Microsoft Surface Pro (2017)
Microsoft’s ditched the model numbers for its latest Surface Pro, but has much actually changed in the underlying device?
Depending on who you ask, Microsoft’s new Surface Pro is either a minor update to the Surface Pro 4 or an overhaul of the entire system that leaves few elements unchanged. In many ways, it’s both.
The Surface Pro has been endowed with a full motherboard redesign, a larger battery, an updated Intel CPU and a reconfigured thermal design... but when you sit it next to its predecessor, it’s rather difficult to tell them apart.
The 2017 edition sees the return of the 12.3-inch, 10-point multi-touch display at the 3:2 aspect ratio that the entire Surface family shares. This vibrant 2,736 x 1,824, 267ppi screen was first seen on the Surface Pro 4 back in 2015, yet it still offers a higher overall resolution than most of today’s premium laptop and pro tablet offerings, so the fact that the resolution hasn’t been increased this year is, frankly, a non-issue.
Other than the screen and physical ports, almost everything else is new. The most distinctive design novelty is the recessed fan grill that takes a more subtle form and increases the curvature of the tablet’s edges, and does so without compromising airflow. The 1080p 5MP and 8MP front and rear cameras have been coloured to blend into the bezel and magnesium chassis, and the hinge has been reengineered to reduce the number of components and increase the display viewing-degree range from 150º on the Surface Pro 4 to 165º on this 2017 model.
The Microsoft team made a point of highlighting the fact that it’s focused on bolstering the hardware reliability of the Surface Pro, something that will be reassuring for anyone who owned a Surface Pro 4, but doing this required a number of internal reconfigurations that added very little to the specs sheet. Top of that list of changes is a motherboard revamp that accommodates the three 7th-gen Intel CPU variations the Surface now comes in (Core m3, i5 and i7) and also freed up an extra 10% of space for the battery. Microsoft says this allows the unit to have up to 30% greater battery life than the Surface Pro 4. In our tough PC Mark Home (Accelerated) battery test, the new 2017 Pro managed 4 hours and 23 minutes compared to the Pro 4’s 3 hours and 48 minutes, a difference of about 15%.
Microsoft has also rebuilt the entire cooling system by transitioning from copper thermal pipes to a graphite composite and increasing the number of heat sinks from one to four. These dramatic changes to the thermal architecture allow the Core M and the i5 models to come without fans and, Microsoft says, for the entire Surface Pro range to reduce surface hotspots, draw less power and put less strain on the components over time.
Considering all the important ground work that’s been done to futureproof the Surface Pro, we were perplexed to see that there’s no inclusion of the now nearly-ubiquitous USB Type-C port, instead sticking with the keyboard-cover connector, power input, USB 3.0 Type-A, mini-DisplayPort, microSD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are plans to release a Surface Connect to Type-C adapter later in the year, however.
There are still some broader caveats — the most notable being the low performance-to-price ratios involved, relative to laptops. That means that, although the Surface Pros can still delivery bleeding-edge performance, you’ll have to pay for it. With three CPUs on offer, performance will depend on the Intel Core m3, the Core i5 or the Core i7 model you purchase. Additionally, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB RAM configurations and 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options are available locally, giving you
“The fact that the resolution hasn’t been increased this year is, frankly, a non-issue.”
models that range in price from just $1,199 all the way to $3,999.
The Core i7-7660U, 16GB RAM, 512GB Samsung SSD configuration we tested performed almost as well as the latest iPad Pro on GeekBench 4. Against Windows-based machines, this top-end Pro does particularly well too, even when compared with premium laptops like the similarly specced Toshiba Portégé X20W-D (reviewed in APC 441, page 27). With a PCMark 8 Creative score of 4,550 it has more than enough horsepower to run Adobe’s demanding Creative Suite alongside whatever else you want to. In storage read speed testing, the Pro’s PCIe-connected SSD scored around 10% better than what’s in the Surface Pro 4, and made very considerable headway on sequential write speeds, which jumped from 291.3MB/s to 977.6MB/s.
However, when pushed with CPU-heavy tasks like media encoding, the highest specced Surface Pro’s Core i7-7660U chip reaches the CPU’s max temperature of 100ºC. For general tasks, we found that this didn’t cause performance problems, but if you’re considering a higherend unit, be wary that the i7 CPUs will start to throttle performance and won’t always perform at their full potential when they reach their top temperature.
The Surface Pro doesn’t have quite the same level of instant-on architecture as what can be achieved with the Surface Laptop when running Windows 10 S, but it still manages to boot to the desktop in a speedy 18 seconds including Windows Hello Sign In. Sound output via the built-in speakers has also received a decent improvement. Although all 2017 models are Wi-Fi only at present, Microsoft did announce plans to add LTE, SIM- and eSIM-compatible Surface Pro units to the lineup later in the year.
There have been some accessory improvements, too. For $250 (a $50 premium on the existing Type Cover), the new Signature Type Cover keyboard adds LED backlighting, an even silkier glass trackpad and continues the use of the (premium-ish) synthetic Alcantara fabric for a soft, velvety palm feel. The ~$100 Surface Pen sees a dramatic boost to its feature set, with four times the pressure sensitivity levels of it’s predecessor (totalling 4,096), added tilt sensitivity for sketching and a more sensitive initial contact threshold. These upgrades are, great but when neither come bundled with the Surface Pro, you’ll have to add $350 to the total price if you want both.
By removing the model number from its name, Microsoft is asserting its intent to make the Surface Pro a powerful and consistent tool that will build a reputation for future iterations to draw on. Despite it being difficult to assess the long-term payoffs, if Microsoft has succeeded in improving the design’s hardware longevity, it’ll be the exact upgrade the line needed.
We weren’t thrilled with the high temperatures and throttling of our test model’s Core i7 CPU and we’re hoping the problem doesn’t extend to the Core i5 units, but since the latter ditches the fans altogether, we’re expecting they don’t. We’ve requested a Core i5 review unit, so we’ll hopefully be able to confirm that in an upcoming issue.
If you’re after an ultraportable Windows device with a stylus, then there’s still no better alternative than this.