Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offerSurface Pro 7 appears more like the calm before a storm of innovationWe check over 130 million products every day for the best pricesThe display bezels are awfully thick for a tablet in 2019. The $749 starting model (without the keyboard) offers an Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of memory, and a 128GB SSD. Hobbyists can probably get by, but serious photo editors will need to look elsewhere.The Surface Pro never had stellar battery life, but the Surface Pro 6 represented the best of its breed. When the two are next to each other, the Pro X looks decidedly more modern. He spends entirely too much time on Twitter (find him @MJBuzzi), with which he has a complicated relationship. I genuinely enjoy typing on this keyboard, at least on a solid surface, even if the price seems a bit steep. The inclusion of the USB-C port ultimately gives this one away, but they're otherwise near-interchangeable.Matthew Buzzi is a Hardware Analyst at PCMag, focusing on laptops and desktops with a specialty in gaming systems and games. All rights reserved.The Surface Pro hasn’t evolved much over the last few years. Don’t—it’s still a key part of the Surface Pro 7’s value. The Surface Pro X’s capabilities slightly outshine the Surface Pro 7's: It can connect up to two 4096x2304 displays using its pair of USB-C ports.The Surface Pro 7's USB-C port can also be used to charge the tablet, which offers additional flexibility. https://www.cnet.com/reviews/microsoft-surface-pro-7-review There's a decent amount of variety in this batch of competitors, including the internal components, so you can use the table below as a cheat sheet...As you can see, a swath of processors is represented, and the Surface Pro 7 is one of two devices using a Core i5 CPU. Since Microsoft hasn’t poured money into a new chassis or new software, and the Surface Pro 7 will now be positioned as the more traditional PC-like device (relative to the Surface Pro X), making the keyboard standard seems fair.The one meaningful change can be found in the ports. The combined price is still less than many laptops, though, so there's only so far you can take this complaint.Using the keyboard on your lap remains a little troublesome. The Surface Pro 7 is pretty much the same as the Surface Pro 6, with one important difference: USB-C. You’ll also get improved performance and microphones, but at the expense of battery life. Its SSD helps with that, as you can see from the PCMark 8 result that it's no slower than the rest.Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. That’s significant, and it extends beyond just benchmark scores. If you need something closer to a tablet experience, the Pro X is a beautiful option, but it lacks the broad functionality of the usual Windows laptop. There's still something satisfying about the Surface Pro experience, even if you'd probably choose a laptop keyboard if they were put head to head.The ports are another facet that may remind you this isn't a traditional laptop, as there simply aren't many of them. Fair enough. The device still measures 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33 inches (292 x 201 x 8.5mm) and weighs 1.7 pounds (770g). It’s clickable over its entire surface, though it requires a bit more effort near the top.At this point, Microsoft has done a surprisingly good job of nailing the inking experience. Sure, Microsoft would like you to upload your smartphone photos directly to the cloud. Again, that’s without the Surface Pen and Type Cover that Microsoft has included in our review sample.