Microsoft Surface 3 Review

Lisa Gade reviews the Microsoft Surface 3. This is Microsoft’s more affordable alternative to the Surface Pro line and it runs full Windows 8.1 64 bit on the new Intel Atom X7 Z8700 (Cherry Trail, 4 cores, 4 threads) 1.6 GHz CPU with Turbo Boost to 2.4 GHz. It’s available with 2 gigs of DDR3L RAM and 64 gigs of solid state storage for $499 and 4 gigs of RAM with 128 gigs of storage for $599. We look at the 4/128 model in this review. The tablet has a lovely 10.8”, 1920 x 1280 touch screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio like Pro 3, and it supports the same pen as the Pro, though you’ll have to buy it separately for $50. The Surface 3 Type Cover is also sold separately for $130. The 1.37 lb. all-metal tablet has a multi-position kickstand, dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, 1 USB 3.0 port, a mini DisplayPort, microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. It has stereo speakers with Dolby, a 3.5MP front camera and 8MP rear camera. ** Read our full written review here: www.mobiletechreview.com/noteb...

[@MrC0MPUT3R]

It's really refreshing to see a woman reviewing tech products. Always a joy to watch your videos :)

[@samerhalabi5242]

Lol I have been a subscriber for several years and that is because this is the BEST and most honest reviewer on youtube. Nothing to do with her gender.

[@ktrigg2]

MrC0MPUT3R Lol, beta.

[@MrCarpediem6]

She's been doing this for a while. She and Brigette Carey are the first I remember (though Brigitte, bless her(!) might be more of a talking head (mouth piece) where Lisa is the real Mccoy).. :)

[@TheRuiner781]

+MrC0MPUT3R Here we go. Male or Female, doesn't matter. Shes good at what she does

[@MrC0MPUT3R]

The SJW's have really messed things up bad haven't they... Did I say that women were better than men at reviewing products? Or the other way around? I meant it's nice to listen to a female voice review tech products as opposed to the countless male voices and shrill female voices already on youtube.

[@asdfxuiop]

One of the few tech reviewers who doesn't treat the stylus like a foreign object.

[@greggoldsack]

Lisa, Your revirews are fantastic. Don't know how it took so long to find you. subscribed.

[@iBOLDx]

Thanks pre-ordered one of these and this review is the best one I have seen. Thanks

[@Yipii123]

I was JUST wondering when you would upload the review to the Surface 3 and minutes later I see it in my subs! Awesome! Thank you!

[@amcintyrejr]

Preordered the 4gb and picked it up Monday from best buy. Previous owner of a surface pro 3 i7 256gb and a dell xps 9343 qhd. Out of all of them I like the surface 3 the best. The size and weight make it actually usable as a tablet while the keyboard makes it a great laptop albeit not the most powerful. I'm typing this on the onscreen keyboard which I could never do on the pro 3 and I have some big mitts. As a laptop I find it more than adequate for what I do... browsing Netflix, word editing and even some warcraft at low settings... butter smooth. I'm surprised at how well the atom performs. Playing 1080p video while typing in one note not a hiccup. What really impresses me is how much more light it is than the pro. I'd say it really is a tablet that can be a decent laptop. I manage 87wpm on this which is actually more than I could on the dell which really surprised me. I'm averaging 9+ hours battery life according to battery meter and I can tell that's on point. Don't let the atom fool you. Unless you're doing extremely heavy graphics editing or high end gaming give this baby a good look. I didn't get the pen since I don't do art but when school starts up ill be getting one. The kickstand is not as wide open as the pro but more than adequate for couch and lap use. I'm typing this while holding it up. Can't do that on a pro. Hope this helps someone make a choice !

[@Tfrank22]

Very helpful:)

[@CandysChannel]

You can play WoW on this? What about Smite??

[@amcintyrejr]

Candy's Channel never played smite. .. sorry

[@amcintyrejr]

***** Sorry... don't play minecraft

[@amcintyrejr]

***** funny, plenty of reviews say it will on low but acceptable settings...

[@gmichael77845]

Thank you for such a great informative video! You are and will always be my number one stop for any technological question. Your videos are always very informative and understandable for the average viewer.

[@QueenBa614]

I love your reviews! They are so detailed and helpful. Thanks

[@LUPENTV07]

gj lisa love your reviews (completely unbiased) you should get more views

[@parnicksmusick]

Just love your reviews Lisa! :)

[@jackslayer.]

I was waiting for yr review on this.. thanks Lisa

[@jeygopiarturo2556]

Thanks for eviewing all tthese products lisa, whenever I buy technology I always check your channel out :)

[@Cliff_Dixon_42]

Great review!! Ms. Gade, you don't disappoint!

