Panos Panay and the Surface team will be holding a Reddit AMA on April 3

Panos Panay and Surface Pro 3
Panos Panay and Surface Pro 3 (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)
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The last time Panos Panay and the Surface team held an AMA was after the launch of the Surface Pro 3, where several questions regarding the tablet were answered. Tomorrow's session also promises to divulge more information regarding the Surface 3. As always, we'll be bringing you highlights from the session as soon as it is concluded.

Update: The AMA is now live and you can find it right here.

Source: Twitter (Surface)

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.

60 Comments
  • That's today.
  • People like: Can I get one free pls?
  • One question to him. "When in India?" :P
  • That would be good question to ask. The Surface tablets are really awesome tablets but unfortunately they aren't available in India. I really want to get my hands on one.
  • Well they still say, no plans at the moment, so there you go. There will be more waiting.
  • The device looks fantastic, for students and Enterprise. They should market the heck out of it for back to school etc.
    But Windows 10 is the big issue. With RTM in just a few months, "tablet mode" is awful and a major regression from 8.1.
    With hardly any tablet Insiders due to the difficulty of installing to tablets, it's going to take a miracle to pull it out of the bag and fix it at this stage.
  • They can fix it. They have 3 months to do so.
  • I don't think tablet mode is the right solution/model for the new tablet experience. There are some major issues by design with navigating in tablet mode in windows 10. I compared windows 8 to windows 10. For a tablet touch/pen experience windows 8 navigation and user interface use case still makes more sense to me than windows 10. The fact that the charms bar has been replaced by the action means that menu's are diverted to other areas. There are functions and settings hidden in the hamburger menu in the window, there are seperate hamburger menu's within apps, many apps are still directs ports from windows 8 using the classic app bar and the dot dot dot menu at the right lower edge, but it obscured by the taskbar. The taskbar is like an appendix in the whole naviagation workflow. It's there, but its usefulness is questionable, yet we are depent on it because it houses some important elements in the system tray. The search bar as far as I can tell and what I experience and hear in reviews is not the right place because it blocks the "all apps" button constantly. I don't understand that the action center is only used for notifications. I hardly look at the notifications. It is a waste of screenspace. Microsoft should do more with "action center". I think search should be part of action center in tablet mode. Make it a tab next to notifications. Make cortana part of action center. It is after all an "ACTION CENTER". The toggles need to be fixed. About half are not real/true toggles but links to the settings app/window. Snapping apps in portrati mode does not work properly. I could go on an on. Windows 10 works alright for a laptop with mouse and keyboard. But windows 10 is an absolute mess when it comes to a consistent, stable and comprehensible navigation experience. It needs a lot of work, I mean a lot. I have serious doubts they will have windows 10 ready by summer. Windows 10 does currently not make sense on my surface pro.
  • Wevenhuis, I think I mostly agree with you. I haven't tried it on my pro 3 yet, but have tried tablet mode on my desktop and think there are many points where 10 is a regression from 8.1 in the touch environment. All 10 really needed to be imo was windowable modern apps, unified apps, control panel that was touch and m/k friendly, and fix the problem with charms being opened when trying to close a window with the X in the corner, or vice versa.
  • I hope you debt this in to the customer feedback portal on TP10 instead of just stating it here on windows central
  • yep, already providing constructive feedback since 9926.
  • I believe they can fix it, hopefully they haven't thrown away the 8.1 source code!
  • Students will they spend so much in this tablet. Though its good. But they might go for a dell venue pro which is more worth buying for them.
  • Or Lenovo's yoga
  • Hopefully he will be discussing the secret surface flagship phone that will be coming out soon : ) wishful thinking!
  • Give me back to school discount or I will just buy the surface pro i3 with student discount instead
    One more question, when will surface pro 4 and the new flagship phone come out?? My 1020 is aging quickly
  • Cam someone please ask this question (as I won't be available); "Why not include a USB 3.1 Class C port for data/charging/docking in addition to a legacy USB3.0 port?" It's a sadly missed opportunity if you ask me and the sole reason I'm not interested in a Surface 3 for the students at our school...
  • Because, Microsoft could be waiting for it's OEMs to adopt the USB standard, when that happens, MS will follow Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • I don't feel the USB 3.1 really affects usability right now. By the time 3.1 gains critical mass if it ever does we will probably be talking about Surface 5 or 6. Even USB 3.0 does not yet have the infinitely massive popularity of USB 2.0. The vast majority of existing USB peripherals aside from storage devices simply do not require such a high speed chipset to function adequately.
    As for charging, I'd rather focus on fitting a larger battery into the device.
  • Here's their probable answer ask intel as ms largely dont outsource something that isnt ready yet for mainstream id say in a platform or 2 from now on Intel's roadmap
  • Could be wrong, but I don't think the Atom chip supports it.
  • That's an intelligent response I hadn't considered or researched, thanks for pointing that out. The rest, I hear you but Microsoft needs to be more forward leaning than the OEMs (and Apple) otherwise nothing will change. The USB 3.1 spec is actually pretty imoressive and should be embraced. MicroUSB charging on a tablet is not good, we have over a hundred Dell Venue 11's and students constantly break the cables and the charge ports.
