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.
Mind you, the $1,099.99 starting price is much higher than the Surface Pro 7’s $749.99, reducing the appeal of its lower-end configurations. And its expensive accessories jack up the price whichever config you choose, with the keyboard being essential if you aim to use the Pro 8 as a laptop replacement. Despite losing its value play, the Pro 8’s boosted performance, smart redesign, and new stylus make the Surface Pro line an object of envy once again, and a repeat Editors’ Choice winner among Windows tablets.
The Design: Goodbye Bezels, Hello 2021
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.
First, let’s touch on the size. It measures 0.37 by 11.3 by 8.2 inches (HWD), and this trim chassis weighs 1.96 pounds, excluding the keyboard. The Pro 7 came in at 0.33 by 11.5 by 7.9 inches and 1.7 pounds, so this redesign actually does not trim down the overall footprint.
That said, this is an exceedingly compact and portable device to begin with, so those margins are mostly negligible (and if anything, slightly more thermal space may lead to improved performance, which we’ll get to). The chassis has also swapped from magnesium alloy to recycled anodized aluminum, which is another recent example of Microsoft employing more environmentally conscious design.
What matters is that it still feels like a sleek, high-quality build, sturdier and more premium than many Windows tablets. It has a more modern, rounded look versus the Surface Pro 7, and it feels very nice to the touch. Combined with the larger display (more on that in a moment), the Pro 8 is a more attractive machine from the first moment you lay eyes on it.
If anything, it does feel slimmer, but we know that must be an illusion given the dimensions. The Surface Pro series set the bar for these types of devices, and while it may have inspired others since, the build quality still stands out. It’s certainly not the only good detachable 2-in-1 in the game, having helped create a competitive market: Our favorites this year to date have been the Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable and the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable.
At its core, the design ethos is the same as it’s been for years with the Surface Pro, which may not thrill you as a prospective buyer looking for radical changes. Microsoft has made upgrades beyond the general shape, though, so let’s dive into those.
The Pro 8 comes in a traditional Platinum color, but also a new Graphite scheme, which is the colorway of our review sample shown here. It looks black at first glance, but it’s more of a dark grey.
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.
Like on the Pro X, the thinner bezels make a bigger difference than you may expect. Thick bezels have rapidly become synonymous with older tech—nearly every smartphone, monitor, and laptop has adopted minimal (or no) screen borders. So that’s not a club that premium products want to be a part of. The Pro 8 looks much more modern than the Pro 7, in addition to the, in practical fact, larger display.
Speaking of the display, it’s a big plus on this device, a sharp and pixel-dense screen (dubbed “PixelSense” in Microsoft parlance). The thinner bezels allow for the screen itself to be larger than the Pro 7’s (despite the barely different overall footprint), coming in at 13 inches instead of the previous 12.3 inches. On a small device, that much additional real estate is noticeable.
Another big upgrade is a bump to a peak 120Hz display refresh rate instead of the standard 60Hz. Refresh rates above 60Hz are generally reserved for gaming laptops, but other devices (notably many major smartphones) have adopted higher refresh rates, as well. Scrolling, web browsing, and digital drawing all look smoother when the screen is refreshing more often, so this is a nice plus for a tablet with a roomy touch screen and a compatible pen. Note that 60Hz is the default setting (it saves on battery), but you can change it to 120Hz in the Windows 11 display options.
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.
For those who may use the Surface Pro 8 for professional-grade creative tasks, it is compatible with the new Surface Slim Pen 2, and the screen makes use of Windows’ GPU ink acceleration for drawing. The new pen, alongside Windows 11, makes use of improved haptics to better mimic the feeling of drawing on paper or canvas. It is superior to the average tap feedback, though perhaps not a major departure.
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.
However, we’ve now settled to a place where, other than a headphone jack, those are the only ports—no standard USB-A ports in sight. Your bank of more traditional peripherals may not have a way to connect to the Surface Pro 8 without an adapter, a USB hub, or the use of a Microsoft Surface Dock, an added splurge. As for wireless connectivity, the Pro 8 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1; a 4G LTE option (markedly, not a 5G one) will be offered with the business version of the tablet.
