Surface Pro 12-inch review: A downgrade but it sure is cute

The Surface Pro 12-inch: Microsoft’s iPad Doppelganger, But at What Cost?

Twelve inches makes this new Surface Pro stand out as a good contender to have received its closest imitation to the iPad Pro. Weighing a mere 1.5 pounds and being an even slimmer 7.8mm thick, it became the slimmest Surface ever, also nearly matching the dimension of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Compromises are stashed beneath a shiny surface for this version, such as a lesser processor than its predecessor, the 13-inch Surface Pro, as well as a glass quality that is quite noticeable and inferior. Keyboard? $149.00. And it must still be bought from somewhere else. All the while, the keyboard offers no ergonomic lift for a comfortable typing experience. So, did trying to follow Apple cast the Surface Pro out into darkness?

Was the trade-off worth it if you wanted something thinner and costing $800? That really depends on one’s needs. If one wants to hold in one’s hands an impossibly light Windows tablet that doubles as a charming 12-inch laptop, then the Surface Pro is it. However, temper expectations. Much like the ASUS ZenBook A14, its lightweight feel came at a price of popularity: a series of calculated compromises.

Microsoft

Surface Pro 12-inch

The Surface Pro: pocket-sized and precious, just like a tech-savvy kitten. It’ll purr through emails and basic tasks, but never let that whisper of a machine roar. The screen may occasionally shrink relative to true performances, though, and sometimes it prefers to take a little nap.

Pros

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

Cons

• Slow processor
• Keyboard is an extra $150
• Screen could be better
• No Surface Connect port

$800 at Microsoft

What’s new in the 12-inch Surface Pro

The 12-inch Surface Pro finally sheds that laptop skin as it lost that half pound in follow-up and had 1.5mm shaved off. Say goodbye to that awkward slate-laptop hybrid. Holding it in hand, one experiences refreshingly less feeling that this is some kind of PC being stuffed into a tablet shell and more of a genuine tablet experience that racks up some points when compared with the iPad.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

The sudden transformation was attained through a secret weapon: the Snapdragon X Plus from Qualcomm. With this power-efficient, eight-cores Arm chip, Microsoft could set aside Intel’s chipsets, freeing the product designers to build a thin tablet truly. Even the one launched last year with the Snapdragon-powered 13-inch Surface Pro and X Plus and X Elite seemed more like a baby of the past compared to this revolutionary redesign.

Just like the MacBook Air, the Surface Pro 12-inch boldly goes fanless. The absence of a fan has its advantages and disadvantages. The silence certainly will be appreciated in a serene environment; however, if the tablet is pushed hard in a warm room, chances of thermal throttling exist. I just barely hear anything from an ultraportable these days: Unlike the gaming rigs and bulky workstations with lots of fan noise, which frankly deserve an airplane engine’s level of cooling, that is. With the Surface Pro, performance might be sacrificed for silence when the temperature rises.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Microsoft stripped a few luxuries to make way for a smaller and less expensive Surface Pro 12-inch. Leaving the vibrant OLED of the sibling 13″-er aside, this model sports an LCD that clocks in at a 90Hz refresh rate instead of an ultra-smooth 120Hz. Resolution-wise, it took a slight hit, declining down to 2,196 x 1,464.

While it won’t rival the razor-sharp Retina displays of iPads, don’t mistake it for bargain-bin tech. Colors burst with life and sunlight legibility remains respectable. However, aspiring digital artists beware: the reduced size and merely “adequate” resolution make it less than ideal for serious photo or video editing.

Wait a minute. Did Microsoft actually pull the plug on its beloved Surface Connect? Charging curveball: The new Surface Pro dispenses with the magnetic port in favor of USB-C ports. There are two, but the catch is that Microsoft only provides a USB-C cable. No wall plug; that one feels a bit awkward to me. Now prepare to be fleeced: A hundred and twenty dollars will snag you the 45W official charger from Microsoft, and these ones are a total rip-off! Jump into the fast-charging category and score a cheaper and more powerful power brick. Your wallet and battery life will thank you.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Then, there’s the Surface Pro 12-inch keyboard, an accessory so worthy of having literally been glued to the device in the factory. However, Microsoft’s infinite wisdom presents it as a “choice” with a neat $150 tag. Because who wouldn’t want to type on their Surface Pro? I guess Microsoft feels it’s empowering to charge extra for basic functionality.

One of the most expensive surfaces: $800. A bargain, right? Think again. That price tag conveniently omits the keyboard, the crucial component that turned the tablet into a productivity powerhouse. This is not mere marketing ingenuity- it is downright fraudulent and deceptive, chipping away at consumer confidence while sullying the Surface brand. Imagine if third-party companies had competitive magnetic keyboards that could have challenged Microsoft’s monopoly on its own accessories. Asked if that chance exists, Microsoft did not respond, therefore leaving consumers with yet another question of whether the Surface Pro will ever really have a semblance of choice or fair pricing.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

In-use: An adorable Surface for the basics

The 12-inch Surface Pro? Umm-I’ll just say it did not establish new physics laws. After beholding the Snapdragon X Ultra on the 13-inch throw-in-another-generation feel. And compared to the M1 MacBook Pro? Forget it. Another universe.

