Microsoft Surface Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 23, 2012 9:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Surface
- Windows RT
WiFi Performance
Microsoft made an unusual choice for Surface’s WiFi hardware, it uses a Marvell AVASTAR dual-band MIMO (2x2) 802.11n wireless network controller (88W8797?). Marvell tends to be one of the more cost effective players in the industry which could help explain Microsoft’s choice.
Despite the rarely used silicon, WiFi range on Surface is quite good. Subjectively I was able to hold on to 2.4GHz signals at greater distances than I could on both the 3rd gen iPad, ASUS’ Transformer Pad Infinity and even compared to the VivoTab RT based on some short time I had with the device. Surface also maintains good distances on 5GHz however the performance drop offs are far more significant.
The sweet spot for Surface’s WiFi appears to be around 40 feet away from an AP, with minimal obstructions (doors/walls are fine). Within this range in my testing I was able to maintain speeds of around 20 – 40Mbps. Add another 20 or so feet and you’ll see performance cut in half again.
Although range is good on Surface, at the outer edges of coverage you’re looking at 2 – 4Mbps, which is only really enough for casual web browsing.
The only real downside to Surface’s WiFi performance is its peak performance. I wasn’t able to get beyond 42Mbps when copying files to the device from a local server on the network. It’s possible that I was limited by some file sharing protocol overhead, but without a good suite of network performance tools for Windows RT it was the best I could do for now.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
235 Comments
View All Comments
Netscorer - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
I am right now typing on my lap using the $599 3.4lb Visio Ultrabook with 1600x900 14'' real IPS screen, iCore 3 Ivy Bridge CPU with HD4000 graphics, 128Gb SSD and 4GB of RAM that can run both MS Office, Photoshop and Bioshock with the supreme authority and multi-task like there is no tomorrow.This incidentally is the exact same price that Microsoft wants for Surface with touch keyboard.
To me, IMHO, after you remove all that magnesium this and kickstand that marketing slogans taken straight from Microsoft brochure, my Visio Ultrabook is a much better and more important, usable device, period.
seapeople - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link
Cool story bro. Wish you weren't lying about the IPS screen thing.karasaj - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Does anybody think that an S4 Pro update or Tegra 4 in January-February of 2013 for Surface RT at the same price point as the current surface would be possible? That would be a serious tablet I think. It seems like Surface needs just a little more oomph to be a fantastic piece of equipment - how likely do y'all think (Anand reply maybe?) this is possible?Krysto - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
If Tegra 3 wasn't enough. S4 Pro won't be either. And you won't see a Tegra 4 Windows device until next fall.What Anand masterfully avoided to say in his review (who knows why?!) is that Tegra 3 works a lot better with Jelly Bean than it does with Windows RT. Windows RT just doesn't work as well as Android or iOS on the weaker ARM chips, and it needs something a lot more powerful and more expensive to run adequately. I mean it needs 2-5x the time to open an app compared to iPad? Really?
karasaj - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Well S4 Pro is a good bit stronger than Tegra 3 especially in single threaded stuff, no? We've seen it match up to the iphone 5 already, while Tegra gets beat bad.kyuu - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
Don't listen to Krysto or Netscorer, they don't have anything useful to say.I agree, the Tegra3 is obviously about the minimum WinRT can get away with. I'm not sure why MSFT didn't go with an S4 Pro or just plain S4 clocked up a bit. They're already using Qualcomm SoCs in their Windows 8 Phones, and either way (particularly the S4 Pro) would've been better than the Tegra3.
ananduser - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Honest review(this and the other RT device) and certainly more in-depth than CNet, Gizmodo(2 stars) and the Verge, that managed in one page to destroy winRT/AsusVivo.Krysto - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Honest review because you like it? I think Anand tried to make it as good as possible with all its negatives. That's not objective, that's covering up its flaws, in a biased manner.kyuu - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
Yeah, couldn't be that you're picking on the negatives and dismissing the positives because you're the one who's biased.Nah, couldn't be that.
Ikefu - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
When does the surface pro get released?If I can install all my work software under standard windows on a tablet of this quality I'm thinking I might be ready to bite. This would be so much more convenient to work on a plane with or in bed at night then my laptop. (Plus I can actually be productive instead of play games on my wife's iPad lol)