Downgrade, but this is definitely cute

The 12-inch surface pro Microsoft and a hybrid tablet like the iPad, but the company had to compromise plenty to reach there. On the clock at 1.5 pounds, it is similar to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and its 7.8 mm thickness always makes it a thin surface. But this is a slow processor rather than last year’s 13-inch surface pro and is caught up with a very deadly screen. Its keyboard, which is once again sold for $ 149, has no perspective for ergonomic typing.

So for more compact $ 800 surface pro worth it? It depends on what you are looking for. If you are an incredible lighter windows tablet that can be transformed into an occasional adorable 12-inch laptop, the surface pro is successful. Don’t expect much from it. Like so much Asus ZenBook A14Its weight and thinning are noticeable, although it is also full of compromises.

Microsoft

The surface pro is lighter, thinner and can perform the basic work well. It is as beautiful as a button, so you don’t care that it has sub-PAR performance and less screen than a 13-inch model.

Pros

• Mild and thin design
• Relatively low starting price
• 16GB of RAM standard

Cons

• Slowly processor
• Keyboard is an additional $ 150
• The screen may be better
• No surface connecting port

$ 800 at Microsoft

What is new in 12-inch surface pro

Surface Pro 12-inch is basically a shrinking version of a 13-inch model: it is half pounds light and is 1.5 mm thin. Therefore, the iPad comparison. In your hands it feels like a real tablet, but the previous surface devices seemed to be a little prank, as they were moved in a case like laptops slate (which is admitted, they are).

The eight-core Snapdragon X Plus of Qualcomm is the main driving force behind this re-design. As a low-power arm chip, Microsoft has allowed to build a more compact tablet, rather than sticking with its old cases, supporting the hotter Intel chips. Last year’s 13-inch surface pro, which was energized by Qualcomm hardware (10-core Snapdragon X Plus and 12-core X Elite), did not exit heavily from previous Intel models.

Like MacBook Air, the surface pro 12-inch is also a fan-low, which may be a problem if you work in a warm environment. Certainly, this means that the device is completely quiet, but honestly I do not have much problems with the fan sound in other modern ultragilled. It mainly becomes a problem in gaming systems and high-end workstations, but those equipment also runs hot, so the fan’s noise is ineffective.

Since the goal is to make the 12-inch surface pro small and cheap, Microsoft has also slowed its screen slightly. There is no OLED option as with a 13-inch surface pro, and its LCD is maximized with a 90Hz refreshing rate instead of 120Hz. The resolution was reduced to 1,464 (3.2 million pixels, 220 pixels per inch) to 2,196, which is 2,880 to 1,920 (5.5 million pixels, 267 PPI) on the screen. Although the IPad Pro and IPad Ail’s Small Surface Pro’s Screen 264 PPI Retina Display is nowhere to be sharp, it does not look like cheap LCD. The colors pop, and it is still brighter in the sun. If you are doing a serious photo or video editing it is not flexible, for its size and its appropriate resolution.

Another surprising step? There is no charging port connecting the magnetic surface in this surface pro. Instead, you need to charge on one of its two USB-C ports. Oh, and talking about charging, only USB-C cable in the Microsoft box-you need to supply your own AC adapter. You can choose a high-priced 45W surface USB-C charger for $ 70, but I recommend that one of the most cheap and powerful offering Our fast charging guide Instead of.

Last, but Microsoft also created a new 12-inch surface pro keyboard. It should be accompanied by a surface pro (who is going to be hell without a keyboard?!)

Obviously, the company wants to market the $ 800 surface pro, which is impossible if the keyboard is actually bundled. But this is still a fraudulent practice by Microsoft, which is internally anti -consumer and eventually damaging the reliability of the surface range. If other companies are building their own keyboards, it will be another story, which can be a magnetist to the surface – Microsoft does not comment when I ask if it is an opportunity.

