Microsoft surprised anybody in 2022 by announcing a tablet designed in house to run the company's brand new Windows RT operating system. It was the first time we had seen Microsoft, a visitor mostly focused on software products, come up out with a fully-fledged tablet of their ain, and it wasn't merely a rehash of a competitors' blueprint: the Surface RT'southward magnesium-alloy body combined with the innovative Touch and Type Covers made it stand up out from the crowd.

Unfortunately by the time the Surface RT launched in late 2022, it wasn't equally stellar equally everyone was expecting. The ARM-based Tegra 3 SoC made the tablet feel slow and clunky to use. On top of that, Windows RT itself was void of many features found on tablets that used fully-fledged Windows 8, near notably the power to run desktop applications.

Along with the Surface RT, Microsoft besides appear the Surface Pro which did run Windows 8 Pro 64-chip and came with ultrabook-form internals and a loftier-resolution display. Still information technology also came at twice the price so it wasn't a production that could compete with hot-selling iPads of the time.

The Surface RT and the Surface ii were not commercial successes in spite of the excellent hardware. In early 2022, both devices, forth with Windows RT in its entirety were discontinued.

With Microsoft conceding that Windows RT had failed, the visitor updated the Surface line with a new product that consumers would find considerably more bonny.

Rather than continue downward the path of ARM-based tablets, Microsoft switched to low-power x86 SoCs, while likewise taking inspiration from their functioning Surface Pro line. The end result is the Surface 3, and it'due south mighty attractive.

The Surface 3 packs a like design to terminal yr's Surface Pro three, albeit in a slightly smaller, fanless body. The outer shell is fabricated from a magnesium alloy that gives the tablet a pleasing matte grey finish, while the 10.viii-inch display features the same 3:2 aspect ratio as its larger brother. Internally we're getting a new quad-core Intel Cantlet 'Cherry Trail' SoC and up to 4 GB of RAM, while keeping features similar the full-sized USB port that makes the Surface line so versatile.

The metallic torso of the Surface 3 is i of my favorite aspects of the tablet. It non just makes the device experience sturdy, just it besides gives it that premium edge over tablets that stick with plastic or other junior materials. The use of a matte terminate, rather than a polished or brushed finish makes the Surface 3 less of a fingerprint magnet and I quite like the dulled look this finish provides.

Some other aspect of the Surface 3's design that I appreciate is the clean, hard lines that give the tablet a slight isosceles trapezoidal shape, rather than the boring round rectangle nosotros see on and so many other devices. The employ of grey metallic forth the edges also contributes to a make clean, minimalist and consistent design.

There are a couple of areas on the Surface iii that aren't fabricated of metallic. The kickoff is a strip of grey plastic along the top edge, which is necessary to ensure the wireless radios are able to office. This strip contains the slightly off-center rear camera and its accompanying status LED, while the pinnacle edge features both the power button and volume rocker. The power button isn't exactly in a perfect spot for portrait or mural operation, merely I've withal to meet a tablet that really nails this.

The front end of the Surface iii is protected with Gorilla Drinking glass and has a very swooshable experience to information technology. The screen bezel is appropriately sized for property the tablet without covering upwardly much of the brandish, and the location of the Windows push on the right edge (in landscape orientation) makes sense. In a higher place the brandish is the virtually hidden front end facing camera, while on either side you'll find the adequate forepart-facing speakers.

The right-hand edge of the tablet is also where y'all'll find all the ports. Hither we accept a 3.5mm audio jack, a microUSB port that's used for charging, a full-sized USB 3.0 port that's incredibly handy for attaching devices and peripherals, and a mini-DisplayPort that provides bang-up versatility for connecting displays. I expect the three latter ports will be combined into USB Type-C in future Surfaces, and this would allow the tablet to shed some thickness, simply for now having all three is great for device compatibility.

Speaking of thickness, the Surface iii clocks in at viii.6mm thick and 620 grams heavy, which is average for a tablet of this size. The blueprint of the device doesn't pretend to brand the device look slimmer than it really is, then compared to more curved rivals it looks a chip chunkier. And in many cases, it is technically chunkier as well: the Apple iPad Air 2 and the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet (both ARM-based) are simply 6.1mm thick.

Along the bottom edge of the Surface iii is the powerful magnetic connector that allows to connect to the Type Comprehend. Above this is the swivel, which acts every bit a stand for the tablet and has three positions it can lock in to. I prefer the space-position hinge of the Surface Pro three to the limited design Microsoft used for the Surface 3, but still the hinge comes in handy often for positioning the tablet on desks and on your lap. The hinge is made of metal and is very strong. Hidden behind it is a microSD menu slot.

The brandish included with the Surface 3 is a 10.8-inch "ClearType Full HD Plus" IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1280. As I mentioned earlier, this a 3:two aspect ratio display, which personally I call up is a much meliorate resolution than 16:ix for a tablet as it provides great usability in both landscape and portrait orientations. 16:nine has always felt a bit wide for tablet use and, with a 10-inch plus display, can make the device hard to hold and operate. With a 3:2 aspect ratio, these issues aren't well-nigh as prevalent.

This panel packs a pixel density of 214 PPI, which essentially matches the density of the Surface Pro 3'due south larger 12-inch, 2160 ten 1440 display. Information technology's not quite in the same class as some tablets we've seen, particularly on the Android side, that use 1440p or 1600p resolutions – the Xperia Z4 Tablet's x-inch 1600p display is 300 PPI, for example, while the latest nine.7-inch iPads are 264 PPI – but the Surface iii nevertheless looks sharp and well-baked while viewing text, images and videos.

I was generally pretty impressed with the colour reproduction and accurateness of this display, while still showing off a bully level of vibrance and saturation. The color tone of the display leans towards the warm stop of the spectrum, which is more than noticeable when viewing white or grey web pages. Contrast is neat, and black levels are acceptable, although gamma is well beneath what information technology should be for an sRGB-calibrated panel.

Viewing angles are likewise fantabulous and the high levels of effulgence allow the screen to be viewed in almost all conditions. I likewise establish the 10-signal multi-touch brandish to be very responsive.