Microsoft Surface Pro 2 specs review: better, faster, stronger

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is a product that has been in development for 18 months, as the company's corporate VP, Panos Panay, stated during its unveiling. Therefore, it should bring quite a lot of innovation and improvements over the previous Surface Pro tablet, right? Well, we can't be so sure about that, and it will take about a month until we get to take it for a test-drive. We can, however, share with you our thoughts on its specifications and features.

Design

At a glance, not a whole lot seems to have changed. Microsoft hasn't altered its design formula, sticking to the edgy profile we remember from the first Surface Pro tablet. But the tablet's first version was build well, and we hope that its successor has followed suit. After all, it sports the same "VaporMg" magnesium casing, known for its durability. The built-in kickstand is definitely a stand-out feature, and on the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, it can be set at two degree levels, depending on whether the tablet is placed on a table, or on the user's lap.

All the necessary ports, knobs, and outputs are positioned on the tablet's left and right sides, the only exception being the power key located on top. Among them is a full-sized USB port, which, thankfully, is USB 3.0 capable. That means all your USB 3.0 external hard drives or USB drives will fly with this thing, reaching higher data transfer rates than what USB 2.0 allows.

Tablets based on Intel Core processors are usually thick and heavy, or at least much thicker and heavier than their Android or iOS counterparts. The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is not an exception, tipping the scales at 2 lbs (907 grams). Its thickness of over half an inch isn't anything to write home about either, but that's the sacrifice one has to make if they are to have a Core chip's power at their disposal. 

Display

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 with a 10.6-inch Full HD display

No surprises here, guys. Microsoft has chosen to go with a 10.6-inch ClearType touchscreen display for the Surface Pro 2. Its resolution hasn't been upgraded, so the pixel count is still set at 1920 by 1080. That results in a decent level of detail and a very clear image as a whole, but we've seen better on competitor's products. On the bright side of things, Microsoft has gone with a screen panel that has 46% better color accuracy, and that's good to hear.

Interface

Windows 8.1 comes pre-loaded on the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, as expected. It brings a better on-screen keyboard, new alignment features, allowing one to have two or more windows opened side by side, Internet Explorer 11, UI scaling at up to 200%, and more minor and major improvements. The good old Start button has been brought back, for all who were bothered by its absence. 

Skype will be one of the apps pre-installed onto the device. What's more is that anyone who chooses to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet will receive a year of free international calls and access to Skype public Wi-Fi hotpsots. Neat!

Processor and Memory

Intel Core i5 goes inside the Surface Pro 2

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is clearly meant to be used by performance-demanding professionals, although all that horsepower should be enough to run lots of heavy video games as well. Under its hood we find a fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200U "Haswell" processor, clocked at 1.6 GHz, but capable of running at up to 2.6GHz thanks to Intel's Turbo Boost tech. Intel HD Graphics 4400 is what handles the eye-candy, delivering 50% better graphics performance when compared to last year's Surface Pro. Furthermore, the user has at least 4GB of RAM at their disposal, with 8 gigs available in pricier configurations. From the looks of it, the tablet will fly, executing even heavy tasks with ease. In fact, during the tablet's announcement, Microsoft demonstrated its Surface Pro 2 handling an input stream of RAW 6K video data without breaking a sweat. All in all, Microsoft is convincing us that the Surface Pro 2 is faster than 95% of today's laptops.

The base Microsoft Surface Pro 2 model will ship with 64GB of on-board storage, and we're expecting about half of that to be available for apps and storing files. For a Windows 8 machine, that's hardly enough space, so it would be wise to go for at least a 128GB variant. Models with 256 and 512GB of SSD storage will be also available, but at a significantly higher cost. Thankfully, the tablet comes with a microSD card slot for storage expansion and 200GB of cloud space thanks to SkyDrive.

Camera and multimedia

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 gets upgraded speakers

We're surprised to see that Microsoft hasn't done anything to the cameras found on its new Surface Pro tablet. On the front and back of the device, We find the same 0.9MP cams, capable of taking 720p videos. They will get the job done for video conversations, but their still photographs are likely to be underwhelming.

What has been upgraded, on the other hand, is the set of stereo speakers found on the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet. They now feature tech by Dolby, which will supposedly treat our ears to clearer, louder sound. We aren't expecting anything groundbreaking, of course.

Battery life

The first-gen Microsoft Surface Pro had a 5-hour battery life, which was a bummer. The new model, however, can last 75% longer, so it should get you through almost a full work day on a single charge. For those who need extra power, a keyboard dock – the Power Cover, sold separately – provides up to 150% extra juice with its built-in battery.

