Illustration by Raul Arias for The American Lawyer For a long time, expressing admiration for one of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows RT tablets, the original Surface RT or its sequel, the Surface 2, was like saying how much you enjoy paying income taxes: You don't. The tablets were well-built and incorporated some great ideas, such as an innovative keyboard cover, but because they ran on Windows RT, a stunted version of Windows that never attracted many software developers, they suffered from a very limited selection of apps.
With the new Surface 3, however, Microsoft changes all that. By ditching Windows RT and enabling full Windows 8.1 compatibility, Microsoft has built arguably the strongest iPad competitor on the market. (Both tablets start at $499 but require spending a couple hundred dollars more before they are work-friendly.) Indeed, in the three weeks I used the Surface 3, I barely touched my iPad.
The best way to think of the Surface 3 is as a smaller version of Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, a terrific Windows-based tablet in its own right, but a costly one. The Pro effectively requires an investment that surpasses $1,100 for a mid-line version with 128 gigabytes of storage and a keyboard cover that is all but mandatory for professional use. (There is a low-end 64-gigabyte Pro, but it really isn't suitable for work, since Windows and Microsoft Office eats up a fair chunk of that space.) The Surface 3 retains the solid construction of its bigger sibling, and it's really not that much smaller, with a screen that measures 10.8 inches, compared with the Pro's 12 inches. In fact, Surface 3's slightly smaller size is a bit of an advantage, making it more portable than the Pro, and lighter, too, at 1.37 pounds, compared with the Pro's 1.76 pounds.
As one who has used (and liked) the Surface Pro 3, the one thing that gave me initial pause about the Surface 3 was its CPU. The Pro's biggest trump card is that it packs a "real" PC processor, Intel Corp.'s Core-I series. The Surface 3, on the other hand, uses Intel's Atom CPU, an ultra-low-voltage, lower-cost processor designed specifically for mobile devices. Having used Atom CPUs in various netbooks in the past, I was skeptical. Those devices were cheap, but could be painfully slow.
My fears were unfounded. While you probably won't want to edit video or play first-person shooter games on a Surface 3, the tablet turned in respectable performances for the applications that mobile lawyers are most likely to need: word processing, Web surfing, using Skype, even editing and creating PowerPoint presentations. With multiple programs running and a half-dozen browser windows open, the Surface 3 ran surprisingly smoothly. I didn't experience any lags playing high-definition movies and television shows, either. And it was great to be able to load and use iTunes, something that wasn't possible on those earlier RT tablets.
One important note: I was using the $599 version of the Surface 3, which comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of solid-state disk space. I'm not sure if the base model, which comes with 2 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of storage, would turn in a similar performance. And I wouldn't recommend finding out. These days, 64 gigabytes of storage won't be sufficient for most business users. The upgrades make the extra $100 money well spent.
You'll want to add another $130 for the keyboard cover, which transforms the device from a tablet to a near-laptop. The Surface keyboard cover is easily the best keyboard I've ever used on a tablet. It is thin and light, while featuring well-spaced keys and handy backlighting. No, it doesn't quite compare to a real laptop keyboard, but it comes very close, enough so that I was able to compose documents at a speed comparable to my laptop typing, and without ever feeling like I was settling for a suboptimal experience.
What really differentiates the Surface keyboard is that it is truly integrated with the tablet. You don't need to pair it via Bluetooth or worry about charging it. It attaches via a dedicated port on the tablet and requires no external source of power, so it truly seems like part of the tablet.
This version of the Surface keyboard is even better than the ones built for the earlier RT tablets. Taking a cue from the Surface Pro 3's keyboard, it features a magnetized flap that connects to the bottom of the display. This puts the keyboard at a slight angle to the display, making for a more comfortable typing experience and greater stability when using the tablet on your lap.
But about that $130: With every new Surface release, Microsoft takes heat for not including the keyboard with the tablet. The criticism is that the base model's price doesn't really reflect its true cost, because you need to buy the keyboard to realize the tablet's full potential. And that's entirely true: Using this tablet without the keyboard cover is like building a pool and never filling it with water. But no tablet comes with a keyboard. A comparable iPad, with 128 gigabytes of storage and a high-end add-on keyboard cover, will typically cost more than the $729 a 128-gigabyte Surface 3 plus keyboard runs. Ulimately, the Surface 3 isn't a cheap tablet. But it isn't costlier than comparably equipped tablets, and at least for now, it delivers on its productivity promise better than the competition.
The Achilles' Heel: Battery LifeThere is one thing the Surface 3 doesn't deliver on: battery life. This was easily my biggest disappointment with the Surface. Microsoft claims that you'll get 10 hours of video playback on a single charge. By now we know to trust battery life claims about as much as we do FIFA executives. With the screen on full brightness, I repeatedly achieved about 4.5 hours of life. I didn't expect to get close to 10 hours (full brightness is tough on a battery), but 4.5 hours is a subpar showing for a tablet. With brightness turned to about 70 percent, sufficient for work since the Surface 3's display is quite bright and vibrant, I achieved just under 7 hours. That's better, but still less than most 10-inch tablets.
Some users may also find that the display's size can make working with Microsoft Office a bit more challenging on the Surface than on a laptop. Since it runs full-blown Windows, the tablet also runs full-blown Office, not the tablet-optimized version Microsoft released for iPads. This has a benefit: Namely, you get every single feature you get on your laptop. But it also means that menu buttons may be too small to tap with precision. I found that a good stylus solves the problem. (One option is Microsoft's Surface Pen, which also gives one-click access to OneNote but adds another $50 to the tab.) But some potential buyers might decide that the Pro, with its bigger screen, makes more sense for them.
Owners of previous RT tablets will notice that the Surface 3's screen isn't just sharper than earlier models (it now has a 1,920 by 1,280 resolution, up from 1,920 by 1,080 on the Surface 2) but features a squarer 3:2 aspect ratio. I found the new display better suited for working with documents; they fit better and required less scrolling.
The USB 3.0 port and compatibility with the full Windows ecosystem of mice, flash drives and other plug-and-play devices is another plus, as is the ability to run two applications side-by-side and to charge via a standard micro USB port—a Surface first.
I found enough strengths here to be sold. More than any other mobile device, the Surface 3 looks and travels like a tablet but works like a PC. Now it's time to break the news to my iPad.
Contributing editor Alan Cohen writes about law firms and technology.
Source: Product Review: Microsoft Surface 3 Tablet
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