It looks like this will not support Windows 11, if that is important to you. The cpu is not on the current list of supported cpus.
Also, there could be other hardware limitations such as TPM version, etc.
Anyone know how much of the 128gb is taken up by the OS?
If that was the only thing it couldn’t do, I’d be in heaven!
Few computers older than 4 years will according to tech site analyses. It supports TPM 1.2. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0. Few tablets may as Windows 11 specs are fairly high. A tablet is not meant to be your main computer. It’s an accessory. How many of us these days have 3 or more tablets of various generations and OS?
Not all IT depts want to go to Windows 11 until it proves very stable, has push deployment, and has wide legacy driver support. If the latter does not happen, roll out will be slower.
A lot of enterprise installations and obsessed parents do not want gaming, streaming, or media ease of use. Ours is bleeding edge in some ways, but intentionally won’t support things like cloud based hosted images from industry centric sites in email. Won’t support USB drives brought in from home. Forbids WiFi usage in building outside of work despite more than 200 PCs and dozens of servers. Only items with registered MAC addresses permitted in system with every website URL logged.
Here you go:
The amount of RAM seems like it’s bound to be a slow/laggard device. Anyone know if it’s upgradeable? I don’t know much about MS surface
Can you use Word and all the basic windows programs fine on this? My daughter needs one just for school use…
It’s perfectly fine for that use case. It’s a bit limited in RAM but 4GB should be plenty for schoolwork and light office duties.
What does refurbished mean here, specifically. I have a Surface 4 Pro (so, newer) and I had to replace it last year b/c the battery had decayed to the point of being unable to Zoom for an hour. The device is pretty well sealed, so battery replacement is not easy or inexpensive. I’d hate for someone to spend the $$$ here and get a refurb with the original battery that can’t hold a charge well.
Hi there.
“Refurbished” covers everything from buyers’ remorse returns and products whose defects have been repaired by the pros to damaged packaging and discontinued items. If you can accept their checkered past, refurbs have a lot of love to give.
I while back I bought an HP (new!) notebook here that was unsold inventory for school use. It had robust hinges, reinforced USB ports and “bumpers.” Might be a better choice.
Yes it can but Word really begs for a real keyboard and mouse. I have tablets and notebooks. Would not want to write more than an occasional email on tablets. I have keyboards for 2 tablets and still would prefer to use a dedicated 14 inch or larger notebook or better still my 27 inch workstation. Different functions.
- 14 to 15.4 inch Notebook is likely the best compromise for those on a budget if only one device.
The Surface 3 could be good for viewing a Zoom or WebEx class and answering an occasional question or maybe a multiple choice quiz but not one where lengthy prose is needed. Hope this helps.
What’s the difference between refurb and scratch and dent (other than $20)? Looked around the site, but couldn’t find it.
Here you go:
I bought one of these new the day it came out. It’s been my travel companion ever since–it’s light, sleek, and quite capable–for instance, I can show movies with an added USB DVD drive and video adapter.
The pen allows me to mark up music during rehearsals and take handwritten notes. That’s where it really rocks.
The keyboard is actually quite good; the trackpad is not great. If I were going to do a lot of writing with it I’d use a full-sized keyboard and a mouse.
RAM and storage are NOT upgradable. It has a micro SDXC slot for additional storage, and of course you can attach external storage via the USB port.
If you get this, get the 128 GB storage. In addition to the storage being larger, it’s also, I believe, a faster technology.
However, this is not fast, and the 4 GB RAM means you don’t want to have a lot of browser windows open at once. It’s ok for Word, movies, and most internet browsing.
For comparison, a new Surface Go 2 would be around $600 with keyboard and 8 GB RAM.
4 gb is woefully inadequate for any kind of interactive Zoom – I have an 8gb version for teaching and it is barely enough to annotate and/or use the whiteboard. In fact Zoom still crashes due to memory or the writing is terrible (think downsampled a lot). My work around is to use a workstation to run Zoom and join in from the Surface as a second user. Then the annotate and whiteboard work most of the time (still occasional stutter). But god forbid you want to open say worlfram alpha or gmail and zoom at the same time…
And to be fair this is with a non stock Surface. Effectively most of the stock Surfaces have ridiculously bad range of heat production causing frequent overheating. Within warranty, i had so many that needed replacing (due to random shutdowns, and the screens eventually going wonky) that i got a surface from Microsoft specially tested to not overheat.
This is to a large extent a Zoom problem – Zoom is hastily written so they could cram in the features that make Zoom useful for teaching. But the overheating and the lack of QC is a Surface problem.
If your student is just watching your teacher lecture passively, 4gb should mostly work…