Microsoft Surface Pro 9, 8 or X - Signature Type cover - Black - and Slim Pen 2 - Black - bundle

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Tactile signals with Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2 can be experienced on some applications on Surface Pro 8 running Windows 11. Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2 sold separately. Surface devices traditionally have fairly utilitarian designs, with Microsoft tending to make minor refinements, rather than outright changes year-on-year. This changed with the Surface Pro 8 and its contemporary design boost, but the new Surface Pro 9 reverts to type with no visual differences, sans a new Forest green colour option. But it only covers 73.4% of the Adobe RGB and 75.7% of the DCI P3 gamuts favoured by creatives that work in physical media. I’d want a device being marketed for creatives to cover at least 80% of these gamuts out of the box. Performance

All of these options will technically work on any modern Surface device, and in fact, on a lot of modern Windows laptops. Many of these devices, including any Surface PC released after the Surface Pro 3, feature the Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP), which all these pens support. Prior to that, Surface devices used Wacom technology, so these pens won't be compatible, but any of these is technically functional for other devices. However, there are some things to be aware of. The Surface Slim Pen 2 is ideal for newer devices Starting with the Surface Pro X, Microsoft made some significant changes to the design of its devices, and, to go along with it, the accompanying pen. While you can use the original round Surface Pen, the Surface Slim Pen 2 is ideal if you have one of these: Microsoft quotes the Surface Pro 8 as offering 16 hours battery life, and during testing I found that it is possible to get that much use out of the device under certain conditions. And battery life isn’t all that impressive, either. The Surface Pro 8 ran for 7hrs 16mins in our video rundown battery test, four minutes shy of the Surface Pro 7, which kept going for 7hrs 20mins. That’s despite the Surface Pro 8 having a bigger battery (51.5Wh versus 43.2Wh). That’s enough to see you through a full day of work, but the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, not to mention countless regular laptops, can do much better.Colours available on selected models only. Available colours, sizes, finishes and processors may vary by store, market and configuration. Following on from the Microsoft Surface Pro 7, the 8th generation has had a few significant upgrades. The most obvious change is the display which has increased in size from 12.3-inches to 13-inches, without too much of an impact on the dimensions of the whole device. It’s also a slightly higher resolution this time around with a brand new 120Hz refresh rate as well as the usual option for 60Hz. Under the hood, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is powered by one of Intel’s 11th Gen CPUs, that’s compared to newer 12th Gen chips available on the Surface Pro 9. The exact CPU and RAM configuration can be customised in the Microsoft Store. The version I tested features an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM. Outside of the difference in CPU, the specs of the Surface Pro 8 are the same as the Surface Pro 9. This increases the maximum number of images per second the screen can display from 60 to 120. A higher refresh rate brings with it many benefits. The most noticeable is smoother scrolling and navigation, as there’s less of a gap between each image in an animation. The pen is slightly different to the older Surface Pen seen on past Pro tablets. It’s plastic, has flat sides and features a new built-in haptic motor that aims to replicate the feeling of drawing or writing on paper when interacting with the Pro 8’s screen. The feature works well enough, though it’s not quite as authentic as the experience I have using one of Remarkable’s tablets. But the flat sides did take some getting used to. For the first few days I felt the pen’s shape wasn’t quite as ergonomic, and occasionally I experienced hand cramps when using it for prolonged digital painting sessions.

If you need a laptop for work, and therefore video calls, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 has a high-quality front camera that is detailed with balanced colours. You won’t be plagued with graininess from your webcam. You can use the front camera to log into the PC as well through Windows Hello facial recognition. Meanwhile, the rear camera takes shots that are actually useable. It still won’t match your smartphone camera but for a tablet, it’s really good.Not everything about it is perfect, the battery life could use a boost and it’s a shame there’s no MicroSD card slot. But when it comes down to it the only reasons I would say not to buy this is if you already own the Surface Pro 7 or if you’re only planning to use it as a laptop because you can get more power for your money elsewhere and the design of the keyboard means it’s not going to be quite comfortable enough to use on the go. Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review: also consider The Surface Pro 8 is Microsoft’s flagship convertible tablet-come-laptop from 2021, letting buyers use it as a Windows tablet or portable laptop/sketch station when paired with the optional Signature Cover case and Slim Pen 2.

Some older devices will be limited to support for 1,024 levels of pressure due to limitations of earlier MPP protocols, but for the most part, all these devices will support the Surface Pen. It's also worth noting that the Surface Laptop lineup, as well as the Surface Pro 3, do not support magnetic attachment for the pen. All the others let you store the pen on the side in some way. Maximum brightness is good rather than great at 335cd/m² (the Pro 7’s panel was 400cd/m²) but it is handily colourful with a total colour volume that’s 106.9% of the sRGB gamut. This puts it in direct competition with Apple’s iPad Pro line of tablets. Microsoft has refined its design and added upgrades like more powerful components and a 120Hz screen. But niggling issues with its software make it feel a little difficult to use as a standalone tablet. Comparison of viewable content on Surface devices with 3:2 aspect ratio v. laptops with 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio.

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. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 improves on what came before it in a few big ways whilst maintaining the essence of the Surface Pro series. But the flipside, when paired with a Type Cover, and the Slim Pen 2 its Windows 11 software lets it function much better as a full fat laptop replacement than its Apple rival, making it better for office use. Design One of the biggest updates Microsoft has made to the Surface Pro 8 relates to its screen. It hasn’t updated the panel to use Mini LED tech, like the stuff seen on the new iPad Pro. It hasn’t even made the jump to OLED. I ran a video over two hours on full brightness and in that time the battery level dropped by nearly 40% so it would have lasted just over 5 hours in total - that’s okay but I have definitely seen better. Using the charger in the box, it took less than an hour and a half to recharge it from empty to 100% which is pretty good by any standards.

Some accessories and software sold separately. Microsoft Surface Pro Signature Keyboard and Microsoft Surface Pro Keyboard are sold separately. Only Microsoft Surface Pro Signature Keyboard has Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2 storage and charging capabilities. Aside from magnetic attachment, third-party pens also support all of these features, so they're a great choice too if you don't think you need to store the pen magnetically on your device. The Surface Laptop Go doesn't support active pens

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How long the battery will last is dependent on a variety of factors, the chief of which is what processes you are running and what screen settings you’re using. I only got 16 hours when I completely shut down all superfluous settings and lowered the screen brightness to levels most people wouldn’t find comfortable using.