Expectations

And that's the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 in a nutshell. It is shaping up as a good device, but we wish its maker had more to impress us with. All, in all, the Surface Pro 2 a tablet that's in many ways better than last year's Surface Pro, but looking at it now, we can't help to think that Microsoft should have some more spice to the Surface Pro's successor. After all, Windows 8 tablets aren't exactly selling like there's no tomorrow, and a stand-out member of the species would have been great having in the game. Despite being developed by Microsoft itself, the Surface Pro 2 might not be that hero, but then again, we could be wrong. Guess we'll see in a few months once the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is out. It will be available for pre-order from Microsoft's online store start tomorrow, September 24, starting at $899.

HP Slate 7 Review

The HP Slate 7 is the brand’s 2nd foray into the consumer tablet space.  In 2011, HP launched its Touchpad in Australia but pulled the device from shelves just 4 days after the local launch. 2 years has elapsed since then, so what has HP learnt?

The Specs

• Android 4.1
• Dual Core 1.6 GHz processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage
• Micro SD Slot
• 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen
• Bluetooth, WiFi
• 370g

The Good

• Cheap at around $200
• Differentiable design
• Near stock Android

The Bad

• Thick bezel feels unnecessary
• Average battery life
• No further Android upgrades at the moment

The Slate 7, as its name suggests, has a 7 inch screen. At 1024 by 600 pixels it’s not the highest resolution display on a tablet in this form factor but it still performs reasonably well. The screen was fine for watching YouTube videos on and reading eBooks. While the viewing angles were not as good as an iPad or other top-tier tablet, they were fine for most purposes. The screen was bright enough for indoor conditions, but in bright sunlight it was not very readable. A thick black bezel sits around the screen and we felt it was too thick and got in the way. Battery life is around 5 hours of use the device lasted us a few days on standby mode.
The back of the device is a rubberized plastic and is available in red or silver. The bright red of our review unit added much-needed eccentric design flare to the device while the metal band around device made the build quality feel solid. The 3MP camera on the back was fairly low quality and suffered from motion blur even in everyday indoor scenarios. Photos lacked the basic amounts of contrast and sharpness expected in tablet cameras today. In slightly darker conditions, noise and grain in the images was very prevalent. The VGA quality front facing camera will suffice for Skype or video chats – don’t expect to be taking masterpieces with either camera.
The tablet has a 1.6 GHz Dual Core processor and 1GB of RAM. On paper there appears to be enough processing might, when using the tablet it does not appear so. With general use of flicking through the home screen, browsing menu systems and the internet we frequently experienced noticeable amounts of lag. When we played an assortment of games on the tablet we experienced delay in the user interaction being recognized and many dropped frames.

The Slate 7 has a near stock Android 4.1 experience with the most major change being the addition of Beats Audio. We don’t see Beats Audio as a reason to buy this tablet however, some people may find the inbuilt bass-biased Beats equalizer as a nice addition. HP has told us that they do not have any plans at this stage to offer software updates to newer versions of Android. The tablet has 8GB of inbuilt storage and a Micro SD slot for increasing the storage by 32GB.

The Slate weighs 370 grams in comparison to 308 grams of the iPad mini, 300 grams of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and 290 grams of this year’s Google Nexus 7.

Wrap Up

The HP Slate 7 sells for around $200 and while you will find it cheaper in stores and online you must be prepared to put up with its many pitfalls.

Apple iPhone 5S Review, Features, Specs & Price Info

Apple iPhone 5S Smartphone is considering to be the one of the powerful smartphone introduced from Apple after iPhone 5 and it’s also officially replacing the old iPhone 5 with the power of most advanced mobile operating system of iOS 7 Firmware. The Apple iPhone 5S Specifications and Features is much impressive because its powered by A7 chip with 64-bit architecture and M7 motion coprocessor with large display screen and promising hardware and software tech specs. You can read and find Apple iPhone 5S Specifications, Features, Availability, Price and Review Details in our below Infographic.

Apple iPhone 5S Smartphone Full Features and Specifications Info:

Apple iPhone 5S is available in three different elegant colors i.e. Space Gray, Gold and Silver with the storage capacity of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Find full specs and features of iPhone 5S in our official Infographic below.

