macbook air and wish I was back on the surface.

At the end of the day I think I'm going to keep using my workstation (out of necessity) and replace the macbook air with an iPad. That said, the firesale Surface 2's are tempting...

Good write-up. Sounds like you knew very well what your needs were, and were realistic about things. I appreciate that your thoughts and criticisms were balanced and neither fanboy-ish or troll-ish.

Hopefully we'll see you again for the SP4 or SP5!!

 

[kristalsoldier]

Good write-up. Sounds like you knew very well what your needs were, and were realistic about things. I appreciate that your thoughts and criticisms were balanced and neither fanboy-ish or troll-ish.

Hopefully we'll see you again for the SP4 or SP5!!

Well...yes, except for the observations about the lack of an MUI version of Office.

 

[malberttoo]

Well...yes, except for the observations about the lack of an MUI version of Office.

Oh snap, touché!

 

[mohcho]

Interesting thread. Welcome to the forum Capt Crunch, and hope that you still lurk around.

The Surface Pro line is a hybrid device that allows you to work in both environments, but I find that I end up working in the desktop mode 95% of the time because that is how I need to work. The other 5% of the time is in tablet mode, but that is mostly for consuming information or playing the occasional game.

 

[GreyFox7]

Well...yes, except for the observations about the lack of an MUI version of Office.

Which will be here by then.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Which will be here by then.

Correct! I am looking forward to it. But I do hope they don't skimp on the features.