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
Display
Like Surface 2, Surface Pro 2 ships with 150% DPI scaling enabled for classic desktop applications. Unfortunately even under Windows 8.1 there are a lot of issues with DPI scaling in 3rd party applications and touch targets. Chrome for example is mostly unusable as a touch browser in classic mode.
There’s not much difference between the new 1080p panel in Surface 2 and what’s in Surface Pro 2. Both feature a laminated cover glass and the same increase in color gamut. The end result is a big improvement over the previous generation, but not quite up to the level of color accuracy we’ve come to expect from cheaper tablets.
Surface Pro 2's display does get substantially brighter than the panel in my Surface 2 review sample. One thing I don't have a good feel for is just how much variation there is between panel suppliers into the Surface lines.
It really is a very good display, it just could be better.
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Klimax - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
You don't need stylus either... it is just one of many options with Surface. And I don't think Type Cover adds that much weight either.MikadoWu - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Good Choice. I have been using the Surface Pro (purchased 3 for the Family) as my Main computer since release, and Planning on getting the Dock when it hits.Sent my Daughter to college with only the Surface and a 24 inch Flat Screen. She gets hounded daily about the Pro, and many of the Honors students, are upset they got MacBook's after seeing what she does. She just giggles and smiles.
I am replacing my Fathers RT (Mom gets the RT), this week for the 8/256 Model. Can not wait to see how AutoCAD runs on it.
hoboville - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Interesting, though you're very much in a niche. As someone who has to write endless reports, I can barely stand my own laptop keyboard at times even though it's mid-sized (ProBook 6570b). The nice thing about my laptop is that I can write the reports somewhere alone with it, then when I have to start messing with email and spreadsheets and research, I can hook it up to a monitor and have two sizable displays. It's hard to put a price on that retail space.And that's kind of the point, sadly. Surface could be a great device, but it's very dependent on the kind of work you do.
meacupla - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I thought the 75% battery life increase over original was with the power cover?inighthawki - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Nope, it's the power savings gotten from haswell, LPDDR3, and OS optimizations. With the power cover i think they said it was 150% of the original. Someone feel free to correct me on the exact number.zerogear - Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - link
2.5x with power cover was the stats given.chizow - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
No change to the chassis makes me think they just made too many of the chassis and didn't sell enough of them with the original Pro. I still wish Intel dropped the price point on the Pro, or made a x86 version with their Bay Trail-T SoCs, instead I'll end up picking up an Asus Transformer T100 instead.inighthawki - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Just out of curiosity, is there any reason you expected it to change? Or do you just mean mainly thickness?chizow - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Yep, mainly in terms of thickness due to the move to Haswell ULT, and possibly better configuration of internals. The original Surface Pro teardown showed the internals were pretty sparse and a nearly universal criticism of the Pro was it's thickness, especially compared to the RT.http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+P...
nerd1 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Apple haven't changed the MBA chassis for almost 4 years - which means they didn't sell enough of them and reusing old chassis.