[@kiranmudnaney]

Watching on my surface 3.. :) I love mine.. My dad has an ipad.. Will never trade my surface for an ipad after seeing the difference.. Forget split window n multi tasking crap.. In this u can open as many windows as u want at one time n keep stuff running in the bacground.. With windows 10 its the best tab out there thats actually more of a computer..

[@ESSAAAIIII]

so if I were to use this for basic web browsing, microsoft office, and playing some GameCube games off an emulator would I be well off using this device as my only main computer?

[@chrisberardi2304]

Nice review, just the info I was looking for. Already got mine on order. It seems like it will be most useful for both work and play - I love the pen integration and the fact that I can actually work in Excel. Finally, they have it at a price point that works for me.

[@EmboBembo7]

Great video. Will my type cover 2 work with the surface 3? I'm currently using the surface 2 but want to escape from RT now, and I really don't want to fork out for another keyboard when I don't see why the one I have now wouldn't work...

[@ForgingMastered]

Thanks a lot for the review. Do you happen to have any idea if this could run Autodesk Inventor, or would I be better off saving up for the Pro model, or a workstation?

[@davidreynoso56]

Awesome Review!! I am buying this tablet for schoolwork and web browsing I think this is the perfect model for me.

[@davidmerpz]

I really like your reviews Lisa

[@thekentfamily3664]

Hi Lisa, would you choose this over a macbook air 11 inch. Right now the macbook air 11 inch 2014 model is 670 dollars for officially refurbished models. After adding the touch keyboard and the pen the cost of the surface was a more expensive for the 4 gig model which is what I would get if I were to go with the surface. I am familiar with both operating systems. I just am curious what your thoughts are n what is the smarter buy.

[@Wildo682]

Looking for a budget-ish travel laptop/tablet, would you recommend this, the Yoga 3 11, Asus T300 Chi, or something else?

[@LumiRockets]

Lisa, I am looking to buy one of these to replace my first gen Acer Aspire Switch 10 and my Sony Vaio Duo 13 at the same time. The only sticking point for me is that charging time you described. Do you know if this might accept a beefier charger for faster speeds, or if a higher power charger would simply be wasted money?

[@adrianfuentes271]

i plan on buying this for drawing, and quick sketches, how good is the pen for this kind of stuff? also, do you think it can run the program blender without too much lag? thank you! ( I plan to buy the 4gb of RAM version)

[@Revillution]

Lisa, would you recommend this or the Macbook Air 2015 for the following: Webbrowsing light photoshop light gaming emails document creation/processing (word, excel, etc)

[@TheBairuike]

I'm thinking about replacing my mid 2012 macBook Air with the S3. Any opinions on that ? Also is the AtomX7 good enough for light Java and MatLab programming ? I have a Desktop with sufficient power for all heavy duty tasks. So how would it perform in comparison to the i5 mb Air ?

[@nancym8991]

Looking for something simple for our son to use for Scratch/Arduino programming. Will this be good for him?

[@romanarana]

Just two days ago I was wondering if you were going to make a review on it and you did I'm sorry happy you did you do such good reviews

[@1997Vien]

can i ask something, if you buy the pen where are going to place it?

[@shontrashi]

here is the thing, everybody is reviewing the 4/126 model not the 2/64 one. i would be interested to know more on the 64GB one.

[@bubblezed]

Hi, can I ask what comes in the box? Only the tablet and the charger? What are the things that you have to purchase separately? Thanks! :)

[@salvatoreg1320]

I torn between the surface 3 or the dell xps 13 witch one should I get and I'm gonnq be using it for school work and play some games on it! Pls answer!

[@rafama95]

Will this work well on livestreaming via IE and KZbin livestream? Currently on Lenovo Yoga tablet 2 Android and those are my main issues. Plus, Lenovo didn't send their BT keyboard for this device in my country.

[@havilahgrant9721]

Lisa, this may not be that much important, but have you tried the camera? any review on it?

[@lauraibarra4299]

Help please ! I got the surface 3 as a gift, I started it yesterday and then shut it down. how do I turn it back on ?

[@aandre311]

I love your tech reviews..!!!

[@irelandjam]

Can you use an external hard drive with the likes of these tablets?

[@kosztaz87]

How would this tablet handle Solidworks 2015 ? And Blender?

