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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ananduser - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Anand usually calibrates for 200nits. But it seems to me that Anand rushed the testing, I mean the Pro is definitely worthy of PC testing. This review only focuses on tablet testing.jje - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
I am writing this on my Galaxy Note II because the S pen stylus is so much easier to use than a tiny onscreen keyboard. l am thinking of getting a bigger tablet, such as the Note 10.1, but l use OneNote a lot and the Android version isn't great and of course there's no integration with Outlook (which doesn't exist on Android). I would love to come out of a meeting, click on a note l've just made with my stylus and drop it onto the tasks list in Outlook to update my to-do list. So the digitizer in the surface is, for me, a really attractive feature. I don't want or need another laptop, I want a bigger version of my phone that runs Office and uses a stylus. The Surface Pro is overkill (too expensive and a bit heavy) but the surface 2 doesn't have a digitizer. So, I am waiting for Dell's Venue Pro 11 and to test drive a Note 10.1. l wish Microsoft and others would think about making a perfect tablet instead of a half-arsed laptop.Imaginer - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
The thing is, if going by sheer physical size, there is no one size fit completely all. It is asking for one shoe size for everyone, big and small.Microsoft left other sizes for now open to other hardware partners. The Dell Venue Pros go at 8 inches as well as 11 like you mentioned. Sony has an 11 inch offering. Acer offers a 7 inch tablet.
And Wacom themselves offer a 13 inch Companion tablet.
jje - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Sure, but it's not just the screen: the surface Pro is heavy and expensive, arguably because it's overpowered. Microsoft have been in pen computing a very long time and its handwriting recognition is superb: l just wish they would put it in the right hardware.Serr - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
"I did notice an odd display corruption issue on Surface Pro 2 when waking up from sleep (pictured above). Resetting the device or sometimes just doing another sleep/wake cycle was enough to fix it. Microsoft tells me it’s aware of the problem and plans to issue an update shortly to address it.""I noticed the same trackpad disappearing issues on Surface Pro 2 as I did on Surface 2, Microsoft claims a fix is in the works."
"Like Surface 2, Surface Pro 2 ships with 150% DPI scaling enabled for classic desktop applications. Unfortunately even under Windows 8.1 there are a lot of issues with DPI scaling in 3rd party applications and touch targets. Chrome for example is mostly unusable as a touch browser in classic mode."
"While multitasking on Surface 2 can struggle, the same really can’t be said for Surface Pro 2."
"Just like last year, my recommendation comes with a caution – Surface Pro 2 is good, I’m happier using it than I was with last year’s model, but the Broadwell version will be even better."
Looks like a "don't buy" advice for both tablets to me.
althaz - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Multitasking may struggle on the Surface 2 (in my experience it depends what you are doing), but you can't do it all on other tablets :).althaz - Thursday, October 24, 2013 - link
Also, the 150% scaling issues do exist, but I can't recall encountering them. This might be because there's not many desktop apps that I use (basically Office, remote desktop, games and Putty).If you want to use Chrome (I do use Chrome on my desktop, but prefer IE11 on my Surface Pro because it's faster and supports touch) or another 3rd party browser this might be where the issue starts to crop up.
The other things are minor bugs (no different to similar things on every laptop/phone/tablet released) and will be fixed promptly.
Not that I'm saying you nessecarily should buy, but for what it is there is no better device ever made.
What it isn't though is a lightweight tablet or a portable typing machine. As somebody who uses it for portable gaming (emulators, Starcraft and Football Manager mostly), in-transit media and information consumption and a portable desktop PC though, I can say I do not miss my laptop (in fact I am not 100% sure where I even left it).
Utomo - Friday, October 25, 2013 - link
Suggestion: 1 Microsoft need to improve the windows 8, so the battery life is much better. including on standby 2 need a thinner body 3 Price is too expensive.Devjones2236 - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
First, the stylus is the best in its class. It has very good accuracy and feels like you are writing with a pen not a piece of crap rubberized marker like the ipad. This requires a capacitive screen, which is much more expensive than a non-capacitive screen (ipad or any other apple product, as well as Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro and most other windows machines) it has premium specs with a high def screen. I hate when people compare this to MacBook Air. The air is not touch screen at all and does not have a HD screen. The 128 gb ipad is $800 without a keyboard and it cannot run legacy applications, does not have a capacitive screen allowing for digitized stylus (just the crappy bamboo sticks), does not come with a pen, and does not have the performance the Surface Pro 2 has. iPads are good for what they are but the surface pro 2 deserves a premium price. In addition, it is perfect for taking written notes on in meetings where clicking keyboards are not allowed or in class, it is productive on the go, and at home I hook it up to a 32 inch LED TV which allows me to be very productive. The weight is not that big of an issue unless you want to read a book sitting in a chair. I read PDFs on it all the time. However, if reading is the only reason you want a tablet I would stay with a 7-8inch light tabletProppw - Sunday, October 27, 2013 - link
"This requires a capacitive screen, which is much more expensive than a non-capacitive screen (ipad or any other apple product,"You just made a fool of yourself! Apple uses capacitive screens since iPhone 1 for touch enabled screen products (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch).
This shows how ignorant MS shills are!