Surface Pro 8
SCREEN SAVER The power of a laptop inside a sleek tablet – can this Surface Pro take on Apple’s ipad Pro?
The Surface Pro 8 is much thinner and lighter than traditional laptops, but it’s just as capable
Price From £999 to £2,460 Company Microsoft Web microsoft.com
Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro is a stylish showcase for its software – the recently released Windows 11. This means that unlike ipads or Android tablets, which run mobile operating systems, the Surface Pro 8 isn’t limited to mobile apps. You can run full Windows programs such as Photoshop, while still benefiting from the slim and light tablet form.
This makes the Surface Pro 8 ideal for digital artists who want something to do their creative work on while out and about. The Surface Pro 8 is much thinner and lighter than traditional laptops, but it’s just as capable.
When it comes to the display, this new tablet trumps its predecessor. It comes with a 13-inch Pixelsense display with a resolution of 2,880x1,920, and at this screen size, that leads to a fantastic-looking display with pin-sharp details.
On some models you can now boost the refresh rate from 60Hz to 120Hz. This results in a much smoother experience when watching films or scrolling through websites. Crucially, it makes using a stylus for painting even more responsive.
TEMPERATURE CONTROL
The latest Surface Pro also supports Dolby Vision and will now automatically adjust the colour temperature of the display depending on the light conditions you use the Surface Pro 8 in, similar to how True Tone works on ipads and Macbooks. While the screen can’t compete with the mini LED marvel found in the ipad Pro, it’s certainly the best screen to grace a Surface Pro.
The screen isn’t the only area that’s been improved for the Surface Pro 8. It now comes with powerful 11th generation Intel Core processors that offer improved performance over the previous generation found in the Surface Pro 7 without making the Pro 8 too hot or affecting battery life.
With a choice of up to 32GB of RAM, this is a device that can handle most creative application. As you’d expect, Windows 11 runs well, as do the photo and video editing tools we
tried out, such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Being able to run these demanding programs on a tablet device continues to be impressive, but we do advise you use the Type Cover (or other keyboard) and plug in a mouse, because these are desktop applications and so not made for touchscreen only-inputs.
WORKLOAD CONSIDERATIONS
There’s no dedicated graphics card, perhaps understandably considering this is a thin and light tablet device. However, that means that graphicsintensive workloads may suffer. Still, the integrated graphics of Intel’s 11th generation CPUS are pretty good, with Microsoft promising 74 per cent better graphics performance than the Surface Pro 7. For digital art, as well as working with up to 4K video footage, this will do the job nicely. For complex 3D animations and game design, you may need to look elsewhere.
Battery life has also been greatly improved thanks to a combination of the Surface Pro 8’s new design and more efficient hardware. Microsoft promises up to 16 hours, which will get you through a work day, and in our own tests we found we could get over eight hours of medium to heavy use. The previous model was barely half of that, so these improvements are very welcome. The only downside is using it at 120Hz will drain the battery.
The tablet is priced to compete with the powerful 12.9-inch ipad Pro, but it’s also worth pointing out that despite its high price tag, Microsoft continues to not include a Type Cover (which protects the screen and can be used as a keyboard and touchpad) or Surface Pen stylus. If you want either of these items (and we recommend you do) then it’ll cost you an extra £160 and £120, respectively. This makes an already expensive purchase even more pricey.
However, if you want a capable tablet but don’t want to switch to IOS or Android, then the Surface Pro 8 is a great choice for artists.