The Pro 8 is rounded out by upgraded webcams: a 5-megapixel front-facing 1080p camera (with 1080p video support), and a rear-facing 1080p camera (with 4K video support). Microsoft claims camera improvements for picture and video-meeting quality, such as dynamic color adjustment based on room lighting, better low-light performance, and improved face focus in the case of a strong background light source. As this 2020-2021 pandemic span of increased remote work and life dominated by endless Zoom calls has made painfully clear, most laptops have unremarkable 720p webcams. The Pro 8’s added camera quality stands out and is a genuine benefit. The front-facing camera also includes Windows Hello support for fingers-free logins.
In our trials with it in the days leading up to the Pro 8’s launch, the Pro 8 camera showed a clear quality step-up from your average laptop’s. The image is very sharp, better than virtually any laptop we’ve seen in recent years and up there with a good 1080p standalone USB webcam. It focused smartly on the face, maintained consistently high detail, performed decently in low lighting, and didn’t get blown out by a bright background source like a ceiling light. Consider it a merit badge in this remote-work world.
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.)
We also mentioned the presence of Windows 11 on this machine, which, it’s worth noting, is the default for this product. Not coincidentally, Microsoft is launching this device and several other new and updated Surfaces alongside Windows 11, each pushing the other along and providing synergistic benefits. In addition to the screen and pen compatibility, you’ll find a load of new features in the new OS, so read our full Windows 11 review for those details.
Now, About That Keyboard…
As a tablet, the Surface Pro line is perhaps best known for its built-in kickstand, but the keyboard is right up there with its core features. This has always been a noteworthy point of dissonance because, while the device is often shown (and works best) with the detachable keyboard, it has always been sold separately from the tablet itself. That hasn’t changed. Microsoft suggests that the Surface Pro can be used on its own as a good Windows tablet while keeping the base cost down, and it can be. But the company also positions it as a laptop replacement for getting real work done. That makes the keyboard, more or less, essential.
We won’t belabor the specifics of the keyboard base’s functionality too much, as it has remained roughly the same through the Surface Pro’s existence, but there are a few new aspects to discuss. First and foremost, a new detachable keyboard launches with the Pro 8, named the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard.
This is not the same Type Cover used with previous iterations. In fact, those keyboards are not compatible with the Pro 8 at all. Only the Signature Keyboard and the Pro X’s keyboard are cited as compatible keyboards for the Surface Pro 8 on its product page. The Signature Keyboard is a new design, with a built-in slot or trench forward of the keys, which houses and charges the Slim Pen 2…
As a result, on the interface side, you’ll see a whole different connection between tablet and keyboard…
Now, of course, rendering any past Type Covers you may own obsolete is inconvenient and adds another cost. The Signature Keyboard is priced at $179.99, a not-insignificant sum. Compared to the Type Cover, the Signature Keyboard has a stiffer core and a larger touchpad. It’s available in Poppy Red, Ice Blue, Platinum, and Black. A version with a fingerprint reader is also available for $199.99, and Microsoft offers a $279.99 bundle of the Signature Keyboard and the Slim Pen 2. (The Slim Pen 2 is a weighty $129.99 bought alone, so the bundle saves you $30.)
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!)
The built-in kickstand is the benchmark for these types of devices, and that remains true here. The hinge can be stopped at any point along its sway range (which is not new here, but was a big improvement over the fixed-point hinge in the original Pro), while the kickstand is stable and wide enough to make the system sturdy, at least on a desk or surface. As a single point of pressure, though, its edge isn’t as stable as a laptop base for use on your lap, and the width of the device means you have to keep your legs pretty close together to keep it balanced.
