Microsoft Surface 3 loaded with family fun

 

By Sonya Davidson

We decided to stay home this past March Break while many of our friends had vacated to the ski hills out west or visited sunny destinations to the south. I figured it wasn't really THAT bad of a winter anyway and sometimes, a few days at home rediscovering the city (and a visit to grandparents) is just as much fun!

We filled up the week with fun things to do with the kids. We agreed to take part in the Microsoft Surface Scavenger Hunt. It sounded like an great idea because we definitely love scavenger hunt! In fact, when we go on a vacation, we often log into the global scavenger hunt Geocaching app as part of our adventures (if you haven't heard of it... Google it). It's quite the phenomenon! 

But back to the Microsoft Surface Scavenger Hunt. I thought it would be an interesting way to discover some of the features of Surface 3 but it had to be fun for my son...after all, it was March Break and anything remotely homework in feel was NOT on any of our lists. Since the weather wasn't so great, this activity actually filled in some gap times once we got the hang of using it.

What did we discover? First off, we liked the flexibiility to use it as a tablet or a laptop. A compatible backlit keyboard (sold separately) easily attaches to the device and a built-in stand enables it to sit upright. 

The device comes with the Surface Pen and offers the option of a writing tool that has the look and feel of a normal pen. We both doodled away on it and discovered it has different pressure sensitivities. I researched a little further and found out the Pen has 256 levels of pressure sensitivities and Palm Block technology making drawing, taking notes very natural. 

One Note was something I was already familiar with and we love the opportunities it offers for combining a variety of note taking, drawings, and photos all in one document. You can even add links right into the document and edit along the way. Ideal for projects and sharing ideas amongst colleagues and with family. 

But during March Break, we decided to do our scavenger hunt and then combined the checked off to-do list all into one note. It became a great little March Break keepsake. 

What we did... 

Took photos and videos of places we went! The Surface 3 has a 5MP front-facing and 8MP autofocus rear-facing camera great for shooting short video clips

Since the device comes with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal and OneDrive cloud storage and 60 Skype world minutes each month for a year, we uploaded photos and checked in with relatives in Vancouver.

Doodle! Little one drew out his favourite vacation memory.

Write a short story about one of our favourite March Break memories. 

We also discovered that this tablet has a full size USB 3.0 port that's perfect for travel. Great for movies in the car or plane!

We put together a jar of random fun things  to do if the weather wasn't good for venturing outdoors and took pics of those too! 

I'm looking into doing another little scavenger hunt for this long weekend as we have a few kids coming over and a fun way to add onto our Easter Egg Hunt! 

If you're curious about the Surface 3 or Surface Pro 4, both are on sale until March 29 through MicrosoftStore.ca