Surface Pro Review - The Best 2-in-1

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(upbeat music)- The Microsoft Surfaceline up is really startingto come into it's own in my opinion.No longer making giant changes,they're focusing moreon refining the productsand paying more attentionto the little details.And I, for one, amexcited about that fact.The new Surface Pro is noexception to this new ideology.So much so, that you'd be hard pressedto tell the difference between itand the Surface Pro 4that it's succeeding.On the outside, they lookidentical, basically.But don't be fooled by this.The Surface Pro, which nolonger has numbers by the way,it's not the five, it'sjust the Surface Pro,is not that similar to the Surface Pro 4.There's a lot of littlechanges that in my opinion,make a big difference.Now I recently did a videowhere I interrogated a Microsoft repto tell me all of the subtle changesthat were made to the Surface Pro 5,comparing it to the Surface Pro 4.If you want that video,you can click the link belowto be taken to that.But in this, let's talk aboutthe Surface Pro as a whole.First up, the design,which again, hasn'tchanged much at a glance.It still has the same basic form factor,with a large displaythat connects via magnetsto a thin type cover,not included by the way.And with a kickstand around the back.It's with this kickstand thatthe subtle changes start.This time it folds a lot further down,which makes drawing onthe screen with a pen,also not included, way more natural.Then we have the edges,which are a bit more curvedand small things like the cooling ventson the inside are painted tomatch the rest of the shell,making them just a bit less noticeable.Speaking of the cooling vents,Microsoft's added a lot ofcopper into this little guy.So much so that they actually redesignedbasically the entireinterior of the device.All of that means thedevice runs a lot cooler.To the point where the i5 modelsdon't actually have fans at all.And the i7 model which I have here,has fans, but I've neveronce heard them turn on.On the front of the devicewe have the same threeby two aspect ratio,12.3 inch pixel sense touchscreenwith a resolution of 2736 by 1824,and a few more subtlechanges to the coloring.Namely, the front facing camerasare now colored black toblend in with the bezel.Those cameras by the way,allow you to use Window'sHello's facial recognition,which I find works prettywell for the most part.And at least even more so,once you do the improve recognition optiona couple of times.The device has two stereo speakers,one on either side of the screen,and they sound good.Nothing mind-blowingly great,but pretty good.Watching movies and listeningmusic is all pretty decent.It just is not quite as richas some of the other speakersthat I've used on similar laptops.(movie plays on speaker)Microsoft is now marketingthis guy as a laptop.Gone are the days of the tabletthat can replace your laptopand more so we're doingthe most versatile laptopas the new mantra.Which, if we're being honest, is the waythat most people are gonnause this device anyway.Windows, even in tablet mode,still feels very much tome like you can only use itfor basic things before wantingto just take out thekeyboard and mouse anyway.It's this concept of it beinga super portable touchscreen laptopthat I actually appreciate it forand actually think it's smarterfor Microsoft to view it that way as well.The only issue I have withthis new marketing pivotis the fact that this laptopdoesn't include a keyboard and trackpad,making it, well,not a laptop until youbuy that separately.The type pad is availablein a standard model for 129or the Alcantara fabric coveredsignature model for 159.I have the signature type coverin the Alcantara blue that I like so much,but it also comes inburgundy and platinum.And I have to admit,they do add a nice touch tothe very minimalistic laptopthat I appreciate.The typing on thesecovers is pretty great.The keys have a good click to them,and albeit are a little louderthan most keyboards I've used.Especially because you know,I type with purpose.The trackpad is nice glass oneand a precision trackpad thankfully,which I went over in myHuawei MateBook X reviewas to why you want thatand why it's so important.But suffice it to say,that it's just a muchmore responsive trackpadand it can use gesturesbuilt in to Windows,which trust me, you want.The keyboard is also backlit,and can fold back against the devicewhich causes it toautomatically disable itself,which is clever,so you don't have to worry about ittyping random letters while you draw.Speaking of drawing on the device,one of the biggestdraws of this new deviceis that you can use the new Surface Pen.The new pen, launchedalongside the Surface Pro,has four times as manypressure points as the old penand the ability to tiltto the side to get shadinglike you would from areal pencil, for example.Now I'm not much of an artist,but I can tell you that using this