In-Use: Adorable surface for basics

The 12-inch Surface Pro Snapdragon X ultra-powered 13-inch model did not surprise me with Zippinnes. And it definitely did not blow my mind like the Apple M1-powerful MacBook Pro. Instead, the small surface is just … good. It has managed my distinctive workflow – some dozen browser tabs, Evernote, Spotify and light image editing juggling – without much problem. But I can say from its benchmarking performance, I could not emphasize it much.

Honestly, however, slow performance always suffered 12-inch laptops Apple’s last mockbook. You are not buying a small laptop for speed, it’s a beautiful and super portable because you are buying it. And in that case, the 12-inch surface pro is successful. In conjunction with 0.3 pound surface keyboard, the entire surface pro package weighs 1.8 pounds. Without a keyboard, it is still around 0.2 pounds than 13-inch surface pro more than 13-inch surface pro! Needless to say, it is easy to throw a 12-inch surface pro into my messenger bag to work around the town. After a while, I completely forgot that I was carrying it.

Although I do not expect largely from the new surface keyboard, I realize that it is pleasant and responding to typing. I was afraid that the keys could make the keys more narrow than the 13-inch model, but my fingers could not make much difference. I definitely lost the big trackpad, but the 12-inch keyboard is still smooth and perfect. If you want a little stylus action, you can also snag the $ 130 surface slim pen, which is mounted magnetically to the top of the tablet. I usually fell in love with tablet stylus, but the surface pen for the 12-inch surface pro was doing well for the doudling and handwriting notes.

As an independent tablet, the surface pro is once again suitable, but it is not normal for the short touch targets and slates of Windows. It is not a tablet that I brows like an iPad, instead I usually use the surface pro in the form of a laptop, and then get out of the keyboard to read the longest articles.

Go back to those benchmarks: Like the Zenbook A14, it practically mirror the surface results, the 12-inch tablet is real light. But at least this is a little cheaper than the A14, including the additional surface keyboard. Although the surface pro is slightly faster for single-thred performance, both systems are the same in the Geekbench 6 CPU and GPU tests. They are also poor 3D performers

Due to its size and weak hardware, I don’t think anyone has gaming expectations for a 12-inch surface pro. Cloud Streaming is the best choice for a similar system – I was able to start Halo infinite In about 15 seconds, the Xbox was transmitted smoothly than the app, and the campaign hiccups. You can find some lightweight games that work in the surface pro, but due to its arm architecture, popular titles Fortnite And and Overwatch 2 Does not start. (I have not expressed that they work very well.)

Unfortunately, when I try to test the surface pro battery in PCMARK 10, I am running in strange software errors. I am trying to complete the test, but at the moment I have reached 53 % of its battery after an eight -hour benchmarking. When it comes to real global performance, I have 30 percent left in battery life after I used for a whole working day. Microsoft claims that the 12-inch surface pro should be 16 hours. In our test, 13-inch model Pisimark ran 12 hours and 15 minutes in 10.

Do you buy a 12-inch surface pro?

The 12-inch surface pro is the thing you buy with your heart, not your brain. I can tell you that 13-inch surface pro is a very fast and more effective computer. I can tell you that the larger surface is stolen when selling for $ 800 at the best bye, which is $ 200 less than its normal base price. If you want beautiful windows pc you can take it anywhere.

I don’t blame you for being confused about Microsoft’s price strategy. The company recently removed the cheapest 13-inch surface pros from its online store, which actually raised surface prices. At the moment, we are in a strange situation selling 12-inch and 13-inch models for $ 800.

Is this a result? Microsoft is sold through its current base 13-inch models, so finally your cheap option is $ 1,400 configuration (which is currently for $ 1,030).

Wrap-up

The surface pro is lighter, thinner and continues to do your basic productivity. It is also very adorable, so much that you don’t care that it has less screen than sub-park performance and a 13-inch model. Microsoft finally designed the surface PC, which looks like an iPad and for some, it is only one reason to buy it.