Microsoft Surface Pro 2 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 21, 2013 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Surface
- Surface Pro 2
CPU Performance
While multitasking on Surface 2 can struggle, the same really can’t be said for Surface Pro 2. The tablet is effectively a Haswell Ultrabook, capable of delivering the exact same performance as a 2013 MacBook Air – but in the form factor of a thick tablet. The performance of Intel’s Core i5-4200U is a fairly known quantity at this point, but to put Surface Pro 2’s tablet performance in perspective here are some comparisons to the best of the best in the ARM tablet space.
I ran tests using both Chrome and IE11, the latter is really only optimized for SunSpider and horribly unoptimized for everything else. In general you're multiple times better performance than what you can get from a quad-core Cortex A15 based device. If we look at Kraken, Surface Pro 2 running IE11 completes the test in 1/4 the time as Surface 2 running the same browser.
GPU Performance
Intel’s HD 4400 is good enough for light gaming and is a huge step above what you can find in a traditional ARM based tablet. Microsoft only gave us a few days to review both devices so I didn’t have a ton of time to re-characterize the performance of Intel’s HD 4400, but I’ve done that elsewhere already.
Storage Performance
My review sample appears to have a SK Hynix based SSD. I ran it through the same modified IO tests I did on the ASUS T100:
Our Android IO tests rely on Androbench with a relatively limited LBA span. I increased the difficulty of the test a bit under Windows 8.1 but still kept it reasonable since we are dealing with eMMC solutions. I’m testing across a 1GB LBA span and testing for a period of 1 minute, which is an ok balance between difficulty of workload and sensitivity to the fact that we’re evaluating low-class SSDs here.
Surface Pro 2 is a completely different league of IO performance. The number to pay attention here is the tremendous increase in random write performance compared to the eMMC solutions we’ve tested. I suspect the gap increases if we were to look at worst case sustained random write performance. Killer sequential performance definitely helps Surface Pro 2 feel quick.
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takeship - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
And apparently pro-Intel, despite having an AMD center now prominently featured on the site. What'll be next, Nvidia love?kyuu - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Anand pretty obviously has a love affair with Apple, so your claims of bias toward Microsoft/Intel are pretty funny.hoboville - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Actually, Haswell has been amazing for power savings, even if it isn't a massive upgrade in performance. But power savings is what Surface and mobile devices are all about. The Surface just has too many problems with it to be a solid recommendation all the time, every time. Lots of people like what it can do, but folks aren't sold that it's really needed instead of a laptop.Ultimately, MS just needs to make a few more adjustments for it to be good enough to be the next step in Windows or mobile computing.
backbydemand - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
How is the competition beating them? Which benchmark are you referring to? The one where performance was 400% better and more, or the one that said for this raw power the battery still lasts the better part of a whole work day?Joebart - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
It is maybe only me but I find windows 8 with its screen touch functionality not that touch friendly as Apple OS or Android especially on the small screen. When using left mouse click for many functions on a large screen is a breeze I find myself struggling hard trying to press some microscopic buttons with my stubby fingers on a small screen. Windows 8 its fine but still not that touch friendly on small screens....kyuu - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Um, yeah, if you're using the desktop it's not touch-friendly. If you want touch-friendly, you stay in the Metro/Modern environment.Protip: You can use the stylus to interact with the desktop for a much better experience, since the stylus is much more precise than your fat fingers.
zerogear - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
If you're trying to use touchscreen on desktop. Give appymouse a try. It's a onscreen transparent touchpad.Joebart - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
It is maybe only me but I find windows 8 with its screen touch functionality not that touch friendly as Apple OS or Android especially on the small screen. When using left mouse click for many functions on a large screen is a breeze I find myself struggling hard trying to press some microscopic buttons with my stubby fingers on a small screen. Windows 8 its fine but still not that touch friendly on small screens....B3an - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I know you had limited time to work on this review... So it would be nice if it could be updated with more details and benchmarks/battery tests.Really like the Pro but think it still needs another iteration before i buy it.
ananduser - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Anand there is something fishy with your battery test, or more correctly put lacking. Since the Pro 2 is also a PC, an ultrabook more specifically, why don't you do the light/medium/heavy workload testing so we can compare it with the 11" or 13" MBA and the 13" Vaio Pro.I've also found a pretty glaring inconsistency. Check out Vivek's review of MBA 11", in fact check the slides regarding battery life: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7180/apple-macbook-a...
The original Surface Pro is rated for 6 hours on Vivek's slide while you rate it for 4.7 hours here. The ipad4 and nexus 10 numbers are identical here(your review) and there(Vivek's review). Is it possible that you plastered the PC Light Workload Battery Life on the Tablet Browsing test roster? Something does not add up.
On Vivek's review the "Light Workload" PC tests show the 13"/11" MBAs at 11h/8.6h while on the same page, the "tablet battery test" slide shows the MBAs at 14h/11h respectively, ALONG with the original SurfacePro rated for 6 hours instead of your quoted 4.7h. Judging by the MBA's numbers I get that the tablet oriented battery test is even lighter that your standardized Light Workload battery test for PCs.
So...either I am right in my assumption, or wrong if you do a light workload PC test and get something like 4hours instead of your quoted 6.6h for the Pro2.