5. Hey Good Looking
Seriously, look at it. It's lovely! That gun metal Magnesium oxide coating, the two tone touch at the top, the kickstand with 'Surface' emblazoned upon it proudly, it is a good looking device. Those good looks extend both to the screen, which is bright, punchy, vibrant and with excellent colour reproduction, and to the overall operating system. Some may disagree vehemently with that statement but like a new car it takes a bit of time to get used to. The scaling options on the Surface 2 as well as the resolution and aspect ratio means that most users will be able to find a comfortable view. Some may prefer the default with large tiles and text but selecting "Show More Tiles" and changing the settings to display text smaller makes better use of the resolution and screen real estate. It's down to personal preference but at least on the Surface you can change it. The choice of aspect ratio and resolution is another key benefit and selling point for the Surface 2. Where the original was only 720p the Surface 2 is full HD at 16:9. At a time when manufacturers are pushing higher resolutions you may rightly question why 1080p would be a better choice, but websites and movies are set up for those figures. Compare watching a 1080p video on an iPad which technically has a 'better' resolution, but because of the ratio there are larger black bars top and bottom. The amount of added screen real estate from watching the same movie on the Surface 2 can be upwards of 50%. This despite being 10.6" vs 9.7"