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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Freakie - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I don't think they're playing it safe, or trying to get larger profit margins for that matter, I think that if they added all the features and specs that most of us would agree should have been in the Pro 2 (better cameras for example) then it would detract from the Surface 2 and Microsoft refuses to give up Windows RT. It's just them try to save an obviously sinking ship. I wish they just let it sink and put the Surface Pro 2 where it should be.But then again, that would probably upset many OEM's who don't make devices as good as the Pro 2 and so they have another incentive there to not do it.
melgross - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
It would also have raised the price, and it's already pretty expensive as it is.I remember that just before the iPad first came out, there were surveys that showed
that only a small percentage of people would buy a tablet if it cost more than $800. That was for any tablet, running any OS. This is well over that, particularly once you add the required keyboard/cover.
And now that the trend is to think that $499 for a full size tablet is on the high side, the price for those is way too high already. I doubt that most people would ever think that a tablet, any tablet, is worth more than a notebook, touchscreen or not.
Nuno Simões - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
This the review for the Surface Pro, wich is an ultrabook, not a tablet.Rezurecta - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Yes, you can say its driving the ecosystem in the right place. The productive tablet is where we need to be. Too much consumption with traditional tablets.Babar Javied - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Why use a "productive tablet" when you can get an ultra-book for the same price yet with better specs and more battery life?What is the difference between a productive tablet and an ultra-book anyway??
rituraj - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
The difference is the digitizer. I think if someone is not interested in the pen input, this device is not for them AT ALL. It's too heavy to be used as a consumption device where you can hold it above your head on the bed, at the same time it is uncomfortable for productivity purposes if that means a lot of typing. But, if productivity means using the pen input, then this is a killer device. Just read the review by Gabe as suggested by Anand in the intro page and it is clear that it is almost a blessing for people who ink for a living.here is a thought. Although this device has been presented as a general consumer device, I seriously doubt it. People wanting this much power in a tablet are not a lot in number. They are professional artists & designers like Gabe from Penny Arcade. Engineers, Teachers, Engineering and designing students may also crave for such a device although the price is quite high for students. So if the pen means very little for someone this is just not the thing to get.
backbydemand - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
"What is the difference between a productive tablet and an ultra-book anyway??"Are you brain dead? When was the last time you could take a keyboard off your ultrabook and use it as a tablet?
cknobman - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
If your comparing a Nexus to the Surface Pro you have no clue what your talking about.As an owner of a Surface Pro, Surface RT, and a Google Transformer tablet I can tell you in no way does an Android tablet come close to a Surface Pro much less a Surface RT.
The Surface family are brilliant products that actually do what I want out of a tablet. They offer a great platform for consuming AND creating content.
Only knock I can give either Surface is Microsoft is pricing them a little to high. Android is garbage when it comes to something productive and the marketplace is such a huge sh!tpile that I gave up wasting my time sifting through the apps because every single app (even if it starts out great) turns into a resource hog always running in the background transmitting data even if you tell it not to.
Frenetic Pony - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
The Surface Pro (1) was perfect for me, last year. Had I waited 4 months and known about it I would have gotten one instead of the current ultrabook I'm typing this on. It was priced perfectly competitively, and the only real product in it's category (very high performance tablet thing) that even existed.The 2 is still the only product in it's category, but with a drop in TDP I'm disappointed it's not thinner and lighter. Since I'm planning on replacing my ultrabook in the next two years I do agree that another update such as this one would be a disappointment. Here's to a thinner and lighter Surface Pro next year, preferably with a large improvement in GPU performance considering that's the big Broadwell performance upgrade.
CecileWamsley - Monday, October 28, 2013 - link
My Uncle Riley recently got a great Cadillac CTS-V Wagon just by working online with a macbook... check out the post right here... http://smal.ly/8wUo2