After looking at the Dell 7000's review on Anandtech, I believe the Surface 3 is priced ridiculously high,
I think Microsoft decided to apply very high margins to the tablet so that people will perceive it as a premium product.
Time will tell if the snake-oil sells.
Meanwhile, the Dell is looking incredible for its price and form factor. Granted, the 16:9 isn't the ideal screen ratio, but the screen is actually 10.8" so its width in portrait should be similar to the typical 10.1" 16:10 tablets.
The only difference is that it's 13mm taller and 2mm thicker. But then you gain a Core M performance and interchangeable standard M.2 components (SSD, wireless card, 3G/4G modem).
And build quality/materials is worse/cheaper. With a screen that is worse (AR and resolution, both are 10.8" devices). And battery life is certainly commendable and relatively equal between the two, but at the cost of additional weight (1.37 lbs versus 1.59 lbs). It also costs more in the base configuration. 499 USD versus 699 USD (with launch price discount of 250 USD). But you do get 2 more GBs and of course better performance. The next step up brings the same memory and storage, but at a greater price differential, 599 USD versus 749 USD (with launch price discount of 321 USD).
The Synaptics pen has issues at the edges of the screen while the NTrig doesn't. On the plus side it uses AAA batteries instead of AAAA batteries.
The optional keyboard has a worse typing experience and worse trackpad (going by various review comments) than the type cover for S3. On the plus side it had an additional battery in it, which of course comes at the cost of significantly more weight.
Just like the S3, everything is an optional accessory.
I was giving this one a serious look prior to choosing to go with the S3. The aspect ratio was the major factor. 16:9 is just way to narrow for comfortable Pen use and Productivity. Even for browsing the web, I find 16:9 on a smallish screen to be uncomfortable. It either doesn't display enough information vertically when in landscape mode or cuts things off at the sides in portrait mode when text is a comfortable reading size.
Other than that it is a decent Core-M tablet implementation for the price...when discounted as it currently is. At full price, the value proposition worsens significantly, in my eyes as then it doesn't compare as favorably to the better built Surface Pro 3.
When Skylake comes out, I'll be giving Dell another good look. Hopefully Surface Pro 4 will wait and use Skylake as well rather than launch sooner with Core-M. That will be an interesting comparison. Just hopefully Dell finally ditches 16:9 by then.
theres also new asus t100 family that cheaper than S3 and have keyboard included.
This was the other device I was seriously looking at. It is amazingly beautiful and amazingly slim and amazingly light. And comes in at a relatively affordable price.
It has a 16:10 AR (10.1") screen which is serviceable, but not as good as the 3:2 AR (10.8") screen on the S3. It has only 2 GB of memory and 32 GB of storage with an option for a model with 64 GB of storage. 2 GB of memory is pretty limiting, but decent for light recreational use and more limited productivity use.
The good is that it comes in at a 399 USD (449 USD for 64 GB of storage) and includes the keyboard which, assuming it uses the same one as the T300 Chi is very good (
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/04/a...0-chi-review-wont-win-hearts-will-turn-heads/ ). It has support for an active digitizer, although that's an optional accessory.
The potentially bad. The Asus T300 chi claims up to 8 hours battery life. The reality is significantly worse. The review I linked above got just over 3 hours and they speculate the 1080p screen (their review version had the 1440p screen) might get up to 4 hours which is still half of the claimed. If the same applies to the T100 chi, we might be looking at only 5-6 hours of battery life for it. Extremely thin and light doesn't give lots of room for batteries, unfortunately.
At comparable specs it's definitely a good value however. 449 USD versus 499 USD. And that's with included keyboard which is 139 USD extra for the S3. Aluminum construction (T100 chi) versus magnesium alloy construction (S3) is closer than plastic versus magnesium alloy.
This one was a significantly harder decision compared to the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000. Since I don't really need a keyboard for my tablet (I have plenty of bluetooth keyboards I can pair up if needed) the keyboard wasn't a factor in my decision. The killer was the lack of an option for 4 GB of memory (I pre-ordered the 599 USD S3 for the 4 GB of memory), slightly worse screen (AR and resolution), slightly smaller screen (10.1" versus 10.8"), lack of integrated kickstand, and potential for worse battery life. All that was worth the premium I paid on the S3.
I really do love how thin the T100 Chi is, however. Such a beautiful device.
Regards,
SB