Surface Pro 2: Less than a laptop

The Surface Pro 2.

Credit: Peter Bright

A few months after its first computer hit the market, Microsoft released its second: the Surface Pro.

While the Surface RT ruffled the feathers of Microsoft’s OEM partners, it was the Surface Pro that really signaled Microsoft’s intent. Building computer hardware was certainly unusual for Microsoft, but the company had built appliance-like consumer devices before: the Xbox and Xbox 360. The Surface Pro, though, was a PC. Microsoft rose to dominance by licensing PC operating systems to other companies and letting them build the hardware.

The Surface Pro cut out those middlemen. It was a full PC in tablet form. Consequently, the Surface Pro was quick for a tablet, but it was hot, heavy, and short on battery life.

It was also an incomplete package. The Ivy Bridge processor meant that the Surface Pro, unlike the ARM Surface, could run the full range of PC software, whether desktop or Metro. But desktop software needs a keyboard and a pixel-perfect pointing device. The Surface Pro worked with Microsoft’s keyboard accessories, but it didn’t ship with one.

One of the major selling points of the Surface Pro was that it could run all this software and serve not just as a tablet but as a laptop replacement. To actually capitalize on that ability, though, you had to buy expensive accessories.

Even with these issues, the Surface Pro appears to have been modestly successful. Its form factor and pen digitizer meant that it found favor among digital artists, for example, and for those who did buy a keyboard, it could to some extent replace both a tablet and a traditional laptop with a single machine.

Iterative development

Microsoft’s approach to developing the Surface Pro 2 shares many characteristics with its approach to developing the Surface 2: keep the core concept unchanged, but tackle the widely acknowledged specific pain points.

For the Surface Pro, that meant one very specific thing: get rid of the 1.7-2.6GHz Ivy Bridge Core i5-3317U, replace it with a 1.6-2.6GHz Haswell Core i5-4200U. The Ivy Bridge processor was no power hog, but it was sufficiently hungry for electricity to restrict the Surface Pro to just a few hours of battery life. It’s also the reason the machine gets uncomfortably hot under heavy load.

Haswell manages to be both more miserly and faster than Ivy Bridge. The battery capacity of the Surface Pro 2 is identical to that of the first-generation machine, so this greater power efficiency translates directly into longer battery life.

What does this mean? In our battery test, the old Surface Pro averaged 4 hours, 35 minutes. The new Surface Pro 2 averages 7 hours, 32 minutes. That’s a huge (64 percent) improvement. And yet it’s faster. It beats the old device 128.3 to 144.9 milliseconds in SunSpider and 2675.8 to 3141.6 milliseconds in Kraken.

This is a vast improvement—Microsoft’s tablet-shaped PC now has tablet-like battery life.

The screen is also apparently upgraded, with the new one promising better color accuracy. The only other notable internal change is that the Surface Pro 2 is available with a larger SSD and more RAM. Four configurations are available:

• 64GB SSD with 4GB RAM
• 128GB with 4GB
• 256GB with 8GB
• 512GB with 8GB

These high memory configurations reinforce Microsoft’s position that the Surface Pro 2 is a machine for work, one that can even cope with heavy workloads.

Like the Surface 2, the internal speakers have been upgraded and now support some kind of Dolby technology. Unlike the Surface 2, the internal cameras haven’t been upgraded. They remain 720p devices, and they’re pretty poor representatives of the type. It seems odd that Microsoft wouldn’t upgrade the cameras to match the ARM device, but it hasn’t.

Externally, you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish the new machine from the old one. The only difference is the picture on the back: a Surface logotype instead of the Windows logo found on the first generation. The size and weight are unchanged.

This logo is essentially the only obvious visual difference between the two.

As with the Surface 2, the kickstand has been updated to support two angles rather than one; 24 degrees and 40 degrees instead of the old 22 degrees. Though the case design of the Surface Pro 2 has many small differences from that of the Surface 2 (the Pros have a thin air vent around the edge, for example), the quality and feel of the kickstand remains just as good. Even with the extra weight of the Pro system, the kickstand generally held firm at the mid position.

That’s the extent of the external changes. Notably, the power connector hasn’t been altered to match the new Surface 2 style, and it remains disappointingly fiddly. Microsoft is still yet to add a garage to hold the stylus when it’s not in use; it magnetically attaches to the charging port if there’s no charger attached. This remains an unsatisfactory solution.

