I was a noted critic of the original Surface RT, and never got the chance to assess the Surface Pro. What then, of the next generation laptop-tablet hybrid?
Microsoft Surface Pro 2: On the plus side
Microsoft’s Surface strategy has, since its inception had two interlinked product arms. There’s the Surface RT family — the original tablet and the Surface 2, running the ARM-based WindowsRT operating system that I’m no great fan of, and then the professional pitch with the Surface Pro and its replacement, the Surface Pro 2.
Surface Pro 2 runs full Windows 8.1, which makes it an interesting product to assess. Do I judge it against the consumption criteria of a tablet, or the productivity criteria of a notebook? It’s not alone in being a hybrid, but it’s easily the most prominent and heavily hyped.
It’s a good thing, then, that it’s a well built device. One of my core criticisms of Surface Generation One has been removed by making the integrated kickstand fold out into two angles. As such, it’s feasible to use the Surface Pro 2 on your lap, something that was always a wobble-fest on the original models.
There’s been a lot written about whether Windows 8.1’s “Modern” interface (or is it Metro.. or not? Anyway, tiles) was a good step or not, but it’s tough to argue with the proposition that the Surface Pro 2 makes it work quite elegantly in both laptop and tablet configurations. Once you learn the gestures — remembering that absolutely no interfaces are genuinely “intuitive”, no matter what the marketing hype might tell you — they quickly become second nature, and at least on the display screen, they work quite well.
Underneath the touch sensitive screen lurks an Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6GHz processor running on Intel’s own HD Graphics 4400 GPU. This isn’t a heavy duty gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination, but if you were looking at it from the tablet perspective it’s nicely powerful. That’s Microsoft’s persistent pitch with Surface Pro 2, which arguably sits much closer to the notebook world than the tablet one in actual usage.
In benchmark terms, the Surface Pro 2 returned PCMark 8 scores of 2963 in the Home test, 3773 in Work and 2641 in Creative. It’s not exactly a high-end workstation, but as an on-the-go productivity machine it’s quite robust.
Where the inclusion of a Haswell processor makes a real difference is in battery life. Battery life was a noted problem with the original Surface Pro, but the Core-i54200U in the Surface Pro 2 did quite well.
In a full screen, full brightness test with battery saving measures disabled, it managed a respectable six hours and forty eight minutes before exhaustion. It essentially means within the productivity space you should be able to get a day’s work out of the Surface Pro 2 without too much difficulty.
Microsoft Surface Pro 2: On the minus side
At 920 grams, The Surface Pro 2 is either a low-weight laptop, or an extremely heavy tablet. Microsoft wants it positioned as both, so it’s fair to point this out, especially as it makes the Surface Pro 2 quite hard to hold in portrait orientation for any extended period of time. The WindowsRT-based Surface 2 is much lighter in this respect — but I’ve said my bit on WindowsRT already.
The charger for the Surface Pro 2 still uses a magnetically attached cable. That should be a good thing, but like its predecessors, it often doesn’t line up neatly or attach properly. More engineering is needed here.
Microsoft sells the Surface Pro 2 in four capacities, but it’s worth keeping in mind that Windows 8.1 isn’t exactly a storage lightweight, so the entry level models end up with quite a bit less than the pitched 64GB of actual storage.
Microsoft’s heavily invested in accessories for the Surface Pro 2, including new Touch and Type covers. I’ve spent the vast majority of my testing time with the Type cover, because while the Touch cover is a neat bit of engineering, and apparently more capable than the original Touch cover was, the fundamental truth is that for productivity work, it’s still not very good.
One minor gripe with the Type cover; the touchpad also replicates the charms and app slide functions of the full screen, which sounds neat in theory. There’s not much delineation between the cover and the touchpad, however, and this meant that more than once when I meant to sweep across the screen I launched the Charms bar instead. It’s not that tough to reach the screen anyway, so a little extra touchpad space might have been a better idea there.
Microsoft Surface Pro 2: Pricing
The Surface Pro 2 comes in four storage capacities. The base 64GB model costs $1019. The 128GB model is $1129. The 256GB model is $1469 and the top of the tier 512GB Surface Pro 2 runs a hefty $2039. Those come with the onscreen stylus but not the touch or type covers, which will set you back an additional $139.99/$149.99 respectively.
Microsoft Surface Pro 2: Fat Duck verdict
I rather infamously broke a cardinal rule of reviewing back when the Surface RT came out, declaring right at the start of my review that you shouldn’t buy one. I probably didn’t make too many friends at Microsoft that day, but I stand by that verdict.
The Surface Pro 2 is a harder prospect to completely judge. If you want a productivity tablet with a lot of portability, I’d be sorely tempted to opt for something lighter and cheaper such as the Transformer Book T100 or the Toshiba Encore, both of which give you that full Windows 8.1 experience, albeit with smaller display screens.
What if you wanted a Windows 8.1 laptop, though? The Surface Pro 2 is nicely built, and generally hits the kinds of performance targets you’d want out of a premium laptop. You can certainly buy cheaper, but in the premium space it’s an interesting, if not exactly cheap option.