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Surface Pro 4 vs. Surface 3 - Detailed Specs Comparison

Here's what you need to know what's different between Surface Pro 4 and Surface 3 specs including CPU, RAM, storage, battery, display, and more.

BY Evan Forrest February 21, 2026

Surface Pro 4 vs. Surface 3

The 2015 Surface Pro 4 features the 4.5W 6th Generation Intel Skylake dual-core Intel Core m3-6Y30 up to dual-core Intel Core i7-6650U with the boost speed up to 3.40 GHz. While the 2015 Surface 3 features the 2W Intel Cherry Trail quad-core Intel Atom x7-Z8700 with the boost speed up to 2.40 GHz.

If you are in the market looking for a laptop and don't know what's the difference between the 12.3″ Surface Pro 4 (2015) and the 10.8″ Surface 3 (2015), we have a detailed tech specs comparison between both devices for you to check out here.

Surface Pro 4 vs. Surface 3: Specs Comparison

	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface Pro 4 See at Amazon	Compare With Please enter device name or part of it Surface 3 See at Amazon
Key Features
What's new	New Design It’s now thinner (8.4mm), lighter (766g), the smaller bezel on the same footprint. Better display New bigger and better 12.3” PixelSense display with Microsoft G5 chipset. Better performance It’s now 30% faster than Surface Pro 3 with the range of 6th Gen Intel processors. Better Inking It now supports Surface Pen with 1,024 pressure sensitivity, magnet attached to the side of Surface Pro 4. Windows Hello It's all comes with Windows Hello facial recognition as standard. More Better 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera, new 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM.	New design It’s now thinner (8.7mm), new tablet-friendly 3:2 aspect-ratio form factor, and new Microsoft Logo on the kickstand. Full Windows 8.1 You can run all your desktop apps and upgradable to Windows 10. Better display New bigger and better 10.8” Full HD Plus display with 10 points multitouch. Inking supports It now supports a new Surface Pen with 256 pressure sensitivity, tail eraser, and remote Bluetooth activation. New CPU Architecture It’s now using the new quad-core Intel® Atom™ x7 processor for outstanding performance and long battery life. New kickstand Now in three angles. New Micro-USB port It can be charged with any mobile phone charger. More Better 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera, new Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), and optional 4G LTE.
What's missing		No magnet charging port replaced with the new Micro-USB port. Slower Charging The new Micro-USB has a limited power delivery (13W) compared to its older propriety 24W charger.

Availability	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Released	2015
Release Info	Introduced: October 7, 2015 Pre-ordered: October 7, 2015 Released: October 26, 2015	Introduced: March 21, 2015 Pre-ordered: March 21, 2015 Released: May 5, 2015
Pricing	Starting at 899$	Surface 3 Wi-Fi $499 - 2 GB \| 64 GB $599 - 4 GB \| 128 GB Surface 3 4G LTE $599 - 2 GB \| 64 GB $699 - 4 GB \| 128 GB
Amazon Deals	$215.00 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3" Touchscreen Tablet Laptop, Intel Core i5-6300U, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Includes Keyboard (Renewed) $155.00 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3" Laptop i5-6300U 4GB 128GB SSD W10P Touch (Renewed) $169.99 Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-inch Touchscren (2736 x 1824) Tablet PC, Intel Core i5-6300U, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB, Windows 11 Pro (Renewed)	$389.00 Microsoft Surface 3 Tablet (10.8-Inch, 64 GB, Intel Atom, Windows 10) $699.99 Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Core™ i3 - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) $174.44 Microsoft Surface Go 3-10.5" Touch-Screen - Intel Pentium Gold-4GB Memory - 64GB SSD - WiFi - Platinum Windows 11 PRO (Renewed)

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-inch Price
	Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3" Touchscreen Tablet Laptop, Intel Core i5-6300U, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Includes Keyboard (Renewed) By Microsoft $215.00	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3" Laptop i5-6300U 4GB 128GB SSD W10P Touch (Renewed) By Microsoft $155.00 $175.99 12% OFF	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Pro 4 12.3-inch Touchscren (2736 x 1824) Tablet PC, Intel Core i5-6300U, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB, Windows 11 Pro (Renewed) By Microsoft $169.99 $178.90 5% OFF	See at Amazon
Microsoft Surface 3 10.8-inch Price
	Microsoft Surface 3 Tablet (10.8-Inch, 64 GB, Intel Atom, Windows 10) By Microsoft $389.00	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3 - 10.5" Touchscreen - Intel® Core™ i3 - 8GB Memory - 128GB SSD - Device Only - Platinum (Latest Model) By Microsoft $699.99	See at Amazon
	Microsoft Surface Go 3-10.5" Touch-Screen - Intel Pentium Gold-4GB Memory - 64GB SSD - WiFi - Platinum Windows 11 PRO (Renewed) By Microsoft $174.44	See at Amazon

