Anyone feel like tablets are overrated?

[Zstream]

Surface Pro 3 folks, SP3... just repeat slooowwwly... sp3

 

[Midwayman]

Surface Pro 3 folks, SP3... just repeat slooowwwly... sp3

Its nice, but the battery life is meh, and its like twice as much as even the high end tablets.

 

[Zaap]

Surface Pro 3 folks, SP3... just repeat slooowwwly... sp3

What do you use yours for? How you liking it?

For me, them dropping the wacom hardware vs ntrig is still keeping me away. I just don't find the line variance as responsive as it should be for the cost. Instead of the killer digital artists' tool of all time, it figures MS left it juuuuuuust short. Maybe they'll get it right with the SP4?

 

[Zstream]

What do you use yours for? How you liking it?

For me, them dropping the wacom hardware vs ntrig is still keeping me away. I just don't find the line variance as responsive as it should be for the cost. Instead of the killer digital artists' tool of all time, it figures MS left it juuuuuuust short. Maybe they'll get it right with the SP4?

It's pretty good. I never used windows 8.1 outside of a best-buy demo unit, but I'm getting the hang of it now. It's actually quite refreshing to have split screen capability.

The battery life is ok but I found that the display brightness and the keyboard tend to cause a rapid decrease.

 

[Commodus]

The Surface Pro 3 is a nice machine, but the problem is that it most appeals to a very specific audience: people who want the features of both a laptop and a tablet, and insist on consolidating on one device. That's not exactly a very large group. Lots of people are happy with either just a laptop or a tablet, or have both and don't see a reason to replace them.

For now, I think it's more likely that people who want beefy hardware will still get a laptop, and some of those that don't will get tablets. I actually think it may get harder for the Surface line, since Intel's Core M could allow for some supremely thin and light laptops. Unless there's a Core M-based Surface 3 that manages to be both super-portable and relatively cheap.

 

[sweenish]

And college students. And professionals. The Surface Pro 3 is a fantastic tool.

Not a small demographic.

 

[gmaster456]

I hope next year when MS releases the SP4, they also ditch ARM and Windows RT in the regular surface line and replace it with an X86 CPU like a Bay Trail or hopefully Cherry Trail CPU. It would make a lot more sense and cater to a larger audience.

 

[gmaster456]

And college students. And professionals. The Surface Pro 3 is a fantastic tool.

Not a small demographic.

I do see an increasing number of college aged people using the Surface when I'm out and about. And I've seen everything from the first gen surface, the surface 2 and the SP3.

 

[jacktesterson]

Beatles were overrated

 

[DistantShadow]

I found a table, (cant remember the name of it) while on black friday for only $29.00! i believe it was a 7.5 inch screen!

 

[jacktesterson]

I found a table, (cant remember the name of it) while on black friday for only $29.00! i believe it was a 7.5 inch screen!

Cool Story!

 

[Commodus]

And college students. And professionals. The Surface Pro 3 is a fantastic tool.

Not a small demographic.

Er, not quite. This is one of the problems that Microsoft and some diehard Surface fans have had -- this tendency to believe that high-end hybrid tablets have a broad appeal, and that you'd change your tune if you would only spend a few minutes sketching something in OneNote, or going from Office on the desk to Netflix on the couch.

The boring truth: most people aren't in fields where a pen would help, or where the ability to use their laptop like a tablet (or vice versa) would be an obvious advantage. Why spend $1,130 on a reasonably specced-out Surface (Core i5 model + Type Cover) when you can get a laptop that's better for typing and typically more powerful, often for significantly less? The Surface Pro 3 is cool and well-made, but it's hard to pitch that to a college student who just wants to type up term papers, or professionals who spend most of their day in Outlook and PowerPoint.

I'd say that a Core M-based Surface 3 would be more appealing, if the cost was relatively low (say, $500-600 to start). You'd get the majority of the experience without uneasy comparisons to higher-end laptops.

 

[Zaap]

The Surface Pro 3 is cool and well-made, but it's hard to pitch that to a college student who just wants to type up term papers, or professionals who spend most of their day in Outlook and PowerPoint.

True, but I'm sure he's talking more about the student who's doing CAD, 3D modeling, engineering, graphics, scientific work, etc. or the professional spending most of their day drafting/drawing/modeling, etc. While of course that's not the widest demographic in the world, it's a fair number of people to cater to.

My personal problem with MS and the Surface is they want the holy grail of a tool a professional/student will love enough to shell out for, while at the same time dumbing it down enough to have broad appeal among general mom/pop/digital-navel-lint-gazers, etc.

The end result, unfortunately is IMO not entirely satisfactory for either group; too cheapened/dumbed down to the be a perfect tool for professionals, and still too expensive for people that just want to look at kitten photos on the Internet and send an email or two. (Hint to MS: *no one* buys a $3500 Wacom Cintiq for example to do the later.)

I'm hoping that MS wises up and makes a 4th iteration that's one or the other. Trying to do both doesn't really work, IMO.

