Microsoft Ships Surface Pro 2 Tablets With Wrong, Slower Processor

SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 2 tablet in October 2013 with several hardware upgrades, like the new 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U processor specifically optimized for longer battery life and increased performance. Three months later, Microsoft decided to upgrade the CPU with a 1.9GHz Core i5-4300U unit that would be capable of taking these improvements even further. Although Redmond kept quiet about the improvement, tech savvy buyers were aware of the change. Now, according to some new reports, it seems that the company is still shipping the old models to buyers, despite the fact that Microsoft promised to deliver only upgraded models featuring the new CPU."

Re:I Predict

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, the Surface hardware is actually quite good, best hybrid currently available ... sadly Windows is Windows ... but, installing Ubuntu on these is trivially easy, and all of the 'touch' stuff 'just works', no need to find weird drivers, etc. I have an original SurfacePro, and it has proven to be a very useful machine - much more useful for 'real' work than any tablet, whether Android or IOS ... you can even put Android X86 on it, but it's not clear why you'd want to ...

Re:Not news

[HerculesMO]

While it's always entertaining to read the same tired MS bashing, I got my wife the Surface Pro 2 for her work, and she loves it. It's an amazing machine, well built, great display, and has a wacom digitizer for her to take notes with. For $1000? Name me another product as versatile and portable. There isn't one. For all the MS hate, Windows 8 boots in 10 seconds from cold and it runs all the apps she needs or could need.

The alternative was an iPad, but realistically to me it didn't make any sense because a lot of apps she needed were Windows centric or needed plugins, etc.

For the right market it's a great product, and I think I got exactly what I paid for... an ultraportable that doubles as a tablet, and laptop in one.

Re:When will Microsoft Retire RT?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Surface pro 2. I can tell you it's a terrible computer. It tries to do two things and fails at both. As a tablet it's too heavy and bulky -- it has a fan! When's the last time your tablet starting blowing heat at you when playing a movie?

So then you try to use it as a computer. Well, you can't on your lap really because of the floppy keyboard. Plus the trackpad is a joke so you have to plug in a mouse. You fire up the Desktop -- and usability goes into the toilet because either sh*t is minuscule on the 10" screen, or it's altogether fuzzy because the software hasn't been adapted to high DPI. The whole software system feels bonky, rough, un-thought-through.

Oh and of course if you make the mistake of hitting the windows key you get a circus screen of flashing tiles all blaring at you with news and "friends" and stocks and weather and ads -- just because you wanted to start a program.

Ultrabooks, thank goodness, have at least 11" screens but usually at least 13".

Re:clickbait

[bloodhawk]

unless the actual source is provided that made said promise and it was someone that you would expect to be able to make such a promise then yes the facts pretty much say the story shouldn't be believed as all the verifiable facts contradict it.