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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aliase - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
wow, you guys actually tear-down it before ifixit did.unkinected - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I've been trying forever to find any info on connected standby. According to a MS whitepaper (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/ha... page 7), Windows already supports this for ALL platforms:"All client versions of Windows support Connected Standby on capable hardware—both ARM and x86/x64 systems."
So shouldn't that mean the Surface Pro 2 already supports this? Unless the hardware is not up to snuff, in which case no software/firmware update is ever going to address this. There's no clear documentation anywhere online, was hoping you guys could clear it up.
unkinected - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
And further to the point...with Connected Standby enabled, I'm wondering how much battery life I get when idle.synth0 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Dear Anand,I generally like your reviews, however I fail to understand your slashing remarks regarding the battery life of the new Surface Pro.
Regarding the battery life, you say, and I quote:
"...seems only good for around 6 – 7 hours on a single charge..."
"Battery life is still not up to snuff with traditional ARM based tablets"
I just can't grasp how can an adequate reviewer compare a desktop designated CPU (designed for ULTRABOOKS) to a ARM devices (which are primarily designed for PHONES), and EVEN so: Surface manages to give 85% of battery life of Galaxy Tab 3, while providing 5-10 times faster CPU & GPU performance (really!).
Answers, please...!
YuLeven - Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - link
I agree with your statement.This tablet has a full blown Intel haswell chip clocking inside. Whats the point in comparing it to weak, small ARM core's battery life?
aritai - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Ditto here. Even better with a 3rd (or even a 4th or a 5th) screen using a usb3 hub plus a video adapter.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086359SG
because "it's also (just) a (high performance) PC"
ccd2 - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I'm not sure MS has gotten used to the speed with which tech devices like convertibles are improving. The Pro was groundbreaking last year. This year it has competition. Next year, the competition will be even stiffer. Broadwell has the potential to be a game changer for the OEM that puts it all together. My thought is that Dell could be the big winner. The XPS 12 was been a nifty idea in need of better hardware. It's already a pretty decent laptop, just not a compelling tablet. Make the XPS 12 thinner and lighter and it might be as good a compromise as anything out there. And that does not take into account what Sony or someone else will do with Broadwell. MS needs to look at Google and the reasons for its success in its devices so far: aggressive improvements coupled with aggressive pricing. The Surface Pro 2 shows that MS has not yet learned that lesson.Will Aitchison - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
I'm really curious to see how the Dell Venue 11 Pro will stack up against the Surface Pro 2 in terms of build quality and pricing when it comes out in a few weeks. I know it's a busy time of the year for everybody but I really hope somebody at Anandtech gets a chance to review it.I'm holding my breath for more configurability - I'm okay with a 128GB SSD, but I wouldn't want to settle with less than 8GB ram. I also think they may have made the right choice with their choice of the Y sku i5's. Hopefully they can offer up some strong competition - I'm really interested to see what they come up with.
kyuu - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Amazon currently has 3 of the Venue Pro 11 SKUs listed: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-...It looks to start at $550 for the model with an Atom. Moves up to $650 for the Pentium, then $850 for the model with a Core i5. There's supposed to be a Core i3 option as well, which I'd guess will fall in at the $750 mark, given the way the pricing is structured. Atom model comes with 2GB of RAM, all the others with 4GB.
So you're not going to get better specs, and the Core i5 model is only $50 cheaper. I'd pay $50 more for the better chassis and accessories, myself. It is interesting if you're looking for a cheaper tab that doesn't use Atom (with the Pentium and Core i3 options).
Will Aitchison - Monday, October 21, 2013 - link
Kudos for finding pricing information, I had been looking earlier and had not found it. I agree with your sentiment about paying a little extra for the premium build quality that MS has been delivering. It also appears that Dell is charging extra for the stylus, effectively bringing the two devices close to the same price point if that functionality is important to you.I still find myself hoping that some competing company can actually deliver the product I'm really looking for. Microsoft is so infuriatingly close with the Pro 2, but I can't help but feel they did not iterate the device enough this round, and it needs one more revision. For the premium price point it's difficult to make the investment in something which doesn't feel quite ready.
As an aside, a big part of why I'm interested in the Venue 11 Pro is the Transformer style keyboard and power dock, although this is definitely a matter of personal preference.