Can a Surface Pro 3 with docking station replace your desktop PC?
Summary: In
its ads, Microsoft says the Surface Pro 3 is "the tablet that can
replace your laptop." With the addition of a new docking station, the
Surface Pro has its eye on your desktop PC, too.
In its ads for the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft calls the latest
release of its flagship Windows device “the tablet that can replace your
laptop.”With the help of a new Surface add-on, that same hybrid device can now replace your desktop as well.
I received an early production model of the Surface Pro Docking
Station, which is available for preorder now and shipping later this
month. For $190, it allows a Surface Pro 3 owner to snap the lightweight
tablet into a frame that holds it firmly in place, transforming it into
a full-fledged (albeit compact) Windows desktop in seconds.
You can use that configuration as is, adding only an external
keyboard and mouse. But the target market for this setup will want a
full desktop experience, which means setting the docked tablet off to
the side and putting a large-screen monitor front and center.
Made out of a dark plastic, the new docking station weighs only 650
grams (1.4 pounds). Small rubber feet help it maintain a firm grip on
the desktop. It’s similar in appearance and construction to its
predecessor, which was designed for the two earlier Surface Pro models.
The slot where you insert the tablet is thinner, of course, and the
connectors on either side are also thinner.
But the new dock offers much more connectivity than its predecessor.
Here’s a rundown on the ports available after you snap the Surface Pro 3
into the dock.
The back side of the device contains two USB 2 ports AND three USB 3
ports (the third port is around the corner from the Ethernet and audio
ports and isn't visible in the above photo). The new dock design leaves
the USB 3 port on the device itself accessible, for a total of six
available USB ports.
You’ll also find a Gigabit Ethernet port on the back of the dock.
(That’s a significant upgrade from the older docking station, which
maxed out at 100 Mbps.) Audio input/output is available through a 3.5mm
jack.A lock slot allows you to attach a security cable to prevent the dock
from being carried away; it doesn’t provide any protection for the
tablet itself.
But the star of the dock is the Mini DisplayPort video output on the
dock, which allows you to permanently connect an external monitor for
immediate use after docking the Surface Pro tablet. The Mini DisplayPort
output on the tablet itself is also available, allowing you to use two
external monitors and the device display simultaneously. (More on
external monitors at the end of this post.)
A removable plastic label glued to the left side of the dock points
out a clever feature you might otherwise miss: that side of the dock is
magnetized, specifically so you can snap the Surface pen to the side of
the dock for storage.
Setting up the dock is ridiculously easy. Snap in the AC power
connector (which uses a cylindrical plug, like those found on
conventional laptops, to make a firm connection to the dock), connect
USB peripherals (wired keyboard and mouse, external hard drive, and so
on), and plug in an Ethernet cable for wired network access.
With that setup out of the way, you can turn the Surface Pro 3 into a
full-fledged desktop PC by setting it in the dock and pushing the two
sides of the dock into place to make a firm connection. The connector on
the right, which fits into the same thin slot as the Surface power
connector, carries power and data; the connector on the opposite side
simply holds the left side in place.
The new docking station had no trouble recognizing any device I threw
at it. That’s not surprising—after all, these are standard connectors
for external peripherals.
The only wrinkles in the entire experience appear when you connect an external monitor to the dock.
For monitors that use an HDMI, DVI, or VGA input, you’ll need an
appropriate adapter. With any of those input sources you’ll also be
limited to 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution on the external monitor. For
higher resolutions, the input on the external monitor must be either
DisplayPort or dual-link DVI. Any Surface Pro 3 model can drive a single
external monitor at up to 4K resolution (4096 x 2304).
Microsoft says the i3-based model can comfortably drive two Full HD
(1920 x 1200 at 60 Hz) displays, while the i5 and i7 models can power
two external displays at a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1800 each at 60
Hz.
In my office, the i5-based Surface Pro 3 worked beautifully with a
single 27-inch Dell UltraSharp monitor at 2560 x 1440 resolution. The
Project option, available by pressing Windows key + P or using the
option on the Devices charm, gives you the options shown here. Depending
on your preferences, you might choose Second Screen Only, leaving the
built-in display blank, or Extend, which allows you to run one or more
apps on the built-in display and use the external display as a primary
desktop monitor.
My testing with a cheap 24-inch Full-HD LCD monitor, with only VGA
and DVI inputs, was occasionally problematic. Using a VGA connection, I
couldn’t get the display to sync up properly, leaving a blank area on
one side of the screen. Using a kludgey Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI-to-DVI
adapter, I got a perfectly sharp image on the external display.
But in every configuration involving an external monitor, I had to
deal with display scaling issues. The Surface Pro 3 packs a very
high-resolution (2560 x 1440) into a very small display—12 inches
measured diagonally. (If it had an Apple logo, it would be considered a
Retina display.) By contrast, my 27-inch monitor has a lower display
resolution, 2160 x 1440. If the Surface Pro 3 displayed every one of
those 3.7 million or so pixels on the screen at the same density as the
much larger external monitor, I’d need a magnifying class to read menus
and identify Taskbar buttons.
So the Surface Pro 3 scales interface elements and apps to 200
percent of their size on the larger external display. But if you apply
the same scaling to both displays, you get either cartoonishly large
objects on the big display or impossibly small objects on the small
display.
Microsoft introduced a new feature in Windows 8.1 that automatically
compensates for this difference and tries to apply individual scaling
factors to multiple monitors. Sometimes this process works well, as with
my 27-inch Dell monitor. And sometimes it works poorly, as on my old
bargain 24-inch display. The behavior is also slightly different
depending on whether you sign out and sign back in again after adjusting
settings.
(There are lots of moving parts for managing scaling on multiple
displays. I’ll have a more detailed explanation in a follow-up post.)
For basic business productivity and casual gaming, the onboard
graphics on the Surface Pro 3 were more than acceptable. I haven’t yet
tested heavy workloads such as PhotoShop, video rendering, or high-FPS
PC games.
Based on my experience, the combination of a Surface Pro 3 and
docking station could easily replace a desktop PC with the ability to
detach and become a tablet or laptop instantly. That offers obvious
advantages of not having to worry about syncing apps, settings, and data
files. If you use the device at home and in an office, having a second
docking station at the office is a real productivity-boosting
possibility.The scaling issues should be the at the top of your compatibility
testing list if you’re considering this configuration with an external
monitor. You’ll have to do your own testing to confirm that the
multi-display output is acceptable with your existing hardware. If it
doesn’t work, your budget will go up by the cost of one external
monitor.
From a cost standpoint, the math works like this. If you already own a
suitable display, adding $200 for the docking station brings the total
cost to $1128 (for the Surface Pro with i3), $1328 or $1628 (for the i5
model with 128 or 256 GB of storage), or $1878 or $2278 (for the i7
model with 256 or 512 GB of storage).
If you don’t already own a suitable display, a high-quality 27-inch
monitor will set you back another $700 or so, including the necessary
cables.
Those prices are in line with comparable iMacs: The 27-inch iMac,
with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, sells for almost $2100 when configured
with an i5 and 256 GB of flash storage. Of course, iMacs don't
transform into mobile devices, so you'll need to add the cost of a
laptop and tablet to make the comparison fair.The availability of the docking station fundamentally changes the
value proposition of the Surface Pro 3. If you’re comfortable with the
device as a tablet and laptop, its ability to transform into a
full-strength desktop PC could tip the scales.
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