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SURFACE PRO 3 Initial Impressions 

So I bought myself a Surface Pro 3 (which you can see above) because I’ve always wanted a digital sketchbook to use on the go like the Cintiq Companion but those things start at $1,500 so it was just too rich for my blood especially because I already have a Yiynova MSP 19u for home use. However, people on ebay were underselling SP3’s because rumors of a Surface Pro 4 happening soon, so I snagged the i5 128 GB SSD model for $800 flat with the keyboard/cover attachment (sold sepreately, usually another $130). So how does it fare?

Firstly, I want to get this out of the way. For all intents and purposes, the Surface Pro 3 is a laptop with a detachable touch screen and as a computer it is a wonderful machine for most general uses one would use a laptop for.

The second thing I want to get out of the way is that unlike the Surface Pro 1 and 2 which use Wacom digitizers (the screen technology that reads your pen) the Surface Pro 3 uses N-TRIG which had concerned a lot of people, myself included. N-TRIG only has 256 points of pressure sensitivity as opposed to the 1024 offered by the Wacom-powered Surface Pros 1 and 2. However those numbers are irrelevant unless you’re working with brushes more than 256 pixels. The only thing you miss with N-TRIG is that the force it takes to register lines is noticeably, but not dramatically nor uncomfortably, higher than Wacom but Microsoft released an app called Surface Hub which lets you customize pressure curve to help alleviate that a bit. The trade off however is that your pen is closer to the screen to emulate using a sketchbook. In fact, because of the inherit weight of the pen combined with the AAAA (yes, 4 A’s) battery in it, the pen feels a lot like holding a Sakura Micron pen in your hands as you draw. The glass is a bit more slippery than what I’m used to, but the texture of the pen tip helps alleviate that significantly. There’s also cursor lag while hovering but once you start drawing and the pen meets the screen the tracking is 1:1 and I didn’t notice any problems. 

Now, if you invest in one, you’ll be making some sacrifices. For instance, there’s no programmable buttons on the Surface itself nor are the pen buttons fully mapable. There’s no hover click either, meaning you have to press down to use tools like the eyedropper, for instance. The other thing that the Surface Pro 3 has incredible pixel density with a resolution of 2160 x 1440 so sometimes cliking things with the pen can be a hassle since everything is so small. However, the resolution can be adjusted and Clip Studio Paint as well as the latest Photoshop editions have modes specifically tailored to screens like this and makes everything a lot more pleasant to use. 

I don’t have a final verdict yet, but I have to say that I am very pleased with my investment and it will definitely speed up my work flow by letting me start on art while I’m out and then coming home to finish it up on my Yiynova MSP19u. Is it a Cintiq companion killer and can it replace my main drawing station? Not quite, but for a price starting at $800 (if you opt to not get the keyboard, but I do highly recommend you do) you get a capable ultrabook laptop hybrid and a portable art machine that will suitably compliment your workflow as well as home hardware.

As time goes on, I’ll update this post to give more impressions. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me as I’m willing to test things out for you guys. I can’t promise I can carry out all tests, but feel free to ask.