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
Battery Life
Surface Pro 2 retains the same 42Wh battery and 48W charger as the original Surface Pro. I wasn’t pleased at all with the battery life of the original design, and I had hoped for a significant increase in battery life with Surface Pro 2. Microsoft claims up to a 75% increase in battery life compared to the original. In our 2013 tablet battery life test that turned out to be a 40% advantage – not shabby, but not where it needs to be. Update: Microsoft issued a firmware update that brings Surface Pro 2 up to 8.33 hours of battery life in our web browsing battery life test, or 76% better than the original Surface Pro.
I’m also beginning to think that Haswell’s video decode engine may not be all that power efficient. We did see better results out of OS X, but it’s still nowhere near what’s possible on the best ARM platforms.
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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.