Surface Pro 2 Advice

LCheshire Cat on 28/04/2014 - 02:10

So I've been eyeing off the surface pro 2 for a while now. We are headed overseas and I'm looking to upgrade to a new tablet (got an iPad 2 ATM) and get one that I can use to play games on/ take as a portable laptop.

I asked a few people recently in the asus transformer T100 bargain topics and they said it wasn't really up to scratch for playing games (directed me to a few video forums and blogs) so figured its essentially a surface pro 2 or nothing. I'm wondering what peoples experience has been with the pro? Should I be going for the 8GB RAM over the 4? How much memory are people finding they need? Is 128 Gig enough?

I'm only wanting to play blizzard games (wow, Diablo) and probably a few indie steam games but certainly not any graphics intensive fps etc. probably stick office or something similar on there too so I can use it as my regular pc with greater ease. My tablet needs are pretty basic, use the net, watch vids and act as a pc to transfer files from a camera to a portable hard drive etc.

So what's people's experience or recommendations? Any places I should be looking to purchase that are considerably below the retail price? How long does the battery in the pro 2 actually last watching vids etc?

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

Computing Computer Laptop Microsoft Tablet

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 28/04/2014 - 08:14
    +1

    I used to have Surface 1, which is based on Ivy Bridge rather than Haswell.

    The battery life of the Surface 1 and 2 is extremely variable because of the low voltage CPU. It sips power when idle, but when you run it full tilt the power draw increases drastically — so depending on what programs you're running you're looking at somewhere between 4-8 hours of usage. If you're using extremely aggressive power saver settings (which forces the CPU to operate at below 1ghz and brightness very low) then you may be stretching the usable time to more than 8.30 hours.

    The power cover (coming soon) can extend the battery life of the tablet but it will increase the weight of the device as well as not having the backlit keyboard feature. It also costs a lot ($200 USD) and isn't available from the AU MS store yet.

    How much RAM / storage you need really depends on your usage habits. You can increase the capacity of the tablet by using a high-capacity SD card, but you can't do anything about the RAM since it is a soldered-on part.

    • Cheshire Cat on 28/04/2014 - 17:38

      Neat little tear down.
      I had heard about the power cover but forgot about that……that's a big win IMO for movie watching while travelling etc.

      I know I can't change the specs once it's bought (outside of using external memory…it's got a USB too so that's what I would likely use to backup photos while travelling) that's why I'm keen on people's feedback on their usage, on whether it's enough onboard storage and whether the 8 gig RAM is of benefit for the basic usage I'm wanting.

      Web surfing, movie playback, Basic gaming and office essentially.

      • scrimshaw on 28/04/2014 - 18:30
        +1

        I run 4GB on my laptop, use it for everyday tasks without a problem on 32 bit Windows.

        for a while I was using only 4Gb of RAM on my main gaming desktop, worked surprisingly well too. So you may not need 8GB of RAM.

        Besides the only way to get 8GB is to buy the higher end 256GB Surface Pro 2, which for me seems a tad too expensive just for the memory upgrade.

        • Cheshire Cat on 28/04/2014 - 21:58

          Thanks for the feedback.

  • CyberMurning on 28/04/2014 - 08:58

    portable and able to play games for a tablet would hard to find, if you into gaming then get full laptop

    • Cheshire Cat on 28/04/2014 - 17:45

      Except I'm not into hard core high graphics gaming….blizzard games are light on the grunt demands :p
      I used to play wow on my old work laptop at launch and it was rubbish…was months before I saw what it was meant to look like on my brothers pc…oh the road has cobblestones not a brown dirt path hehe.

      Tbh the old iPad 2 does some pretty decent things so no reason a high end windows tablet can't play basic games decently. I mean pax guys use it to do their comics now….it must be at least passable as a real pc.

