Nick the Wick
I have been only impressed by this pc. When I first bought this I waffled back and forth on whether I should return this and just get Asus' Flow Z13 (same form factor but thicker and similar price but with a dGPU for gaming). I have never had a day where I wished I bought the other. I would consider myself a power user for this product.
1. My work "station" consists of this Surface Pro 9, a portable 15.6 in 1080p 165hz gaming monitor that is vertical, an ultrawide 38in 1440p 180hz monitor, a wireless keyboard, and a wireless mouse. All of this is plugged into the surface dock 2 which uses the surface connector. For those that don't know, traditionally it is very hard for any computers to run multiple displays extended, some older CPU's/GPU's won't run or have trouble running 2 displays with different size, resolution, and refresh rates. This little laptop is running 3 high refresh rate monitors whose stats are all different in every way and I've never had display issues aside from me partially plugging in the surface connector (which is user error on my part.)
2. In addition to my wonky display setup, the software suite that I run all day is fairly heavy. I have Edge open with 5 tabs, Chrome open with 30+ tabs, Outlook (which is a deplorable and hateful app to use), Excel, File Explorer, and Adobe Acrobat DC. I've never noticed slowdowns, hitches, or weird behaviors DESPITE my abuse of this little tonka truck of a pc. Do note that my model has 32gb of RAM and I knew that I would need the 32gb. As of right now I am writing this review while ALL of my work things are open and my RAM usage is at 51%. Sometimes I will even stream Youtube or Spotify in the background while working with headphones plugged in or through bluetooth. It's pretty wild to see how far the Surface Pro line has really come in the last decade.
3. Also, everyone says this and it is true, the screen is gorgeous! Bright, vivid, snappy and I LOVE this aspect ratio!. It's a blast to work on and the touchscreen functionality feels great. I did give Mircosoft my left kidney for this as in addition to the SP9 and SurfDock 2, I also bought the Surface Pen Slim and the SP9 keyboard. It's a lot of extra money but ease of use and function for work was my priority. Not to infrequently I have to sign things digitally or need a customer so sign a doc for me digitally. With Acrobat DC and the surface pen its almost too easy. I've gotten rid of my printer/scanner. Doing this for any important docs is great! The keyboard has storage slot for the slim pen that also wirelessly charges the slim pen while it is sitting in there. Pen is always charged and handy, doesn't fall out like the Asus Flow Z13's pen (and like other comp too) and it just works! setup was automatic and fast, another facet to this product that I've had no issues with and only joy using!
4. I even love using this for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom. Now LR has offloaded a lot of their rendering to the cloud so you don't need the beefiest GPU anymore, it would help a little but the experience of editing on this compared to my 6-year-old tower with a GTX 1080 in it has been a noticeable upgrade just because of the CPU being so much better and having so many more cores. So I've even been pleasantly surprised with photo editing on this. being able to unplug and do the editing from couch with my Surface Pen made me enjoy photo editing for the first time in over a decade. I could do this while sitting next to my wife and kids and they got to be a part of the editing process by giving feedback since I could sit WITH them instead of in a separate room alone! So this pc is a win for my family.
5. Its portability makes this great for being my office and my home work computer. 1 pc at 2 locations that is so light I forget it's in my bag sometimes! Light and thin but the screen is still 14 in so it is easy enough to work from. Sure the kickstand hurts like hell on your legs for any amount of time more than 2 minutes but I didn't buy a LAPtop I bought a Windows TABLET as almost all of my work requires me to work at a desk. However the kickstand is one of the sturdiest and nicest ones that I've used. Complete confidence in it and it can really let the SP9 get low to the table effectively turning it into a drawing tablet. One other thing to note that isn't advertised the best, SSD is accessible by opening the kickstand and with just pushing against a levered/magnetic cover on the back of the SP9. the SSD is held in with a single philips screw and removing or replacing the drive doesn't seem to void the warranty which is awesome. For those that know Outlook is a destroyer of any kind of hard drive so that was a HUGE plus for me.
6. Despite the cost being high for the hardware that has gone into this device, it has effectively saved me money from having to buy another PC for just at home. Plus, when paired with a dock, it really is like having 2 computers, and that is the price premium you are paying for should you buy this.
7. Battery life is the best that I have yet experienced out of a Windows laptop so far. When I am using it to watch YouTube in the evening I average 6-7 hours of use with the backlit keyboard plugged and on. It has great battery health settings for those who will use it docked.
Some sobering negatives:
1. not very 'lapable' due to the kickstand but can be done with the willpower of David Goggins and the thighs of a Greek god
2. Cost, it is high just from the viewpoint of the hardware you get at this price.
3. Only comes with charger, no other accessories are included. This can greatly add to the cost especially since the current generation of accessories are the priciest they've been. However, I do feel that they are the best quality accessories yet, if you stick with the Mircosoft brand of stuff. It really does add to the convenience and plug-and-play nature of it all.
Conclusion:
An awesome, light, snappy, powerful experience that when viewed as a way to save time, is worth the cost. Brilliant screen and first-party accessories. Battery is more than good enough, especially when compared to other Windows PCs. I highly recommend this.
| Standing screen display size | 13 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 2880x1920 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2880 x 1920 Pixels |
| Processor | 4.4 GHz i5_2450m |
| RAM | 8 GB LPDDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Hard Drive | SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ax |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 15.5 Hours |
D. Mannino
Angie