It does work (and Microsoft updating the keyboard to snap against the screen magnetically for a more secure, tilted-up setup helps). But the feel isn’t a full equivalent to a laptop. This is an area where you would hope for some real design innovation or improvement with a new Pro model. (Perhaps in a future edition.) Otherwise, the Pro 8 converts like, well, a pro, and is as easy to use as any 13-inch laptop would be when on a desk. That said, professionals with a lot of windows and documents may find a 13-inch screen too small to work with, even if the keyboard and kickstand can keep up. (In fairness, that also applies to clamshell-style laptops of that screen size.)
Components and Configurations
The other portion of the Pro 8’s upgrades are internal, chiefly on the processor side, but we’ll say at the outset: The silicon is not a huge leap forward. Before we take a closer look at the specifics, consider the base model. The Pro 8 starts at $1,099.99, which nets you a Core i5 processor, 8GB of main system memory, and a 128GB SSD. This model is in the Platinum color, as the lowest Graphite config (mysteriously) begins at $100 more, with double the storage. From there, a few superior SKUs are available for the same price in each color, but the top two models also come in Platinum only.
The Surface Pro 7 we reviewed on its release used an Intel Core i5-1035G4 CPU, and the chip in the base model Pro 8 brings us up to a Core i5-1135G7. That’s a moderate boost from the Pro 7, but the mid-gen upgrade of the Surface Pro 7+ for Business already brought us the same i5-1135G7. If you own an older Surface Pro, the jump is justifiable, while Pro 7 owners should think very carefully if they need this, and Pro 7+ owners won’t see a CPU bump.
As for the particular configuration we were sent for review, it’s more potent than any of the base models. Our $1,599.99 unit (again, not factoring in the $279.99 keyboard-and-pen bundle that came along with it) includes a Core i7-1185G7 processor with Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. The bumped-up CPU and RAM make this more suited to actual professional workloads versus everyday, general use, but we’ll run the rule over the performance below.
We should note that the SSD is removable via a rear panel beneath the kickstand…
All you need to do is pop the panel with a SIM-card tool or paperclip, and unscrew the drive. However, the SSD makes use of the less-common (though still standardized) 30mm-long M.2 form factor. (The included drive is Microsoft-branded and doesn’t give away much info on its label.) This means any DIY capacity upgrades down the road will see replacements trickier to source than your typical M.2 SSD (most of which come in the 80mm-long Type-2280 form factor). And they will likely be expensive at the storage capacities you actually want, due to the densities required to get high capacities on a short SSD’s PCB.
Indeed, the next step up in the configuration ladder from our $1,599.99 review sample is an $1,899.99 one with the same CPU and 8GB less memory, but bumping up the SSD to a 512GB one. Ouch!
Value Check: A Closer Look at the Price
With that in mind, it’s necessary here to take a step back and look at the total costs here. To recap: For one thing, the $1,099.99 starting price is much higher than the base-model Pro 7’s, which was just $749. The Pro 8 is somewhat of a different animal because of this difference, pushing out of the budget range at even the lowest available configuration. To a degree, that alters who the base model is for. Out of the gate, it becomes a more serious PC purchase, as opposed to a reasonably affordable tablet solution.
The pricing only balloons from there. The storage, in particular, becomes fairly expensive to raise above 256GB, likely because of the device’s uncommon SSD type. Much of the price premium comes from the high-end and unique design, but the spec-per-dollar and attractive entry price are both diminished compared to the Pro 7.
Then, finally, the accessories. We mentioned the price of each item, but the total cost really grows quickly if you want everything. Microsoft sells the keyboard and pen separately, which is the way to pay the most, so if you want them, it’s best to get the $279.99 bundle mentioned earlier. If you you add that to the Pro 8 base model to get the “full” kit, you’re looking at $1,379.98. That’s a pretty high cost for the least expensive model (a Core i5 with 256GB storage), and if you add the kit to our review config, it’s a decidedly pricey $1,879.98. The Pro 8 is a very nice device, but that is certainly on the expensive side for the spec loadout (and for a small screen some professionals may struggle to do their full workload on) versus a traditional laptop.
