Microsoft Surface Pro 9, 8 or Pro X - Signature Type cover - Silver

Product Information

All of these design facets, in addition to other features such as meeting an Intel-outlined minimum battery life (test results below), means the Pro 8 qualifies as an Intel Evo device. This, of course, doesn’t inherently add any features, but it is a badge of approval that means the product meets a set of desirable portability, performance, and endurance standards. (You can read more about Intel's Evo requirements in our explainer.) If the keys are working correctly in UEFI, but not in Windows: The problem is likely with the software installed on the Surface, and you'll need to reinstall. See Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface. As for that functionality, the experience is much the same. The “lapability” of the Surface Pro is always a contentious point: It works great on a table or desk, but isn’t stable or comfortable used as a laptop in your lap. (It turns out that "laptops" are pretty aptly named, after all!)

Given the 3:2 aspect ratio, which all Surface products use, the native resolution is not an especially common one, at 2,880 by 1,920 pixels. Many mainstream users of this type of device, though, ultimately won’t need the nitty gritty: The display is bright, looks very sharp, and features 10-point touch. It's been a few years since Microsoft launched an all-out new entry in its Surface Pro line, and even longer since there's been a noticeable redesign. The Surface Pro 8 changes that, introducing a sleeker chassis with a larger display than the Surface Pro 7. It's much more attractive, thanks to its new thin-bezel 13-inch screen, but its core functionality is otherwise unchanged. This is still a best-in-class detachable 2-in-1 in terms of design, and when paired with the improved 11th Generation Core i7 "Tiger Lake" processor in our model (and the advantages of Windows 11), this tablet can compete as a true laptop replacement. Note: If you don't see a Devices menu, then your device does not provide this functionality and is working as expected. Not all devices have this option on the UEFI screen. Finally, the connectivity. There was a time when the complaint was that the Surface Pro included no USB-C ports, for longer than it should have gone without them, but one USB-C was finally added with the Pro 7. Now, the Pro 8 includes not one but two USB-C ports, both boasting Thunderbolt 4 support for faster throughput.The Geekbench 5 CPU test told a similar tale with the Pro 8 easily outstripping both the Pro 7 and Pro X Surface tablets and the chipset even has performance enough to allow a little light gaming, the Metro Redux benchmark returning an average frame rate of 57fps at 1,920 x 1,080 (although only 22.3fps at the native resolution of 2,880 x 1,920). The GFXbench Car Chase benchmark also shows good performance at 1080p. We'd also like to note the quiet operation during these stress tests. Even after 10 minutes of crunching through repeat runs of the CPU-intensive Cinebench, the Pro 8's fans were audible if you listened for it, but if anything were quieter than average despite the slim design. There is active cooling happening beneath the hood, but the Pro 8 kept surprisingly quiet through testing, which hasn't always been true for Surface Pro devices. It's not totally silent under load—there is heat that must be dispersed—but it's still commendable. Graphics Tests Thermal room to breathe (and thus keep up sustained performance) will generally favor clamshell designs, which will by the chassis makeup have more leeway to vent in heavy workloads. The Pro 8 therefore surprised us by acquitting itself well on tests such as our real-world PCMark 10 and Photoshop trials, not far behind the Surface Laptop Studio and its "Tiger Lake H35"-series CPU. We also thought it would flag more than it did on our long-run CPU grinds (HandBrake, Geekbench Pro, and Cinebench), but the Core i7-1185G7 forged on gamely. (It's worth noting that it has the same core/thread count as the H-series Surface Laptop Studio, thus the relatively small amount of daylight between the two on many tests.) System software uses significant storage space. Available storage is subject to change based on system software updates and apps usage. 1 GB = 1 billion bytes. 1 TB = 1,000 GB. See Surface storage for more details. Microsoft’s Surface machines have always had good webcams and the 1080p affair in the Pro 8 is no exception. It delivers a crisp, colourful video feed even in low light and supports Windows Hello facial recognition log-in. There’s also a 10MP camera at the rear, which doesn’t do a bad job, but that doesn’t make it any less irrelevant.

Pressing the fingerprint reader at the Windows sign-in screen has no response and appears not to be recognized. Pressing the fingerprint reader at the Windows sign-in screen results in an error or other message such as "Fingerprint not recognized." The past few iterations of the Surface Pro hadn’t seen much physical design change, but some noteworthy alterations finally—ahem—surface with the Pro 8. You buy a device like this to use anywhere, and the brightness, especially, is a boon in on-the-go situations where you may not have control over the ambient light where you need to work. A high peak brightness like on the Pro 8 can help you power through those situations by cranking it all the way up (albeit with a cost in battery life).

The Verdict: Peak Windows Tablet at a Price

Colors available on selected models only. Available colors, sizes, finishes, and processors may vary by store, market, and configuration.

Tactile signals with Surface Slim Pen 2 can be experienced on some applications on Surface Pro 8 running Windows 11. Surface Slim Pen 2 sold separately. Having said all that, the Surface Pro 8 is a very hard act to beat for sheer versatility. Used solo, it’s an excellent tablet, but when combined with the Surface Pro Signature keyboard it’s a thoroughly competent and powerful laptop replacement, while the Surface Slim Pen 2 turns it into a handy graphics tool. More than the size or the new hue, though, it's the display bezels that make the biggest visual impact. If you're familiar with the previous Surface Pro devices, you'll notice how much thinner the bezels are on the Pro 8, and if you're not, you'll just see a sleek tablet with plenty of screen real estate. The Pro 7's bezel design was already looking a bit long in the tooth in Pro models before it, so it was due for an update. We got a tease of this update in the slim Surface Pro X, a Qualcomm-silicon-based device that offered a more modern design, but that wasn't quite up to snuff on the performance and software end.

Components and Configurations

We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).