With the ever-expanding Microsoft Surface family of products it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand where each device stands out from one another. As I am in the market for upgrading my aging Surface Pro 3, I thought I’d compare and contrast the various Surface devices to see which one is most powerful. I’m generally a bleeding-edge adopter, so I tend to end up with the top-tier devices when I purchase them — for that reason I’ve decided to compare the “best of the best” Surfaces.

Diving into the complete tech specifications of each product can quickly bury you in mostly meaningless information for the end user, so I’ve decided to keep my findings to what I feel are the most important specs to focus on. The areas I’ve chosen to focus on are price, processor, graphics, memory, hard drive, display and battery life. Below is a collection of the various specifications that I deemed to be important in both an image, and table format:

Comparing the performance of the Surface Family of Products (image)

i7Comparing the performance of the Surface Family of Products (table)

Price

The price of the Surface products vary widely, with the entry level Surface Pro starting at $799 while the most expensive Surface Studio maxes out at a whopping $4,199. Price is usually the most important factor for most consumers, so deciding which Surface that is right for you should start with how much your budget is.

The Surface Pro (2017) does not include the Type Cover ($159) and the Surface Book price includes the Performance Base option.

VERDICT: Depends on your price point.

CPU

Processors across the Surface line vary just as widely as the prices, thanks to the fact that the mobile Surface devices utilized mobile processors, while the Surface Studio utilizes a classic desktop processor. The Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Laptop utilize a latest generation “Kaby Lake” processor, while both the Surface Book and Surface Studio utilize a previous generation “Skylake” processor.

Intel i7–7660U — Both the Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Laptop share the same top-end and latest 7th generation “Kaby Lake” mobile processor

— Both the Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Laptop share the same top-end and latest 7th generation “Kaby Lake” mobile processor Intel i7-6600U — The Surface Book with Performance Base has a 6th generation “Skylake” mobile processor

— The Surface Book with Performance Base has a 6th generation “Skylake” mobile processor Intel i7-6820HQ — The Surface Studio has a 6th generation “Skylake” desktop processor

VERDICT: The Surface Studio’s desktop processor has twice the cores and threads as its mobile counterparts which makes it the clear winner. It will be interesting to see how the i7-7660U in the latest Surface Pro and the new Surface Laptop performs against the older generation i7-6600U in the Surface Book and the i7-6820HQ desktop processor in the Surface Studio.

Graphics

The graphics on the devices are like you would imagine, with the Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Laptop having integrated graphics, while both the Surface Book and Surface Studio having dedicated GPUs.

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 — The highest-end Surface Pro and Surface Laptop include Intel’s latest Iris Plus graphics which utilizes shared memory

— The highest-end Surface Pro and Surface Laptop include Intel’s latest Iris Plus graphics which utilizes shared memory NVidia GeForce GTX 965M — The top of the line Surface Book with Performance Base includes 2 GB of dedicated graphics memory

— The top of the line Surface Book with Performance Base includes 2 GB of dedicated graphics memory NVidia GeForce GTX 980M — The top-end Surface Studio includes 4 GB of dedicate graphics memory

VERDICT: The Surface Studio’s the clear winner here again, and in the mobile line of Surface devices the Surface Book with its dedicated graphics sporting 2GB memory is obviously better than the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop’s integrated graphics. The higher end Surface Pro and Surface Laptop do have a slight graphical upgrade over their cheaper counterparts who sport Intel HD integrated graphics.

Memory

The memory across the devices span DDR3 and DDR4, including:

16 GB LPDDR 3 — The Surface Pro (2017), Surface Laptop and Surface Studio with Performance Base all expand to 16GB of low power (mobile) DDR3 memory

— The Surface Pro (2017), Surface Laptop and Surface Studio with Performance Base all expand to 16GB of low power (mobile) DDR3 memory 32 GB DDR 4 — The Surface Studio is available with up to 32 GB of DDR 4 memory

VERDICT: With full DDR 4 and twice the capacity the Surface Studio clearly wins again, however this is one of the few areas where the Surface Pro, Laptop and Book all are on equal footing.

Hard Drive

All of the Surface devices allow for several hard drive configurations, with the Surface Pro (2017) and Surface Book offering both a 512 GB and 1 TB option utilizing the same high-end hardware.

PCIe SSD — The Surface Pro (2017), Surface Laptop and Surface Laptop all utilize onboard PCIe SSD storage

— The Surface Pro (2017), Surface Laptop and Surface Laptop all utilize onboard PCIe SSD storage Hybrid drive — The Surface Studio’s hybrid drive is has a 128 GB PCIe SSD with a 2 TB 5400 RPM drive

VERDICT: I feel that this is a place where the Surface Studio is a clear loser as it sports a 2.5" 5400 RPM hard drive in addition to it’s PCIe SSD “hot” drive.

The Surface Studio’s 2.5" 5400 RPM hard drive is upgradeable to a SATA SSD if you’re up for voiding your warranty.

Removing the 2.5" Hard Drive in the Surface Studio (Source: iFixit)

Display

For the displays there a few things to take into consideration, with screen size, screen resolution and pixel density being most important. The Surface Pro and Surface Book have the highest pixel density while the Surface Studio’s pixel density was designed to be a 1:1 ratio (1" on screen is 1" on paper).

Surface Pro — 12.3" with a resolution of 2736×1834 and a 267 PPI

— 12.3" with a resolution of 2736×1834 and a 267 PPI Surface Laptop — 13.5" with a resolution of 2256×1504 and a 201 PPI

— 13.5" with a resolution of 2256×1504 and a 201 PPI Surface Book — 13.5" with a resolution of 3000×2000 and a 267 PPI

— 13.5" with a resolution of 3000×2000 and a 267 PPI Surface Studio — 28" with a resolution of 4500×3000and a 192 PPI

All Surface devices have a 3:2 aspect ratio

VERDICT: The Surface Pro and Surface Book are the clear winners when it comes to pixel density, however the Surface Studio is designed to be the perfect pixel density for design purposes.

The real loser here is the Surface Laptop, because it is the same size as the Surface Book, but lacks it’s pixel density.

Conclusion

Obviously going into this it was pretty certain that the desktop based Surface Studio would win in many of these categories, but once you dive into the mobile devices the answers aren’t so clear. In the end, it is all about finding the device that is right for you and your usage scenarios.

If you’re a gamer or utilize high end graphics and rendering software, either the Surface Studio or Surface Book with Performance Base would likely be your best bet. If you’re a student or professional on the go, then either the Surface Pro (2017) or the new Surface Laptop will likely meet your needs.

What is clear, is that all of the high-end Surface devices can hold their own with other PCs in the space. The Surface devices aren’t the best power for the buck, but they are the perfect balance of build quality, design, dependability and power — the German sports sedan of PC products.

Surface product timeline (Source: Wikipedia)

My Choice

My desired price point is about $2,000 — which means that the Surface Pro (2017) and the Surface Laptop are most desirable by price. However, the Surface Book with Performance base may be worth investigating further.

I’d likely snap up a Surface Book in a heartbeat if it had the latest Kaby Lake processor, but for now I can’t see spending an extra $700 on a device with a 2016 processor. I could certainly utilize the dedicated GPU for gaming.

For now, I’m currently leaning towards the Surface Pro but I’m anxious to dive deep in a review of the Surface Laptop before making a decision. I’d also love to own a Surface Studio, however I’m not quite ready to take out a second mortgage — if it had a Kaby Lake, I’d probably bite that bullet!