I wonder if the battery life issue is also due to the age of the battery, assuming it was not replaced as part of the refurb. On the other hand. advertised battery life is always a pipe dream compared to real life usage.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

1. Possible but most of these refurbs have seen very little use. Of course, not always, but often they are just returned as a gift that wasn't wanted or other reasons. You can get a pretty good idea of the usage just by the appearance. In this case the unit is pristine without any signs of wear.
2. More likely is the background stuff I have going. One of these is my wallpaper that is animated; think of Vista's Dream Scenes. The software uses WMV files for the animation. Pretty much the same as having a media player running constantly. This may or may not end up removed. I know removing would definitely increase the battery life.
3. While most batteries no longer have this issue it is still possible that due to the initial charging issue I need to run the battery all the way down which is happening right now.
4. The battery indicator is just not accurate. For instance when I turned it on it said 3 hours, 50 minutes remaining. After running for 1 hour, 15 minutes it now says 4 hours, 6 minutes remaining. Can't be considered accurate. I consider this is the real answer. I will get a good and real idea as to run time just by letting it run down.

In any case the battery life is plenty for my normal use as is.

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The battery is fine. Got over 4.5 hours with the video wallpaper running. It also shut down on its own when the battery got to 6% as it is set in Power Settings. Without the video wallpaper my guess is that I'd get in the 6 hour range. When new my Android tablet got around 4-4.5 hours My Asus laptop gets around 7 hours but it has an 8-cell battery. Not that would make that much difference with run time but I MAY drop the shut down from the current 6% to mayhaps 2-3%.

Especially with refurbished items I tend to look for any possible issue and confirm or rule out. In this case I think I've ruled out. The shown percentage of battery life seemed to drop in a consistent manner. The display of remaining time bounces all over the place but I'm not concerned as there are a lot of variables that are involved and those variables constantly change even when sitting at an idle.

My only other real concern was if I messed up by getting a 256 GB SD card instead of a 512 GB SD to use as a second drive for data and some installs where load time does not matter such as my web site editor. Looks like the 256 GB SD is going to be fine. Even with a few installs, 2 virtual machine hard drives and all the data I'm likely to sync from my main system on the thing I still have about 160 GB free. I MAY even re-install some things I did on the SD to the 128 GB SSD that is the system drive. I don't really have a lot left to install and have, I think, 77 GB free on the SSD. That leaves me a bit over 50 GB on the SSD to use while still keeping 20% free to prevent a loss of performance due to too low free space. Actually 10-15% free is OK for that but I aim for a minimum of 20%.

Everything seems to be totally fine with the Surface 3 and how I set it up. I guess that I can quit boring you with this thread.

Oh, the generic pen that was included is really just a rubber tipped stylus but is, the little I tested, functional. I only tested with Microsoft Paint. An actual Surface pen would be more functional but I see no need for such an item in relation to my usage, I'm not an artist. If an actual Surface pen went for a low price I might consider but they seem to be $50.00 and up.

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Good news on the battery life.
If you want a real Surface stylus for writing with, there are compatible ones for much less that have good ratings. For example -- https://www.amazon.com/MoKo-Microsoft-Sensitivity-Supporting-Compatible/dp/B07Y9P5TJY/ref=psdc_11548954011_t4_B00VGKHPLK

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Thanks again Steve! I almost ordered but stopped. I have to really think about if I'd actually make use of it. If I decide in favor I'll probably get the same. I DID see some negative reviews giving 1-2 stars but this only totaled 6%. 4 and 5 star reviews took 86% with 3 stars being 7%. I consider that within the range of what I'd normally be OK to go with within the price range. Just struck me that even though I do look at actual reviews, especially 1 and 2 star revues as I'd rather look at possible issuers than when someone is totally happy, I have normally already made my decision just by seeing the star percentages. This may or may not make sense but 3 stars percentage must be higher than 1 and 2 star percentages combined. 5 stars should also be dominant over 4 stars. As a tie breaker, where I'm not decided, I'll look to see if the percentage of 4 stars is higher than 1, 2, 3 stars combined. I will add that, while initially looking at the star percentages, it is not the final answer. Unless review percentages are dominantly negative I will still look a a lot of actual reviews. Hey, it's worked so far for me.

