Do you like the new Surface Pro 2 . Vote and share your opinion

[Leahtt]

Today I pre ordered a Surface Pro 128GB from a retailer as there is only one Microsoft store and that's at the other end of my country.
I think it will meet my needs admirably. Isn't that what it's all about.
I have been reading everything I can about it and watching all the videos.
The iPad 3 is going to a family member. It now seems so dated and I don't see any advantage in iOS 7 either. In fact it seems slower since I updated.

 

[DalekSnare]

I am unfortunately satisfied with my current device, so I can't justify such a purchase. My Samsung slate is still perfectly capable of doing everything I do with it.

 

[tawfiqmp]

Overall, I'm satisfied with what it has to offer.
If I had to nitpick on some missing features, they would probably be lack of NFC, lack of GPS, and lack of Wireless A/C. Of course none of these things are truly needed, but NFC especially would have helped me a little bit. I can see GPS being added to the LTE version, though again GPS can be tracked through WiFi also (though not as accurately). Wireless A/C is still new so I understand them not putting it on there just yet.

Overall, it's a beast.

 

[kevrut]

Let me start out by saying that I applaud Microsoft for taking the plunge into these hardware devices. I'd love to be able to get this feedback back to the development team. The following is based on the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 (as I have little interest and no experience with RT). I bought a Surface Pro 128 when they first came out and have been very happy with it. Its replaced my Macbook as my primary work machine due to the ease of using Windows based tools in a corporate environment. Battery life was an issue, but not a show stopper (I just have to carry my power brick everywhere). I was very happy with the device. Here is feedback based on my experiences:

The battery keyboard cover was teased several months ago. They just now announced it and it's not even ready for shipment yet. This should have been a priority based on customer feedback on battery life and should already be out. In fact, the vehicle power adapter should have come out soon after the battery criticism started. I'm sure this would have helped sales on the initial Surface Pro. I plan to buy one or more or both the day they are released.

Windows 8.1 Preview solved many of my annoyances with Windows 8 and greatly improved my user experience... EXCEPT it took away my beloved Messaging app.

It would be nice if you could download the recovery partition just in case you loose it or have a corrupt copy on the flash drive (1st hand experience). Thank god for the great staff at the Microsoft Store in San Diego for their patience in helping me resolve that issue.

The Power adapter is AWESOME. I never knew how much I needed the USB port on the power brick. A second USB port would be nice, but not if it causes it to be any bigger. I love the fact they use the magnetic coupler for the connection to the Surface Pro. As a long term Macbook Pro user I have grown to love that feature (forgive me for loving both products). The Surface Pro needs more refinement here. The magnet should be stronger and the edges of the connector rounded a bit so it fits more easily in the recess on the Surface Pro. With any apple product, you just have to get the adapter close and it jumps into the recess. I have to fiddle sometimes to get it in the Surface Pro. Great freature, just needs polish to be perfect.

Advertisements and specs should clearly address total and free hard drive space to reduce confusion and critisicm. I didn't have an issue with it, but many do and it seems that it's easy to address up front and put this issue to rest. Along that note, I think it was a mistake to introduce the original Pro in 64gb and 128bd versions. It should have started with 128 as the low end model (same price point as the 64gb model) and gone up from there. 64 is just not enough for a Windows users. I struggle with 128. I know there is MicroSD, but that maxes out right now at 64gb, again not enough.

Why do they have the 4gb and 8gb RAM as options on the Surface Pro 2? Why not just standardize them all with 8gb at the 4gb price? RAM is cheap. It's good for battery life. It reduces the number of models you have to build and stock, thereby reducing risks and cost. Surface Pro is 64 bit and can handle the extra RAM. It helps with cost criticisms. Seems like a no brainer to me...

Yaaaay for backlight keys on the new keyboards!!! As a long time Apple user, I've learned to love this feature. This should be standard on EVERY keyboard! Thank you also for the docking station and the better battery life on the Surface Pro 2!

Wish list:
Dual Micro SD slots on the device
Worldwide LTE as an option
USB 3 hub specifically for the Surface Pro. No cable, just plugs into the side, looks like an extension on the Surface Pro, and gives you an extra couple USB ports and maybe even another MicroSD or two.
An option for a Surface Pro with a slightly larger screen.
Speakers should be louder.
$100 to $200 less for each model.

One last note: I am also a Windows Phone 8 user (bought a Lumina 920 at launch and love it). The Windows Phone 8 store is much more developed than the Windows 8 store. I'd suggest a Windows Phone Emulator (similar to Bluestacks for Android apps) be made available so we can run these Windows Phone 8 apps that we already purchased on Windows 8. In fact, it would be nice to run two side by side, almost like Widgets on the desktop in Windows 7. Just a thought. This would make users like me very happy until we get to the point where there is one common app and app store for all of the Microsoft products.

