The new Surface 3 is a great surprise. Unlike most high profile devices these days, Microsoft got the smaller, lighter and cheaper version of its excellent Surface Pro 3 out of the door without a single leak. But given the two machines look virtually identical, what exactly are the differences between them?
Let’s break it down:
Display – The most obvious place to start is size. The Surface 3 has a 10.8-inch display compared to a larger 12-inch display in the Pro 3. The Pro 3 also has a higher resolution (2,160 x 1,440 vs 1920 x 1280 pixels) though the Surface 3 has still more than enough pixels to compete with most tablets and 11-inch laptops – especially in its price range (more later).
The Surface 3 also packs support for 10-point multi-touch input and the same 3:2 ‘squarer’ aspect ratio which makes the Surface Pro 3 so good for web surfing.