Nothing demonstrates Microsoft’s experience designing tablets more than the Surface Pro 9 kickstand. It can also create blinding reflections outdoors, so take note of your angle to the sun. (Just beware that doing so will increase power draw and reduce battery life.) The screen’s only real drawback is its highly reflective glass surface, which can become a smudge-fest. Toggled to a 60Hz refresh rate out of the box, you can set the display to refresh at a smoother 120Hz using Windows Settings. Its finely detailed 2,880-by-1,920-pixel resolution works out to a paper-like 3:2 aspect ratio. The Surface Pro 9’s star attraction is its 13-inch touch screen, which is bright and colorful enough to lend excitement to even mundane office work. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 tablet nevertheless manages to be slightly slimmer and lighter than the Surface, at 0.29 by 11.5 by 7.9 inches and 1.6 pounds. Even the trimmest 2-in-1 convertible laptop can’t compare for instance, the HP Spectre x360 13.5 is 0.67 by 11.7 by 8.7 inches and 3 pounds. Cradling its 1.9-pound weight in one arm is no strain. The screen is glass and everything else is rock-solid aluminum-it’s impeccably well made.Īt 0.37 by 11.3 by 8.2 inches, the Surface Pro 9 is amazingly compact for the technology packed inside. The Surface Pro 9 comes in four colors: Platinum, Forest, Graphite, and the Sapphire option our test unit dons. Top-end configurations include a 512GB or 1TB SSD. Our Core i7 review unit has 16GB of RAM and a user-upgradable 256GB solid-state drive for $1,599.99, though it was discounted to $1,299.99 at the time of writing. Either laptop-grade chip pairs with 8GB or 16GB of memory, but you’ll need to step up to the shockingly expensive $2,599.99 Core i7 configuration to get 32GB. Intel-based Surface Pro 9 models come with either the Core i5-1235U or the Core i7-1255U CPU, the latter capable of slightly higher clock speeds and equipped with faster integrated graphics. Neither the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable nor the Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable has been updated with Intel’s 12th Gen processors, leaving just the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 tablet to fend off Microsoft’s best.

Competition, meanwhile, has grown scarce. Microsoft’s Surface Pro has always been one of our favorites, though it has become much more expensive in the last two generations. High-end Windows tablets typically run $750 and up, with the performance and features to double as (or replace) a traditional laptop.

Surface pro 8 type cover