Testing the Surface Pro 8: Skimming on ‘Tiger Lake’
We recently revised our laptop and Windows tablet testing suite, so our pool of comparison systems for the Pro 8 is a little limited compared with what it would have been a year ago. (Many of those older laptops and tablets are long gone from PC Labs and could not be retested.) We did pull together, however, some late-model Windows tablets (including the ThinkPad X12 mentioned earlier), and a couple of non-detachable 2-in-1s and a key clamshell (the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9, outfitted similarly to the Pro 8 at a slightly higher price). Also in the mix are the Surface Laptop Studio (high-end!) and Surface Go 3 (low-end!) introduced alongside the Pro 8. Here’s a summary of the specs of our test lot….
Productivity Tests
The main benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10’s Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop’s storage. (See more about how we test laptops.)
Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our last productivity test is workstation specialist Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
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.)
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
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).
We also run two tests from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase tests, rendered offscreen to accommodate different display resolutions, exercise graphics and compute shaders using the OpenGL programming interface and hardware tessellation respectively. The more frames per second (fps), the better.
There’s less surprise here, as many of the players in this lot are relying on the same basic Intel Iris Xe Graphics silicon on their varied CPUs. The supporting CPUs and the individual thermals show up some of the variation at play here, and the predictable outliers of the Surface Go 3 (lower-end-than-Xe Intel UHD Graphics) and the Surface Laptop Studio (dedicated GeForce RTX 3050 Ti) bracket the rest. None of the Xe systems is more than a casual gamer (see our examination of laptop integrated graphics in 2021), but the performance is within expectations for what it is.
Battery and Display Tests
We test laptops’ battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of SteelTears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure the screen’s color coverage—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
As for the battery life, consider that this is a greater-than-1080p, bright touch panel operating in a tight chassis that has to host the core system electronics and the battery all behind the screen. That’s a lot of demands and potential drain. That the Pro 8 managed more than 12.5 hours on our no-stopping video playback trial is pretty doggone good. We didn’t expect it to top most of our test field above, including many of the conventional clamshells and pivoting 2-in-1s. (Remember, those models can bunk the battery in their lower halves; the Pro 8 can’t.)
We detailed our impressions of the screen earlier, and our tests bore them out. The peak brightness was better than most of the test field here not named “Surface,” and full coverage of sRGB, plus creditable coverage of the DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB space, define a powerful-enough panel for creative pros.
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
While the Surface Pro 8 doesn’t revolutionize the Pro line to its core, it does deliver the most meaningful update to the product in years. The new design is more aesthetically pleasing, along with the more concrete, practical advantage of a larger display. All-around performance is solid, at least in our Core i7 configuration, especially when you consider thermal challenges in a build this size.
That said, both the starting price and the configuration-uptick options are up there, so the Pro 8 doesn’t offer the absolute most bang for your buck versus a more traditional laptop with nearly the same specs. Some premium clamshell models with close-size screens, like the classic Dell XPS 13 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9, price out similarly. (The big price boosters, in their cases, are the options for higher-than-1080p touch screens.) But you can also find well-outfitted models with better specs for around the same price. We priced out another Intel Evo contender: the $1,799 MSI Summit Flip E13, for example, with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD…but with a 1,920 by 1,200 touch screen. That Surface screen has lots of appeal, especially at the Pro 8’s lower price points.
It’s all about how much you need that tablet functionality and smooth pen integration. You’re definitely paying a premium for the brilliant build and detachability, and bumping up the storage is just plain costly. But if you’re married to this type of detachable design for sketching and by-hand note-taking, there’s still nothing quite like this tablet. The fresh slim-bezel look and nifty new pen pour on the appeal. A best-in-class design joins strong performance and, despite the price tag and a few concessions, reinvents the Surface Pro family as an object of envy. The impetus, now, is more luxury than value, but Surface Pro remains the paragon of Windows tablets.
