Surface Pro 2 is an improvement over its predecessor: quicker, quieter, longer battery life
Microsoft Surface Pro 2 Review — When Microsoft introduced its first Surface devices last year, it did so in a staggered fashion. Surface RT showed up first, then four months later Surface Pro went on sale.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft opened pre-orders for both new Surfaces in late September 2013, and this week the review embargo lands all at once — AnandTech's verdict travels through Engadget, The Verge, ZDNet, CNET, Gizmodo and The Next Web within days, an unusually wide pickup that signals how much weight rides on the second-generation hardware.
The lineage matters: Microsoft launched the original Surface RT first in 2012, holding Surface Pro back four months, and that staggered start left the line bifurcated between an ARM tablet and a full PC. The timing of this review is awkward for the cheaper half of that pairing — on October 19 Microsoft pulled the Windows RT 8.1 update from the Windows Store citing 'a situation' affecting some users, so the Pro 2's clean bill of health lands just as the RT side stumbles.
First-order effects
- Buyers who ordered after the September pre-order opening get their decision validated: AnandTech confirms the Pro 2 is quicker, quieter and longer-lasting than the first Surface Pro, making it the strongest-reviewed Surface to date.
- With the RT 8.1 update yanked days earlier, the Pro 2 becomes the credible face of Microsoft's tablet line at retail, absorbing attention and shelf presence while the Surface 2 sits under an update cloud.
Second-order effects
- The widening quality gap between the Pro and RT tiers sharpens Microsoft's own pricing problem: reviewers treat the Pro 2 as a genuine laptop alternative while the RT sibling's software troubles make the cheaper model harder to justify, squeezing the middle of the lineup.
- Intel-powered rivals in the 2-in-1 market now face a Microsoft-branded machine that reviewers judge on battery life and acoustics rather than novelty — comparisons shift from 'can a tablet be a PC?' to spec-for-spec competition with established PC makers.
Third-order effects
- If the annual cadence implied by last year's launch and this fall's refresh holds, Surface consolidates into a yearly-updated platform where the Pro tier carries the brand — pushing Microsoft further down the path of being a device maker judged like one, alongside its OEM partners.
- A repeat of the RT tier's software fragility would pressure Microsoft to justify keeping a third operating-system variant alive at all, a structural question about whether ARM Windows survives inside its own flagship hardware line.
The trend: Surface is settling into an annual hardware-refresh rhythm in which the Intel Pro line, not the ARM RT line, carries Microsoft's claim that its own devices can lead the Windows PC market.