Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

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FlyingPenguin
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Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Just pulled the trigger on a new Surface Pro 7.

My old Surface Pro 3 is still working fine, but I only get 2 1/2 hours of battery life out of it. Sometimes I run out of battery before I finish my morning reads. The Surface has never been great on battery - these things are so thin it's hard to get a lot of power in there - but I used to get around 6 hours doing casual browsing.

I guess 6 years is a pretty good run for a battery powered device. It's virtually impossible to replace the battery in these things.

I probably use this Surface Pro more than my desktop. It's my primary reading device. I like to sit in the patio in the morning with a cup of coffee and read the news (tech and real world), comics, check the forums, some YouTube watching, Kindle etc. Much more comfortable to hold and read than a phone or even a large tablet, and far more useful as a full fledged Win10 PC.

Still burns my ass that they charge extra for the Type Cover Keyboard, but I poked around on Amazon and found a bundle for a $100 less than buying them separately.

I hardly ever use the keyboard except as a cover to protect it when not in use, but when I used to travel (before Covid changed the world) this was also my travel laptop as well, as it has plenty of power being a Core i5.

New one is also Core i5 with 8GB (old was 4GB and it slogged sometimes) with a 256GB SSD. IMO it's not worth going with the Core i3/4GB/128GB. A lot more sluggish and you don't save all that much.

Yeesh these things are still pricey, but they are well engineered. After 6 years, no cracks, no chips. A little paint worn off on one corner is it. Mine is old enough that it came with Win8 but I upgraded it a long time ago. Good, loud speakers, and a very good camera I discovered that on Zoom calls). I must say that Win10's tablet GUI really works very well. People laughed at these things when they first came out, but if you look around they're everywhere now. Almost every news anchor has one in front of them. I see a lot of doctor's offices using them here. You see them everywhere in the pits in NASCAR. It's nice having a 12 inch tablet that doubles as a full power windows laptop.
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psypher
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Re: Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

Post by psypher »

FlyingPenguin wrote:Just pulled the trigger on a new Surface Pro 7.

My old Surface Pro 3 is still working fine, but I only get 2 1/2 hours of battery life out of it. Sometimes I run out of battery before I finish my morning reads. The Surface has never been great on battery - these things are so thin it's hard to get a lot of power in there - but I used to get around 6 hours doing casual browsing.

I guess 6 years is a pretty good run for a battery powered device. It's virtually impossible to replace the battery in these things.

I probably use this Surface Pro more than my desktop. It's my primary reading device. I like to sit in the patio in the morning with a cup of coffee and read the news (tech and real world), comics, check the forums, some YouTube watching, Kindle etc. Much more comfortable to hold and read than a phone or even a large tablet, and far more useful as a full fledged Win10 PC.

Still burns my ass that they charge extra for the Type Cover Keyboard, but I poked around on Amazon and found a bundle for a $100 less than buying them separately.

I hardly ever use the keyboard except as a cover to protect it when not in use, but when I used to travel (before Covid changed the world) this was also my travel laptop as well, as it has plenty of power being a Core i5.
I've bought 2, one for myself and one for my son. I still have a laptop for when I have to do real work, but the surface is what I carry when I'm out of the house and need to be able to deal with work issues or around the house like you. I've gotten mine from Costco, especially with Black Friday/Holidays around the corner they'll have some great prices. The last one I got last year was the Surface Pro 6 i5 bundle with type cover keyboard for $757.84. The same one in 2018 was 1,165.99. These comes with the extra warranty from Costco/Visa as well included.
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Losbot
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Re: Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

Post by Losbot »

FlyingPenguin wrote:Just pulled the trigger on a new Surface Pro 7.
You mean SQUEEZED the trigger. ;)
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Executioner
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Re: Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

Post by Executioner »

Are you going to sell your old SP3?
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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Replacing my Surface Pro 3 after 6 years

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Haven't decided. May stick it in the car and use it when I'm at a public place, like when I used to go to the cigar store for a smoke (back before covid). I have a smaller and slower Inspiron 1100 2-in-1 in the car for that right now, but that thing is getting painfully slow.

If I decide to get rid of it I'll let you know.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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