WOW! It's available!

[jrioux]

The MS store is taking orders for the Surface 3 at:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/products/surface-3?ocid=themis_mscom

$499 for 2 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, and
$599 for 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage.

I can't find the type cover yet.

 

[GreyFox7]

The MS store is taking orders for the Surface 3 at:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/products/surface-3?ocid=themis_mscom

$499 for 2 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, and
$599 for 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage.

I can't find the type cover yet.

After you add one to your cart the covers, pens, and other stuff show on the next screen.

 

[jrioux]

Thanks, I just figured that out myself.

Now, I need to decide, should I buy a refurbished SP3 with i3, 4GB RAM & 64GB storage for $650 or a S3 with Atom, 4GB RAM & 128GB storage for $600. Decisions, decisions, decisions... Damn, I sure wish the non-Pro had the 12" screen.

 

[jcl1]

Thanks, I just figured that out myself.

Now, I need to decide, should I buy a refurbished SP3 with i3, 4GB RAM & 64GB storage for $650 or a S3 with Atom, 4GB RAM & 128GB storage for $600. Decisions, decisions, decisions... Damn, I sure wish the non-Pro had the 12" screen.

Yeah for the price it looks very appealing - except the screen size. I had the SP2 and it felt cramped vertically due to its size so I sold it. Even better is the fact that students can get the S3 for $450/64GB or $540/128GB.

 

[Antti]

This WILL replace our Vaio (wich has been a huge dissapointment) laptop at home. Sooner or later.

 

[jrioux]

I have an RT and love it. I just wish it had a bigger screen. The S3 has a 3:2 aspect ratio, so text will be larger than on the earlier versions.

 

[bluegrass]

Isn't this unit the same xy proportion as the SP3 only two inches smaller or is it the same proportions as the older Surfaces? Frankly I think a student would like the slightly smaller size for use in classrooms and they could have a nice big $120 22" monitor in their dorm room to use for homework & light gaming.

 

[GreyFox7]

Isn't this unit the same xy proportion as the SP3 only two inches smaller

Yep, but only 1.3" smaller

 

[kwright]

For me it confirms the near term availability of the Pro 4 with LTE capability. I haven't heard anything about this units ability to share a dock with the pro 3 or the keyboard.

 

[netuser]

I see that they are going to sell a version with Windows 8.1 Professional for business customers. It isn't listed on the Microsoft Store web site yet. http://blog.surface.com/2015/03/announcing-surface-3/

This means you will be able to join work domains and use Bitlocker with that version. I assume the Surface 3 has a TPM chip since most new tablets and even the $199 Asus X205TA have TPM chips now.

I would hope it will be much cheaper to buy the business version than to buy a $99 8.1 Core to 8.1 Professional Pro Pack upgrade and it would save the hassle of having to manually upgrade and then have to do t again any time you do a factory reset.
At $499 it's $300 less than a Surface Pro 3 i3, but the Pro has Windows 8.1 Pro included in its price, 4GB RAM and a bugger screen.
I will have to see one in person to see if the 10 inch size is big enough. Even if the smaller screen isn't an issue, the smaller keyboard that comes with it might be too cramped. In the past, I have found 11.6 to be the tiniest size laptops that have usable keyboards for me.

 

[shamil]

Let's see if this can do my basic work: IDE, mail, spartan, Hexchat.

 

[GreyFox7]

I see that they are going to sell a version with Windows 8.1 Professional for business customers. It isn't listed on the Microsoft Store web site yet. http://blog.surface.com/2015/03/announcing-surface-3/

This means you will be able to join work domains and use Bitlocker with that version. I assume the Surface 3 has a TPM chip since most new tablets and even the $199 Asus X205TA have TPM chips now.

I would hope it will be much cheaper to buy the business version than to buy a $99 8.1 Core to 8.1 Professional Pro Pack upgrade and it would save the hassle of having to manually upgrade and then have to do t again any time you do a factory reset.
At $499 it's $300 less than a Surface Pro 3 i3, but the Pro has Windows 8.1 Pro included in its price, 4GB RAM and a bugger screen.
I will have to see one in person to see if the 10 inch size is big enough. Even if the smaller screen isn't an issue, the smaller keyboard that comes with it might be too cramped. In the past, I have found 11.6 to be the tiniest size laptops that have usable keyboards for me.

The Keyboard on the Surface Pro 3 is actually the exact same size as the keyboard for the smaller 10.6 Surface Pro 2 or Surface 2, the TrackPad is however, larger on the Pro 3 Cover. There's just more space around the Keyboard on the Pro 3 cover.

The dimensions of the Surface 3 Type Cover are listed at 10.5 x 7.4 and the cavity of the Keyboard in the current Type covers is 10.25 x 4.2 so the same keyboard will fit although the edges would be reduced. I guess we will see if they continue to use the same keyboard or if they have to shave a millimeter or two off of it. Given that your already making a tablet with different dimensions Id think adding a millimeter to it would be a better choice than having to make a whole new keyboard just because it was a millimeter to narrow for the existing keyboard.

Bitlocker is on all the surfaces. Business customers with volume license will deploy the OS to these exactly the same way they do to their desktops and laptops. There's a deployment guide for building your own image to put into the recovery partition. You can download all the Firmware and drivers for building images and pushing updates yourself using your standard enterprise deployment/management tools.