Gadgetory

well this is David with the verge and this is the Microsoft Surface pro this is basically the real deal kind of no compromises surface instead of running Windows RT a low powered operating system the surface pro is a full-fledged Windows 8 machine with all of the bells and whistles you'd expect from a high-end laptop it's also $900 for the cheapest model so it's competing with some of the best devices out there but in theory can do so there bunch of changes from the surface RT which we reviewed back in October but most of those are under the hood and I'll get to those in a minute first there are some really key Hardware differences here to the general surface look and feel hasn't really changed this is still a well made good-looking tablet it's made of Microsoft's vapor mg material which feels a little bit like aluminum and it's really clean and simple and it comes in black and is really just a sleek device but this is bigger than the surface RT it's a lot bigger it's thirteen point five millimeters thick whereas the surface RT is less than 10 and that makes a big difference as does the extra half pound of weight on the surface pro it's not terribly uncomfortable in both hands if you're using it on your lap but you absolutely can't use this device in one hand and it's really not very comfortable to stand and hold part of the reason the surface pro is so much thicker is the ventilation strip running around all four edges of the device which is what's used to cool the more powerful Intel processor that adds a little bit of a gap around all the edges so it's not quite as unibody feeling as the surface RT but it still looks fine one thing you gain in exchange for the extra heft is a gorgeous ten point six inch 1080p display it looks amazing it's one of the best screens I've ever seen it has basically perfect color reproduction ridiculous viewing angles and it's incredibly responsive the pro has ten points of multi-touch and they actually work great the surface RT for some reason only had five points of multi-touch and I found myself using more than five fingers a lot more often than I thought the surface pro also comes with a pen a capacitive stylus that actually works really well on the device it's made by Wacom and is just a nice addition to a device like this it's not something you use all the time but it's great for drawing or taking notes or scribbling on a screenshot the pen attaches to the side of the surface so you really won't lose it but it falls off every single time you put the device in your bag so a few things have changed but the basic idea of the surface hasn't and that's really my biggest problem with this device the kickstand only opens at one angle which means you have to sit just right to use it properly and it's absolutely impossible to use propped up on that it just falls off every single time it still connects to the touch cover and type cover which are okay I've really grown to like the type cover but I still think the touch cover is as much a gimmick as anything else they hold firmly to the magnet though and work just as you'd expect if you've used a surface RT I have some real issues with the entire surface concept but I will say this if you want a surface this is the one to get and it's not even close the surface RT had some real performance issues and it couldn't run all the apps we wanted anyway but the surface pro has no such problem it absolutely flies whether you're switching between a dozen apps or just swiping around the interface it's basically flawless eye it's really the best proof I've seen yet that Windows 8 is a fully finished operating system this isn't a gaming PC of course it's more like an ultrabook in that way but it works fantastically well in everyday use as I mentioned this is full fledged Windows 8 so you get access to the whole Microsoft Store as well as to all your legacy Windows apps unfortunately though the surface pro doesn't come with a working copy of office pre-installed like the surface RT that you'll have to buy separately the surface pro does all of these things pretty silently - without many problems if I hold it up to my ear I can hear the whirring of the fans coming out of the vent but otherwise it's quiet enough it does get a little warm but not so much as to be a problem like a lot of ultrabooks we've seen the surface pro runs in Intel Core i5 processor with 4 gigs of RAM and 64 or 128 gigs of storage you should definitely get the bigger model by the way because the base installation of Windows right out of the box takes up 41 gigabytes of space all the internals do make the surface pro bigger and heavier but the really significant trade-off is the battery life the surface Pro's battery lasted just shy of 4 hours on our battery tests which is considerably below average for a laptop for a device that pretends to be something like a tablet it's terrible but all that said here's the thing about the surface pro it's the best surface by a long shot but I'm less and less convinced that you want a surface in the first place if you want a device that you can move relatively easily from desk to desk this is a good one it's fast and powerful and still lighter and more portable than most laptops out there and make no mistake this is a laptop but it's absolutely useless as a literal laptop as a device do you use on your lap it's fine when you use it as a tablet but I spend a lot of time sitting on my couch feet up on the coffee table working on my macbook air and that's just completely impossible on the surface Pro I like the surface pro and I'm impressed that Microsoft built such a powerful machine in such a handsome simple body but if you're in the market for a tablet this isn't that at all and if you're in the market for a laptop you're $900 is probably better spent elsewhere at least until Microsoft figures out how to make the surface usable away from your desk