I have 2 Surfaces - I need to determine which is in the best condition asap

[macmee]

Hi,

It took Microsoft 2 weeks to ship me out a new Surface. I just want to make sure my new one is in better condition than my old one. Does anyone have any advice in terms of tests I can preform to both units to make sure that the new one is infact in better condition?

Sadly (although I don't care much), the one they sent me is using the old processor and has a smaller serial no. compared to my other Surface (funny how it took them 2 weeks to find one for me at all...). I'm fairly sure they've lied to me and sent me a refurbished unit. One thing I've noticed is that the colours on the screen are different.

 

[mennogreg]

Difficult to tell without seeing, but the December firmware improved color fidelity for some applications.

 

[macmee]

Difficult to tell without seeing, but the December firmware improved color fidelity for some applications.

One of my Surfaces suffered the December update. It's the one that seems to have nicer colours. The whites especially look more white, whereas the whites on the other one even look yellowish.

I'm trying to determine if both have the bug where when you put the device to sleep and attempt to boot, it does a silent BSOD. But of course, as soon as you intentionally seek out these bugs they don't occur, and only occur when you're in lectures trying to take notes.

 

[CreativeLemming]

If you want to find out if one of the devices has gone through BSOD, maybe the event log would tell you. You should be able to tell if the machine has rebooted, and if there are boot related events when you've just been sleeping this might help identify the fact.
Maybe the reliability index would also be a good metric to help in your comparison?

 

[jrapdx]

One of my Surfaces suffered the December update. It's the one that seems to have nicer colours. The whites especially look more white, whereas the whites on the other one even look yellowish.

I'm trying to determine if both have the bug where when you put the device to sleep and attempt to boot, it does a silent BSOD. But of course, as soon as you intentionally seek out these bugs they don't occur, and only occur when you're in lectures trying to take notes.

FWIW I'm on my second SP2, I've noticed differences in rendering. The first SP2 was claimed by the Dec10 FW, but despite erratic behavior, the display was "crisper", text a little easier to read, compared to the 2nd unit. The new one has been more stable, not heating up like a small furnace, as the first had become subject to doing.

Despite the newer 4300u vs. the first having the 4200u processor, I can't say the second SP2 is better in every way. The copy variation among the SP2's sure seems to be unusually wide compared to other electronic devices I've owned. A particular sample may not be perfect, but we learn to live with it because a replacement may very well be no better or even worse.