Description

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Review

The Best Surface Tablet Version to Date

Microsoft continues the tradition of providing a durable, dependable, and reliable tablet/laptop hybrid with its Surface Pro series. Now in the seventh generation, the Surface Pro 7 is packed with the latest 10th-generation 10nm Intel Core processor delivering a lightning-fast performance. This edition of Surface Pro finally has a USB-C port that you can use to charge larger devices such as laptops and give you higher transfer rates for file exchange than the traditional USB port. There aren’t many groundbreaking improvements over the Surface Pro 6 but enough to wet anyone’s appetite. With so much to look forward to, let’s go deeper into the rabbit hole and find out if it is as good as Microsoft claims.

Overview

There are many great things about the new Surface Pro 7 and its implementation of a 2-in-1 tablet/ laptop still remains the best there is in the market. Its new updated processor known as the Intel Ice Lake seriously boosts the tablet’s performance which along with a beautiful 12.3inch display screen ensures you will get plenty of performance and entertainment. Being backward compatible with any Surface Type Cover is great as you can reuse things without having to upgrade everything. Providing support for the Surface Pen and the iconic kickstand, which you can adjust to almost 180 degrees, means you get as close experience to a laptop and at the same time brilliant functionality and performance.

On the other hand, there are still things that can be improved in the Surface Pro 7 that we wished they had been addressed by now. Its half-inch thick bezels make the tablet look a little outdated and heavy. Additionally, the glossy and reflective display screen, screen resolution, and brightness still lag behind its competitors in terms of performance and deployment since Microsoft has not yet moved to OLED screen technology.

As you can see from the list below, there are several options available for you to choose from. We would recommend that you choose from the middle range to the high-end because although they all perform well, there is no getting away from the fact that more power equals better performance.

Surface Pro 7 model breakdown:

• 2GHz – 3.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-1005G1 | 4GB | 128GB
• 1GHz – 3.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G4 | 8GB | 128GB
• 1GHz – 3.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G4 | 8GB | 256GB
• 1GHz – 3.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G4 | 16GB | 256GB
• 3GHz – 3.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-1065G7 | 16GB | 256GB
• 3GHz – 3.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-1065G7 | 16GB | 512GB
• 3GHz – 3.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-1065G7 | 16GB | 1TB

Key Features

• Windows 10 Home version 1909
• 12.3-inch PixelSense display
• 2736 x 1824 screen resolution
• 10th-Generation Intel Core processors
• 4 GB, 8GB, 16 GB RAM
• 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB internal storage
• 8 MP rear camera
• 5 MP front-facing camera
• 43.2-watt battery
• 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33 inches dimensions
• 1.74 pounds weight (775g)
• Available in Platinum and Black color

 

Features

Display

The 12.3-inch screen in the Surface Pro 7 displays rich, vibrant, and colorful images due to its 2736 x 1824 pixels screen resolution. Watching videos and movies in its 3:2 aspect ratio is amazing with sharp and crisp images and colors popping. The fact the tablet is so lightweight (775g) means holding it in your hands doesn’t feel like you are holding a brick. The screen is really good and you get to see really fine details and what’s best, clear of reflections. Though it fails to top last year’s model brightness, it still produces 395 nits which are better than the average laptop. 

Surface Type Cover Keyboard

Using the soft fabric Surface Type Cover keyboard is very comfortable to type with, with the keys having just about the right traveling and pressure. You get a rather nice bouncy feedback and operating it is virtually error-free which helps to create that laptop-feel that Microsoft has worked so hard to achieve with the Surface Pro 7. It has a nice range of colors to choose from (standard black, platinum, burgundy, and cobalt blue) to match your personal style. Last but not least, the keyboard has a 4-inch wide touchpad which is really well implemented by the operating system and rounds up the laptop hybrid feel that we were talking about. Mind you though, at times you forget that this is a tablet as the implementation within Windows 10 is flawless.