Microsoft, keep up the good work. The hybrid laptop/tablet that is the Surface Pro is a great product for consumers like me who want one device that can give them the tablet experience at times and the laptop exerience at others.

 

[smoheath]

What I'm on the fence about is the 1080p resolution. I thought it looked okay last year but assumed they would bump it up for this years model since everyone else has (2013 nexus 7, Kindle Fire Hd(x), etc). It is a smaller screen so its not a deal breaker, but a little disappointing considering what else is out there.

I'm so sick of hearing this. For the screen size of the pro, the resolution is just fine. I think that this screen resolution battle is just bogus. So what, I can distinguish individual pixels from six inches away. I can understand doing this on phones where you are more likely holding it close to your face. But I'm never closer than a foot and a half from my pro and the screen is nice and crisp. I'd rather have the more than adequate screen resolution over an extremely high-res screen eating more battery life with negligible benefits.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

If the Surface Pro 2 was offered in a 14" model at the same price, then I'd be all over it at that price. But at the current size, it is more netbook-like than notebook. There is no way that I could replace my notebook with a device (no matter what it is) that has a 10.6" screen.

 

[psudotechzealot]

Can anybody tell me, why Microsoft decided not to include Office and Outlook(for free) into the Surface pro 2?

 

[smoheath]

Can anybody tell me, why Microsoft decided not to include Office and Outlook(for free) into the Surface pro 2?

I have wondered this as well. Microsoft should consider throwing in a year of free office 365 for the pro. It would be better than free Skype for two years.

 

[StevoPhilo]

I liked that they added a 256gb model with 8gb ram and i7 haswell, but other than that it doesn't seem to be much more of an improvement. As a person who likes to use photoshop and who owns the original surface pro, I think they should've not made the screen so glossy and up the screen size. As of right now it is hard to even view some things without zooming in or going into the shade. If they improved it to a 13' screen and made the screen NOT AS GLOSSY I would've pre-ordered in a heartbeat.

For now I'll just stick it out with my original surface pro and pickup a battery pack keyboard instead.

 

[elysm1]

They aren't for everyone, but have you tried a anti-glare screen protector?

 

[11B1P]

The new Surface's haven't even been released yet. Nobody can say with any certainty whether or not they like it. Specs are one thing, but until you get hands on with it, you can't offer a real point of view.

 

[StevoPhilo]

They aren't for everyone, but have you tried a anti-glare screen protector?

This I was debating on doing, but I feared it may interfere with the pen/stylus to the point where it wouldn't be as responsive for sketching or pressure sensitivity.
If anyone could recommend one or share their experiences then I would most definitely pick one up.

 

[elysm1]

This I was debating on doing, but I feared it may interfere with the pen/stylus to the point where it wouldn't be as responsive for sketching or pressure sensitivity.
If anyone could recommend one or share their experiences then I would most definitely pick one up.

I had one on my Note 8 and noticed no difference in performance at all. That said, they do dull the look of the screen kinda taking away from it.

 

[iZangetsu]

I love the surface 2, hoping to have 128GB and alot of accessories price-dropped this December for my birthday.

 

[russmov]

Starting to wonder if I should have ordered the 128 instead of the 64 gb

 

[chfhyh]

I am not impressed with SP2 at all.

MS could have taken the opportunity of Haswell and make it the best tablet. I am not sure why, maybe they just do not have the experience and engineering power.

I was hoping for a build with larger battery, smaller main board, or maybe even a larger screen. MS did nothing other than swapping out the CPU... If you wonder what I mean, just check out the difference between Sony Duo 11 and 13. I think Sony did the best job here exploring Haswell capabilities.

Haswell is great, but it is not enough. SP2 needs a redesign just like Surface 2, because the 1st Gen SP is not good enough. Compare to other OEMs, the original Surface Pro is heavier, warmer and last shorter, even taking into account the battery size. For instance, Ivy Bridge Dell XPS 12 lasts 5.5 hours on 47wh battery with larger screen and more ports, yet 1st Gen Surface Pro only does less than 4 hours with 42wh battery on a much smaller screen. The 1st Surface Pro is heavy for its size. It also has a huge motherboard, and it is impossible to repair/upgrade.

All in all, other OEMs are beating MS in a lot of areas and MS needs to learn. Too bad, somehow MS thinks the engineering is good enough...

