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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beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Anand is confused between a FULL windows OS vs ios / android...unfortunately.. probably half hearted review as well.putting my Surface Pro to "power saver" profile and it last 5-6 hrs easy.
every other review I read Surface Pro lasts 8 hrs.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I believe Vivek pulled that number from our older, lighter tablet battery life test. The 4.7 number I re-ran for this review using the latest suite that we introduced with the iPhone 5 review last year. It's a heavier workload for sure.I will be running Surface Pro 2 through our standard Windows notebook battery life tests, just didn't have time to do so prior to the NDA lift.
cloudgazer - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
Would be nice to see a rerun of the old test on the same Surface Pro device to see how much of the difference between 6 and 4.7 is down to battery age/condition.Travk06 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Can you include the Snapdragon 800 reference platform in the performance charts?GooseGrease - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
When Microsoft boasted ~40% greater colour accuracy, I expected a better panel, but I don't think they improved the display at all! They merely calibrated it and the saturation plots show all the tell tale signs of narrow gamut clipping post calibration. It looks virtually identical to the one in Anand's original Surface Pro review, post-calibration.The better display was one thing I was really looking forward to. I'm disappointed. :(
GooseGrease - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
http://i.imgur.com/F7GlSHv.png(The saturation chart from Anand's Surface Pro 2 review. The grey triangle is the original Surface Pro's gamut)
This pretty much confirms my suspicion: Surface Pro 2's display is the same as Surface Pro's, except it's calibrated out the door.
tential - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I find it amusing that people are comparing a TABLET to a MBA.Then they are ignoring all of the tablet's benefits, while touting the MBA's and ignoring the detractions of the MBA.
I won't lie, I LOVE the MBA series. Always have. But you're comparing two products that do different things.
MBA is great for what it does.
Surface Pro 2 is great for having WINDOWS OS (which is a very important key word in all of this), in the palm of your hands.
Android devices are great at what they do.
In the end, it's all based on WHAT YOU NEED. Most of the comments on here clearly aren't objective and are pushing one party over the other.
nerd1 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
MBA now lags way behind competitions, lacking a proper high-resolution IPS display and touchscreen which becomes a new standard. Now you can pay $350 to get T100 (720p IPS display, touchscreen) or $500 to get venue 11 pro (1080p IPS display, active digitizer, touchscreen)ddriver - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Unimpressive-ness redefined! Keep it up M$...Silma - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I really don't think it's a good review. I know there is intense pressure to make reviews available as soon as possible but this seems rushed. A few benchmarks don't make for a review.On battery life you only talk about your own benchmark, which leads me to think you haven't even tried to time the battery while doing usual work with the tablet and you haven' the faintest idea of what it could be.
On the body all you complain is you find it too thick and too heavy which is your right of course.
But you certainly never explain how exactly this has an impact. Were you tired holding the tablet with 2 hands? With one? what did you do with it when holding it so?
Also your are very quick not to mention how this is a masterpiece of studiness, and the advantages that come from such a kind of industrial stength body.
USB3? Doesn't seem to interest you. Cameras? Yes the resolution is bad but they are clearly thought for video communication. The low light demo from Microsoft was outstanding, did you try to replicate it and what were your own conclusions? Sound? Whatever. Wifi? how good or bad is it? Pen? Barely mentioned there. Isn't it the case that it is one of the best pen tablet available today?