“OK” is the operative word here. It chugged along with my daily digital circus: A chaotic blend of browser tabs threatening to overflow, Evernote notes tossed about like confetti, Spotify softly playing in the background, with a light image edit here and there. It survived. But push it? Benchmark scores would whisper cautionary tales of impending digital doom. There is safety with this Surface Pro, hardly a thrill ride.

Let’s face the facts: 12-inch laptops are seldom speed demons. Remember the last MacBook from Apple? Adorable, yes; lightning-fast, never. These wee wonders are selected for their near irresistible charm and feather-light portability. The 12-inch Surface Pro sure has portability one hundred percent on point. In light of its 1.8 lbs weight alongside the 0.3-lb Surface Keyboard, it weighs 0.2 lb less than the 13-inch Surface Probeforeany keyboard is attached. It became my invisible companion for work. I locked it inside my bag and zipped around town hardly paying any notice to the fact it was sitting there. Really, I pretty much forgot it was there at all!

The Surface Keyboard? Were my expectations low? Surprise! It is actually a delight to type on. My fear of cramped keys, an ever-present concern derived from experiences with smaller keyboards in the past, disappeared as my fingers lightly danced across it with little awareness of its difference from its 13-inch sibling. The trackpads had shrunk, and that (very) tiny pang of longing for more real estate still lingered-the feeling was saved by its accuracy and smoothness. In search of stylus action? The Surface Slim Pen ($130) magentically clicks into place at the top. While my own stylus affair has cooled, the Pen makes a true stand up conversion of the 12-inch Surface Pro into a digital notepad great for doodling and handwritten brainstorming.

If you squint hard enough, you may see the Surface Pro being a decent tablet. What places Windows in a paradox is that it has such an opposing attitude toward the gadget; the touch controls, for one, are designed for giants, so you cannot casually browse the Internet like you do on an iPad. Hence, one ends up really using it as a laptop, once in a while detaching the screen to just read some gripping articles when the keyboard becomes cumbersome.

Dancing with lightness, that 12-inch tablet very much resembles performance-wise Zenbook A14-A good copy of Surface, but that involved price too: its price is much lower, even with the Surface Keyboard. In the Geekbench 6, the two were regarded as twin sisters, although Surface Pro flexed a little bit more muscle in single-core tasks. Your 3D dreams will be shattered as far as Wildlife Extreme scores at 3DMark are concerned-that’s ancient history!

Realistically speaking, the 12-inch Surface Pro is not much of a miracle for gaming purposes; the size and basic hardware just do not warrant it. Cloud streaming, however, is a different story. Starting up Halo Infinite from the Xbox app brought some surprise; it took 15 seconds tops! The campaign flawlessly streamed via Wi-Fi, on show for what it can do. While a few casual games might run natively, leave anything else behind-Fortnite or Overwatch 2. The Arm architecture just strikes through such plans by preventing apps from getting past the launch screen. Then, if I’m honest, even if they did, their performance would undoubtedly be considered at best discouraging.

Were we to believe marketing copy, the Surface Pro would offer a long battery life marathon. My first tests, however, threw a spanner in the works. PCMark 10 ended up throwing errors more than being successful and, hence, was unable to complete the battery benchmark. Good thing some gremlins interfered, for after eight long hours of wrestling through the test, the battery remained firmly seated at 53 percent. To stray from the artificial battery benchmarks, a full workday of typical use drained the battery to about 30%. Microsoft claims a 16-hour battery life for this 12-inch marvel. However, our tests indicate the 13-inch tester manages 12 hours and 15 minutes in PCMark 10, making us eager to find out if the new Surface Pro can really match the hype.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Should you buy the 12-inch Surface Pro?

Forget logic. Throw away all reasoning. Would you consider the 12-inch Surface Pro with that much charm? The 13-inch monster has more power, speed, andeverything. And if you get that older brother at Best Buy for $800, $200 off, then, of course, you were quite smart. These werejust facts. This is aboutwanting something. That Windows machine is adorable and so portable that it practically taps you on the shoulder saying, “Take me with you.”

One could go on and on about the difficulties with the pricing of the Surface. Just when one has it figured out, they pull a fast one on us. Remember those 13-inch Surface Pro models considered to be gifts to humans? Gone! Poof! Now the rumors are fluttering about that Surface prices are mysteriously being inflated. This results in one of the most puzzling predicaments: namely, both the 12- and now rare 13-inch machines are lumbering under the immense weight of the $800 price tag.

The upshot of all these? Quite possibly, Microsoft has been quietly or without much fanfare at least clearing out the inventory of its entry-level 13-inch Surface Laptops. Grab one while you can. Otherwise, the $1,400 configuration will be your new deemed “budget” option if you don’t even consider today’s $1,030 price a steal.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Wrap-up

Not only is the Surface Pro thin and light, but it also seems to weave through one’s daily tasks like a digital butterfly. While it does, of course, handle emails and spreadsheets, its undeniable charm is what really draws one in. It’s just so cute; maybe it’s worth overlooking that it’s a tad bit underpowered and a little smaller in size compared to its older sibling. A real Surface carrying an iPad vibe-it’s worth the price for some.

Thanks for reading Surface Pro 12-inch review: A downgrade but it sure is cute