[@mrfluffyhedgehog]

would it be possible to compare the surface 2 and the surface 3? pretty please? all i can find are comparisons with surface 3 vs surface 3pro or some full blown laptop where the result in terms of computational power is a foregone conclusion ... i would really like to see how the arm based surface 2 stacks up against the atom based surface 3 in for excample 3dmark and the few tests that can be run cross platform.

[@heshamshehata2030]

Do you think this is reliable for students in terms of running office, reading papers, taking notes and for multitasking for these purposes. Could you take notes and read a paper side by side without lags?

[@paolopizzi5603]

I bought an Acer Switch 10 for my wife last December. I think I paid something like $250, so basically half of what this new MS tablet goes for. Sure, it's usable, but it's nowhere near as nice as the Surface 3. The screen resolution is only 1280x800 and the IQ is not even close to that of the S3. Also, the S3 uses a faster, last-generation Atom, which, to the best of my knowledge, no other manufacturers have adopted yet. If the S3 was available back then, I would have gladly spent the extra money (even if most likely my technophobic wife wouldn't be able to appreciate the better screen and the extra performance...) I use a Surface Pro 3 as my travel laptop/tablet and I love it. As usual, kudos to Lisa for the best tech reviews on YT. You go girl!

[@bobchen5662]

Thanks for the helpful review. I was wondering if I can consider Surface 3 as a legit upgrade from Asus X205TA. Now, I use my X205TA mostly for MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It gets work done, but it is quite slow, especially when I have Chrome running at the same time. I bought the device for the need to be able to do my work on the go. It's been almost a year now, and with the price, I am OK with it. However, I am willing to spend $499 on Surface 3, 4G model, if it is faster than X205TA. Any help is welcome. I'd be very appreciative. :)

[@killakode1]

how good is the camera compared to the surface pro 2? i have a surface pro 2 and i am a student who takes pictures and scan documents in class for later use

[@terrytigner9600]

I love this thing. Not as my only computer, but as a truly portable tablet that can double as a laptop while on the go. The inclusion of the pen is a huge benefit - for me really seals the deal. You can switch between meetings and interviews from laptop mode to notepad pen mode with OneNote or Windows Journal. The size and weight are perfect. Performance is good enough for this use. This is a real break through for a specific nitch. Love it!

[@simpl3lang]

is there color banding issue like the surface pro 3?

[@quickdraw7589]

can I play my gopro footage at 1080 and 60 fps on the surface 3

[@FullMetalAnus]

@10:16 my great grandmother has given me one of her paintings of the seven sisters at that exact spot! Those houses are the life guard cottages (I'm UK) :)))

[@Ooshy]

Could I plug this into a laptop and use it as a drawing tablet add on?

[@markdwk]

i'm fan of the surface line, but many times it has death pixels. i'm curious if my surface 3 don't have death pixels. going to sell this one in a view days. lisa, do you look to death pixels in your reviews of the surface models? can you do it? im curious ,but not surprised if you have death or stuck pixels. please commend. it happened by my surface-surface 2- pro2 and pro 3. all the times. i have to say i always get a new one, for some reason the second one is free of death pixels. exept the pro3. 2 times there

[@connorvaziri9319]

I'm looking for a 2 in 1 for college. This with the pen and cover for $620 or an acer aspire r13 for $650?

[@SilverScarletSpider]

Can you do a smackdown between this and one of the Asus Transformer book Chi's? (T100, T200, or T300)

[@PraveenGeorgeIX]

Can you compare Microsoft surface 3 and Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with Windows (10)

[@mfmayes]

did you ever get the battery bulge problem that is common in this tablet?

[@monkeigh01]

I have a question of opinion. I would like to buy either this Surface tablet or a MacBook Air for my school work, would you recommended this tablet for a student. I basically need to do some school work like doing papers and research. I love the MacBook Air because it's small and thin but of course it does not have touch. I love the idea of getting a Surface because it has full Window which is amazing and it appears to have great performance.

[@marissachavez6445]

Would you suggest gettin virus protection for a tablet/laptop like this?

[@mikecapalungan]

I don't know which surface to get the SP3 or the new surface 3 I need one for school and I want something with a bigger screen but I want it to be powerful in anything.

[@proto-guest4511]

Does the Microsoft Surface 3 comes with a pen, and key board?

[@andryfeng5288]

Finally Microsoft Surface 3 review

[@MarioNotLuigi]

***** I cant. Im on mobile!

[@mashley444]

Would like to see a smack down between the Surface 3 & the Lenovo Thinkpad 10. They seem to be very close in specks.