  • Astro551 on 29/04/2014 - 01:25

    You're gonna be missing out on battery life with the switch. Not sure exactly what you're using this for, but whatever it is I'd be prepared to charge it every single day (as opposed to an iPad, I don't usually even have to think about battery levels). But if the trade off is obviously you're getting something a lot more powerful and capable. Only discounts I can think of are Surface Pro 2 at the student price

    • scrimshaw on 29/04/2014 - 11:35

      The Surface can do so much more than an iPad, or any other Android tablet. It's really an ultrabook in a keyboardless slate form factor that runs full Windows.

      The battery life isn't great, but it is one of the most well-engineered pieces of hardware ever to come out. Most people would get it for the stylus alone.

      • Astro551 on 30/04/2014 - 01:02

        again it depends on what you are doing. if all you need to do is web browse (which entails a lot of things since the browser is so powerful) or use certain apps (which are also powerful) then I would snatch up an iPad any day. iPad's are half the cost and also have a cellular option. OP has noted that he wants to play games and use it as a portable laptop so that's fine.

        But the gap between what we call tablets and traditional laptops continues to decrease year by year imo. (Surface 2 being a good example)

        • Cheshire Cat on 30/04/2014 - 19:02

          I charge my iPad everyday as it is, it's in constant use to surf the net and play dodgy ios games, Skype etc. so that's expected hehe. you are right that the boundaries are blurring, that's the main reason I started to consider the surface. Always intended to update to an android device about now but when I saw what the surface pro and pro 2 could be I decided its a great all purpose device.

          The cellular option doesn't really bother me either, I've used the iPads 2 or 3 times when we go away on holidays only. And a phone can always be tethered and you don't need two accounts.

  • mrmarkau67 on 29/04/2014 - 15:02

    The Surface would be the ultimate travel PC when travelling light. But keep your iPad 2. After a few hours of heavy duty gaming kills your battery you can kick back with a movie or two on the iPad.

    Keep in mind that "PC" games are designed for keyboard and mouse rather than touchpad or touchscreen. Has anyone played Diablo on a plane on a Surface?

    • Cheshire Cat on 30/04/2014 - 19:09

      Well Diablo needs a connection so can't see that happening for a little while :p (was neat using the net a few times on planes in the states though) It's more so I can play Diablo etc with my wife but don't have to hide in the study (she has a pretty powerful, but we have quickly learnt a far too heavy for travel, laptop).

      We will certainly keep the laptop, it's the ultimate kids device with so many useful apps to keep them occupied during those long flights (and I can steal it back when they go to sleep if needs be hehe)

    • Astro551 on 01/05/2014 - 00:40

      this guy is running Titan Fall with a USB controller - not spectacularly, but playable. I've seen him run Arkham Asylum i think it is before. The Type Keyboard + plugged in mouse would probably be fine to use (i'd imagine).

      • Cheshire Cat on 02/05/2014 - 00:22

        Oops. I meant keep the iPad. I think I've decided on the 8gig ram version. It's under 60 days till we fly out now. And would definitely use a plugged in mouse on the keyboard to play games. I actually prefer them over wireless.

  • [Deactivated] on 30/04/2014 - 21:45

    If you plan to buy a new laptop, only if you can wait until June (not definite) Apple will launch a new Mac Air retina this may have an effect on the prices of other brand. Cheaper I hope.

  • IsometricBacon on 06/05/2014 - 15:48

    The Surface 2 Pro is a fantastic bit of kit. It's (as you know) a full blown Windows 8 computer that could replace a dedicated desktop for most tasks (given a good external monitor /mouse / keyboard setup) with the bonus of being ultra portable.

    That said, for the purposes of a holiday? Stick with the iPad. It's lighter, thinner, and does most of what you would want, (and you already own it). There's also a good deal of awesome games available… (although understandably maybe not the Blizzard ones you crave).

    If you can see using the Surface Pro 2 for loads of work related purposes though, i'd definitely recommend it.

    • Cheshire Cat on 07/05/2014 - 23:27
      +1

      We want it to travel with in place of a real laptop that's far too heavy. We like to have the ability to easily move around and backup our photos on the fly and getting the TRS discount seems like a smart discount to take advantage of. We would still keep the iPad as well for travel and kids games. Playing blizzard games etc is really in our house.
      Thanks for the comment. I think we have decided on the 256 gig model.

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