I had surface pro 2 for about a week. I'd like to share some of my experience. I hope this would help those who is still shopping.
Shopping experience
Like a lot of you, MS screwed up and canceled my pre order because the credit card authorization issue. I almost bought the Asus T100 until news came out that the battery life is improved to be around 8 hours. So, I went to BestBuy, they honored price matching and give me 10% discount. Good job, BestBuy.
Build quality
The build is overall solid. There is minor issue with the kickstand. It is slightly bend in the middle and not perfectly aligned. It is a very small issue though... In my mind, iPad has better build quality; however, this might be due to iPad uses only one piece of medal.
Is 4GB enough?
I can run WP 8 SDK (uses hyper-v) and SQL Server at the same time on it. There is no issue. I did receive low memory warning when I played Company of Heroes on it. I think this is because the integrated graphics card shares the main memory. An intensive 3D game could potentially use up all the ram.
There is a trick about the RAM though. For those of you who do not know, Metro Apps won't close when you thought you closed it. They are always running in the background and each uses 80mb to 150mb memory. Therefore, you probably want to really exit out of the metro apps before you do RAM intensive stuff. Here is a video on how to close them. How to Close Metro App in Windows 8.1 - YouTube
Overall, I think the RAM is enough for what I do.
Is it too heavy too thick?
It is not thick at all as a tablet in my opinion, you can easily pick it up with one hand. The iPad is thinner, which does nothing for me... It does feel a little heavy though, especially when you try to hold it by the edge with one hand. I am also a little concerned about carrying it in a backpack for a long period of time. However, since we are humans, we can always adapt. I almost think a little weight is a good thing, which reminds me I need to get into better shape.
Battery
Standby time is outstanding. In sleep mode, I get 5% deduction per 24 hours. This means if I leave it in sleep mode fully charged, I will still get at least 60% when I wake it up after a week.
The rest would depend on how you use it. For light browsing and office, you can get 8 hours easily. Conservatively speaking, You can get about 5.5 hours for flash video streaming. If you use an app, you might get 6 hours for video streaming. For 3D gaming, I did not test but you can use your imagination.
My screen brightness is usually 25% to 30% when I am on battery. I also modified the default power profile to conserve power.
The battery charges quickly. I feel the battery quality is not up to par of what Sony uses these days.
Good for gaming?
The graphics level is almost the same as Nvidia 540m, which honestly was unthinkable two years ago. If you are not a demanding gamer, you should be very happy. It plays total war 2, COH, black ops, SC2 just fine.
Is it hot or loud?
It gets a little warm when normally used, which is why I do not use a case. The fan is quiet most of the time. It will be audible, when you are gaming. Overall, it is tolerable.
Buggy live tiles
I've been using W8.1 and WP8 for a while, but live tiles are still weird. MS needs to do a better job. If they think it is the future, they need to make it work better and correctly.
All in all
All the ports, WiFi, Bluetooth and sensors works fine so far. Doing Skype call is great on it. The Type Cover is pure genius. The USB was not able to recognize a portable HDD. I was able to get it to work after fooling around.
If you were comparing it to an iPad, it is more useful than iPad, but it is harder to use than iPad. It is an true all in one device and an all in one compromise.
My wishes
I hope it has a larger display. 12 inch would be idea. The Kickstand uses such small foot print, which beggs it to be bigger. If MS or any one can make something like this with 12 inch screen, better battery and same weight, it would be a hit.
W8.1 needs more touch based apps. I barely touched my iPad until I wanted to try the new Asphalt 8 racing game. If they are not able to match offerings for Android and iOS by next year, then w8.1 would be a failure and a disaster for MS.
How do you like your SP2 so far and what is your wish?
Shopping experience
Like a lot of you, MS screwed up and canceled my pre order because the credit card authorization issue. I almost bought the Asus T100 until news came out that the battery life is improved to be around 8 hours. So, I went to BestBuy, they honored price matching and give me 10% discount. Good job, BestBuy.
Build quality
The build is overall solid. There is minor issue with the kickstand. It is slightly bend in the middle and not perfectly aligned. It is a very small issue though... In my mind, iPad has better build quality; however, this might be due to iPad uses only one piece of medal.
Is 4GB enough?
I can run WP 8 SDK (uses hyper-v) and SQL Server at the same time on it. There is no issue. I did receive low memory warning when I played Company of Heroes on it. I think this is because the integrated graphics card shares the main memory. An intensive 3D game could potentially use up all the ram.
There is a trick about the RAM though. For those of you who do not know, Metro Apps won't close when you thought you closed it. They are always running in the background and each uses 80mb to 150mb memory. Therefore, you probably want to really exit out of the metro apps before you do RAM intensive stuff. Here is a video on how to close them. How to Close Metro App in Windows 8.1 - YouTube
Overall, I think the RAM is enough for what I do.
Is it too heavy too thick?
It is not thick at all as a tablet in my opinion, you can easily pick it up with one hand. The iPad is thinner, which does nothing for me... It does feel a little heavy though, especially when you try to hold it by the edge with one hand. I am also a little concerned about carrying it in a backpack for a long period of time. However, since we are humans, we can always adapt. I almost think a little weight is a good thing, which reminds me I need to get into better shape.
Battery
Standby time is outstanding. In sleep mode, I get 5% deduction per 24 hours. This means if I leave it in sleep mode fully charged, I will still get at least 60% when I wake it up after a week.
The rest would depend on how you use it. For light browsing and office, you can get 8 hours easily. Conservatively speaking, You can get about 5.5 hours for flash video streaming. If you use an app, you might get 6 hours for video streaming. For 3D gaming, I did not test but you can use your imagination.
My screen brightness is usually 25% to 30% when I am on battery. I also modified the default power profile to conserve power.
The battery charges quickly. I feel the battery quality is not up to par of what Sony uses these days.
Good for gaming?
The graphics level is almost the same as Nvidia 540m, which honestly was unthinkable two years ago. If you are not a demanding gamer, you should be very happy. It plays total war 2, COH, black ops, SC2 just fine.
Is it hot or loud?
It gets a little warm when normally used, which is why I do not use a case. The fan is quiet most of the time. It will be audible, when you are gaming. Overall, it is tolerable.
Buggy live tiles
I've been using W8.1 and WP8 for a while, but live tiles are still weird. MS needs to do a better job. If they think it is the future, they need to make it work better and correctly.
All in all
All the ports, WiFi, Bluetooth and sensors works fine so far. Doing Skype call is great on it. The Type Cover is pure genius. The USB was not able to recognize a portable HDD. I was able to get it to work after fooling around.
If you were comparing it to an iPad, it is more useful than iPad, but it is harder to use than iPad. It is an true all in one device and an all in one compromise.
My wishes
I hope it has a larger display. 12 inch would be idea. The Kickstand uses such small foot print, which beggs it to be bigger. If MS or any one can make something like this with 12 inch screen, better battery and same weight, it would be a hit.
W8.1 needs more touch based apps. I barely touched my iPad until I wanted to try the new Asphalt 8 racing game. If they are not able to match offerings for Android and iOS by next year, then w8.1 would be a failure and a disaster for MS.
How do you like your SP2 so far and what is your wish?
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