[@lecongminh3]

Great review as always Lisa. This Surface is meant to be for student or casual user who just need Chrome to watch Netflix. You can take notes, watch movies, use Office, beautiful screen, and it's also light as hell. Don't look too much at the specs when you shop for computer, just look for what you need to do and if the machine would perform comfortably. Lisa emphasized the word PORTABLE, The only thing that I would love MS to do is to lower the price of the keyboards a little bit, and pushing 4 GB of ram as lowest config, not 2 GB.

[@elbridgef]

Could you do a smackdown with this and the 2015 Macbook Air?

[@EnidAgnusDei]

The surface 3 pro pen will work with it? wonder if the surface/surface pro 4 pen will work with it?

[@sparshpathak7962]

Hey lisa could u please tell me the maximum amount of micro sd i can add in that beauty

[@afupmmedia]

I use corel draw 15 for work, will it run it ok?

[@puichingchu9185]

Would this be better or Lenovo yoga tablet 2 :0

[@BlueBomberTurbo]

The little bendable part of the Type Cover near the screen is also magnetic, and attaches to the lower half of the screen. It gives an angle to the keyboard, like a regular desktop keyboard, to make it more ergonomic.

[@laurab5902]

Looks good! Would anyone recommend it for high school work?

[@vickikgibson9470]

Do you have video reviews on the laptops that flip all the way over? They seem to have both laptop and tab combined? Maybe rival this type of pad?

[@mmwerner92]

Vicki k Gibson Flipping over like that isn't nearly as useful without the superb stylus support that the SP3 brings. Plus, those types of laptops are always bulkier and heavier.

[@derisfoschi]

which PC do you advise with a budget of 500 euros?:)i'm a student and i have to use it for university :)

[@fikremariammelkeneh7829]

can i install any .exe files like a full lap top on surface 3?

[@jimmylam10]

I am thinking about upgrading my surface 2 (w/ Windows RT) to a surface 3 i m much concerned about the difference in speed between the 2 Surfaces I found out that the Surface 2 had a NVIDIA TEGRA QuadCore CPU with a speed of 1.71GHz but on the other hand Surface 3 had theIntel Atom X7 Z8700 (Cherry Trail, 4 cores, 4 threads) with a speed of 1.6 GHz so my question is does the difference in GHz of the 2 CPUs mean that Surface 3 is slower than Surface 2? Thank you.

[@jimmylam10]

+IMASWIFTAR12 thanks for ur reply!

[@craigcothren6629]

I am interested in creating documents on a tablet if this is possible using word and then printing them. I am looking at tablets because I am an ESL teaching in Mexico and am getting tired of carrying a heavy computer while walking and taking the bus here in Mexico. If at all possible I would love a tablet I could load the software program Final Draft so I can work on screen plays in my free time. Does such a tablet exist that can do these tasks?

[@TheRakeshArora]

I know that I have previously asked in a different review forum, however are you able to review the new Alienware 13" with the graphics amp?

[@mobiletechreview]

Rakesh Arora Dell hasn't gotten us an Alienware 13 so far, but we're trying.

[@TheRakeshArora]

Looking forward to your review if you get one.

[@romanarana]

Would this be good for school Netflix social media and Photoshop

[@lenohtna]

Nice review! MobileTechReview May I request you to have a comparison video of the Surface 3 to Acer Aspire Switch 12? These 2 devices are what draws my attention the most. Thank you in advance. :-)

[@vanos94]

Would this be good for a student?

[@Darkk3n]

Lisa, awesome review as always. Do you think that Surface 3 can run with no problems Visual Studio and SQL Management Studio at the same time? This would be most resource consumming task I would do with this pretty cool tablet. Thank you for your response

[@mobiletechreview]

Gerardo Aguilar Not sure they'd run quickly together. Definitely get the 4 gigs of RAM model.

[@kssd71]

great review. super helpful. thank u.

[@slouzek]

Hi, did anybody try run MS Visual studio and MS SQL server on this machine? Thx for response.

[@nikolayyordanov8510]

Hello Lisa, Which of the following two devices you would recommend: - Surface pro 4 Core M3-6Y30 HDD 128GB RAM 4GB or - Surface 3 Atom x7-Z8700 HDD 128GB RAM 4GB

[@alissaouderkirk5953]

I just bought the surface 3 from a third party,so when I got it it was completely dead. if I click the power button, the surface logo appears for a second and then the battery symbol before shutting off. is this normal? is there anyway for me to tell if it's actually charging?

[@fjphoto23]

Alissa Scott Charge it. it takes a while

[@ProdByClockwerk]

I would love it if somebody with more computer knowledge than me could answer this question. How well do you think this would run fruity loops?

