THE ARTIFACT: Surface 2 @ Plaza Low Yat

So I’ve spent my week in this Surface 2 roadshow at Plaza Low Yat @ Kuala Lumpur.

As a supervisor of all these show-girls and the event, I’ve to ensure the event is running well and avoid any sexual harassment is happen on those pretties =P

Surface 2 review

Microsoft Surface 2 is Windows RT tablet that come with a touch friendly version of office running in desktop mode, but which can only install and run tablet apps from the Windows Store.

The Surface 2 falls into the latter category and usurps the Surface RT from last year, though the latter remains on sale at a knock down price. It shares the basic design of the Surface Pro 2, but it’s lighter, cheaper and has longer battery life. Windows 8 tablets tend to replace your laptop, its kin a bloody nose by making you more productive.

(Type Cover 2 - Purple)

To make all this work the Surface 2 is available to buy with two keyboard accessories: the Touch Cover 2 and the Type Cover 2.

The keyboards clip very securely to the bottom of the Surface 2 and combine with the built-in kickstand so you can comfortably set the Surface 2 down on a desk and start working. It’s here where the first changes to the Surface 2’s design become evident.

The kickstand, which used to have one very steep angle, now has two angles: a tall one (45 degree) that isn’t quite as extreme as before and a flatter one (90 degree) that ensures the screen actually faces you when it’s set down on a desk, so you can choose the one that works best for you. On your desk or in your lap, find the perfect viewing angle.

The basic connectivity on the Surface 2 remains much the same as before. There’s a single, full-size USB port, but it’s now 3.0 port rather than a 2.0 one. There’s a single Mini HDMI output and a 3.5mm headphone output, but the most important addition is the microSD card slot. That’s because, although advertised as a 32GB tablet, after the OS and recovery partition there’s only 16GB or so of space left. Investing in a card is a good idea.

Microsoft has upgraded various other parts of the Surface 2. It now uses a Tegra 4 processor, a quad-core chip clocked at 1.7GHz. There’s still 2GB of RAM, but the two cameras are much improved from two 720p resolution cameras to a 5.0MP camera on the back and a 3.5MP camera on the front. Microsoft has added a second mic at the rear, too, adding active noise cancelling to improve video chatting performance.