The N-Trig pen doesn’t have as many levels of sensitivity as the Wacom either, which may disappoint budding digital artists.Īnother reason for students to consider the Surface 3 is the bundled, one-year subscription to Office 365. It’s not enough to put you off using it, but you’ll notice it all the same. The Surface Pen’s only serious drawback is very slight lag. And, once again, the Surface 3’s smaller, lighter frame makes it easier to use as a digital notepad. The button on the top will, when pressed, instantly open OneNote even when the Surface 3 is locked. It’s great for any student, though, as it lets you take handwritten notes in OneNote. The Surface Pen, which is an N-Trig active digitiser, is sold separately. One of the key attractions of the Surface 3 over a regular laptop is its digital pen support. Still, that’s enough for around two hours of use, so it’ll do in a pinch. Once drained, an hour-long charge using the provided Mini USB charging adapter added 22%, which makes the Surface 3 a somewhat sluggish charger. Provided you avoid the most notorious energy sappers, like Flash-heavy websites, then you’ll have few problems. The result is consistent with regular use – I used the Surface 3 as my work computer for a full day and ended with a comfortable 20% or so remaining for the trip home. This falls short of larger laptops like the Asus Zenbook UX305, which managed nearly 12 hours in the same test, but it’s among the very best for a hybrid tablet. It lasted a creditable eight hours and 40 minutes in the mixed-use Powermark benchmark, which consists of web browsing, video playback and productivity.

Nonetheless, the Surface 3 will last nearly a whole day on a full charge – certainly most full working days. That’s more or less accurate in our experience, though it ignores the fact that most people tend to stream video these days, rather than downloading it and watching it offline.

Microsoft claims 10 hours of video playback for the Surface 3 with Wi-Fi turned on/off.

Surface go 3 battery life