Apple iPhone 5S Price Info and Availability for Contract and Contract-Free Devices:

Apple will begins to get pre-orders for iPhone 5S from September 20th at 12:01am Pacific Time for 100+ countries worldwide. The official price of Apple iPhone 5S will be $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB on a two-year contract basis with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. To Get Unlocked and Contract-Free iPhone 5S you have to pay $649 for 16GB, $749 for 32GB and $849 for 64GB storage capacity.

BlackBerry Q10

Take heart BlackBerry diehards, your day is finally here. The BlackBerry Z10 was just a warm up and a promise to the QWERTY faithful that their device would come. The BlackBerry Q10 runs the all new BlackBerry OS 10.1, based on bulletproof QNX, and it's wildly modern compared to the OS on the BlackBerry Curve and Bold. And yes, it has a hardware QWERTY keyboard that won't let you down. Throw in a 3.1" AMOLED touch screen and you've got the Q10. The internals are identical to the touch screen slate BlackBerry Z10, and though the hardware can't compete with the most powerful Android phones, it doesn't need to because the OS is optimized for the hardware inside (much like Windows Phone and the iPhone are highly optimized for specific hardware). The phone has a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage. The BlackBerry Q10 will be available on all major US carriers and on many carriers overseas. Here in the US at launch, it's $199 with contract ($99 down plus $20 monthly payments on the newly contract-less T-Mobile). The OS and basic navigation work just the same as on the BlackBerry Z10, so we won't go into great detail in this review. The OS supports multi-tasking via active panes (small windows that tile across the multi-tasking screen), and it has several screens for the app launcher (app icons). BlackBerry Hub is your unified inbox for all notifications from emails to texts, to missed calls and alarms. It's easy and intuitive and you needn't leave the Hub when replying to emails, social networking messages and texts. In fact, there are neither icons nor a separate app for your various email accounts, though there is an SMS/MMS icon. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare are preloaded. Box and Dropbox are pre-loaded as is BlackBerry Maps (not the strongest mapping and navigation solution we've seen), a shortcut to the YouTube mobile site and Documents to Go for mobile MS Office compatible work. The OS comes with a file manager, PIM apps that can sync with MS Exchange and other services like Google, POP3/IMAP/Exchange, weather, a clock, calculator, Adobe Reader, a games portal and a compass. The BlackBerry Q10 has dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a GPS with digital compass. It has a rear 8MP camera with an LED flash (the same as the Z10) and HDR mode that comes courtesy of OS 10.1. BlackBerry World is your one stop shop for apps, music and video. As we noted with the BlackBerry Z10, the app selection doesn't yet come close to competing with iTunes, Google Play for Android and even the Windows Phone app store. The OS and ecosystem are very young, and we hope to see more apps as time progresses, though this in part depends on how many folks buy OS 10 devices (developers need a reason to make apps, after all). Still, some popular apps are here like Skype, MLB at Bat, Angry Birds, Google Talk (a RIM app), TuneIn Radio and Wisepilot (navigation).

BlackBerry Q10 Video Review

Design and Ergonomics

The Q10 looks like a modern interpretation of older QWERTY smartphones. I wouldn't call it a stunning phone (it may be nearly impossible to make a phone with a hardware keyboard look uber-sexy), but the black model's carbon fiber back appeals to the car geek in me and it's strong too. The phone's face has a clean and modern look with attractive metal strips between the key rows that make it easier to find your place on the keyboard in the dark. The phone isn't very thin, but the hardware keyboard and removable battery don't allow for impossible thinness. The back cover slides off to reveal the removable 2100 mAh battery, micro SIM card slot and micro SDXC card slot.

The metal volume rocker with center action button is the same as the Z10's, and it's easy to locate by touch but stiff enough that we didn't activate it by accident. The power/sleep button is up top as is the 3.5mm combo audio jack. Both the micro USB and micro HDMI ports are on the left side. The 2MP front camera and notification LED that blinks urgent red when messages and alerts are waiting sit above the display and the speaker is on the bottom edge. Our black model's back is grippy but not sticky and feels good in hand. The phone is relatively small compared to today's gargantuan smartphones and the Q10 is a bit shorter than the Z10. The Q10 feels sturdy and the sides are reinforced with metal underneath the plastic.

Calling and Data

BlackBerry phones are typically excellent voice phones, and the Q10 on AT&T didn't disappoint. Our call recipients thought we were calling from a landline phone and likewise incoming voice was clear with average volume by cell phone standards. This is an excellent phone for calls. Data speeds according to speedtest.net were in line with today's LTE 4G phones and our BlackBerry Q10 averaged 25Mbps down and 16Mbps up on AT&T's LTE network in the Dallas metroplex. The phone played nicely with our Jawbone and Motorola Bluetooth headsets and our BMW's built-in Bluetooth for calls.