Sony Duo 13 has 47 wh battery and 13.3 inch screen with battery life of over 9 hours.
The Haswell Dell XPS 12 with 50 wh battery and 12.5 inch screen also lasts close to 9 hours.

Surface Pro 2 has 10.6 inch screen and 42 wh battery and it is has way less I/O ports to support... It would be a failure if Surface Pro 2 lasts less than 8 hours on battery. Guess we will find out next week.

To be honest, I would wait for a redesign with Broadwell. I am now more likely to get a bay trail one with 4GB ram, yet no one is making those...

 

[chezm]

I am not impressed with SP2 at all.
. If you wonder what I mean, just check out the difference between Sony Duo 11 and 13. I think Sony did the best job here exploring Haswell capabilities.
.
.
Sony Duo 13 has 47 wh battery and 13.3 inch screen with battery life of over 9 hours.
The Haswell Dell XPS 12 with 50 wh battery and 12.5 inch screen also lasts close to 9 hours.

Surface Pro 2 has 10.6 inch screen and 42 wh battery and it is has way less I/O ports to support... It would be a failure if Surface Pro 2 lasts less than 8 hours on battery. Guess we will find out next week.

.

Now i don't have a Surface Pro or any newer type of these Ultra Tablet-top thingys...i do plan to buy a Pro 2 but have looked at the other options. Overall, some of the other OEM's do have Pros and Cons to the Pro 2, but looking at those BAD/UGLY parts of the Sony Duo 13...those are BIG Cons in my books.

Sony VAIO Duo 13 Review | Hybrid Tablet Reviews
Pros: Long battery life; Bright and colorful screen; Lightweight design for a hybrid; Good pen support
Cons: Uncomfortable keyboard; Tiny touchpad; Odd button placement; Pricier than other hybrids
The Verdict: The Sony VAIO Duo 13 is a versatile 2-in-1 Ultrabook and tablet that offers long battery life and robust pen support, but the typing experience and touchpad are drawbacks.


Review: Sony’s VAIO Flip 13 dies the death of a thousand cuts | Ars Technica

The good
Attractive styling
Full-size keyboard and trackpad that aren’t sacrificed on the altar of convertibility
Haswell delivers solid performance
Reasonable (but not exceptional) battery life
Digitizer that’s compatible with Sony’s existing VAIO pen accessories

The bad
Despite aluminum and plastic construction, the laptop is overly flexible throughout
Screen is bright and colorful, but slightly grainy
Lid lifts computer off of the surface it’s on while open, and the hard plastic standoffs make the laptop less stable on a hard table or desk

The ugly
Fan spins up with very little provocation, making the Flip noisier than most competing Ultrabook

 

[badMojo69]

Let me say this I have the RT and the SP2. The SP2 is thick, heavy and gets too warm to hold comfortably.
I'd leave on the Touch Cover 2, but that just adds to the weight. I'm going to send it back to Best Buy if I can't get use to it in a week.


Update 10/29:
So I had it all boxed up and was walking out the door to take it back when my wife stopped me and asked what I was doing.
I told her I was taking the SP2 back to the store and she asked why. I said it's too think and too heavy. She said it's lighter and smaller than my notebook, do see me whining and walked away laughing. I put my big boy pants back on and decided to keep it. But I will go on record and say the SP2 is not a tablet. It's a laptop in the form of a tablet.

 

[MBytes]

I am not impressed with SP2 at all.
MS could have taken the opportunity of Haswell and make it the best tablet. I am not sure why, maybe they just do not have the experience and engineering power.

Surface Pro 2 is not a tablet... it's not an ultrabook.

I was hoping for a build with larger battery, smaller main board, or maybe even a larger screen. MS did nothing other than swapping out the CPU... If you wonder what I mean, just check out the difference between Sony Duo 11 and 13. I think Sony did the best job here exploring Haswell capabilities.

Battery is why the Surface Pro 2 (and 1) is heavy. Nothing else. The rest is super light.
Bigger battery, means heavier weight. There is no way around this, beside new battery technology, which we don't have yet.
Microsoft re-work the internal of the Surface Pro 2. They have improved circuitry to maximize performance without consuming more power, they are using LPDDR3 to provide DDR3 performance, and reduce power usage. They also made is dual channel, which isn't the case for the Surface Pro 1 (single channel), and all components inside are low powered. Its more than a CPU switch.

Making the device bigger, breaks the purpose, the main core view of the Surface Pro device. You want bigger? Get a 12/13inch convertible laptop. they are many out there. Also, bigger screen is NOT better. Higher pixel density is what we want. Bigger screen, makes text harder to read, and provides 0 additional work space. Plug any system on your 55inch TV... try and read text arm length from the TV. I wish you luck.

