10 things I’ve learnt after a few months with a Surface pro 3

I recently shifted from a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon over to a Surface pro 3 (i7 512GB and 8GB ram) and here are 10 thoughts after a few months with it…

1) it’s fast.

2) I don’t carry my ipad any longer, as it’s a great weight and size.

3) the pen, I just don’t use it, can’t get with writing on the screen, have used Evernote, must try harder here.

4) the keyboard, it’s less bouncy and more ‘notebook-like’ flat on the desk, rather than inclined, grown to like it, it’s not a ‘buttery’ smooth as the X1’s but it’s good enough (flat)

5) the screen adjusts brightness according to ambient light, so no additional app like on a mac needed.

6) battery life is great, not sure it’s 10hrs but beats an X1.

7) trying to unlock the device without the keyboard attached is a game of chance, a really annoying and bad experience.

8) the usb slot on the power brick is a great touch.

9) the screen quality is very good, better than the X1’s.

10) no sim card slot ..that’s a very odd omission for a ‘mobile tablet/hybrid’ and I miss that from my X1 which had a 4G SIM in it.

11) sorry.. only one control key (it’s on the left) means hitting CTRL-Home in spreadsheets is a two handed affair.

Are the re-fresh cycles for corporate handsets changing?

In the era of Blackberries, corporate email (although important) didn’t add value to the device enough to make the user care deeply for the device. Jumping forward a decade, the fact the corporate provided device now has family pictures and an individuals music collection, the value of the device to the individual has risen significantly, to the point where a user will spend his/her own money to personalise and protect the device.

More and more users purchase cases for their corporate approved device and the complex (for the average user) of switching handsets makes upgrading time consuming and tedious. The fact a case has been added to protect the device (that contains family photo’s) also means handsets are better protect and less likely to be damaged.

So I can see handset refresh cycles slowing as users hang on to their devices for longer which will be a double edged sword for the enterprise. Less spend on hardware, but it becomes harder to maintain an up to date fleet running the right level of secure firmware.