The most noticeable difference between the old Surface Pro 4 and the new Surface Pro 2017 is the latter’s improved battery life: more than 12 instead of 7 hours in our Wi-Fi test. No other contestant was able to get even close.

The fanless Core i5-7300U is capable of running at peak performance for short bursts thanks to vapor-chamber cooling. After a short while, the CPU starts to throttle. Power users are thus better off with the Dell Latitude 12 5285 (i7-7600U, 10% performance loss in our Cinebench loop) or the IdeaPad Miix 720 (i7-7500U, 9% performance loss). While they do suffer from throttling as well, it is not as bad as on the Surface Pro 2017 (33%)

This means that one of the Surface Pro 2017’s proclaimed main benefits – fanless laptop performance – vanished into thin air. Performance is not half bad, but it is not permanent. In addition, we failed to verify the 50% performance gain over its immediate predecessor that Microsoft promises. It also lacks USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3, which would have made the Surface Pro much more future-proof.

On the plus side, it has decent cameras that support Windows Hello, a very good microphone, and a bright display with decent sRGB coverage. All this can be had for $1299. We consider the tablet to be overpriced, especially since the price includes nothing but the tablet and a charger.

Alternatives

The following three tablets come to mind when looking for alternatives to the Surface Pro. All three are powered by 15 W SoCs, have been similarly rated by us (Dell), and do not throttle as massively as the Surface Pro does thanks to their fans. They are also cheaper.

The Latitude 12 has only an FHD display, but it is brighter. All three have USB Type-C ports, the Lenovo and Asus tablet even support Thunderbolt 3. Unfortunately, the latter only lasted 3:43 hours in our Wi-Fi test and the CPU is incapable of utilizing its full potential.

This leaves the IdeaPad Miix 720 as the only real alternative. Despite the meager 5:45 hours it lasted in our Wi-Fi test; it does have its strengths as well: it throttled by only 10%, has a good keyboard with decent feedback, and a very good 2880x1920 display.

In case you do not really need the Surface Pro’s long battery life, the Miix 720 and the Transformer 3 Pro have a better price-performance ratio. After all, we would have to add the keyboard dock, a pen, and a USB dock to get a fully equipped device with more than the bare minimum of ports.

Also see our reviews of the Core m3 entry level version and the Core i7 model.

