Microsoft Surface Pro 8 for Business

The slickest business tablet around thanks to a superb 120Hz high-res screen, but it falls short of greatness

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PRICE Range starts at £833 (£999 inc VAT) from microsoft.com/uk

Normally Microsoft tweaks the Surface Pro’s design from one generation to another, often upgrading the innards alone. The shift from Pro 7 to Pro 8 is more noticeable, with Microsoft bulking up the weight (891g versus 784g) and thickness (9.3mm versus 8.7mm). Those figures are for the tablet alone, note, so don’t include the optional keyboard or stylus.

There are two main reasons why Microsoft has made these sacrifices: screen size and battery life. It’s now a 13in rather than 12.3in panel, and it’s as sharp as we’ve come to expect from Surface Pro machines thanks to a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate, which shows itself in slick scrolling. It’s nice to have but not as noticeable as it is on a phone, since you don’t scroll through content in the same way.

But it’s undeniably a gorgeous screen. Stick to the Vivid colour profile that’s active by default and you’ll be treated to 77% of the DCI-P3 gamut and 99% of sRGB, all with stupendous accuracy: an average Delta E of 0.64 is perfect to the naked eye. A peak brightness of 432cd/m2 is excellent, as is its 1,350:1 contrast ratio.