Still the best tablet laptop: Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review

Let’s talk about Surface Pro 9.

Which Surface Pro 9? Not the 5G version that comes with Qualcomm’s Microsoft SQ3 Arm processor and the typical deficiencies of an Arm Windows device (relatively poor performance, persistent app compatibility issues), but a vanilla, good old Surface Pro 9, Intel based on a decade of numbered Surface Pro models.

Aside from this naming confusion, the regular Surface Pro 9 isn’t meant to surprise. This (mostly) improves performance while keeping (mostly) everything that worked in previous models. It won’t beat those who didn’t already like the Surface, but for those who love their Surface tablet from 3 to 5 years old, this should be a pretty safe upgrade.

See and feel

The basic design of the new Surface Pro is unmistakably the same as it was eight years ago, when Microsoft came up with a fully adjustable stand and a keyboard that folded towards the screen to increase stability and prevent the entire device from feeling wobbly on the table. or a circle (a lesson some tablet makers choose not to learn).

Since then, the design has evolved steadily, adding USB-C ports (and getting rid of USB-A), shrinking the display bezels, making the display itself bigger, and gradually getting faster and bigger. The biggest change came last year when Microsoft redesigned the tablet’s front bezel just enough to break compatibility with older Surface Type covers, but increased the screen size from 12.3 inches to 13 inches. The Surface Pro 8 mirrors the design changes that Microsoft made to the Arm-based Surface Pro X a couple of years prior, and they’re compatible with the same keyboard covers and other accessories.

Compared to these changes, the Surface Pro 9 updates are mostly small enough that most people won’t notice them. The buttons and ports have changed, but the Microsoft Signature keyboard covers remain the same, the screen remains the same, and the front and rear cameras remain the same. Pen support is the same (we have some notes on the Surface Slim Pen 2 in our Surface Pro 8 review). It’s lighter, but not light enough for you to notice (only 0.02 pounds). And the Surface Pro 9 comes in colors other than Graphite and Platinum, with a greenish ‘Forest’ variant and a blue ‘Sapphire’ finish (our test unit is Sapphire and looks very pretty). The Windows 11 wallpaper defaults to a color that matches the finish you choose, which is a nice touch.

Another change you might have noticed is the headphone jack, which disappeared where the headphone jacks (which fit perfectly on the device, but no longer fit for some reason) when they die. If I had to list every device in the last two or three years without a headphone jack, we’d be sitting here all day. I’ll just say that as the number of devices without a headphone jack grew in my life, so did the amount of time I spent cursing Bluetooth and related technologies.

Every time my phone refuses to connect to the headphones because they are connected to the computer upstairs instead; every time I run out of batteries in the middle of something; every time a bump falls out of my ear onto the floor or pavement, I wonder if we’ve really made things better or if we’ve just replaced one set of problems with another, more expensive set of problems. I still sometimes use wired headphones, and I can’t say that I miss the wire dangling around and clinging to everything. But they’re reliable and predictable, two adjectives that don’t fit any Bluetooth audio conversation unless you put “not-“in front of them.

Anyway. The Surface Pro 9’s Bluetooth audio sounds no better or worse than most of the devices I use.

Go to discussion…