Microsoft Surface Pro 2 101: Help + Tips app

Take a look at the Help + Tips app that you'll find on your Microsoft Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8.1.

Microsoft has added and taken away some features in Windows 8 with the release of Windows 8.1. One of the items that has gone away is the Getting Started corner guides that appeared in Windows 8 on first start up, which isn’t necessarily bad, and one of the things that has come back is the Start Button. One of the apps I found in the original release that has managed to stay around in 8.1 is called Help + Tips. I realize that many IT pros might rather just dive in and use Windows 8.1, but other business users getting used to Windows 8.1 will find the app useful.

Accessing the Help + Tips app

The Help + Tips app is available as a Windows native app from the Start screen. Once it's open, the app is broken up into the following categories:

• Start and apps: This category shows overviews of how the Start screen and apps available for Windows 8.1 operate. It also explains the desktop app experience. 
• Get around: This category tells you how to access and navigate apps in Windows 8.1. It also includes a recently used apps list and information about how to change and close apps.
• Basic actions: The Basic Actions category describes the charms menu and how to split the screen between multiple apps.
• Your account and files: This category explains how to access your Microsoft Account, SkyDrive, and Search.
• Settings: Here you can learn about various Windows and app settings, including a new style control panel for Windows 8 called PC Settings. Apps in Windows 8.1 include custom settings based on the app you're using, but the settings for apps and the settings for Windows are accessed in the same manner. Don't worry, the original control panel is still accessible from the desktop app.
• What's new: This section outlines a number of new features available in Windows 8.1. If there's something specific to the latest release of Windows that you're curious about, this is a good place to start. 

You'll notice that some of the categories also provide Windows.com suggestions on the far right. This is added to give you a head start when using the Internet to get more information within a category. In addition, each category can be optimized for touch or for a mouse. The touch version of the Help + Tips app is made for devices like the Surface that are geared toward touch. 

What's missing?

The Help + Tips app is designed to be a place to start working with Windows 8.1, since there are a number of new features and changes to features from previous versions. It would also be nice if this application were updatable. For example, Microsoft Windows PowerShell includes an updatable help feature that allows new content to be published to the Internet and pulled into PowerShell to keep the information fresh. The Windows Help + Tips app would be another great use for this feature, allowing ongoing information to be downloaded with one click.

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Surface 2 design changes make it more difficult to crack open and repair

Bill Detwiler cracks open the Surface 2 and finds a redesigned interior that makes the tablet difficult, time-consuming to open and repair.

On the outside, the Surface 2 may look like its predecessor, the Surface RT. But Microsoft dramatically changed the tablet's internal design. And in doing so, made it a real pain to crack open and repair.

The Surface 2 is ever-so-slightly thinner and lighter than the original Surface RT. But from the outside, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. That doesn't mean however that they're identical. Far from it.

The Surface 2 a new two-position kickstand, the microSD card slot has been moved down slightly, and the case screws are no longer visible on the back of the case. These subtle, external differences however, pale when compared to the massive internal hardware and design changes Microsoft made on the new tablet.

For more information on the Surface 2, including real-world tests and pricing, check out Eric Franklin's full CNET review.

Unfortunately when making all these hardware upgrades, Microsoft also completely reworked the tablet's internal design, and in doing so made the Surface 2 much more difficult to crack open and repair than its predecessor.

Cracking Open Observations

Glued-on front panel, plastic body make opening difficult: Opening last year's Surface RT, began by removing the tablet's back cover. Not so with the Surface 2. Like the Apple iPad, cracking open this tablet requires heating the edges of the front panel to loosen the adhesive that holds it to the tablet's body. While heating the panel, you'll need to gently pry it away from the body with thin tools. Unlike the iPad however, some of the Surface's internal components and external trim pieces are made from plastic, which can warp if overheated.

Redesigned interior: The internal hardware is mounted to the Surface 2's body, with the front panel and display being a single, removable unit. The Surface RT's hardware on the other hand was actually mounted to the front panel and display assembly, which also served as the tablet's body. There's also a new plastic bezel that runs around the tablet's outer edge and serves at the mounting surface for the front panel/display assembly. The Surface 2 is built more like the Surface 2 Pro than Surface RT, which makes the tablet more difficult to open and repair.

Filled with hardware upgrades: Along with the radically changing the Surface 2's internal design, Microsoft also gave the tablet lots of hardware upgrades. The Surface 2 has two microphones (compared to the Surface RT's one), stereo speakers, a USB 3.0 port, better front-facing (3.5-megapixel) and rear-facing (5.0-megapixel) cameras, a new 1920x1080 display, and a faster 1.7GHz Tegra 4 processor.

Difficult, time-consuming to open repair

The Surface 2 is definitely an improvement over last year's model when it comes to hardware specifications and performance. Kudos to Microsoft for that.

But it has also officially become the most difficult to crack open tablet I've ever worked open. The front panel adhesive is incredibly hard to work around, there are more than 60 screws inside the case (of all different sizes), and most of the motherboard connectors are extremely fragile and easily broken. I can only hope Microsoft makes some major design changes for next year's model. Unfortunately, I doubt they will.

Internal Hardware

Our Surface 2 test unit had the following internal hardware:

• 1.7GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 SoC
• SK Hynix H26M64003DQR 32GB NAND Flash
• Atmel AT32UC3L0256 32-bit AVR UC3 RISC microcontroller
• 324 D81 EW
• Micron Technology 2GB DDR3 SDRAM (3NE77 D9GLJ QLV5)
• Texas Instruments TPS65913 processor power management unit (PMU)
• Texas Instruments TPS 650
• Marvell Avastar 88W8797 Integrated 2x2 WLAN/Bluetooth/FM Single-Chip SoC
• Multiple RF Micro Devices ICs
• Wolfson Micro WM8962BE Audio Codec
• Atmel maXTouch mXT1664S capacitive touchscreen controller
• Texas Instruments MSP430 ultra-low-power microcontroller
• ZUF 37K CDYF
• 7.6V 31.3WH Li-ion battery
• 3.5-megapixel front-facing camera
• 5.0-megapixel rear-facing camera

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Five ways Surface RT beats Android tablets

Donovan Colbert highlights five reasons why he's increasingly been using Microsoft's Surface RT more than any of his Android devices.

For the past several years, I chased after an Android future that never really materialized. I went through a number of Android convertible tablets (like the Transformer TF101 and TF300), and I tried Webtop on my Motorola phones as a full PC in a Lapdock. Android came very close, but I kept feeling like the devices were coming up just a bit short. When Microsoft's Surface RT came out, I watched closely but was turned off by the steep price. A year later, when prices finally started to come down, I bought one from Craigslist. 

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