Windows tablet computing omnibus thread (Surface, Venue, etc)

[thesameguy]

Anybody use the Surface 3 much? I need a pair of ~10" tablets... they don't have to do much - the M-5Y71 (1.2GHz) CPU + 4gb in my Venue Pro seems to be plenty. 64gb of storage is excessive. I don't want a Pro anything because the extra size is a liability. I am concerned about the slow-ass Atom x7-Z8700 and how it behaves in real life.

[Yw-slayer]

My IT guy has a Surface 3 for basic IT support. I think it's probably OK for stuff like that.

[TheBenior]

My buddy with a Surface 3 wishes that he'd sprung for the Pro model, but I don't know if he was trying to keep 30 open browser windows or what.

I'm pretty satisfied with my Pro 2, which can be found under $300 in refurbished form.

[thesameguy]

Hmm... I hadn't considered a Pro 2, but that's a good call. Are you running Windows 10 on it?

The thing I need to do is a singular .NET based UI for a SQL database. Being .NET it's a little bloated, but it's hardly intensive. It runs a little slow on a Core2Duo E7500 and beyond perfectly on that Core M-5Y71, so somewhere in the middle is fine. Since the application is essentially handheld, going to a more powerful Surface but with a 13" screen would be a problem.

The SP2 is around $250 it seems, a 4gb/128gb S3 is about $350, so not a huge price spread... but it does mean trading a 4th gen Core i5 for an Atom, which kinda sucks. Neither is like really expensive - I guess I could flip a coin and if it doesn't work out get the other. I was hoping Dell still had Venue Pro 10s in the Outlet, but no such luck. I've been testing with mine and it's about a perfect intersection of features.

[TheBenior]

Yes, Win10 runs fine. I did the free upgrade to Win10 as soon as I got it. I've been pretty satisfied with the performance, but I'm mostly web browsing with it. I had my factory charger die fairly quickly, which was apparently a shitty design since they changed it for the SP3. The aftermarket one I bought on Amazon is trucking along fine.

I wouldn't mind the thinner profile, lighter weight, and bigger screen of the SP3, but the $250 price was right for my refurb 256GB SP2.

[thesameguy]

Word... how is battery life? Sounds like your use isn't ultimately much different from my intended use.

[Tom Servo]

Man, for that price, it sounds like it is heavier but significantly better than my Nexus 9.

[TheBenior]

Battery life seems generally good, but I only use it at home, so I'd put more faith in comparison tests than my experiences if you're using it on-the-go.

Every once in a while it fails to go in to sleep mode when I tell it to, then when I use it again several hours later after not being on the charger, the battery is almost dead. I don't know if that's a Surface/SP2/Win10 thing or what. If I do a full shutdown, that works every time. Other annoyances: Sometimes the keyboard doesn't register after I open it up, but disconnecting and reconnecting always fixes it. After waking up from sleep mode, occasionally the volume buttons don't work. The on-screen volume control works, and eventually it seems to sort itself out to where the buttons work again.

[thesameguy]

I think any non-4 I end up with is going to be a refurb, and I'm kinda hesitant on expecting as-new battery like from a multi-year-old refurbished item.

It only needs maybe 3-4 hours of battery, but it's always hard to extrapolate as-tested life to as-used life. A shocking number of variables here for such a simple task!

[Yw-slayer]

My SP3, after a massive hard reset which somehow ended up as a battery refresh, still gives me around 3.5 hours.