Crucially though, rather than aping what Apple does so well, Microsoft has built a product that feels truly unique. It looks different to everything else, but feels just as special to hold as an iPad.
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The Surface logo on the back of the tablet
It's a shame then that the excellent build quality is let down by what continues to be a slightly confused and jumbled operating system. Windows 8.1, despite improvements, just can't make its mind up.
Is it a tablet OS? Or is it for desktop? The Surface Pro 2 feels like both, but neither the tablet nor the desktop side offers an experience good enough to replace conventional choices.
Hardware and Design
The Surface Pro 2 as we have already said, is exquisitely put together. The entire device feels very solid and the matte black metal back is perfectly offset against a single Surface logo. Very cool.
New to the Surface Pro 2 is a revised kickstand that folds out in two stages from the back of the tablet, in order to try to make it more stable when being used on your lap. While it is indeed more stable, we still didn't find the lap-based typing experience that comfortable.
- The Surface Pro 2's bulk is cleverly hidden. If you were to stretch it out with a rolling pin, then it would probably be just as thin as a MacBook Air.
The issue lies in the length that the new Touch Cover 2 hangs out from the front of the Surface. In order to have the tablet stable on your lap while sat upright, it needs to be quite far up on your lap. As such, you end up feeling bunched up and uncomfortable.
The Surface Pro 2 comes with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3-style smart pen which is attached to the side of the tablet. Weirdly it's made of a cheap feeling plastic, which impacts the whole quality feel of the Surface Pro 2 design.
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The Surface Pro 2 comes with a pen
It's also begging to get lost as it doesn't have any area on the device you can slot it into. It repeatedly got knocked off the tablet or fell off in our bag. A better idea is to keep the pen safe in your pocket.
Hands down our favourite thing about the Surface Pro 2 is its screen. It's gorgeous, with perfect colour accuracy and viewing angles on a par with the Retina MacBook Pro. The bottom line is that Microsoft has got things right here.
The new Touch Cover 2 accessory, which now features backlighting, feels a bit like a must buy. We aren't sure what magic Microsoft has worked here, but a bit of practice and we felt the cover-based keyboard was nearly as easy to use as that of a desktop PC.
The Surface Pro 2's bulk is cleverly hidden. It feels around the same size as an 11-inch MacBook Air in the hand. The smaller screen and form factor, however, make it handle more like a large paperback book.
This is an impressive feat given the unit we tested had 4GB of RAM and a proper quad-core Intel Haswell processor. Still though, making it lighter and thinner wouldn't hurt as held next to an iPad, it feels chunky.
Those who want more grunt can go for 8GB RAM versions of the Pro 2 that come with 256GB and 512GB storage. Standard models feature 64GB or 128GB of space.
Connectivity comes in the form of a USB 3.0 port as well as a MicroSDXC slot, headset jack, mini DisplayPort and a connector for the cover at the bottom. Low energy Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n is also included.
A proper 720p front facing camera is included for video calling while you have stereo speakers for audio playback. More on those later, but in short, camera quality is adequate and so is audio.
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The Surface Pro 2 and Touch Cover 2
Battery life comes in the form of a 42 W-h unit. Microsoft says that means 75% more battery life than a first gen Surface Pro. In practice, it got us through about six hours of work and a movie.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 2 feels portable enough, but its size is bettered easily by most less powerful tablets. Ultimately it is up to you if you mind carrying a 10.8 x 6.81 x 0.53 slab in your rucksack. We can think of bigger devices that offer quite a bit less power.
The build quality is where we think points need to be given, as Microsoft has pulled out all the stops. It stands out from other tablets because it looks different, but doesn't have the plastic fantastic factor that most of the competition has.
Camera
The revised 720p camera unit on the Surface Pro 2 is more than decent enough for video calling. It's strange that Microsoft didn't go Full HD here, as many smartphones feature 1080p front facing units.
The camera on the back is also perfectly fine, but as always, the usual clunky factor with tacking photographs on a tablet applies.
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The side of the Surface Pro 2
Microsoft has included a year of Skype Pro, as well as unlimited Skype Wi-Fi with the Surface Pro 2, which does make it a touch better suited to video calling than some of the competition.
User Interface and Software
We have already written fairly extensively about exactly what is new in Windows 8.1, so if you fancy checking out our feature on the new OS update.
In essence, Microsoft has tried to nail a sort of dual personality with the Surface. It's meant to be as easy to handle as a tablet, but with the power and flexibility of a desktop. In practice, it just doesn't work.
The live tile-based Start screen, as beautifully designed as it is, feels more like a barrier getting in your way when trying to just use the conventional Windows desktop. Swap to normal Windows 8 and then icons and other menu buttons are too small to interact with via touch, so you need to swap back to a cursor, drawing you away from the ease of touch input.
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Windows 8.1 Bing Search
For a tablet beginner, it's just too confusing. Obviously the 'Pro' in 'Pro 2' means this tablet isn't aimed at beginners, but making things unnecessarily complicated doesn't help anyone.
Things make a little bit more sense on the Surface Pro 2, as obviously the Windows experience is more complete than on Surface 2. A full-blown Windows 8 means you can use the desktop for proper photo and video editing applications, as well as enjoy the familiarity of the conventional Windows look.
> Microsoft Surface 2 review: Does new tablet offer any improvements?
Really then, the Surface Pro 2 is more a laptop or desktop replacement than a tablet rival. If you don't mind negotiating Windows 8, then the power and flexibility here can actually make for a very good and highly portable laptop replacement.
Our issue is that it doesn't feel like it needs to be a tablet. We would've rather seen a MacBook Air shaped device from Microsoft with more traditional control inputs and the same level of power. Constantly swapping between the Touch Keyboard, included pen and then the Surface Pro 2 screen is just awkward.
Music and Movies
As we already said, the screen on the Surface Pro 2 is absolutely lush. For movies, it's excellent. The speakers are also top notch, so music playback and lap-based film watching is perfect.
© Microsoft
Windows 8.1: Xbox Music
The amount of content available to you is the same that you would find on a normal Windows desktop, so tonnes. One issue is that a lot of our favourite apps don't exist in the metro UI side of things - Spotify, for example. As such, getting the most from the tablet requires you to constantly switch to the normal desktop - again contributing to the slightly clunky experience we mentioned earlier.
The competition
The iPad isn't necessarily a competitor to the Surface Pro 2, simply because it can't run things like OS X. Windows alternatives include Lenovo's Yoga range and of course the Dell Venue Pro 11, which is fairly similar.
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Venue Pro 11
None rival the Surface for build quality, but price is a fairly different matter. Microsoft's tablet is expensive, with the entry model costing £719. The Venue Pro 11 starts at £349 excluding VAT.
Verdict
The Surface Pro 2 is a truly fantastic piece of kit to hold. It's a little chunky, but in a market dominated by iPad clones, Microsoft has built a tablet that truly stands out.
The problem lies in Windows 8, which despite being a fantastic operating system on the desktop, just doesn't lend itself that well to the tablet user experience. The duality of the OS simply doesn't work.
Constant swapping between desktop and live tiles, while switching control inputs all the time, just isn't very slick. As such, we recommend the Surface Pro 2 for people that want to try something different. It needs polish, but certainly ticks a few important boxes.
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