 

[Naer]

A replacement for the bricked free verizon tablet i got for my family switching to fios just came in the mail. Its a vk810 4g. I think i found my dream tablet. Its better than the ipad mini, ipad air, regular ipad and the original lg that i bricked. I might just use this for life. I take back that tablets are overrated

 

[tsupersonic]

Tablets imo are ideal for media consumption. By media, I strictly mean videos, music, viewing photos, reading magazines, but not ebooks. eBooks are best suited to dedicated readers with e-Ink displays.

Tablets are not a productivity device, in my eye - at least without a keyboard. The Surface Pro is meh. I have one, and it absolutely fails as a tablet. I expect tablets to have a certain profile (think iPad Air esque), which the SP lineup can't meet. The Surface Pro tries to be the best of both worlds (jack of all trades), but it just fails. I would rather have two separate devices - one that was meant to be a tablet, and one that was meant to be a laptop.

The absolute best feature of the Surface Pro (especially 1 and 2) is the Wacom pen input. It is absolutely mega for taking notes or jotting stuff down. I wish tablets would come with this sort of technology - it makes them more usable in the productivity department.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I've got both of those but still use my tablets (Nexus 7 and iPad 4) far more than the laptop. Even debating an iPad Air 2 but I'll probably hold out longer.

My primary hobbies involve productivity, hence why a tablet would be wasted on me. Hell, a desktop/workstation is top on the list of tech gadgets to get (for myself).

 

[zerogear]

What do you use yours for? How you liking it?

For me, them dropping the wacom hardware vs ntrig is still keeping me away. I just don't find the line variance as responsive as it should be for the cost. Instead of the killer digital artists' tool of all time, it figures MS left it juuuuuuust short. Maybe they'll get it right with the SP4?

I have both SP2 and SP3 -- to be honest nTrig is a lot accurate than Wacom towards the edges -- pressure-wise, I personally don't see much of a difference. Wacom, to this day, still has inaccurate edge (probably because they're using cheaper versions of their sensor on the tablets to keep their Cintiq viable?). I don't like the tip on the nTrig, but it's definitely not inferior, especially now that there is a lot more support for nTrig than it used to

 

[GTRagnarok]

I cant read for extended periods of time on anything smaller than a 7 inch screen.
Sometime tells me your arent doing the same on a 5 inch screen either.

You would have thought I was crazy for reading eBooks on my iPhone 4... >_> Read all of Harry Potter and more.

 

[midwestfisherman]

Personally I hate surfing the web, checking email, etc on my phone. I'd much rather use my iPad Air 2. I only go to my phone when I have no other option.

 

[soccerballtux]

5.2" is where I feel like I don't need a tablet. Unfortunately my display is 4.95" (N5)...
yes, the extra 0.2" makes a big difference. IMO.

 

[sweenish]

Er, not quite. This is one of the problems that Microsoft and some diehard Surface fans have had -- this tendency to believe that high-end hybrid tablets have a broad appeal, and that you'd change your tune if you would only spend a few minutes sketching something in OneNote, or going from Office on the desk to Netflix on the couch.

The boring truth: most people aren't in fields where a pen would help, or where the ability to use their laptop like a tablet (or vice versa) would be an obvious advantage. Why spend $1,130 on a reasonably specced-out Surface (Core i5 model + Type Cover) when you can get a laptop that's better for typing and typically more powerful, often for significantly less? The Surface Pro 3 is cool and well-made, but it's hard to pitch that to a college student who just wants to type up term papers, or professionals who spend most of their day in Outlook and PowerPoint.

I'd say that a Core M-based Surface 3 would be more appealing, if the cost was relatively low (say, $500-600 to start). You'd get the majority of the experience without uneasy comparisons to higher-end laptops.

You could tell your speculations to all the college students I see on campus with Surface Pros. I saw far more SP2's than 3's to be sure, but to say that the device isn't popular among college students probably proves less and less true every year.

You sorely underestimate how convenient being able to type AND write notes so that they're all together is. Or the fact that a college student would be more likely, not less, to buy an all inclusive device and pay a little more for it so as to not spend even more on multiple devices.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My primary hobbies involve productivity, hence why a tablet would be wasted on me. Hell, a desktop/workstation is top on the list of tech gadgets to get (for myself).

Oh yeah, if I'm doing anything productive, it is on my desktop and sometimes my laptop -- I really need multiple monitors for most of my work and since I typically have a VM for each client, accessing those via a tablet isn't effective.

But just for web surfing, media consumption, and texting/IMing -- my tablet is fine for that and even for some light reading. I have an ereader for heavy reading.

 

[Eug]

You could tell your speculations to all the college students I see on campus with Surface Pros. I saw far more SP2's than 3's to be sure, but to say that the device isn't popular among college students probably proves less and less true every year.

You sorely underestimate how convenient being able to type AND write notes so that they're all together is. Or the fact that a college student would be more likely, not less, to buy an all inclusive device and pay a little more for it so as to not spend even more on multiple devices.

Around here at the university, the most popular device seems to be the MacBook Air. Surface seems like a small minority.