pencompared to the old one,it is a lot more responsive.Now, like the keyboard, thepen is an optional accessory.Now, unlike the keyboard and the trackpad,which I feel like if you'regonna call this a laptop,you kinda have to givewith it or something,the pen is something thatI don't use that often,although I like it a lot.So it makes a little more sensefor that to actually bean optional accessory.It is 99 dollars by the way,and I do recommend maybe trying it out,because it is pretty novel and fun.The portable devicemight seem a little datedcompared to all thenew devices coming out.There's no USB-C, there's aproprietary charging port, etc.But, for Microsoft, forbetter or for worse,they are a bit beholdento their legacy usersand they don't want tocome out with a devicethat will then alienate those peoplethat have all of the peripherals already.So on the device we have the same portsas the last two Surface Pro devices.A USB 3.0 port, a mini display port,and a micro SD card slot.Now, let's talk performance.The Surface Pro comes in afew different configurationswith different SSD sizes,but the power differences are eitherthe m3 Intel processor with 4 gigs of RAMand an Intel HD 615 GPU,the i5 with four or eight gigs of RAMand an Intel 620,or the i7 with eight or 16 gigs of RAM,and an Intel Iris Plus 640.Now none of theseconfigurations would I calla gaming or editing laptop by any means.But it does handle basic photo editingand some footage in Premiereif it's not too taxing.And of course, it canhandle a ton of Chrome tabsand other normal usage just fine.Since we all love benchmarks,here's a quick look athow my i7, 16 gig modeldid on Geekbench for you to compareagainst other laptops in the price range.Which then brings us toone of the big changes,battery life.In my opinion, if you want asuper light portable laptopthat doesn't have a crazy GPU inside,it better last all day.Thanks to those internal changesMicrosoft made to the laptop,a bigger battery, and themore power efficient CPUmade this model do just that for me.Not quite as long as the HuaweiMatebook X I just reviewed,but plenty of power tobe out all day workingwithout having to worryabout needing a plug.The Surface Pro comes insix configuration options,from the lowest tier to m3 processorwith four gigs of ram, 128 gig SSD,an Intel HD 615 GPU for 799,to the top tier i7 processor,16 gigs of ram, one terabyte SSD,an Intel Iris Plus 640 for 2699.Now personally, I would probablyknock off the two modelson either end of the spectrum.The m3 core optionis just not gonna havethat much performanceeven compared to the very next level up.So I would probablyrecommend just skipping thatand at least going for the next tier up.And then the very top modelwith the one terabyte SSDis an extra $500 just forthe 512 gigs extra storagethan the next model down.And honestly for that,that's a lot of moneyjust for the convenience ofbeing internally integrated.You could, for example,get a pretty fast externalRAID Zero Rugged LaCiefour terabyte hard drive for $370if you just need more storageand don't care about itbeing inside the laptop.And again, your best bet is probablysomewhere in the middle.Just keep in mind the extra moneyfor the keyboard, and also thepen if you want that as well.Overall, it's not a cheap laptop.But it's also not like a superpowerful gaming one either.It's just pretty squarely in thisnew genre of 2-in-1 devices that honestly,what it really comes down to is,are you going to be using it inall of the different configurationsthat that form factor allows,as a tablet, laying downand using it with the pen,and as a normal laptop?If the answer is yes to all of that,then there isn't a very large2-in-1 pool to choose from.And frankly, Microsoft withtheir focus on refinementand their new confidence in the waythat this laptop should be used,kind of sets the goldstandard, in my opinion.So now if you're look at 2-in-1s,the latest Surface Pro is a more refinedand more functional take.And frankly, it's probablywhat the 2-in-1 genreshould actually be.There guys, a review of the Surface Pro.Let me know in the comments belowwhat you guys think of the Surface Pro,of me doing these reviews,any suggestions,always love to hear from you guys.But if you like this video,please thumbs up it or share it,it's greatly appreciated.And if you want more videos like this,please check out my channel.And if you like what you see there,please subscribe.Also, even if you are already subscribed,or you're about to subscribe,good stuff,but would you mind tapping the bellnext to the word subscribe,so you get notifiedwhenever I do new videos.I don't do them terribly often,and I try to do the best I can,but it'd be great if youguys could do that for me.I'd really appreciate it.It means more if you'llactually get to seethe stuff that I doand I won't just get lost inall of your subscriptions.So thank you for that.As always though, regardless,thanks for watching.(upbeat music)\n"