Keyboard

Gone are the trackballs and optical nav pads found on older BlackBerry smartphones. The touch screen replaces them, though purists will likely lament the further travel to the screen vs. the nav pad. I have no qualms with the thoroughly modern touch screen and I suspect the days of auxiliary navigation elements have passed. The keyboard is pure joy for hardware keyboard lovers and it maintains the sculpted waterfall keys we loved years ago on the BlackBerry Bold 9900. The tactile keys make it easy to tell when you're on target and it's clear if you've wandered from your desired key. The usual BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts live on: double press the space bar for a period, for example. BlackBerry OS 10.1 brings a host of hardware keyboard tricks including typing "tweet" followed by a message to send a new tweet, and "BBM Joe Blow" to start a BBM to Joe. The keys are tactile and clicky, and for those who love their hardware keyboards (some 70 million strong use BlackBerry phones worldwide), it won't disappoint.

Display

At 328 PPI, the Q10's display has sufficiently high pixel density that text and graphics always look very sharp, even though the 720 x 720 resolution won't win any competitions with current smartphones. The challenge is the 3.1" size: OS icons and text are reasonably easy to see but text in web pages and documents is tiny. That's the price you pay for the hardware keyboard that consumes much of the front face real estate. Even with mobile sites, I often had to pinch zoom to make text easy to read and desktop sites have absolutely tiny text. As with BlackBerry smartphones of old, be prepared to zoom when viewing web pages. Email and text messages are easy to read since the OS handles font scaling, though you'll have to scroll often to read through a medium length email. The Super AMOLED display has very good color saturation and contrast and it's viewable outdoors.

Horsepower and Performance

In an Android phone review, this is where we include many different benchmarks and analyze speed in detail. As with Windows Phone, that's not necessary here, not just because myriad benchmark programs don't yet exist for BlackBerry OS 10, but also because the phone's software is completely optimized to perform well on the hardware. This is a quick and responsive phone and the UI maintains speed after several days of uptime. The active panes are here, just as with the BlackBerry Z10 running OS 10, and these are miniaturized windows where your running apps sit when minimized. Tap one and it runs full screen with no significant delay, just where you left off. The OS handles memory, so some apps may not update when running minimized as active panes, but if you have 9 or fewer running, they generally do update. The thoroughly modern webkit web browser with Adobe Flash is very fast and is competitive with other platforms in terms of speed and website compatibility.

Battery Life

Unlike the BlackBerry Z10 that launched with just OK runtimes that improved with OS updates, BlackBerry clearly focused on battery life with the Q10 knowing it had to compete with the OS 7 BlackBerry phones it supplants. Thanks to the small display, relatively undemanding CPU and a large 2100 mAh battery, the phone delivers impressive runtimes. We routinely managed two days on a charge with moderate use that included Facebook, Twitter and 3 email accounts updates, 45 minutes of voice calls, 30 minutes of streaming HTML5 video via YouTube and an hour of web browsing each day.

Camera

Like the BlackBerry Z10, the Q10 has a 2MP camera on the front and an 8MP camera with LED flash, backside illuminated sensor and a fast f/2.2, five element lens on the rear. Though BlackBerry OS 10.1 introduces HDR shooting for better high contrast exposure, the camera is hobbled by a simplistic UI with few controls. Yes, the iPhone has few camera settings and controls, but Apple has a way of making users forgive them because photos and videos come out looking great without having to fiddle endlessly with settings. With the BlackBerry Q10 camera, I often feel that its good hardware fails to meet the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 920 challenge because the software isn't as good as it could be and I'm not allowed to tweak settings to help it.

With good, even lighting, photos are sharp and colorful. With stark outdoor sunlight or poor indoor lighting, HDR really helps bring out detail in dark areas. Video stabilization is decent but not nearly as good the optical image stabilization on the Nokia Lumia 920. That said, with proper lighting, the BlackBerry Q10 captures sharp and colorful shots and fairly smooth 1080p video. And it's certainly leaps and bounds ahead of Curve and Bold cameras. If you're upgrading from an older BlackBerry model, you'll be in heaven.