Mayhaps I'll try a test and make a point of using the included stylus and play in one of my graphics software, Word and such. If I find I like it would indicate that I'd probably like an actual pen even more making it worth the purchase. If I don't like the experience with the stylus I think it would indicate that I have no reason to buy the pen. DANG, but I DO get rather clinical at times... Still, my test DOES seem to me to be fair and very likely to provide for making it easy to make an intelligent decision. I mean I've already spent well over the initial cost of $289.99 when you consider the added SD card, case, screen protector and dock. I don't really consider the $25.99 price tag on the pen even an issue. I just have to show myself that I might just use something when I am already of the opinion that I probably would not. Yet I find myself a little intrigued...

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We appear to follow a similar path regarding ratings and reviews when deciding if we're willing to place the order.
I have the stylus from Microsoft for both of my Surface Pros (4 and 7), and have to admit that I rarely use them. I'm more of a keyboard and mouse guy. I do like the touch screen for some navigation, though.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Touch screen isn't any issue for me as I prefer over a touch pad from my experience with my Android... I detest touch pads... Notice from past posts I ordered a basic mouse for the Surface. This is one place where I messed up in ordering things. Nothing seems wrong with the mouse at all but is not what I should have bought. Think about it. I wanted a mouse and bought without really thinking first. I thought mouse and went for the normal wireless with a USB dongle. The problem is that I can't put the Surface in the dock with a dongle in the USB port as the USB port is what the dock connects to for charging rather than the mini USB port the original charger uses. Even if the dock used the mini USB for charging I could not close the dock as the dongle would be sticking out the side. Without plugging and unplugging the dongle all the time it is only usable in one of the dock's USB ports. Of course this would mean that I could only use the mouse if the Surface was to be in the dock.

What I should have bought is a Blue Tooth mouse such as the following.
https://www.amazon.com/Nulaxy-Bluetooth-Wireless-Computer-Ergonomic/dp/B08D36R5YT
Simple but has the basics. Being Blue Tooth would negate the issue with the dock. Will probably order one but want to look at more than just the above.

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Yeah -- dongles suck. Bluetooth is the way to go.

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I ordered the following mouse:
https://www.newegg.com/logitech-910-005012/p/N82E16826197268

Could have gone cheaper but I like Logitech. Still could have gone cheaper but this one is both Blue Tooth and wireless dongle. Supposedly I can us the Blue Tooth on one system and the dongle on another. It also comes with software to allow drag and drop between two connected systems. I don't know how often I'll use the drag/drop but sounds handy for things like throwing a CD/DVD in a desktop and just dragging the install files over rather than copying to a flash drive. The tablet is already sharing my second system's data and media drives so I suppose the drag/drop is kind of redundant but..... Since my second system is in my bedroom, and that is where the tablet will normally be, I should be able to use the same mouse on both systems. Since the dongle is unifying it should also be able to pair with the keyboard for the second system.

DANG! I forgot to look before ordering. It ships from China. I usually try to avoid that as it is usually much longer shipping time along with other reasons such as preferring to support U.S. companies.

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Sigh, I keep telling myself to quit posting on this but keep doing so anyway. Sorry, I know it must be boring by now...

I played with the stylus a bit with some different types of software and decided it was kind of cool so I ordered the actual pen that Steve linked. Even if I don't use it a lot it is part of the whole Surface thing and if I'm going to have the thing I want it complete.

Virtual Machines are now gone from the Surface. Only reason I tried them was to see how the Surface handled. It did REALLY well with the XP virtual machine. The Windows 7 virtual machine was a bit sluggish but usable.

While playing with the virtual machines I was a bit surprised that the embedded Atom CPU is actually a 4-core with 8 threads. While not equal to any of the main CPUs it is stronger than expected.

This is also cool! I set up Windows shares to allow access to the Surface 3 for all my media (movie) files. Even down to opening myExcel movie menu and using it totally works!

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Boring? Never!

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

Steve, you know as well as I that I tend to get exited about something and go on and on...