The big problem

The Surface Pro 2 packs Ultrabook level parts into a tablet package, and Microsoft charges an Ultrabook-level price. For that, I expect Ultrabook-level utility, and I just don’t think the Surface Pro 2 delivers that.

Even with two positions, the kickstand lacks the flexibility that a traditional hinged laptop can boast. Two angles are better than one, but a continuously variable hinge beats two angles hands down. All too often with the Surface Pro 2 I found myself unsatisfied with both angles.

This is bad enough when using it on a desk or table. It’s even worse on my lap. I understand that many people never actually use laptops on their laps. They may move the machines around, from desk to conference room and back, for example, but always have a convenient flat surface to put their laptops on.

I, however, use my laptop when sitting on a sofa in front of the TV. I use it while sitting at the departure gate waiting for a plane. I use it when watching presentations at conferences. And every time I use it in one of these situations, I force my laptop to live up to its name: I use it on my lap.

The advantage the laptop has in this situation is not merely that its hinge allows more flexibility with the screen positioning. It’s that its footprint on my lap is much smaller. Because the screen is held with a stiff hinge, I can sit with the rear edge of the laptop actually floating in space. This in turn gives me the space to keep my wrists straight, for comfortable typing, and it means I don’t have to stick my elbows out, annoying anyone sitting next to me.

With the kickstand, I can’t do that. The footprint of the Surface Pro on my lap is pretty huge, because it’s not just the keyboard that needs to be supported; it’s the kickstand, too. This in turn pushes the keyboard uncomfortably close to my unfortunately sized belly, precluding the comfortable straight-wrists typing position and forcing my elbows to stick out.

Here’s how I use a laptop on my lap.

Here’s how I use a laptop on my lap.

And here’s how I have to use the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. My elbows are sticking out and my wrists are now bent.

And here’s how I have to use the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. My elbows are sticking out and my wrists are now bent.

And this is what happens to the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 when I forget what I’m using and try to make my hands more comfortable. Oh dear.

And this is what happens to the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 when I forget what I’m using and try to make my hands more comfortable. Oh dear.

And here’s how I have to use the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. My elbows are sticking out and my wrists are now bent.

And this is what happens to the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 when I forget what I’m using and try to make my hands more comfortable. Oh dear.

Compounding this, I have to pay attention when using it this way, because if, in a momentary lapse, I push the system even a fraction away from me when trying to adjust to a more comfortable posture, the kickstand falls off my knees and the screen promptly disappears from view.

What’s good for a tablet isn’t good for a laptop

The Surface Pro 2’s tablet form factor constrains it in other ways, too. Take its 10.6-inch screen, for example. That’s a big screen for a tablet—but for a laptop? It’s actually pretty damn small. Windows’ default 150 percent scaling on the Surface Pro means that it only has an effective resolution of 1280×720, which is much lower than you’d ever want for using apps like Excel or Photoshop. But use it at 100 percent scaling, taking advantage of its full 1920×1080 resolution, and everything is so physically small that it becomes very hard to see.

This is more significant than it might sound. The entire point of having that powerful x86-compatible processor in the Surface Pro 2 is that it can run not just desktop software, but complex desktop software. There’s a lot of processing power in that system, and it’s crying out to be used for building software in Visual Studio, crunching huge Excel spreadsheets, and whatever other tasks someone might want to throw at it. The problem is that most of that software isn’t really meant to be used at an effective resolution of 1280×720. The screen, as good-looking as it is, is just too damn small. A 13-inch screen would make it much better in this regard, but it would probably make the tablet form factor feel absurd.

A similar situation exists with the Type Cover and Type Cover 2 keyboards. The good news is that the actual keyboard feel of both is excellent. Even though the Type Cover 2 reduces thickness—and hence key travel—it still feels very comfortable to type on. But the trackpad, which was poor in the original Type Cover, remains poor. It’s very small and doesn’t appear to actually track very well. The buttons are also hard to click accurately.

As add-ons to a tablet, the Type Cover and Type Cover 2 are both great. Most tablets don’t have hardware keyboards and don’t have pixel-perfect pointing devices; with the covers, the Surface Pro 2 has both. But as alternatives to laptop input devices, the touchpads are a huge letdown.

Laptop minus

I characterized the Surface 2 as being a “tablet plus.” It takes the basic tablet concept and adds useful things to it. Not everyone will care for the additions—the kickstand, the keyboard covers, Office, USB—but for many people, I think they can add value to make the Surface 2 something more than “just a tablet.” It’s the tablet that does more.