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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andrewaggb - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
I'm curious about this as well. The surface pro 2 is tempting. I kinda wish it was a quad core part as I'd like to use it as a desktop replacement, but my current system is a dtr laptop with a first gen i7 620m and from what I can tell this should be slightly slower, but perhaps not enough that I'd notice. I'm not really unhappy with the current cpu performance I'm getting so I might be ok with that. But it would be nice to say it's definitely faster. Do we know which sku's of i5 dell is looking at? Any chance there is an actual quad core part?Also can anybody confirm, with surface pro 2 using displayport, I should be able to chain 2 dell professional monitors together should I not? I have a U2413 with displayport in and out, I'm pretty certain I could run two of them from the single mini displayport on the surface pro2. That would definitely make the surface pro 2 a win over the dell in my books (which I believe uses hdmi)
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
It has two fans in it and you wonder why the battery life isnt better? hahahahahahjasonelmore - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
They really really really need to at least start putting a 4G HSPA+ Stack in this tablet. 4G LTE would be preferred, but just something that does not require me to carry a dongle or teather to my phone constantly. No doubt next year's version will have broadwell and a new chassis, and it will probably be the one to own, if they can get 4G integrated and connected standby.KAKAKAZAWWW - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Anand, or anyone else - any chance MSoft will offer a patch in the coming months to improve SP2's battery usage? (that is, assuming it's a software issue)Very puzzling that there's a discrepancy in battery life - I would love to read some more from you about a more dedicated attempt to find out what the issue is.
Klimax - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
What's up with complaint about thickness? Yeah, it won't snap in half in your hand or suffer other kind of damage, but that is plus. Not to mention that thinness will cost you features and battery.KPOM - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
A 2lb device can be cumbersome to hold for an extended period of time. People complained that the 3rd iPad was "heavy." If Microsoft can get the Broadwell Surface Pro down to the size and weight of an iPad they might sell considerably more of them. At 2lbs, it is more like a small ultrabook that you can occasionally use as a tablet, rather than a truly converged device.Klimax - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
Argument was about thinness, not weight. That would count as goalpost moving... (Question however then becomes, do we have affordable materials and light battery tech for this use?)Also wonder how much weight adds display...
gudomlig - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
what is the background u used for the photos? seriously that is more interesting to me than the surface 2 or the surface 2 pro. MS is capable of making good products but their marketing tends to suck, think ZuneHD. At their price point they should absolutely include the keyboard if they want to be competitive IMO. But seriously what's the artwork in the background!YakubuL - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Hey guys. I'm really interested in purchasing the Surface Pro 2 as my laptop/Desktop/Tablet all-in-one wonder device. Thing is I'm quite worried by this statement "Since there's no connected standby 64-bit version of Windows 8/8.1 yet, Surface Pro 2 ships without the feature."Searching around google for windows connected standby, I came across this white paper from Microsoft http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/ha...
In it Microsoft specifically claims "All client versions of Windows support Connected Standby on capable hardware—both ARM and x86/x64 systems."
In addition the article indicates that a lack of connected standby support would prevent many VOIP/IM services from functioning properly when the device sleeps as connected standby enables device wake-up in response Wake-on-Lan (WoL) Patterns.
The alternative would mean that the surface pro always stays in a full powered state. Interestingly enough, if your comment turns out to true, I wonder what this would mean for the rumored LTE surface pro 2. Mobile data without connected standby wouldn't make much sense .
beggerking@yahoo.com - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
not true. that was a iTurd who commented on that.my Surface Pro still had >60% batteries left after 2 weeks of inactivity. i didn't turn it off but i suppose it was in hibernation because i closed the lid(keyboard).