Brooke Crothers

Update: This post was updated on February 4 and February 5 with additional commentary and videos.

LOS ANGELES -- The Surface Pro has arrived early at Microsoft stores.

Locations, such as the store near Beverly Hills, Calif., now have the Pro -- slated for sale this Saturday -- on display and available for anyone to use.

So, I spent about an hour with Pro and came away impressed. More impressed than I was initially with Surface RT.

In a word, smooth. In the very limited time I used it, I experienced no lag or stuttering on graphics-intensive sites and videos. And when I ran Microsoft Office in desktop mode (which was installed on the Pro I used) everything was snappy.

(However, note that some reviews of the Surface Pro appearing Tuesday night have not been particularly kind.)

The Intel Ivy Bridge chip paired with a PC-class solid-state drive (and 4GB of memory) makes all the difference.

And the 10.6 -inch display at 1,920x1,080 resolution is a stunner. (That's over 2 million pixels at over 200 pixels per inch, for those keeping track.)

To me, the resolution looked pretty much the same as on my Retina iPad 4. Yes, I know, the iPad 4 has a higher pixel density but fonts were smooth and text was highly resolved (see photo below) on the Pro much like the Retina iPad.

If any of that sounds appealing to you, you can reserve one. A Microsoft store sales rep will take your name and e-mail address and then hand you a reservation card (see photo below).

Brooke Crothers

Brooke Crothers

Brooke Crothers