Microsoft Debuts Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2: Shipping Late October

Microsoft has thus far had a very hit and miss success with their Surface line of products, but they have not given up and in fact have just announced the release of a new Surface product soon to be delivered to the masses.

Microsoft has just announced the long awaited successors to its Surface RT and Surface Pro devices at a press event in NYC to a massive crowd of onlookers eagerly awaiting the new device.  Both of the original Surface devices were a mixed bag of good and bad, but now Microsoft hopes to correct those issues and we will discuss that in today’s article. The new Surface products are scheduled to ship on October 22nd just in time for beers and brats during Oktoberfest! For now we can see what they have on paper to get a bit more familiar with the 2 new products.

Surface 2

The new Surface 2 product is not intended to replace the Surface RT, it is just the next evolution and the successor to the RT. Sale prices for the current RT will remain intact at $349.99, which puts it on par with the 10-inch tablet market, and the fact that it come with a full version of office makes it an even better deal. The new Surface 2 however will hit the streets at $449.99 and features a lot of new upgrades to bait the user. The new Surface 2 features a full 1080p screen with improved color accuracy, and when compared to the previous generation model at a resolution of 1366×768 it is a solid update to the technology and something all users can embrace warmly. Focusing on improving the color is a very good thing as the first models were anything  but accurate.

Now that both Google and Apple have also shifted focus to a more calibrated tablet display, it is very important that Microsoft follow suit and do the same in order to maintain competition. The one serious downside is that it looks like the new display isn’t full sRGB, but rather a smaller gamut leaving a little wiggle room to complain.  As far as the processor goes, out goes the Tegra 3 and in comes the Tegra 4, which comes as no surprise to anyone.  The Tegra 4s 5th shadow core is not exposed or used under Windows RT 8.1. There were many rumors and leaks regarding what processor would be used, both the Snapdragon 800 and Qualcomm based tablets were a few of the other speculated internals, but the Tegra 4 is what made the product launch. The move to Tegra 4 comes with four ARM Cortex A15 cores and a much better GPU. The combination of the two should deliver a much better experience on Surface 2 than with Surface RT.

Surface 2 will still maintain full sized USB ports as well as microSD on the device itself, with USB getting an upgrade to the 3.0 standard. Internal storage options remain at 32GB or 64GB eMMC. Both front and rear facing cameras are improved over the original design as well. There are also a few other design improvements over the RT such as the Surface 2 is a bit thinner and lighter and now feature a VaporMG finish and a 2-stage kickstand, which although meant to be used in any situation seems to be limited by its design.  Microsoft’s Surface 2 will ship with Office 2013 RT including Outlook RT and come with 200GB of free Sky Drive storage for 2 years. The entire package starts at $449, but once again does not include a touch or type cover. The 64GB Surface 2 will sell for $100 more at $549. Overall there are quite a few new things that will have to be fully tested to see how they Implement in real-world usage, but on paper they sure sound good and that will be what the masses look at first.

Surface Pro 2

Just like the Surface 2, the Surface Pro 2 has a lot of similar upgrades, but the Pro already had a 1080p screen with better color accuracy first time around. USB 3.0 was also available on the previous generation model. Where we see a big improvement is in the CPU department as the new Pro has a Haswell based Core i5-4200. This is a the same CPU you would find in an Ultrabook and is a 15W Haswell part resulting in no size reduction in the Pro unlike the Surface 2. You would think that they would have gone with a lower watt Y-series SKU, but maybe Microsoft feels that the added performance value of the Haswell CPU is a better trade off than battery life. Either way the move to Haswell should come with significant improvements in battery life (Microsoft claims a 75% improvement for Surface Pro 2, and 25% for Surface 2). This product is getting closer and closer to just being a small really powerful laptop with a few differences to set it apart from the heard.

Pricing for the Surface Pro 2 starts at $899.99, but now comes in four new flavors of configurations to suit your personal need, and now you can get Surface Pro 2 with a 64GB ($899) or 128GB SSD ($999) and 4GB of RAM, or if you want 8GB of RAM there are 256GB ($1299) and 512GB ($1799) versions as well. So if you have the money Microsoft wants it in their bank account and are doing all they can to insure that happens with these new Surface devices. One of the biggest things to talk about is the detachable keyboard covers and both the type and touch covers see upgrades with this new generation of Surface products.

They are both thinner and lighter, and both are now backlit as well. The new touch cover features 1092 sensors (up from only 80 in touch cover 1), which should improve response and accuracy. It seems that touch cover accuracy was one of the pet peeves of many reviewers including Anand from Anandtech, who said that although it was easier than typing on a screen it was still a long way from the feel of using a real keyboard.  The type cover sees a 1mm reduction in key travel, which helps reduce thickness of the cover itself (although potentially at the expense of typing feel). You can also now get the type cover in four different colors as well (purple, pink, blue and black), instead of just black like the original design. There are more accessories, which include a new power cover with integrated battery, a docking station, and a music kit that replaces the traditional keyboard with something optimized for music playback/remixing. Both Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 will be available for pre-order starting tomorrow, with devices available on October 22nd.

Source: Anandtech