The bezels all around the display are slimmer to allow for the bigger screen without increasing the size-the same design trick we've seen in just about every phone, tablet, and laptop in the last few years. Specs at a glance: Microsoft Surface Pro 8ġ3-inch 2880×1920 120Hz IPS touchscreen (60Hz default)Ģx Thunderbolt 4, headphones, Surface Connect portġ1.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches (287 × 209 × 9.3 mm)ġ.96 lbs (891g), 2.58 lbs (1.17kg) with Type CoverĬompared to the Surface Pro 7 and the previous Surface design, the Pro 8 is near-identical in dimensions, but it swaps the 12.3-inch, 2736×1824 screen for a 13-inch, 2880×1920 panel with the same 267 PPI pixel density and the Surface lineup's characteristic 3:2 aspect ratio.

But you'd need to have the two devices next to each other to really spot the difference. The Pro 8 is 0.1 inch (or 2 millimeters) thicker than the Pro X to make room for the additional cooling hardware that an Intel processor requires. Microsoft has modeled the Surface Pro 8 on the design of the ARM-based Surface Pro X-the two tablets can even share keyboard covers. If you have an older Surface and are wanting to upgrade or you want to buy a Surface to replace the laptop you have now, this is the place to start. But Microsoft has finally refined the device in important ways, including some that we've seen first in other Surface devices.

The template here remains the same as it has been since the first time Microsoft got the Surface right: a decent-sized screen, the guts of an adequate Ultrabook, and a kickstand and detachable keyboard cover with solid pen support. But some elements of the Surface Pro 3 design have been showing their age in the last couple of generations-Thunderbolt and/or USB-C ports accomplish nearly everything that the proprietary Surface Connect port is trying to do, and other laptops, tablets, and convertibles had been shrinking their display bezels for a few years to increase screen size.

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)įive generations' worth of accessory interoperability is laudable and useful in some cases, especially if you're using multiple generations of Surface Pro tablets in a business and you need to be able to swap parts quickly.

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