The incredibly solid metal casing is modern, industrial and understated. To look at it is to lust for it and it could easily inspire an emotional purchase based on the product's unique and attractive design.

It's all good news in terms of quality and stylish good looks: this is a luxury piece and the Surface Pro is a captivating looking computer. What doesn't it have? There's no 3G/4G, GPS or NFC. The price starts at $899 for the 64 gig model and $999 for the 128 gig model. It has dual band Marvell WiFi (that means no WiDi Intel wireless display), Bluetooth 4.0 and two distinctly average 720p webcams. Surface Pro runs on the usual Ultrabook Intel Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz CPU with 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM and a 64 or 128 gig SSD. Some ports are in different locations, but both share the vapor Mg dark metal casing, rear kickstand and compatibility with the Touch and Type covers. It's a little bit thicker at 0.53' and heavier at 2 pounds vs. The Surface Pro looks nearly identical to the Windows RT-based Surface RT that launched in the fall of 2012. And yes, it can run your Windows 7 apps as well as Windows 8 Live Tile Metro apps. That's currently the smallest Windows 8 tablet with an Intel Core i5 that you'll find on the market (the others like the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T and Acer Iconia W700 are about the same weight but are larger at 11.6'). This is no ARM or Intel Atom tablet, but rather a full Intel Core i5 1.7GHz machine with 4 gigs of RAM and the brains of an Ultrabook all packed in a 10.6', 2 pound package. In those past 4 months we've seen several other hot Windows 8 tablets that may have taken some of the luster off Surface Pro, but we still think it's an important and compelling product for road warriors who need serious computing power.

If you're a techie you've been following the four months of buzz around Microsoft's second computer, and it looked like the one to beat them all. The Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet is a big deal. 2014: Read our review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that replaces this model.Įditor's update, May 2013: WinTab drivers are now available for download from Wacom's website, for those who need pressure sensitivity in Adobe Photoshop and other apps the require WinTab. What's not: A little heavy for a tablet, a bit small for a laptop but a valiant attempt at marrying the two. What's hot: Classy and good looking, great build and materials, fast, clean Windows 8 Pro install, comes with digital pen, 1080p display, wildly portable for a Core i5 machine. Microsoft Surface Pro Editor's rating (1-5): Home > Tablet Reviews & Laptop Reviews > Microsoft Surface Pro

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