Microsoft Surface 3 review
Will it be third time lucky for Microsoft's Surface?
The Microsoft Surface 3 is comfortably the best of the lower-cost Surface hybrids to date. The sum of improvements made to the hardware, both in the tablet part and the keyboard, and full Windows 8.1’s flexibility make it a very workable portable companion to a more powerful desk-bound laptop or desktop.
-
+
Good screen quality; greatbattery life; strong removable keyboard
-
-
Low CPU and storage performance; limited RAM; Fiddly to use on lap
Image quality is mostly excellent too. Colour vibrancy and accuracy are commendable, viewing angles are strong thanks to the IPS LCD display and top brightness is very good. The one slightly weaker point is black level. Especially at backlight settings over 50 per cent, blacks rise, taking on a slightly blue-grey tone. While reflection-heavy glossy screens like this will always offer compromised outdoors use too, the strong backlight makes it perfectly usable in fairly bright sunlight.
Connectivity
There's also provision to attach an external monitor too. The Surface 3 has fewer connections than most laptops, but there's a Mini DisplayPort for easy connection to a monitor, projector or TV.
There's also a single USB port, allowing connection to a mouse or any number of other accessories. If the tablet was any larger, it would seem a shame that Microsoft hadn't added a second USB port for easy connection to both a keyboard and mouse. However, this is not a hybrid made primarily as a something to instantly replace a desktop or Intel Core-series (or AMD) laptop with. The Intel Atom CPU's limited power makes sure of that.
-
M&S suspends online sales as 'cyber incident' continuesNews Marks & Spencer (M&S) has informed customers that all online and app sales have been suspended as the high street retailer battles a ‘cyber incident’.
-
Westcon-Comstor unveils new managed SOC solution for Cisco partnersNews Powered by Cisco XDR, the new offering will enable partners to tap into new revenue streams, the company said
-
More than 5 million Americans just had their personal information exposed in the Yale New Haven Health data breach – and lawsuits are already rolling inNews A data breach at Yale New Haven Health has exposed data belonging to millions of people – and lawsuits have already been filed.
