Microsoft Surface Pro 13 review: Still great after all these years

Microsoft has always made wonderful hardware, and I've been a fan of the Surface line of devices for a long time now. Through the years, the design hasn't evolved very much. Surface introduced new form factors, such as the Surface laptop and the Surface phone, but the garden-variety Surface Pro has been pretty consistent.

That's both a good thing and a bad thing. The good part is, the design is pretty great. It's a tablet with a detachable keyboard and a kickstand that can position the device at basically any angle, which makes it versatile for drawing or just working like a normal laptop.

It's a bad thing because in all the time the Surface Pro has existed, Microsoft has never sold it with the keyboard cover. It's always a separate purchase, and it is here too. (Mashable has complained about this before. Repeatedly.) It absolutely boggles my mind that Microsoft can't figure out that a productivity tablet needs to have a keyboard in the box. I know, "Adam is complaining about no keyboard again," is basically an evergreen statement, and that's totally fair, but I will never not complain about this. You need to ship a keyboard in the box.

There's one other issue I have with the design that I will get into in a bit. For now, there's a lot to love here. I've been using the Microsoft Surface Pro 13" as my main laptop for about two weeks, and here are my thoughts.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 13: Just the basics

The 2-in-1 Microsoft Surface Pro 13 Copilot+ PC starts at $1,199.99, but if you want the zippy Snapdragon X Elite processor (and trust me, you do), you’ll need to pony up $1,499.99 — or more. At the time of writing, Best Buy had models on sale for $1,349. That's expensive, but still a touch less than elite M4 MacBook Pros and other high-end laptops. And unlike the MacBook Pro, the Microsoft Surface Pro 13 can function as a tablet and laptop in one.

The Surace Pro 13 is also a Copilot+ PC, meaning it has built-in AI features powered by Microsoft Copilot, which is itself powered by a custom version of ChatGPT.

• Type: Tablet with kickstand and detachable keyboard (sold separately)

• Processor: Snapdragon X Plus (10 Core) or Snapdragon X Elite (12 Core)

• Display: LCD or OLED

• RAM: 16GB is standard, but 32GB and 64GB models are available

• Memory: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD

Flippy keyboard

The keyboard in particular takes some getting used to, but I really like it. The keyboard attaches to the bottom of the Surface tablet using two little points that slot into the Surface. Then you flip up a flap that magnetically attaches to the front of the tablet, raising your keyboard to a comfortable typing level.

The keyboard itself is a little floppy, for lack of a better word. It's a little like typing on a raised piece of thin plywood. It's a tad bouncy, but I actually appreciate that kind of feedback. The keys have a great pitch and travel. If you like typing on a chiclet-style keyboard, this is a winner. Plus, it gets even better.

The Bluetooth Flex keyboard can switch to Bluetooth connection when it's detached. That's a fun addition to the keyboard that I first saw with a OnePlus tablet last year. Granted, my use cases for the Bluetooth keyboard are limited, but it's a "better to have it and not need it" kind of situation.

Plus, this year, the Flex keyboard has a space in it to store the Surface Pen, which is a great thing to have when you need it, and nice to stow away when you don't. Personally, I don't use the Surface Pen all that often — it's just not a part of my workflow — but I appreciate having it when I want to.

Software is coming along

Fortunately for Microsoft, Windows 11 is getting pretty good at working with unusual form factors, and while that's not as important for a device like the Surface Pro, it's still important because of its ability to switch between being a tablet and a "laptop." These days, the most important thing is dealing with the virtual keyboard.

More specifically, when I detach the keyboard, I'll usually want a virtual keyboard to appear. Microsoft muddies those waters when it introduced the Bluetooth-connected flex keyboard — you know that feature I was just extolling the virtues of? The problem I ran into was that the virtual keyboard popped up seemingly at random. Open search in the Windows 11 taskbar, and it didn't come up. Open an app like Notepad, and it does. It's a little hard to keep up with, to be perfectly honest.

Fortunately, the rest of the software is pretty solid — and it's standard Windows 11 fare. There's no bloatware or additional games installed, and that's likely because Microsoft runs its own show here. Still, I appreciate that.

I'm a little bit over the form factor

The design of the Microsoft Surface Pro has one flaw that's tricky to overcome — it's top-heavy. Unlike a traditional laptop, where most of the components (and the battery) are in the lower part of the clamshell, the Microsoft Surface has to fit literally everything into the tablet itself. The "bottom half" of the Surface Pro is just a keyboard cover, and it's fairly light at that. Also, that keyboard doesn't have a hinge, per se. It just flops open and lands on the table you presumably have in front of you. That becomes problematic if you, you know, don't have a table in front of you.

Maybe you're wondering, "Where would someone be working on a laptop without a table or desk? The places I routinely use a laptop without a table or desk include in bed, on the couch, on an airplane, at launch events, and in the car, and that's just in the last four weeks. The Surface Pro struggles in all of those environments — or to be more accurate, I struggle to use the Surface Pro in those environments.

Put simply, I'm a little over the design of the Surface. At first, it seemed novel and fun, but in the years since, it has grown a little stale, at least for my use case.

Once you get past that, there's still a lot to like here. The hinge on the back of the tablet in particular is a lovely innovation. I have laid that tablet down to its lowest setting and drawn/used the Surface pen on a number of occasions, and every time, I absolutely adore it. So, if you're into it, and you often sit at a desk or table to work, there's nothing to worry about here.

Fast performance

The Surface Pro I tested runs on the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor that debuted last year and is still super fast. The Snapdragon Elite X Processor is built on ARM cores, and it may be the answer that Windows on ARM fans were waiting for. The fact that Microsoft launched its flagship hardware on the processor alone is enough to be positive about the chip. 

Software is coming along too. One of the last holdouts that I needed for the PC was Google Drive on ARM. Yes, most of Google Drive is done in the cloud, but its ability to sync files locally is massive for my workflow, so I'm thankful that it's here.

Another piece of software, DaVinci Resolve, was an early adopter of the Snapdragon processor. Coming from Adobe Premiere, it's been something of a challenge, but I've gotten used to the app very quickly. Most of the videos I produce are shorter, more geared toward Instagram or TikTok, but this computer is no slouch in that department.

Speaking of power and performance, Geekbench clocked this at a 13,469 multi-core score, which is fairly high against other laptops Mashable has tested recently, though not the highest. But along with that power comes longevity — something the Snapdragon X Elite was designed for. In our battery rundown test, the Surface lasted just under 16 hours of video playback (off of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and set to 50 percent brightness).

Overall, I love what the Snapdragon X Elite brings to the table.

Is the Microsoft Surface Pro 13 worth it?

Yes. The Microsoft Surface Pro 13 is lightweight, powerful, and has really great battery life. It can handle almost any task you can throw at it. It is also easily upgradable — the SSD is placed under a small door in the back that has toolless removal. That's the kind of user friendliness you don't often see in laptops this thin.

This is a great portable powerhouse, but it comes with a compromise in the design. This is not a traditional "laptop" that you can easily open on your lap. But if that's not your use case and you prefer the versatility of a tablet or 2-in-1, then this hybrid device is a smart pickup.

So, this is a great buy. It's not going to be a beast at gaming, nor will it export hour-long 8K videos easily. But chances are you don't need to do that. For everyone else, this is a versatile 2-in-1 that won't break the bank and provides great value. That's all you can ask for in a great computing machine.