M icrosoft’s latest Windows 11 tablet gets faster and easier to fix in the Surface Pro 9, while offering more options than ever before. But is it s

Surface Pro 9 review: Microsoft’s best tablet – if you pick the right one

submited by

Style Pass

2023-01-23 09:00:06

M icrosoft’s latest Windows 11 tablet gets faster and easier to fix in the Surface Pro 9, while offering more options than ever before. But is it still the best PC tablet going? Only if you pick the right one.

Microsoft has brought its two high-end tablet lines under one model name. The standard Surface Pro 9 costs from £1,099 ($999.99/A$1,649) without a keyboard and continues where the Surface Pro 8 left off in 2021, fitted with new faster 12th-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 chips and an improved internal design.

But it is joined under the same banner by the £1,299 ($1,299.99/A$2,599) Surface Pro 9 5G, which is the continuation of Microsoft’s Surface Pro X line using ARM-based chips similar to those in your smartphone. It is a very different proposition with some serious trade-offs.

The latest Surface Pro 9 machines are 12g lighter to last year’s models but otherwise look almost identical to their predecessors. They are modern, well made and come in a range of nice colours, with Microsoft’s excellent kickstand out the back for propping the tablet up at a wide range of angles.