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Will the i3 be enough for Office and browsing?

True! Except that I can't seem to find any fault with the i5 that I am running - at least as of now. It is performing brilliantly. And, while I do take care of the device in the sense that I do not handle it in a rough manner, I do use it very hard for 10-12 hours a day!

+1. Almost exactly my usage case and feelings about the i5.
 
Honestly you will be fine with the I3 people over think. I used a T100 for that device is fairly quick for what it is. People want you to go I5 that because what most people have. Honestly for Office, Internet, Marking up some resumes,spotify and facebook. The I3 is plenty you will be happy.

Microsoft really needs change the naming. Give the Surface trim names like Cars.

Surface Pro I3 64gb
Surface Pro EX I5 128 gb 4gb EXT I5 256gb 8gb (With most of the sales around these two models)
Surface Pro SX I7 512Gb 8gb (throw in a typecover, special pen, dock or sleeve matching the extreme theme/ top of line model)
 
Yes, it will absolutely be sufficient for running office software and web browsing.

When I purchased my first work machine, just about 5 years ago, I ordered a Fujitsu because they were the only major vendor offering what was, at the time, the best mobile CPU on the market (best combination of power management and performance, IMO) -- the 2.8 GHz Intel P9700 Core2Duo. The i3 in the base model Surface tablet benchmarks about 10% higher than that chip.

For my money, the best value in the Surface Pro 3 lineup is the base i3 and a healthy-sized microSD card.

If money isn't much of an object, by all means jump up to the i5 with more storage.

If your computing needs really did require top performance, I'd probably suggest looking elsewhere, at something (1) with better heat management than an uber-thin tablet, (2) that you could bump up to 16GB+ RAM, and (3) with a user-accessible HDD, so you could install a high-performance SSD of your choice.
 
Just picked up the Surface Pro 3 i3. Need to charge it fully before updates will run (kind of weird since it is plugged in) so can't comment on updates. Anyway basic websurfing is great and faster (by far) than my Tab S.

No noticeable light bleed or dead pixels. Back is a little warm but not too bad.

Right now I basically bought this as a Tablet+ but will consider it as a laptop replacement if my Access Database forms fit ok. If I find the space or speed isn't enough i'll just exchange it.

Screen is beautiful. I'm a sucker for eye candy.

Anyone know how to turn the cursor off under the pen in OneNote? Hate that little star thing zipping around when I write.
 
So far even before running updates not having any WiFi throttling issues with Bluetooth active. Getting about 50mbps down with Bluetooth on or off.

That's good news. Was worried about that.
 
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Yes I know its embarrassing. If you debate yourself how do you know if you've won? :)

Because YOU get to make the decision :);)

Just picked up the Surface Pro 3 i3. Need to charge it fully before updates will run (kind of weird since it is plugged in) so can't comment on updates. Anyway basic websurfing is great and faster (by far) than my Tab S.

No noticeable light bleed or dead pixels. Back is a little warm but not too bad.

Right now I basically bought this as a Tablet+ but will consider it as a laptop replacement if my Access Database forms fit ok. If I find the space or speed isn't enough i'll just exchange it.

Screen is beautiful. I'm a sucker for eye candy.

Anyone know how to turn the cursor off under the pen in OneNote? Hate that little star thing zipping around when I write.
:)

Great. Good luck with your experiences moving on.
 
Super nice so far. Once it lets me do these updates I'll see of my Office apps work well. This should be great for marking up resumes with the pen.

Back on bottom right is getting pretty warm and fan is blowing. Maybe doing some updates or indexing in the background. No other reason for it to be getting hot. Just browsing.
 
The wifi issues that are present are when you are running on battery, not when plugged in. At least that's the issue I was having.

Glad you picked one up. It should be a great tool for you, like many others.
 
IIRC, mine ran a little warm after first powering on.

Also that was right after they were released, in June, so lots of firmware updates and fixes. My SP3 got kind of buggy. About 3 weeks later I did full reset/restore and it was a new machine, practically perfect now.
 
The wifi issues that are present are when you are running on battery, not when plugged in. At least that's the issue I was having.

Glad you picked one up. It should be a great tool for you, like many others.

Ok thanks will test that.

Not sure why fan is spinning hard. No updates running. Huh. Seems to be telling me I need a full charge before it will allow updates. Maybe a battery calibration thing?
 
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