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
JumpingJack - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I believe he was making an "emperor's new clothes" type argument.beggerking@yahoo.com - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
you should shut up until Air gets a touchscreen, or ipad gets a full OSXbackbydemand - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
And when it does it will be "magical" and "innovative"KPOM - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I don't see the Air ever getting a touchscreen, or iPad ever getting OS X. I do see Apple's push to get the iPhone and iPad 64-bit processors as the first step in a massive improvement in iOS. Witness that everyone who buys an iOS device now gets Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. While they aren't up to Office standards, it's a sign that Apple wants to make iOS a "real" operating system. It's a logical strategy. iOS has a bigger market share than OS X.Therefore, Apple appears to be making a play to scale its mobile OS up to more powerful devices. It's starting from Apple's position of strength.Likewise, Microsoft is starting from its position of strength. Windows (for PCs) has a bigger market share than Windows Phone/Mobile ever did. Therefore, Microsoft is attempting to scale its PC OS down to mobile devices.
teiglin - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Thanks for the reviews as always. Never thought I'd see Penny Arcade cross-pollination in Anandtech!I'm still rather conflicted on your recent uptick of "on time" reviews--I know it's important (to OEMs and readers both) to get the reviews out right away at embargo lift, but I do miss the obsessive completeness of your dates-be-damned-we'll-finish-when-we-finish reviews. I do hope you'll consider putting off some of your full reviews and make sure you get every single test done that you want to run--I really miss your bevy of wifi quality tests, for example. Personally I like when you post quick impressions early but then follow on with the comprehensive review later.
takeship - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Another solution would be for someone do a moments after NDA expiry pod review, and then follow that up a few days/week later as necessary with a full fat review from one of the other writers. If I remember right, wasn't that done with the 2013 Mac Book Air review a few months ago? Best of both worlds. It may be a bit redundant, but most of us would read them both anyways.guste - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Completely agree with this post. I currently use a mid-2011 11.6" MBA and as a university student, the use cases of the Surface Pro 2 are really compelling. I've already seen a few of the original Surface Pros around classrooms and labs and so I pre-ordered one to give it a go. I was really hoping for a bit more here. I expect nothing useful from most other sites, but there's always a lot of meat on the bone here, so to speak.Anand, is there any possibility of you revisiting the Pro, with a more thorough follow-up?
frostyfiredude - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Are we the same person? I'm in the exact same boat here considering moving from the 11" 2011 Air to a Pro2 after having seen some classmates and profs pickup the original Pro. I've heard the phrase "this is the best purchase I've made in a long time" quite a few times in response to queries on the device.I'm in engineering so the pen will be awesome for technical drawings and all the graphs in our notes, something which has made the Air significantly less useful than expected.
guste - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
We must be the same person, as I'm also in engineering (physics)... Or, more likely, there are a few of us that are looking for something life a bit easier.I came really close to getting the Pro last year, but that battery life was abysmal and frankly, I couldn't justify getting a new computer after one year anyway. The mid-2011 Air is still a fantastic machine and I've come to admire Mac OSX to the point that I'm a bit apprehensive about going back to Windows on a full-time basis. I think that's where my desire for a top notch Anand review is coming from and why I'm a bit deflated at the moment. It's not going to stop me from trying out the Pro for the next couple of weeks and making my own determination, but I'm still holding out hope for a follow-up.
guste - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Looks like Anand will be going more in-depth:https://twitter.com/anandshimpi/status/39214496614...
It may take some time though, as he's just flown out to cover the Apple event.
What concerns me is the conversation that follows the initial tweet, about the power optimization of Mac OSX vs. Windows. Some guy is comparing a 1366x768 MBA to the 1080P screen with a digitizer on the SP2. Power optimization is undoubtedly worse under Windows, but both he and Anand compared apples to oranges without batting an eye.