Microsoft's new Surface Pro 8 is the flagship for Windows 11

Speaker 1: The surface pro eight feels like a visit from a familiar friend, but does it deserve to be the flagship launch product from Microsoft's new windows 11 operating system Speaker 1: Alongside windows 11? Microsoft is launching a few new surface products. There's a surface laptop studio, a big 14 inch convertible laptop. And there's these surface pro eight, the latest version of the windows tablet slash convertible laptop clip on carried around device. [00:00:30] Now we've liked the surface line for many years, especially because it's got a lot of really cool engineering to it. The kickstand remains fantastic for a windows tablet. The clip on keyboard is best in class, but over the past three or four or five generations, the surface itself has not really changed all that much. Maybe it started to feel dated in some ways. That's why I was interested to see that the latest version of the surface pro eight takes some of its DNA from previous surface pro devices and take some of it from the surface [00:01:00] prox, which was the more experimental high end Qualcomm powered LTE, always on version of the surface, which introduced among other things, the concept of the slim surface pen. Speaker 1: Now, if you're familiar with the surface proc, you're gonna find that that slim pen is now the official stylist for the surface pro eight. It's also the official stylist for the surface duo the, uh, two screen smartphone. It's the official stylist for the surface laptop studio, which basically the official surface pen. Now, uh, the slim [00:01:30] two, a big advantage of the new stylist over the previous versions is that on that clip on keyboard, there's a nice little dock built in for it. It fits right in there. You can close up the keyboard. Uh, it doesn't stick out. It's not gonna fall out. It even charges the stylist while it's in the little dock. Another big difference between the surface pro eight and the previous version is the screen has gone up from a 12.3 inch screen to a 13 inch screen, makes it feel much more like a mainstream laptop. Let's say like something like a MacBook air that also has the 13 inch screen [00:02:00] inside. We've moved up to 11th, gen L core IER processors. That's pretty par for the course these days. I don't think it's gonna make a huge amount of difference, especially because this system doesn't have any built-in extra graphics, hardware, like let's say the surface laptop studio has. Uh, so you're not really gonna push it that hard with email and web surfing and social media, even some Photoshop as fine on it. Speaker 1: [00:02:30] Like previous services, it works great on a table that kickstand is really still best in class. You can bend it to any angle you want and it's gonna stay put, frankly, the only place it doesn't really work is on your lap is it's a very awkward lap laptop because it's not sitting flush on your lap, but on tables on desks, uh, it's actually really great. Now this is where we're gonna get to the part that we fruited a million times before. And we're gonna hear it again. The best part about the service is frankly, that clip on keyboard. Uh, it's the best design one. I've tried. It [00:03:00] snaps on very securely. The keys are really good. It's got a glass touch pad it's back lit fantastic. Here's the problem. Microsoft has never seen fit to include the keyboard cover in the box with the surface, even though the surface is much, much, much less usable without it. Speaker 1: Otherwise it's just a windows tablet by itself. And those have never been all that useful on their own. No matter how much your surface pro is whether it's the $1,100 lowest end base version, or it's a $2,000 plus [00:03:30] version, doesn't matter, you gotta buy the keyboard separately and you have to buy the stylist separately. The surface keyboard cover and slim pen. Two combo that you can get now is $279. That's more than a 25% premium over the base price of the surface itself really adds a lot to your total cost of ownership. And of course, anytime you see a surface, whether it's in an ad product placement in a movie, which you see a lot of, uh, it's always being used with the keyboard. It's really an integral part of the system. And I know I sound like a broken record, but [00:04:00] they should throw it in the box, especially because if you have, let's say a surface pro seven or an earlier version, that keyboard's not gonna work with a new one because they changed where the little connectors are. Speaker 1: The surface line has always worked. And the surface pro in particular, because I think it takes advantage of Microsoft designing both the hardware and the operating system. So they can really get the and fine tune to each other. That's kind of like what apple does with MacBooks, where they make the hardware and they make the operating system. Now they even make the chips too. And Microsoft actually did [00:04:30] that by co-designing the chip and the surface prox here. We're just dealing with regular Intel chips. But again, you feel that Microsoft fit and finish where they really want this to be the flagship device for windows 11. And I feel like it certainly could be if you have a relatively recent surface, like the pro seven or the surface prox, there's not really enough here to justify upgrading. If you have an older model or you wanna get into your first surface, uh, this is certainly a good entry point. Speaker 1: And again, about $1,100. It's not that expensive. Although for that entry price, you really only get a 1 28 gig, uh, storage [00:05:00] drive. Eight gigs of Ram should be a little more and you gotta buy that keyboard and side separately. I've used surface pros for years as part of my regular lineup of laptops and tablets. I take along with me, work at a coffee shop, work on the road, work at different places around my house. Uh, and I've certainly found it to be the preeminent windows tablet. Not that that's a huge category. One thing I really like to see in future versions of the surface pro is adding 5g. Right now you can get 4g in some surface pro models, but only the professional commercial [00:05:30] industrial versions, not the consumer versions, but they do have 5g in the new surface duo two. So I feel like that would be a good addition to this product as well. All right. I feel that's it. Good? All right. Cool.