  • Honestly, that's why I personally like the magnetic charging port on the surface pro 3 as well as the previous generation surface devices because if you inadvertently pick it up without unplugging it, it just comes out without damaging the plug, unlike the mini USB charging options which to me include the c-type USB ports
  • Students at your school don't even know what a USB 3.1 class c port is so it's no reason for you not to get it for them. You might know, but again I bet 1 out of 20 students might, but I highly doubt it. Nokia invented it years ago and it's not the standard on many devices today! Looks like you have the i-bug and want it just because Apple put it on the their 2015 MacBook pro..... Must be bad being a follower; guess you're school s a few iPads huh?
  • Remind me about firewire....
  • Actually we are a Microsoft shop, including previous gen Surfaces, MS server/client platforms, inc O365, through and through. I also detest Apple (not as much as Google though) but feel free to make assumptions about me. Maybe what I'd like for our students 'in the future' is something too soon and I'll partially agree with you on that point. That said, I do feel strongly that only one USB port and micro USB charging is short-sighted and fraught with potential issues.
  • The USB-C connector is great for devices that have a high power draw and would otherwise need a proprietary charger.  However, for anything capable of charging off of Micro USB, USB-C is actually a disadvantage in many ways at this point.  Micro USB is really easy to find while USB-C cables are nearly non-existant.  In a couple more years that might start to change, but right now there is no practical reason to seek out USB-C on a device which such a low power draw.
  • I would love a red mini Surface that runs only Windows Phone apps. It would be the perfect consumption device.
  • Is he talking a selfie lol
  • Ask them about a Surface phone
  • Or Microsoft band 2
  • someone ask him what the second button on the top is
  • On the top the small button is the power button and the longer one is the volume.
  • Really? Weird
  • Power and volume..... I already got to play with one at my local MS store they day it came out. There are no buttons on the side anymore, only ports
  • My question would be who is in charge of Surface marketing, and why are they not in charge of WP marketing...
  • That's actually a good question
  • Why? I haven't seen surface commercial really since the super bowl here in the US..... Honestly! I'm starting to wonder, they should be marketing the heck out of surface, it should be on at least every hour
  • It must be the shows you are watching.  I see SP3 commercials at least a few times a week and I barely even see commercials because I DVR shows and skip over them.
  • Marketing is terrific.. Personally, they could still kick it up a few notches, and hit the GP really hard with more ads.... Nevertheless, they've done a great job with the average consumer, and I don't see why MS can't, or won't, do the same for Lumia devices....
    ........
    I'll cut MS some slack because they are just starting with Lumia under their control, so I'm willing to say it's ok to wait and see what they do when they finally do release some W10 Lumia's... That's gonna be the real test to see if MS is as serious about marketing Lumia as much as they are about Surface...
  • What they have done has been very effective... Not sure what they are planning, but everything they've done for surface in the past year has been way more productive than any advertising they've done for WP in the past 5 years..... So, I'm not questioning them in that department...
    Are you❓
  • April 3rd is my birthday. Also the day Furious 7 comes out. :)
  • Happy birthday! (It's the 3rd here in India, apologies if it's still the 2nd there)
  • 2am on the 4th for me... how about no? :P
  • Can someone please ask about the touch multitasking and if the Surface team is content with how the Windows 10 team has downgraded it? Or the touch environment in total, for that matter? It seems like Windows 10 will give the Surface line a hit on usability. The separate tablet mode is also pretty bad..   Don't have a Reddit account.
  • Not for all of the mouse /keyboard users who were crying for the traditional start button! We can blame them, bunch of cry babies. They're probably ones that are in here crying now!
  • if some1 got an reddit account, pls ask them about future compatibility after the surface pro2 the went to a different formfactor and pen input. so the old stuff didn't work anymore
    aftter the surface 2 the went to a different formfactor. yes the ols typecover 2 is still possible to use, but it does not fit perfectly
      i can accept this desing changes ones, but not every year for every new device
    and as much as i like ms to make more profits, this sucks for consumer.
  • Apple changes connected routinely and everyone accepts it, but Microsoft does it and the crying begins
  • I hope some one asks if they are going to at least bring the Spartan browser to Windows RT or just leave all the loyal early adopter customers with IE which has issues navigating the web in touch mode (not a friendly tablet experience)
  • Is surface pro 3's type cover compatible w/ surface 3 ?
  • Can someone please ask why the Surface 3 did not include fingerprint reader or depth camera and no USB C
  • because this will be (only) in the surface pro 4 and possible future devices   at least some of that features
  • That would probably have raised the price.
  • Someone ask if we can take the taskbar off in tablet mode please. Thing just looks so out of place
  • Can someone ask him to ask this Gabe character when I will see win 10TP for my 1520???
  • I hope they answer the obvious: why didn't you use core M and instead slapped a crappy obsolete atom on your fanless tablet.  
  • I bet you'd want it for the same $499 price too.
  • Ask them if they have any say in windows phone 10 UI because this concept is what I want to see https://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/7438894-beautiful-stand-out-os-design-concept
     
  • I went to reddit for the first time. What a mess. I couldn't find anything from today or anything live.
  • Do anyone know if either the SP3 or the S3 have NFC?