Ed Bott
for The Ed Bott Report
| September 27, 2021
| Topic: Hardware
The best Windows laptops in 2021
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Seriously impressed
At first glance, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8 looks like a worthy but incremental upgrade from its predecessor. The exterior form factor, including its signature kickstand, is essentially unchanged, and the spec bump from a 10th Generation Intel Core CPU to an 11th Gen part doesn’t seem like much to write home about.
Microsoft refreshes its Surface PC portfolio including Android-based Duo 2
But after studying the specs of this new device more closely, I’m seriously impressed. So much so, in fact, that I just pre-ordered a new Surface Pro 8 to replace my Surface Pro 7. And for anyone with an older Surface Pro device, the upgrade should be even more compelling.
In all, I found six improvements in the new Surface Pro that fixed nearly every annoyance I have with last year’s model. Collectively, those improvements add up to an irresistible case for an upgrade.
View now at Microsoft
A bigger display
The top premium laptops from leading OEMs today, including Dell’s XPS 13 and HP’s HP Elite Dragonfly Max, are outfitted with 13-inch screens. By comparison, the 12.3-inch display on the Surface Pro 7 seems just a wee bit cramped.
Not so with the 13-inch display in the new Surface Pro 8. It has the same 3:2 aspect ratio as its predecessor, and the same pixel density (267 ppi). But Microsoft shrunk the bezels on the Surface Pro 8 to accommodate the larger display without making the chassis larger. That gives the entire package a more modern look while maintaining compatibility with existing add-ins, like my Kensington Surface Dock.
An increase of 0.7 inches in diagonal screen size might not seem like much, but it results in significantly more workspace, as a bit of math confirms. The Surface Pro 7, like every earlier model from the Windows 10 era going back to the Surface Pro 4, offers a resolution of 2736 x 1824, for a total of 4,990,464 pixels. The Surface Pro 8 has a resolution of 2880 x 1920, or 5,529,600 pixels. The net result is 10.8% more screen area, which is nothing to sneeze at.
As a bonus, the new display includes the option to double the refresh rate to 120 Hz, which is good news for designers who want fast response from the new pen.
A slimmer pen with haptic feedback and wireless charging
I’m not an artist, so the haptic feedback support in the new Slim Pen 2 is likely to be more of a curiosity than a real productivity enhancer. But I do enough schematic diagrams and rough sketches to make the capability interesting.
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Ed Bott
for The Ed Bott Report
| September 27, 2021
| Topic: Hardware