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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
277 Comments
View All Comments
chizow - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
MBA had class-leading size and dimenions when it launched and still does, Surface Pro isn't even close to competitive tablets. There's clearly room for improvement, see: every review that mentions the same clunky form factor.mfergus - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Other Tables aren't competitive with Surface Pro performance either. I don't think its fair to compare the thickness of a Surface Pro with ARM tablets. Sure I'd like it to be thinner but I don't expect a much more powerful tablet to be as thin as tablets with phone SoC's.doobydoo - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
But the Surface Pro isn't competitive with other tablets in battery life. I don't think it's fair to compare the performance of a thin tablet with a fat one with less battery life.Sure I'd like iPad to be faster but I don't expect a much much better battery life and form factor to match the performance of a chunky laptop/tablet.
mfergus - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Cute comment, but I also wouldn't expect a thin tablet to match the Surface Pro's performance. There's going to be drawbacks for either one.Vi0cT - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
However Sony's VAIO Tap 11 gets pretty close.nerd1 - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
What are you smoking? Class-leading size? There are plenty of 13" ultrabooks with almost the same dimension as 11" MBA. What are you comparing surface pro to? iPad?chizow - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Oh yeah, they also didn't update the finish of the Pro chassis, unlike the Surface 2 which got a smaller chassis with a different color finish, less smudge prone, again indication they had leftover Pro stock from last year.sweenish - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I like how MS had to have had leftover shells because they "reused" it (while looking the same, it is better built; see the engadget review), but when Apple does the same thing it's because they're industry leaders.Grow up.
doobydoo - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Why can't what he said be true? You need to grow up.The Surface is chunky and that is undesirable. Many people will not buy because of it. Hardly anyone will have avoided the Macbook Air because it is bulky.
B3an - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I have to agree. I'd really like a Surface Pro, MS are really on to something with this idea, but it's still too thick and heavy. I was hoping with Haswell they could atleast get it slightly thinner/lighter. I'll just have to wait another year for Broadwell.