Conclusion

The BlackBerry Q10 brings the traditional BlackBerry smartphone into the modern age. I suspect it's enough to make BlackBerry loyalists happy, though I doubt iPhone and Android users will flock to it (that was the BlackBerry Z10's job). It's fast, stable, and secure and it maintains enough of the UI conventions of older BlackBerry smartphones to make existing BlackBerry owners feel a bit less lost. It's an enjoyable hardware QWERTY smartphone in a world where that form factor has all but died. Will it start a BlackBerry revolution? I don't think so, but it may just be what the doctor ordered to stem the exodus to other platforms. Is it a fantastic smartphone given today's excellent competition? Not such much unless you're a QWERTY lover or a BlackBerry fan. The tiny display and lack of apps hold it back from broad appeal.

Website: www.blackberry.com

Price: $199 with 2 year contract on most US carriers

Hands on: Samsung Ativ Tab 3 review

What's that? Another Samsung Windows 8 tablet running atop an Intel Atom Z2760 CPU that uses polycarbonate for a chassis and looks a lot like the Galaxy Tab 3 range that was recently announced?
Yes, indeed: that's what Samsung has just unleashed on the unsuspecting public with the Ativ Tab 3, most thinking they were safe from the deluge of tablets that the South Korean firm was throwing onto the market.
It's not fair to disparage the new Windows 8 tablet just because it looks so similar to other devices from the mothership - it's actually a decent device in its own right.

• Best Windows 8 tablets: all the tablets reviewed

For a start, it's the thinnest Windows 8 tablet in the world and has 2GB of RAM to power things along.

It's not running Windows RT either, so you'll have a full whack of OS power to play with when it comes to programs to use - the Windows 8 interface works effectively on the 10.1-inch screen and, while the 1366 x 768 resolution looks a little grainy, it's acceptable because Samsung tells us is going to be skewed more towards the 'affordable' end of the market.

The 550g weight is also another real selling point, as while its Ativ Q sibling is a rather chunky unit that may cause your arm to fall off on the train, this comes in with a much more sprightly mass (yes, we know mass isn't technically the right word there).

The battery life is another of the Ativ Tab 3's selling points, tagged to last for 10 hours, which is good enough for 'most' long haul flights, according to Samsung's official press materials. It's always good when these things are absolute, isn't it? Lest a slew of returns occur at Hong Kong's airport, with disgruntled Ativ Tab 3 owners annoyed at the lack of power they encountered whilst watching Van Wilder: Party Liaison for the fifth time on the flight.

The ports are much less generous than on the Ativ Q or the other Windows 8 laptops, with only a microUSB, microHDMI and microSD slot showing that you can connect to other devices. In fact, it's actually the same as the Samsung Galaxy S4 - so if you own one of those, you'll be set. Actually, no, that's not true as the HDMI and USB ports are combined on the smartphone. Sorry about that.

The S Pen makes a lot of sense on the Ativ Tab 3 as the 1024 levels of sensitivity can be applied to a wide number of applications throughout the device, which makes it really easy to annotate text or direction, which we can see many using this device for thanks to the ultra-light weight on offer.
Microsoft Office Home and Student edition is pre-installed on the Tab 3, meaning out of the box it's going to be a useful addition to those looking for a more simple laptop substitute, and if the price isn't too destructive, we can see this turning a few heads in your local computing emporium.

Side Sync can be used here too: this allows you to pop a Galaxy S4 (as well as other Android-based smartphones) next to the unit, connected through wires or wirelessly, and the mouse cursor will be able to use the smartphone as a second screen, giving you the ability to drag and drop files across from one device to another.
As you can see at the event itself, the Galaxy Tab 3 will come with its own natty cover, that works via magnets to provide a stand AND A KEYBOARD for anyone that doesn't want to preserve the super-thin frame of the Ativ Tab 3, and instead wants to stop it getting smashed in a bag.

As you can see, the material is a plastic, but it has a certain heft to it that's pleasing. As mentioned, it makes your Ativ Tab 3 so much thicker, but given you get protection (and the option to magnetise on a keyboard) we'll accept it.

Early verdict

It's fashionable to bash Samsung tablets due to the fact they don't seem to have a dedicated purpose half the time: they're either made with low specs or offered for far, far too much money.

In the case of the Ativ Tab 3, we get the feeling that could be about to change. The Windows 8 market is quietly gaining traction, and the sheer number of extras on offer here make it an attractive proposition.
We're awaiting a price before making any rash calls but we were quietly impressed with the Ativ Tab 3, despite the cheap feeling plastic and flexible chassis.
Samsung needs to start pushing down into the lower end of the tablet market when it comes to price, and this could be the device to do it.