The Surface Pen

Another accessory that seems every new tablet these days comes with at least supports is a stylus pen. The Surface Pro series supports the Surface Pen, though it is an extra cost. It is super easy to pair it and use it pretty much immediately and the benefits you get from using it are surprising if you are into drawing and handwriting. With the Surface Pen, writing notes is super easy and if you are into drawing, it has different pressure levels best for drawing. The implementation is breathtaking as we experienced. We just couldn’t get enough of it. It also offers shortcuts like pressing the eraser-like button twice to pull up the Sticky Notes while a single click opens up the Microsoft Whiteboard. We had hours of fun with it and we believe it is one of the strong selling points of the tablet.

Ports

Microsoft has finally incorporated a USB-C port in the Surface Pro 7, which was about time, to be frank. However, you only get one port which means you are limited in what devices you can charge. The other ports that you get are a single full-sized USB Type-A port, a 3.5mm headset jack (good to know that they haven’t rid of it like many new tablets have done), and a microSD card slot (below the kickstand). Annoyingly, the USB-C is not Thunderbolt-enabled so transferring files is not that fast. However, you could connect it to a USB-C monitor as a secondary monitor, which is actually very nice, especially if you are into multitasking.

Mind you though, all this lack of port connectivity can be fixed with the surface pro 7 docking station, that will add 4K HDMI, LAN RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, USB C PD, 2x USB 3.0, SD/TF/Micro SD slot Card Reader. For every problem, there is always a solution.

 

 

Design

One of the biggest criticisms we have against the Surface Pro 7 is its 0.5-inch chunky bezels. They look massive compared to other tablets and laptops such as the iPad Pro 12.9 with bezels measuring 5.2 mm that are seemingly unnoticeable. Although the Surface Pro 7 is 0.3-thin and weighs only 1.7 pounds (775g), the design feels a bit heavy and outdated. It works but we think it is not as attractive to the eye as it could be.

However, there are also good things about the design, starting with the kickstand. You can easily prop, tilt or rotate the tablet to your content and we found that to be very helpful. You can also easily attach the Type Cover keyboard sideways while the Surface Pen is magnetically placed on the side of the tablet. We just wish there could be a built-in space for the pen on the tablet itself. Maybe in future versions.

Performance

Using the latest and most powerful 10th-Generation Ice Lake series Intel Core processors with 8GB RAM has given the Surface Pro 7 an impressive score of 17,225 on the Geekbench performance test. Just a little short than the almighty iPad Pro 12.9 with the A12X Bionic chip processor. This shows a huge improvement from last year’s version, the surface pro 6. Additionally, the integrated Intel Iris Plus graphics card does a more than a decent job and will be able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it. We particularly enjoy playing games, which was a much better experience than with the Surface Pro 6.

Upon performing multiple tasks, we did not experience any lag or major slowdown in everyday use. The usual routine of switching through a couple of tabs in Chrome, stream videos on YouTube, and writing some articles is handled very well and we never felt the tablet was struggling at any point. Transferring large files is done at a rate of 267MB per second which is another improvement over the Surface Pro 6. It could be faster, yes, but it is a decent enough transfer speed.

Battery Life

Microsoft claims that the Surface Pro 7 can last more than 10 hours in normal usage but in reality, we found this not to be the case and in actual fact, it is far from what you would expect the average tablet/laptop battery life to last. That was a disappointment, yes, as we had hoped this was an area Microsoft had worked hard to improve on. The tablet lasts less than 8 hours if you de mid-use. If you do heavy use such as continuous web browsing while streaming videos online the performance drops to a miserable 6 hours, and that is simply not on. There is no way you will be able to get a full day use with the Surface Pro so you might as well get a portable charger and be ready to avoid the tablet dying on you, probably at the worst time, which is always the case.

Conclusion

In general terms, we were quite impressed with the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 when it comes to raw power and fast performance. Multi-tasking is easy to do and the high-quality and responsive screen is perfect for drawing and writing documents. The range of accessories available will in no doubt help you feel you are using a hybrid between a laptop and a tablet. The introduction of USB-C port is a plus but we wished they had done more on that front rather than just one port, but hey, better to have one than none. And even if it looks a little dated and has a short battery life, it still delivers most of what matters in a 2-in-1 laptop, amazing performance, brilliant integration, and a fantastic experience.

If however, this tablet is not what you are looking for and want something different, maybe a little more oomph, why don’t you check out other tablet reviews in our Tablets Reviews section? We’re sure that there is something for you in there.

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