Gadgetory

I'm Dan Ackerman and we are here taking a look at the microsoft surface pro 2 that is the latest version of Microsoft's flagship PC product here just in time for Windows 8.1 so you have an updated operating system you have updated components inside the surface pro most notably an Intel Haswell generation ship that's the fourth generation of Intel's Core i5 CPUs that are supposed to give you somewhat better performance but also much better battery life the catch is that the surface pro 2 from the outside looks pretty much exactly the same as the surface pro 1 in fact I've got a surface pro original version right here and as you can see these are pretty much the same same weight same thickness the big difference physically is that the original surface pro is a kickstand that comes out like this the surface pro 2 has the same kickstand but it has a second angle as well which is actually important works a lot better in your lap when you can tilt the screen back or if you're tall and kind of looking down on it like I am right here like the original surface pro 2 surface pro 2 has some optional keyboard covers as a touch cover with flat keys and a type cover which has actual physical keys it remains the best thing about these surface pro experience this new version which is about 119 for the touch cover 129 for the type cover is actually backlit now which is really cool especially if you're sitting on your couch in the living room and typing on it you can actually see the keys I think people love back the keyboards once you get used to one you never want to go back it cost about $8.99 if you start with a 64 gig version you really want 128 gig that's $9.99 you had another 130 bucks for the touch cover which really should be packed in by default so you end up with a fairly expensive kind of premium ultrabook price for the same price you could also try out sony's version of the same thing which is the tap 11 and I have that right here the tap 11 has an 11 inch screen so it's a little bit bigger it also has a keyboard cover in this case that attaches it's got a little skinny kickstand back here so that's kind of different that they cost about the same but this is thinner and lighter so you're really a much nicer overall physical design however I like them both about equally because I like the typing experience on the surface better because of the attached keyboard and the fact that the kickstand is wide and can go across your lap but I like the actual you know very laptop style keys on this and the fact that the whole product is thinner and lighter so for about 1100 bucks if you work in what the keyboards cost you can get the same experience from both the real selling point for the surface pro 2 is that with these Haswell chips and some internal improvements that Microsoft has made you get better battery life and our very tough battery test the original surface pro gran for about four and a half hours this new version ran for more than six hours that's a pretty significant improvement and if you're just doing casual surfing on it it should last even longer I'm Dan Akron and that's the Microsoft Surface pro 2