Okay – you might be expecting a side by side comparison of Surface 3 to Surface Pro 3 or Surface 2. I might do that later, perhaps in May when they are shipping. For now you can join me as I look at this picture and try to imagine how much smaller the Surface 3 will feel compared to the Surface Pro 3.
Back to Side By Side
I’d like to think about working two-up: that is working with two machines side by side. I like to work with multiple screens. I do that now with my Surface Pro 3 and my Surface Pro 2. I run Mouse Without Borders (a virtual keyboard and mouse sharing application) that gives me most of the utility of running a single machine with an external monitor, AND I have both processors working for me. This is great when I’m doing solid heads-down work at a remote location. Usually I’m doing research or viewing outcomes on one machine and creating content on the other. I can imagine using the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 side by side. Assuming that I won’t have to think about power management with the Surface 3 I’d probably use the keyboard on the Surface 3 and use the Power Cover with the Surface Pro 3. That should get me through a very long day of remote work.
I don’t want to suggest that the Surface 3 or Surface Pro 3 are not up to the task of productive work alone. It’s just that I really like to have a couple of screens going for certain kinds of work. The portable monitors that I’ve seen are expensive, heavy, and have much lower screen resolution than I want for this application. To get anything comparable to the Surface 3, you’d have to spend nearly the same money, and then you’d still just have a monitor not a second computer.
I’m thinking that a Surface 3 would make a great companion for my Surface Pro 3 for those side-by-side applications. I would get much longer battery life than I get with the Surface Pro 2 I’m using now. And how nice it would be that they use the same Pen.
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