Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet is late to the party in Australia, and expensive, but it will satisfy those who want a tablet with the compute grunt of an ultrabook PC.
The Pro is due to ship here this month, but has been available in the US and other markets since the beginning of the year.
It sports a very pretty, 10.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, or 208 pixels an inch. This screen is bright, clear and great for any task be it movie watching, ebook reading or document creation.
Helping the Pro's overall excellent responsiveness is the processor, a dual core, 1.7 Ghz Intel Core i5 latched to 4GB of system memory. Storage is through 64GB or 128GB of SSD memory.
Unlike the Surface RT, around since late last year, the Pro runs full-blown Windows 8 by virtue of its Intel CPU. The ARM processor- equipped Surface RT runs an RT version of Windows that is not compatible with the massive library of programs developed under previous Windows versions. The Pro can handle most of that older code as well as new apps and it does so with an alacrity not usually found in tablets.
Tap a tile in Windows 8 and the app loads immediately. Browsing is also quick and smooth and touch commands made through Windows 8's tile interface or its desktop interface are snappy. The screen on the Pro is 10-point multi-touch rather than five-point as on the Surface RT.
The Core i5 and Intel HD 4000 graphics circuitry found in the Pro would normally power a mid-range notebook computer rather than a tablet. The Pro will even run full-blown PC games, although you'll need your own USB port-equipped DVD drive. I loaded up Company of Heroes and the Pro handled it well.
There's two Pro models, a 64GB and a 128GB version. If you run out of memory, there is a micro SD card slot on the right edge of the case for boosting storage.
The tablet comes with a digitiser pen that clips to the Pro's magnetised power port for pressure-sensitive drawing through apps like Microsoft Paint. There are 1.2-megapixel, 720p cameras front and rear for videoconferencing or taking pics if desperate. The speakers don't go very loud, but sound quality through decent headphones is very good.
The Pro has a standard size USB 3.0 port for connecting all manner of devices, from keyboards and mice to optical drives and memory sticks. This is a very worthy feature on a tablet. It also has the Surface RT's neat kickstand, another worthy feature, and uses the same, optional Type Cover and Touch Cover that work on the RT. The covers both give the Pro a physical keyboard as well as screen protection, but I would go for the Type Cover and its real, tactile, keys.
Once fitted with the Type Cover, the Pro transforms into a serious notebook replacement gadget. It's got enough grunt to handle most tasks and has decent connectivity for a tablet with its USB port, micro SD slot and a mini Display Port for a bigger screen.
One downside of having a Core i5 processor is that the Pro just cannot deliver the sort of battery life you get from an ARM-based tablet or one using Intel's new Clover Trail series Atom processor as found in some recent tablets such as the Dell Latitude 10.
Expect about five hours or less of battery life with heavy use. Given its thirst compared with the Surface RT, the Pro gets a heavier-duty charger that also includes a handy USB charge port for juicing up your smartphone.
Unfortunately, the Pro cannot be charged through its USB port: you must use the Microsoft charger with its awkward power connector that snaps on to a magnetic port on the right hand side.
The smaller, lighter but equally awkward to connect charger from the RT will work on the Pro, but it takes longer to juice up the machine.
The other negative with the Pro is weight. To keep the Core i5 cool, the Pro's circuit board requires a fan and a beefier heatsink than a typical tablet. The result is a tablet that weighs 910g, about 300g heavier than your average nine or 10-inch screen tablet, and is 13mm thick. I thought the extra pork on the Pro compared with most tablets would be noticeable, but I found it reasonably easy to lug around, especially with a cover attached that provides better grip.
Pricing for the Surface Pro in Australia was not locked down as of press time. It will be about $1000 for the 64GB version and about $1100 for the 128GB version.
While it's more expensive, I would definitely plump for the 128GB memory model if contemplating purchasing a Pro because the 64GB model has only 23GB of free storage left, with the Windows 8 OS taking up the rest of the room. The 128GB model leaves a much healthier 83GB of room.
Also, Intel has fresh chips coming later this year that will offer more grunt and better power consumption and allow more lightweight designs than the Pro.
But, for the moment, the Pro offers a great combination of compute power and portability in a tablet form, especially if you need to produce stuff on the road as well as browse the web.
PRICE: from about $1000
RATING: 8/10
