Imagine if you had a time machine that could send you back exactly 13 years. The rules of time travel don’t let you change the past, but they do allow you to ask one question of a single person (time travel is, after all, very complicated). If your question for somebody in 2001 was “What will the future of computing look like,” they’d probably give you an answer that would sound very much like the Surface Pro 3.
Due to some smart work by Intel and Microsoft in selection of the processors, they all should get around that 9 hour benchmark that Microsoft claims for ideal battery life (most reviews have been putting it 8.5 hours, which is pretty close). Surface team guru Panos Panay just answered this question on battery life in the ongoing Reddit AMA:“The battery performance is the same across the i3, i5, and i7. The i7 will see benchmark scores appx. 15-20% better than the SP3 i5.”So there you have it. The Core i7 won’t sacrifice battery life, but you will get a 15-20% increase in performance. Combined with the better video graphics (HD4400 vs. HD5000), the Surface Pro 3 with Core i7 should be quite the performer.Is that extra horsepower worth the extra $250 between the two versions ($1299 vs. $1549 for the 8GB versions)? That’s up to you, but at least that precious battery life won’t be an issue.
