Surface2 FIrst Impressions

[Daylife]

From RT to Surface 2 the performance gap is huge.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Well, that really illustrates how far behind the power of Haswell ARM processors are. But wow, it also clearly shows that Surface 2 is by far the superior device when compared to the RT. This is wonderful news as performance was by far the biggest weak point of the original. The RAM improvement is especially wonderful and should do a lot to improve things like web browsing.

 

[nuprotocol]

Yes I'm really happy about the ram improvement as well. Each time I go up there I just want to take the Surface2 home. lol It was nice to run these benchmarks to see in numbers how much power the Surface2 has over the SurfaceRT. I again tested launching apps on the Pro2 and Surface2 at the same time and the Surface2 Is maybe a sec or less behind the Pro2.

The Surface2 begs to be outputted to a external monitor. Regular desktop performance is excellent. Opened Outlook, IE, Word and tried to open as many IE tabs as possible in desktop mode with zero slowdown.

 

[azcruz]

thanks for the tip. the MS reps were surprised about this app. most of them thought it came with Surface and they just didn't know about it. lol

EDIT: Damn I wasn't looking... Thanks for the screenshots!

Here's the updated spreadsheet.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

And big webpages that require a lot of scrolling load in smoothly? On my RT webpages that were particularly long really hung up a lot and occasionally locked the browser up completely.

 

[Daylife]

And big webpages that require a lot of scrolling load in smoothly? On my RT webpages that were particularly long really hung up a lot and occasionally locked the browser up completely.

Surface 2 eats through webpages like nothing.

 

[nuprotocol]

EDIT: Damn I wasn't looking... Thanks for the screenshots!

I compiled the figures of the devices I tested, here they are.


View attachment 44494

Could you add the Pro2 and Surface2 to your excel doc and repost?

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Surface 2 eats through webpages like nothing.

Awesome, that automatically makes it a far better device than the RT

 

[azcruz]

Re: Pro2 Benchmarks

Comparing the RT to the Surface2. The cpu benchmarking has doubled and I'm not sure what Microsoft did with the ram, but the Surface2 owns the SurfaceRT in ram benchmarking. lol

•2x bus speed for memory and WiFi

 

[azcruz]

Could you add the Pro2 and Surface2 to your excel doc and repost?

It should be there, I updated it. But I left the Surface Pro figures at the office BTW, my Acer S3 has an upgraded SSD from Crucial/Micron M400.

 

[chinesepiratefood]

I wouldn't actually expect software updates to change benchmark numbers, FWIW

PS - here is that benchmark on desktop system just to compare it to the tablets:

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Wow, your desktop is about 50% faster than my laptop. Not that this is particularly surprising, but my laptop is brand new. Hopefully getting a second graphics card in it will beef up it's GPU scores at least.

 

[Jas00555]

Hows the kickstand? My biggest concern is that it might not be sturdy in one place and would move around too easily.

Like say I'm in class and want to take notes and this is my chance to prove to my class of hipsters (this is hypothetical) how much better the SP2 is than the MBA. Would I be fumbling around trying to get the kickstand to stay in the middle spot because it switches too easily or does it keep sturdy?

I would like to hear someone's feedback on this because this is the one things I'm skeptical about before preordering

 

[nuprotocol]

Hows the kickstand? My biggest concern is that it might not be sturdy in one place and would move around too easily.

Like say I'm in class and want to take notes and this is my chance to prove to my class of hipsters (this is hypothetical) how much better the SP2 is than the MBA. Would I be fumbling around trying to get the kickstand to stay in the middle spot because it switches too easily or does it keep sturdy?

I would like to hear someone's feedback on this because this is the one things I'm skeptical about before preordering

kickstand works great. its just as good as youve seen in hands on videos on youtube.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[iosified]

I'm torn between Surface2 and SurgacePro2. For my needs I know I can get by with S2 but, the Pro2 is sweet plus I need a new laptop. I'll end up deciding in a couple of weeks.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I wouldn't actually expect software updates to change benchmark numbers, FWIW

Unless the benchmark software has direct access to the hardware, then software updates (specifically updates to particular system APIs) WOULD have an effect on benchmark numbers. And if the benchmark software has direct access to the hardware, then the results wouldn't be of much use since applications wouldn't be accessing the hardware directly but through system APIs.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I'm torn between Surface2 and SurgacePro2. For my needs I know I can get by with S2 but, the Pro2 is sweet plus I need a new laptop. I'll end up deciding in a couple of weeks.

If you need a new laptop the choice is simply: Pro 2. The Surface is more of a tablet replacement.

 

[johnbash612]

Has anybody managed to try the new Type Cover?

I was rather disappointed with the original and i want to know if it's worth getting the Type Cover 2.

i think its much better. The trackpad is much bigger and way more accurate, one of my biggest complaints about the 1. The key accuracy is much improved as well, but i think i will be getting the type 2 instead, dat backlight bleed between the keys is too cool to resist.

 

[bilzkh]

Excellent points. But generally speaking, people view Windows-based devices to be commodities where price is the primary factor. That's a psychological hurdle Microsoft is battling.

True, but that's "Windows" -- I think MS is really pushing 'Surface' as its own thing entirely, even though it uses Windows... They want people to say, "if you want a really fast and awesome PC, go get a Surface" or "if you want something that's professional, get a Surface" etc.