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And why not, your playing about could be very helpful to anyone coming along who wants help when they first get a Surface and you've done all the ground work.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

LOL! Joan you rationalize my over exuberance better than I do myself.

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Oh! thank you kind sir.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

The pen showed up and seems to work. I thought it was Bluetooth but it is not.

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Actually the pen is cooler than I thought due to its two buttons. One button brings up the right click context menu which is not a big deal but the other is an erase button; I guess more like an undo button except that it isn't restricted to the last thing done. Draw or write something then go back to any object regardless of the order done and hit the erase button and the object is gone. While the right context menu button works it will take getting used to. It seems to take a 'touch' which I haven't yet quite gotten yet so the function is intermittent. This is one of those cases where I'm sure the difficulty is me. Ahhh, seems that I just figured out the right click button. Looks like you need to press the button before touching the screen.

While I could draw and write with a standard stylus the buttons make a BIG difference. Sensitivity is also higher with the pen. Actually the pen does not even need to touch the screen.

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Just adding my name to the "It's not boring" club

At least the Bluetooth mouse is the last thing yet to arrive...

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You say that now, but wait until you learn of the secret Flux Capicitor that's available for Surface Tablets!

Have a Flux Capacitor for my Android but don't find it to be of much use. Every time I use it I have to wait 5 minutes for the tablet to come back from the future...

The pen also came with a second tip so I have one each of a soft and hard tip. Haven't tried changing tips yet so don't know the difference. Shoot, I don't even know which is mounted. It is nice that once the pen has contacted the screen you can rest your hand on another part of the screen and the hand is ignored. Your hand seems to continue being ignored until you lift your hand so you can lift the pen to move to another area.

Also found that there is an area on the side of my dock where the pen will magnetically attach for storage. Not a big deal but a nice touch.

All in all I doubt that it will be used all that much but I'm happy that I got the thing. Would have been great when I had my business though. Could have had a client sign off on an invoice before printing. Ya, I know, just have them sign after printing but this way the signature would have become part of the Excel invoice document resulting in a digital copy with the actual signature. I won't use most but I can see a lot of potential uses.

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Flux capacitors apparently don't work very well with Android, that is the only explanation i have for my wife knowing that what i'm about to say will be of no consequence to her.

I use an Android phone & tablet but she has a Surface FC tablet, the only conclusion can be that the Surface FC (Flux Capacitor) Windows version works better.

Fwiw, i don't have access to the secret FC build, she refuses to tell me how to access it

Women?, bah! (as my grandfather used to say)

Sorry, can't test. The Flux Capacitor app isn't available on the Surface 3; only available on the Pro and laptop versions.

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Damn, i just reverse engineered my wifes Surface Pro to look back in time, you are quite right, the Surface 3 isn't supported

While I am very well pleased as to this Surface 3 and accessories please don't think that means there is nothing I don't like. Here are some...:

1. The built in SSD being used for the system drive is slow. This equates to a long load time for apps compared to my main system. Of course my main system is a beast so I would expect the tablet to be slower.
2. While of no real concern what bothers a bit is that the NOOK app (Barnes and Noble e Reader app) is less user friendly by a long shot when compared to the Android NOOK app. Don't get me wrong as the app works fine on the surface 3. I just think the Android interface is better. As an example every time I want to read via the Windows NOOK app I have to go to my library and open the book. No big deal as it will open to the last page read. Still I liked how the Android app worked. It would automatically open NOOK with the currently read book open where last left. Both work just fine and this is not really a complaint.

There DOES seem to be a feature that puts the Windows version ahead of the Android... Enter the import function. With the Android version it seems to be a restriction that the source of the eBook has to be through Barnes and Noble; You don't seem to be able to add a personal book/file. In the Windows version you can import a book as long as it is in a common e-book format and not encrypted. Through this feature I was able to import a book written by a guy that used to live next to me. He always wanted me to read but I could not get it to work on my Android tablet and I just can't read a book on my main 42 inch screen. No, I haven't read his book yet.. I can, however, now read his book through my Windows NOOK app on the Surface 3.

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