Yes, you are correct. Windows 8 machines take a couple of seconds to resume and Surface Pro basically being a laptop should behave the same way as far as anybody knows. If is possible MS made some specific tweaks to the Surface Pro but until they make it into the wild it is hard to say.
One of the great features of Windows 8 though is that boot and resume times are very fast. So while it may not be "instant" it should be very fast. Even on older hardware my Win 8 laptop boots and resumes very quickly.
Most of the laptop reviews on The Verge now make mention of the boot and resume times. This is a common example.
In a coup for Windows, boot and resume times were also really fast — the U925t turns on in about 10 seconds and resumes basically instantly. In that sense, it feels almost like a tablet.
In contrast to:
The small SSD is designed to make boot and resume fast, and it mostly works: the Twist boots in about 15 seconds, though its three-to-four-second wake time is a little slower than I'd like.
Even at 3-4 seconds that is much faster than non-Windows 8 laptops most people are use to. I don't see how this will be an issue for most people other than something to complain about. For most devices even with instant on by the time you slide to unlock, face recognize or enter a password you have burned the same amount of time.
As Intel chips become more power efficient I would expect this will change to match mobile chip instant on performance. In the past laptop makers have even experimented with a second mobile style chip to allow push notifications and basic processing while the device is off. Maybe we will see a return to that strategy. For now though it is probably better to have the extra battery life (already a hot button issue).