Haswell is great, but it is not enough. SP2 needs a redesign just like Surface 2, because the 1st Gen SP is not good enough. Compare to other OEMs, the original Surface Pro is heavier, warmer and last shorter, even taking into account the battery size. For instance, Ivy Bridge Dell XPS 12 lasts 5.5 hours on 47wh battery with larger screen and more ports, yet 1st Gen Surface Pro only does less than 4 hours with 42wh battery on a much smaller screen. The 1st Surface Pro is heavy for its size. It also has a huge motherboard, and it is impossible to repair/upgrade.

The laptops you mentioned are heavier, larger, larger battery and does not have a digitizer (consumes a lot of power continuously to operate).

All in all, other OEMs are beating MS in a lot of areas and MS needs to learn. Too bad, somehow MS thinks the engineering is good enough...

So it worked! Microsoft purpose of the Surface line was to wake up manufactures from producing an ultra cheap, "if it did not fall apart in the box when you opened it, it was a manufacture error", devices, provide 0 caring or proud-ness in their brand name, providing 0 innovations, and just no caring... producing half *** product at best.
So now we have more interesting products from OEMs, after all their *****'n (sorry, but it's true) and moaning from last year with the Surface/Surface Pro line. Good! See how competition works?

Sony Duo 13 has 47 wh battery and 13.3 inch screen with battery life of over 9 hours.
The Haswell Dell XPS 12 with 50 wh battery and 12.5 inch screen also lasts close to 9 hours.

You have free return for the Surface Pro 2. Return it, and get those.

To be honest, I would wait for a redesign with Broadwell. I am now more likely to get a bay trail one with 4GB ram, yet no one is making those...

Bailtrail! LOL!
I don't think you know what Atom class CPU is. You'll wish you got the Surface 2 powered by Tegra 4. You might say, "yea but the Surface 2 can't run x86 programs", and I'll say, in any case it won't run with Atom CPU... will take forever. A last gen Core 2 Duo will more powerful than Bailtrail in CPU performance. based on information I see from Bailtrail, my 5 year old laptop, powered by a Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz is more powerful... this is what I am using now.

 

[MBytes]

Let me say this I have the RT and the SP2. The SP2 is thick, heavy and gets too warm to hold comfortably.
I'd leave on the Touch Cover 2, but that just adds to the weight. I'm going to send it back to Best Buy if I can't get use to it in a week.


Update 10/29:
So I had it all boxed up and was walking out the door to take it back when my wife stopped me and asked what I was doing.
I told her I was taking the SP2 back to the store and she asked why. I said it's too think and too heavy. She said it's lighter and smaller than my notebook, do see me whining and walked away laughing. I put my big boy pants back on and decided to keep it. But I will go on record and say the SP2 is not a tablet. It's a laptop in the form of a tablet.

Its not a tablet... it's not a laptop.. it's not an ulltrabook. Stop classifying what it's not.
Its a convertible system. It competes with MUCH heavier, larger, and slower, convertible systems like the Dell Latitude XT or Lenovo Twist.
If you don't need extreme portability with FULL performance, or use a world class digitize pen tracking system, this device is not for you.

That's like people that buys laptops.. and then never moves them out of the room, and complain how slow it is... if you wanted a stationary system.. buy a desktop, now only it would have been cheaper, but also be more powerful. You have to buy what you need. It is your responsibility to properly asses what you need, and think about before buying, and asses the ups and downs of such product, and see if the ups outweighs the downs. They are no perfect product. All products will at least 1 downside.

When I first got my laptop, I had to choose between Dell Latitude XT (12inch) or the Dell Latitude E6400 (14inch).
I went with the E6400, despite really wanting the digitzer for the Latitude XT. Why? 'Cause the Ultra voltage Core 2 Duo, and Intel integrated graphic solution, could not handle Vista. It had trouble with Windows XP. Yes.. trouble.. XP... It was also 3000$ US/Canadian, oh and worst than Surface Pro 1 battery life (3-4h). For 1600$, I got the Latitude E6400, which is heavier and bigger. True.. and no digitize pen. A lot of stuff I wanted but decided to not get. The system, thanks to the Nvidia GPU inside, was able to be one of he few systems that can handle Vista 64-bit above and beyond. And ran perfectly Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8, and now 8.1. It's 5 years old. The other I would have spent 3k, and replaced it within a year. That is the decision I took. Some people picked the reverse, as a digitizer outweighs the lack of performance for the system, and all it's down sides.