Microsoft's Surface 3 is sweet – but I wouldn't tickle my nads with it

Re: An approach to doing business that..........

It's a pity KDEs' Plasma active seems to have fallen by the wayside, that did look good.

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

I have a surface 3 pro; and while I don't love it, it is a tool I use most days (I'm a dev by trade). I probably could have bought a surface 3 given my use-case.

1) It's lighter than my laptop (so going to visit customers is generally easier).

2) It is a duplicate of my laptop when it comes to source code / git / mercurial etc. My whole build environment is available.

3) It works adequately on my lap (in front of the TV style; if I need to do work, then yes, I'm the type that goes and sits at a desk). The type cover is pretty good to type on.

4) Wireless Display Adapter (though this isn't necessarily limited to having to use a Surface) for presentations...

5) The pen is excellent for taking notes, and (if you have trained it) then converting handwriting into text.

6) "Signing PDF NDA" without having to print the damn thing (yeah, this is a marginal use case).

7) While not exactly cheap; it's comparable to the price of a decent ultrabook (I spec'd out a 8gb/256SSD at the time)

The furore over the Win7 interface vs Windows 8 does bemuse me; The difference between the interface has never bothered me; I find the start menu navigate to "programs" the slowest way to start a program; I've used launchy since ~2011 so I just use that, I haven't touched a start button since then. Metro has it's uses as well; though I tend to end up on the desktop because cygwin / putty.

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

I must admit, though, it's a little precarious. And due to the requirement of the back support (this goes on your knee cap), you find the keyboard is up against your body, especially if you have short legs or a love for food. Very awkward to type like that.

And as soon as you need to adjust your posture a little - it's a struggle holding the tablet screen and adjusting the back support while getting my keyboard just right.. whoops, there goes my brew.. ah fuck it, I'm back in the same position.

With a laptop/ultrabook, you just pick it up with one hand and get into a comfy position, without even thinking... and you can balance it on one leg, the arm of any chair, or even hold it in your hand and still type.

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

"Oooh Sloblock" said Ben

"If you love me you'd ......... " said Bill (cleaning his Surface!)

Re: Why Why I always asked myself for Surface

Asuming one of the x86 Surfaces - he/she is using it wrong. The unit comes with a beautiful pen and very capabel handwriting recognition. Anything resonably doable on a train can easily be done using the x86 units without a keyboard.

When I go to have my eyes checked (getting a medication that blurs the vision for a while) I even use the voice synthesizer / voice recognition build into Windows to "read" emails over a BT headset.

I have the comparison between a Lenovo TPT10 and a Note 10.1. The poor lil Penguin fell on his back, made a strange sound and died in shame. Even with the same digitiser (both have a Wacom) the upper class Android can not compete with a Baytrail Atom. And the iPad won't do any better.

Even if I leave the pen out of the equation, something that no one who used it for a while will do, the system is a lot faster when handling stuff like complex PDFs, can easily handle multiple documents with fast switching and uses the same software as the main box.

The Pro series is another step upward and may or may not be what one needs. I do not use a private notebook (Company "notebook" is a Fujitsu T902, that does not count) but found that I use my tablet pc most often as a "electronic legal pad" (with OneNote etc). and for such uses a Surface/3 is "good enough" with the benefits of "less openings in the hull" and "USB charging"

Re: Connecting to wifi

Hmm, in the spirit of El Reg if I want a review then I would head over to something like TechRadar. I come to El Reg for the comedy and I fully expect the author to rip the piss out of whatever the subject of the article is.

Re: RT was essential.

@PleebSmash

Intel have indeed been very good at burning less power than AMD's efforts (and delivering more performance).

They've been rather less successful against ARM unless you believe Intels own propaganda and it's ARM they were fighting for Microsofts business.

Re: RT was essential.

So you pay less first but more later when you install stuff. And old software doesn't run.

Hasn't this always been the case?

Re: RT was essential.

One of the main benefits was all day battery life.

But people kept peddling the "it doesn't run x" line, so it never caught on. Anyone with the nous to actually try the thing found it wasn't an issue. But hey, everyone just believes what a few tech "journalists" say.

Re: RT was essential.

Oh c'mon man something with that much functionality and weighing so little is classed as heavy?

Really? I remember just a few years ago I had laptops with power supplies that weighed more than that.

It's like reviewers that say "The phone weighs in at a 'hefty' 160 grams!" Really? That hefty to you?

Sometimes devices have to have some mass or they bend or need charging every 11 hours. Either most tech reviewers are really weak or they must be no older than 16.

Re: £419 (64GB, 2GB RAM), £499 (128GB, 4GB RAM) RRP

oh, yes, I do remember that MS ad from 2 or 3 years back. Tablet for (family) table.

Re: £419 (64GB, 2GB RAM), £499 (128GB, 4GB RAM) RRP

"While a £600 phone (or worse, a smartwatch) is worth the price?"

Certainly not. In fact, I'd say 100 - 150 quid is tops I'd ever pay for a mobile.

Re: £419 (64GB, 2GB RAM), £499 (128GB, 4GB RAM) RRP

"While a £600 phone (or worse, a smartwatch) is worth the price?"

No sweetie.

Like many, you are unable to distinguish between worth and price.

Price is what the seller attaches to their goods. How much money they hope to get.

This has little or nothing to do with the cost to make the thing. And everything to do with the herds of fools who buy a thing based on brand status alone.

Value is what we, the buyers, attach to the goods. What we are willing to part with, to get the attributes promised.

If value is lower than price, a smart person rejects the goods.

If value is higher than price, the buyer accepts the goods.

An iPhone is not worth £600 to many many people, so they do not buy one.

An iWatch is not worth the £300+ it is being sold for, to many many many more. So they do not buy.

And a Surface 3 is not worth nearly £500 to a great many people, so they will laugh at the idea of spending that much on a crippled laptop,and an inadequate tablet. .

Worth is personal. It is the value we place on the stuff we acquire.

Paying £5 for a solder sucker is worth it if you have a few easy solder joints to remove now and then. And if it does the job.. great. Money well spent.

Paying £70 was worth it to me, to be able to remove more difficult parts safely and without damage. So I got a de-soldering gun. Now multi lead components just fall out. Stripped a whole board of LEDs from an old project in under 5 minutes on Saturday, without damaging the LEDs. Brilliant tool. WORTH every penny to me. Overkill to many, inadequate to many others.

Paying £300+ to do the same job, but faster is worth it to someone who is more time constrained, or not paying for their own tools. And that is fine too. But it is not worth that to me. Time is not important, and I am unlikely to be working on multi layer boards with big copper pours. So my cheap gun is fine.

All these tools do essentially the same thing. But to differing degrees, and with differing competence. Which is chosen depends on it's value to the buyer. Not a take it or leave it price.

Once you understand this concept, you will hopefully stop asking such damn fool questions.