Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Review

  Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Review

Is it as good as how Microsoft claimed it                              to be?

If the Surface Pro 7 were a small child it would probably be feeling pretty lonely and neglected right now, and maybe a little jealous of all the attention lavished on its younger siblings. With Microsoft launching the ARM-based Surface Pro X and teasing the exotic dual-screen Neo and Duo phone/tablet hybrids alongside it, the good old Surface Pro looked a bit out of place.

That’s fair enough given that the firm’s popular 2-in-1 hasn’t exactly been overhauled this year. However, it’s fair to expect a little more change than this, especially since the last time the Surface Pro received a significant update was the Surface Pro 4 – around four years ago.

Microsoft still doesn’t include the keyboard in the box, but the good news is that, since the Surface Pro 7 is backwards-compatible with previous Type Cover keyboards, you can pick one up for as little as £80 from Amazon. It’s even possible to purchase third-party keyboards from around £40. That means the starting price for a Surface Pro 7 could be as low as £840.

I love the 3:2 aspect ratio 12.3in display, which feels just perfect for working on. It’s clearly preferable to the rather squashed 16:9 displays you get on so many flagship ultraportables these days. And the whole thing is pretty light too, weighing from 775g for the tablet on its own and 1.1kg with the keyboard attached.

The key to the Surface Pro’s success is its integrated kickstand, which can be pulled out from the rear of the tablet to prop up the screen. Unlike the iPad Pro, which is limited to two positions, the kickstand on the Surface Pro can be used to set the screen to any angle you wish, making it a lot more versatile. But there are plenty of other nice touches, including an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel Windows Hello authentication camera on the front, which makes unlocking the device absolutely effortless. 

The design is still nice, as ever, but it’s beginning to look dated. Meanwhile, the new silicone inside seems to be limited by the chassis. To cap it off, battery life is less impressive than I’d like it to be. Heck, Microsoft couldn’t even be bothered to borrow the neat docking system for the Surface Pen from the Surface Pro X – it still mounts magnetically to the side of the tablet whereas the Pro X has a handy pen-sized slot at the top of the keyboard.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is perfectly serviceable, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a marginal update that fails in any way to get the pulse racing.