[@padman291]

Hi Lisa and thanks for the great review can you tell me the exact specs of the surface 3 power supply? amps? volts? I travel allot and have several devices so I'm looking for one charger to charge them all.

[@mobiletechreview]

Padelis Kristalakis 5.2 volts, 2.5 amps.

[@Gatorproof]

Lisa again another top quality review. QUESTION: on the Surface 3 with Atom 128gb and 4gb ram , how would that compare with the i-3 Surface 3 Pro 64gb 4gb ram performance wise. (I understand the Pro would only have about 37gb storage but the SD 128gb it would work as a tablet. Currently MS has the S3 at $599 and the Pro at $649. only $50 difference. I don't plan on using a keyboard. I have Note tablets 8, 10.1 and 12.2 but I want a Win tab and Lumina 950XL . So Win 10 on phone, tablet and desktops on Ultrabook seems like a good way to go. Thank You Be Well

[@Gatorproof]

Oops I forgot about buying the $50 pen for the S3. So there is no difference in price between the 128gb S3 and the 64gb S3P.

[@pheckstercrazy7505]

And Microsoft Surface Pro 4, will have review?

[@DarkJackal1223]

sorry but i could not watch the full video ran out of time. Was wondering what the max SD card size this thing takes if i were to add one to increase the memory since the amount it has would not be no where enough for me. Need a new laptop but decided i would get a tablet instead for maximum portability n i think the surface 3 will suit me with the 4g lte feature for when I'm on the road. Hope to come back soon to finish the video.

[@billfromelma]

Hey Lisa, I have to tell you that I really love your reviews. Straight -up information, the pros & cons. I even have my kids watching you ! They are aduls with their own wallets (sometime) anyway keep on with the great work.

[@jeffreysun3891]

how much storage on a micro sd card does the surface 3 support with the micro sd card slot?

[@mmwerner92]

Jeffrey Sun Up to 128 I believe. I've never gone past 64 myself though.

[@bjkang188]

Has anyone used this or the SP3 for college? How do they fit on the tiny lecture hall desks?

[@mmwerner92]

bjkang188 Do you plan on typing or printing your lecture notes into OneNote and annotating them with the stylus? It's not practical for typing because the kickstand won't be supported by that little desk, but it's GREAT for manual note taking (which is all I do on mine anyway) because folding the keyboard back acts as an extended table surface. Honestly, there's no better device for college than a Surface. Printing lecture slides, exams, and homework into OneNote, writing all over all of them the same way you would a notebook, having the PDF's of your textbooks on the device and being able to annotate them, being able to run any program your university wants, the lightness means you'll always have it on you, you can curl up with it when you need to just plow through a text book, I can go on, haha. TL:DR, It'll make your notebooks obsolete and is more useful than a laptop.

[@nonovurbidnez7617]

This most likely can't handle the comics I make, the largest my comics get is 200 MB. The program I use on my Surface Pro 3 Clip Studio Paint does crash on it but mostly when I try to use the lasso tool, I use my Pro 3 90% of the time. I was curious if the Surface 3 would be sufficient enough for light gaming and heavy web browsing? I think this would be a perfect computer for my sister.

[@DrewXXX1]

as long as it's faster than this Acer Iconia W510 I've owned for the past few years :) I'll be super happy

[@mitch7197]

Does the optional keyboard come with the tablet in the $499 price?

[@mmwerner92]

Bazinga Jaffa It does not.

[@EjaxPlus]

Would you recommand this device for running engineering drawing software; CATIA or AutoCAD?

[@mobiletechreview]

EjaxPlus Not really. I'd go with an Intel Core i5 for that.

[@Nycholas1998]

is the 2gb version enough for basic email web browsing..skype etc. Thanks!

[@mmwerner92]

MrNick98 95% of the time, yes. Occasionally though you'll have tons of tabs open and some of them will have ads or images that are constantly refreshing, and then it will feel a little sluggish. I would always recommend the higher end version. 100% more ram and 100% more hard drive for 20% more money is a deal imo.

[@xaviermarquez6413]

Would this tablet be good for a mobile game developer.

[@laksmie]

is this a good tablet for university or should I take the Pro3

[@napkinman1]

so i need to use this for school, aka typing and battery life, and watching netflix will it do?

[@mmwerner92]

napkinman1 It'll rock at all of those things. The pen is also great for note taking combined with One Note

[@iAhmed1401]

Nice review, love the Device 👍🏼

[@hendersonjp]

Mmm how does it compare to DELL VENUE PRO ,LOVE THE VID.

[@davidchamberlain152]

can you review the hp stream 8