Surface 3 - New direction, higher prices and crappy i3

[tone007]

A couple of years ago I took Dell up on a deal for a $199 low-spec x86 tablet (Atom, 2GB/32GB) with Windows 7 installed; a Latitude ST. I knew Windows 7 wasn't a tablet-friendly OS, so I proceeded to install Windows 8 on it which improved the performance and usability quite a bit. The tablet (along with a docking station, monitor, keyboard and mouse) replaced my desktop PC at work.  I used it for roughly 6 months before deciding the Atom CPU wasn't fast enough (couldn't full-screen YouTube videos without choppiness.) For most work purposes, however, it was fine.  I'm sure if it had been an i3 I would've been able to stick with it as a primary (as well as super portable) work machine.  As many Android devices as I've had, I'm still aware there is no replacement for full PC capability, which is also why Windows RT seemed fairly pointless to me.

Maybe this year Dell will offer me an i3 tablet for not too much more and I can try again.

[tone007]

I installed Windows 8 over a year ago on my Alienware laptop and eventually got used to it after being initially annoyed by the "split-personality" aspect of Metro/Desktop, but when my SSD started flaking out I figured I'd do a fresh install of 7 on the new SSD.  Honestly, I'm missing some of the features that 8 had, the Task Manager was much nicer and I'd gotten used to just going to the Metro screen and typing the first few letters of whatever application I was looking for. Hadn't gone to 8.1 because apparently driver support wasn't complete for the AlienFX keyboard on my model according to Dell, but maybe I'll give it a shot anyway. Both 7 and 8 fly on my 3 year old i7 with an SSD though, no complaints about performance here.