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Microsoft's Surface 3 is sweet – but I wouldn't tickle my nads with it

Soviet-style shell hides a slablet for Windows diehards

Finger clicking good

Where it does well is performance. The combo of Intel 1.6GHz quad-core Atom x7-Z8700 processor with bursts up to 2.4GHz and, in terms of RAM, 3GB more than a 9.7-inch iPad. How does this translate in use? Surfing the web is buttery smooth. Continuous scrolling on my site of choice for the weekly home food shop was, well, continuous: no waiting seconds for the screen to refresh and items to appear.

Microsoft Surface 3 Windows 8.1 tablet

Under the kickstand is the micro SD card slot

Colours are rich and resolution sharp enough you’re wary of slicing a finger – screen is a ClearType Full HD Plus with 1920 x 1280 resolution. This richness shows up in photos, shot via the Surface 3’s front-facing 3.5MP camera. It shows in video, too. If you choose to Skype, there’s an 8MP rear-facing lens – big leap from the 5MP of Surface 2 and 720p video in the inaugural Surface RT.

Apple comes in at 1.2MP for video and 5MP for photos.

Video playback is decent: combo of memory, chip and resolution delivers TV-like performance for films, no judder or pixellation – even when playing a 4K video from an LG G3 smartphone. You can plug in video media via a USB 3.0 port, a micro USB charging port that doubles as USB 2.0 port, or plug into a monitor via the mini DisplayPort.

Microsoft Surface 3 Windows 8.1 tablet

Sample shot – click for a larger image

Photo uses the Nokia Windows Phones set up – camera roll, giving multiple before and after exposures. There’s a dial-wheel to scroll through and save photos, onboard photo-edit tools and, like any real camera, you can set exposure.

However, I couldn’t find a zoom feature and the screen would shy away from the light in brightly lit settings by going dark, making it suddenly difficult to frame and shoot a picture in sunny or bright settings.

Microsoft Surface 3 Windows 8.1 tablet

Sample shot – click for a larger image

Surface 3 runs Windows 8.1, which is Microsoft’s step back from the all-or-nothing of Windows 8. That shows; Microsoft no longer mandates you jettison your entire knowledge of the desktop to use Surface, but the halfway house nature of Windows 8.1 is manifest in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways to different effects.

Web surfing is cleaner in the Windows 8.1 mode than desktop with Internet Explorer 11: when you hit a field mandating character entry Surface’s soft keyboard dutifully pops up. In IE on the desktop environment, you need to make the keyboard appear by tapping a soft key at the bottom of the screen.

Microsoft Surface 3 Windows 8.1 tablet

Contacts for the Type Cover which doesn't have a battery. It's not Bluetooth but draws power to function and for its backlit keys

But setting up Wi-Fi connection is done via the desktop side, not in Windows 8.1 mode. Click the Windows 8.1 settings tile and while you get a PC settings window with networks, you have to scroll down to Control Panel where you then find the network and sharing centre before you can establish connection to Wi-Fi.

Try sharing photos and you must first set who you plan on sharing in the Windows 8 people hub – or you need an email account ready configured.

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