My favourite takeaway from this article is: The Surface Pro is a work machine. It is not a tablet for checking your mail and playing angry birds (although it can do that stuff). This is a computer for getting shit done. It’s for creating not consuming. — finally someone gets the Surface. It's not an iPad competitor, it does more than the intentionally limited iPad can do, has options for external storage, external monitors, touch covers, XBOX controllers and more using standard connections like HDMI and USB without requiring a custom propriety cable a la Thunderbolt or the likes.
The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is. Maybe at the beginning Microsoft tried marketing itself in too many directions, but they're finding their feet. The Surface Pro 2 wants to be the iPad of the business and enterprise market, not a device for checking email and playing Angry Birds. Sure it also appeals to other needs as well, but going after the business sector is smart because ultimately that's where the money is. Heck the Surface isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable.
I am thinking of getting one of these as a laptop replacement for coding on plane and train trips. You can't code on an iPad, but you could code on a Surface for sure and run all needed IDE's like Sublime Text and an NGINX server with PHP and or Node.JS.
> The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is...Heck the Surface isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable.
Yet you keep comparing it to the iPad when you should be comparing it to the MacBook Air which has similar hardware, roughly the same price, the ability to connect external storage, external displays, has USB 3.0, has an SD card slot (on the 13" model).
But the MBA has so much more going for it: PCIe based SDD, Intel HD Graphics 5000 (vs 4400 on the SP2), 802.11ac (vs 802.11n on the SP2), Thunderbolt, a "real" full-sized backlit keyboard, a useable trackpad, the ability to run OS X or Windows, and the trump card, 9 to 12 hours battery life (reportedly 15 hours with Mavericks).
I think it's more fitting to compare the Pro 2 to a 11" macbook air. So the SD card slot is out.
The better WiFi and graphics capabilities and will make no difference for the majority of use cases. The HD 5000 will perform better for gaming of course, but then again you're on OS X... not really too many games available there compared to Windows.
Thunderbolt is nice, but most people will only use it to hook up an external monitor, which you can also do with the Pro 2. The keyboard on the MBA is not full-sized at all and at least the German keyboard layout that Apple provides is a pain in the ass for programming purposes compared to the Windows based layout (though not really a problem with the US layout). The trackpad on the MBA is much better, but the Pro 2 comes with a touch screen and Wacom pen.
Don't forget about the great IPS screen on the Pro 2. The MBA's screen is getting kind of pathetic for 2013, I really hope they up it to Retina in the next revision.
Battery Life is in my opinion however still the biggest disadvantage of the Pro 2.
> The Surface Pro is a work machine. It is not a tablet for checking your mail and playing angry birds (although it can do that stuff). This is a computer for getting shit done. It’s for creating not consuming.
This seems pretty heavily aimed at Gabe's usecase, which isn't universal. I'm not an artist, but I do create things, and I do it on my iPad sometimes. I don't even hold it against this review for not pointing that out. And for what it's worth, you can code on an iPad, you just need the right tools.
The Surface 2 is going after a different market than the iPad is. Maybe at the beginning Microsoft tried marketing itself in too many directions, but they're finding their feet. The Surface Pro 2 wants to be the iPad of the business and enterprise market, not a device for checking email and playing Angry Birds. Sure it also appeals to other needs as well, but going after the business sector is smart because ultimately that's where the money is. Heck the Surface isn't even a tablet, it's technically an ultraportable.
I am thinking of getting one of these as a laptop replacement for coding on plane and train trips. You can't code on an iPad, but you could code on a Surface for sure and run all needed IDE's like Sublime Text and an NGINX server with PHP and or Node.JS.