Internaut

At least you were allowed to pick one up. The PC World website would only allow me mail order (and only the free, within 3 to 5 days option). Now waiting patiently. I have a Microsoft Wedge mouse, but I'm hoping the trackpad is decent enough.

S c 0 TT y

Those who've had theirs delivered, how are you finding it - especially interested in hearing from those who used iPads in the past. How does it compare in terms of software, build, UI and battery life.

Thanks

DYKWIA

Firstly, I'd class this more of a PC with a detachable keyboard rather than tablet. Windows 8 is not really what I'd call 'tablet friendly', although it's easy enough to point and swipe with a finger.

I've had mine for a few days, and I'm very happy with it. Apart from my ill advised upgrade to Windows 10, it's behaving itself very well. Be aware that installing Windows 10 wiped the recovery partition, so I had to download an image from Microsoft and burn it to a USB flash drive.

One thing to be aware of is that it switches off (hibernates) after a certain time in sleep mode. So, it's not 'instant-on'. This is again due to its origins as a PC rather than a tablet. The boot up time is around 30 seconds, so not a big deal.

I've not yet been on the road with it, so I can't comment on the battery life.

As I mentioned above, I'm not happy with the trackpad. It seems very loose, and makes 2 finger scrolling quite difficult. I'm going to go back to PC World and try and get a replacement.

Internaut

I'd have to agree with the comments about Windows 8. There's nothing about my Asus T100, when detached from its keyboard, that makes me want to put the iPad down and use the Asus instead.

Internaut

Well, here I am typing my first Flyertalk post from the Surface 3. First thoughts? They want how much for that keyboard? Seriously? Thanks to DYKWIA, I got mine for £20 and, quite frankly, that's pretty much what its worth. I will say one thing though. It is good for touch typing. It feels cheap and nasty; the track pad is awful, but it's good for touch typing. The only other difference? Bit on the big side for the laptop compartment of my Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 30 camera bag.

Internaut

Well, three days in and I have to re-evaluate what I wrote above, for one simple reason: I'm finding this keyboard absolutely superb for touch typing! And then there's the backlight.... I thought that only came with the pro model.

DYKWIA

Yeah, the keyboard is great. But the trackpad...

Internaut

I'm getting used to the trackpad. It's by no means perfect though. At work, I use a Logitech trackpad I bought. I'll give it a try with the Surface.

Stewie Mac

Really? Have you actually timed that, or does it just feel like quite a while? I'm using a Samsung ultrabook (ie a 'real' PC) with an SSD and that boots from cold/proper off in about 12 seconds - 30 seconds sounds like it's booting from a regular hard drive...

And sorry, re-reading that first line sounds a bit snide/sarky, which is not the intention - it's a genuine question. I love how fast the Samsung boots, and going to a 30 second boot time for me now would be impossible.

bullroot

I use a Surface Pro 3 and it boots from cold in about 15 seconds. Resumes from sleep in 2 seconds (just timed it). Weird if the Surface 3 is much slower there.

DYKWIA

I just timed it, and it was 31 seconds to the Windows screen.

The difference between the Surface and the Surface Pro/Samsung is that the Surface doesn't have a SSD. It has flash-type (eMMC) storage, which is a lot slower than a SSD.

Once it's booted, it seems fine.

Stewie Mac

hmmm - thanks for taking the time to come back with an actual time, and an explanation - I assumed that the Surface was also using an SSD.

S c 0 TT y

Just popping by to see how you's were getting on 2 months down the line with the Surface 3, now that you've had all that time to play about with it. Any experiences (pros, cons etc) would be helpful.

With Windows 10 launched, have any of you's upgraded to it and if so, whats it like speed wise on the SP3?

DYKWIA

It's been great for me. I've sort of got used to the poor track pad.

The Windows 10 upgrade went OK, but I've not really used it much since then (I'm on holiday for a few days). I'll try it out properly next week.

I've had a couple of issues :-

1. Occasionally, the keyboard connection just seems to die. Rebooting fixes it.
2. The machine has rebooted itself randomly 3 times since I've had it.

There was a firmware update last week, so hopefully this will have fixed the above.

S c 0 TT y

Just checking in to see how you guys were getting on almost a year in with the S3.