Microsoft Surface Pro 3

“The tablet that can replace your laptop? Yes, perhaps, but it’s probably more accurate to refer to the Surface Pro 3 as the tablet that can replace your tablet. Under the right circumstances, this thing could be a tablet slayer. It occupies a strange middle ground between tablet and notebook—one which is sought by artists, sales professionals, educators, and anyone who cares to compromise a bit of each column in exchange for a highly portable and wholly unique hybrid that is as attractive as it is amazing. But for everyone else, we don’t think the laptop is finished quite yet.”

“As a laptop, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 works well, with a sturdier keyboard cover, but it's still not as comfortable to use in your lap as a traditional clamshell laptop, and you still have to purchase the keyboard cover separately, adding to the overall price of the system. Photos and videos look great on the high-resolution screen, but the tablet is simply too heavy and bulky to carry around single-handed for long periods. It'll work great if you always have a desk or a tablet in front of you. The fact that the Core-i5 Surface Pro 2 returned almost the same performance on our benchmark tests and is less expensive is a major mark against the Surface Pro 3. You could buy a premium ultraportable, like the 11-inch Apple MacBook Air, and still have enough left over for an Apple iPad mini for the same amount of money as the Surface Pro 3 we tested.”

“The Surface Pro line has always struck me as offering good solutions to the wrong problem. This is Microsoft's third attempt to optimize this design for laptop-style usage. It's still not good enough. And what's so frustrating is that we've seen form factors that can pull this off: the clamshell keyboard attachments as used by the Lenovo Helix, and countless HP models such as the Spectre x2, Split x2, and Pavillion x2. They do it. They work, and they give that all important lapability.I would love to see a Surface that uses the design of these competitors, but Microsoft apparently won't give me one. Microsoft calls the Surface Pro 3 the tablet that can replace your laptop. Until the company ships a clamshell keyboard, that's just not the case.As a result, I'm disappointed every time I use it. Microsoft is promising the thing I want, and it has shown it has the engineering prowess to deliver what I want. It's just not actually doing so.”

“So is the Surface Pro 3 the laptop killer it claims to be? It's not out and out murder, not even manslaughter really, more a viable laptop alternative with full Windows 8.1 that will suit a certain audience.Just like its earlier Surface predecessors, the Pro 3 still sits on the fence with what exactly it's trying to be - and it doesn't succeed in delivering the best of a tablet device given its 12-inch scale. It's also expensive, there's no MS Office included in the price and the screen has an annoyingly reflective coating.But despite finding this physical size perplexing at first, a week of use in the laptop form (and with the optional keyboard attached, of course) has come to make sense. Often great sense thanks to the significant screen resolution and multi window multi-tasking, variable position stand, touchscreen controls and included stylus. It's clear the Pro 3 is the most accomplished Surface yet, but it still won't tick all boxes for all users.”