Display	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Size	12.3 Inches	10.8 Inches
Info	Resolution: 2736 x 1824 (5M Pixels) Density: 267 PPI PixelSense™ Display Contrast ratio: 1300:1 Aspect ratio: 3:2 Inking: designed together with Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch with GPU-based processing 100 percent sRGB color, individually calibrated	Resolution: 1920 x 1280 (2.4M Pixels) Density: 214 PPI Aspect ratio: 3:2 Inking: supports Surface Pen Touch: 10 points multi-touch

Exterior	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Size Comparison
Dimensions	11.50” x 7.93” x 0.33” (292 mm x 201.42 mm x 8.4 mm) Width: 11.50” (292 mm) Height: 7.93” (201.42 mm) Thickness: 0.33” (8.4 mm)	10.52” x 7.36” x 0.34” (267 mm x 187 mm x 8.7 mm) Width: 10.52” (267 mm) Height: 7.36” (187 mm) Thickness: 0.34” (8.7 mm)
Weight	Intel Core m3: 1.69 lbs (766 g) Intel Core i5 and i7: 1.73 lbs (786 g)	Surface 3: 1.37 lbs (621 g) Surface 3 with Keyboard: 1.95 lbs (884 g)
Colors	Silver
Keyboard and Trackpad	Surface Type Cover Not included Weight: 0.68 lb (310 g) Dimension: 11.61 x 8.54 x 0.19 inches (295 mm x 216 mm x 5mm) Keyboard: Activation: Moving (mechanical) keys Layout: QWERTY, full row of function keys (F1-F12) 4 directional keys; Windows, Brightness and Media Controls Keys; LED backlighting Trackpad: Precision glass trackpad. Trackpad size: 4 x 2 inches (101.6 mm x 50.8 mm) Supports a five-finger multitouch gesture.	Surface Type Cover Not included Keyboard: Activation: Moving (mechanical) keys Layout: QWERTY, full row of function keys (F1-F12) 4 directional keys; Windows and Media Controls Keys; LED backlighting Trackpad: Precision glass trackpad. Supports up to three-finger multitouch gesture.
Ports	1 x Full-size USB 3.0 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Surface Connect™ Supports charging and docking station. 1 x Headset jack 1 x microSD™ card reader 1 x Type Cover port	1 x Full-size USB 3.0 1 x microSD™ card reader 1 x Micro USB charging port 1 x Headset jack 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x Cover port 1 x Nano SIM card slot (Surface 3 with LTE only)

Internal Specs	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Processor	6th Gen Intel® Core™ m3-6Y30 2 cores, 4 threads, 0.90 → 2.20 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 4.5W 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-6300U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.40 → 3.00 GHz, 3MB SmartCache, 15W 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6650U 2 cores, 4 threads, 2.20 → 3.40 GHz, 4MB SmartCache, 15W	Intel® Atom™ x7-Z8700 4 cores, 4 threads, 1.60 → 2.40 GHz, 2MB Cache, 2W
Integrated Graphics	6th Gen Intel® Core™ m3-6Y30 Intel® HD Graphics 515 24 Execution Units, 300 → 850 MHz 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-6300U Intel® HD Graphics 520 24 Execution Units, 300 → 1000 MHz 6th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-6650U Intel® Iris® Graphics 540 48 Execution Units with 64 MB eDRAM side cache, 300 → 1050 MHz	Intel® Atom™ x7-Z8700 Intel® HD Graphics 16 Execution Units, 20 → 600 MHz
Memory	4GB 8GB 16GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM	2GB 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM.
Storage	128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB PCIe NVMe SSD	64GB 128GB eMMC

Connectivity	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 5: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Bluetooth	Bluetooth Wireless 4.0 technology
		Optional LTE Nano SIM Tray GPS Assisted GPS GLONASS

Battery	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Size	38.2 Wh	27.5 Wh
Battery Life	Up to 9 hours of video playback	Up to 10 hours of video playback
Power Supply	36W proprietary power supply USB-A output: 5W Surface Connect: 31W	13W Micro USB power supply

Software	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
OS	Windows 10 Pro	Windows 8.1 Pro Upgradable to Windows 10 Pro
Built-in Apps	Microsoft Office 30-days trial	1-Year Microsoft Office 365 Personal

Camera & Audio	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Camera	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p Skype HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p full HD video	3.5MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video
Audio	Dual microphones Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio	Single microphone Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio enhanced sound

Misc	Surface Pro 4	Surface 3
Inking	Supports Surface Pen 1024 levels of pressure magnetic storage	Supports Surface Pen 256 levels of pressure N-trig Active Pen technology
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer Digital compass
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
In the box	Surface Pro 4 Surface Pen Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	Surface 3 Power supply Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents
Warranty	One-year limited hardware warranty
More	Mechanical features: Signature unibody magnesium design with hidden perimeter venting Kickstand with a full-friction multiposition hinge to 150 degrees Magnetic attach for keyboard fold stability Physical buttons: volumes, power	Casing: Magnesium Kickstand: 3 positions Physical buttons: volumes, power