Microsoft Surface Pro Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 5, 2013 9:00 PM ESTSurface Pro as a Windows 8 Notebook
If you can deal with tradeoff of having a not-totally-rigid display/keyboard hinge, Surface Pro does approximate a notebook fairly well. The trackpads integrated into the covers don’t do a good job, but getting used to the touchscreen for most mousing duties isn’t a problem at all. The biggest issue with using Surface Pro as a notebook replacement is that you just can’t use it in as many sitting configurations as you’d be able to with a traditional notebook. If you can deal with that however, it’s a pretty awesome device.
When it comes to performance and response time, Surface Pro behaves just like an Ultrabook. In our performance tests it ended up a bit behind Acer’s 13-inch S7, but I’m guessing that has more to do with Microsoft having a slightly more conservative thermal profile than the larger notebook. You'll notice that in most of these tests, Surface Pro is within striking distance of Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air running Windows.
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thecoldanddarkone - Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - link
Hopefully I get mine tomorrow. Looking at the model it looks like some an 830 controller (lazy google).thecoldanddarkone - Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - link
Same as yours.dilse - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
Though i am new-user I like your review very much anandhji....simple yet powerful review covering all aspects without any biasI like""surface pro as a tablet"" part of the review and your comparison with other tablets in the market.
Keep it up and thank you very much
augustofretes - Saturday, February 16, 2013 - link
The way I see it the Surface Pro is just a better ultrabook than the rest (specifically I think is a better ultrabook than the Macbook Air 11"). It's an ultrabook that can also work as a decent tablet. As an ultrabook it's only disadvantage is not being comfortable to use in your lap, which I don't think is a major problem when it has a great screen, touch screen, stylus support and a Micro-SD slot.kelhardy80 - Sunday, March 3, 2013 - link
I did some research on this product and was surprised to see that most customers of the Microsoft Surface Pro are ok with the battery life (about 5 hrs on average with heavy constant use...and 8 hours with usage on- and off). Besides, most of us are near a power outlet anyway! Some customers even said they had no problem using this machine on their lap. For a more detailed look at the Surface Pro from the point of view of actual customers, check out http://ceejay1980.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Windows-8-... for a compilation of customer reviews of the Surface Pro.yos123 - Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - link
another review www.windows8web.com/surface-proalnnn - Sunday, April 7, 2013 - link
"Haswell is part of the solution to this problem, but we’re still talking about waiting until the end of the year before Microsoft can realistically integrate that."Realistically, if we assume that Haswell will launch in June, how long will it take for Microsoft to integrate Haswell into a Surface Pro 2? Q4? Or Q3?
Shockwave241 - Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - link
I, personally, own a Microsoft Surface RT, and I did the exact same benchmark, and I got completely different results. My Kraken Benchmark result was around 25,000 m/s, 1/2 of what these results seem to be. It could have been the WiFi connection at the time, but I'm not sure.