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Surface Pro 8 review: the best of both worlds - YouTube
Channel: The Verge
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microsoft has been selling surface pro
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models with basically the same design
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since 2015. if you put the last four
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generations of surface pro devices next
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to each other they look basically
[11]
identical but other laptops have gotten
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significantly nicer looking during that
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period of time and we've been begging
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microsoft for years to make the surface
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pro look like a modern flagship computer
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and what do you know microsoft finally
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did it
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this is the surface pro 8.
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so take a look at the surface pro 8 and
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you're not going to see a lot of the
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surface pro 7. what it does look like is
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the surface pro x the super thin super
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light and just gorgeous device that
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microsoft released in 2019 the pro 8 has
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the same powerful specs as the pro 7 but
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it borrows a number of physical features
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from the pro x the result is one heck of
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a nice computer and one that i'm glad
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microsoft has finally made so the
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biggest thing is borrowed is the screen
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the new service pro 8 has a 2880 by 1920
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13 inch display which means it's almost
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an inch bigger than the pro 7. microsoft
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also made the side bezels much thinner
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now the pro 8 is also meant to function
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as a tablet and you still need something
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to hold on to when you're using it as a
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tablet so the top and bottom bezels are
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still somewhat chunky but the clever
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thing about this design is that the
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keyboard cover actually hides the bottom
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bezel entirely when you're using the pro
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8 as a laptop so it's really the best of
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both worlds the other new thing about
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this screen is that it has a 120 hertz
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refresh rate meaning the screen can show
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you up to 120 frames per second so this
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is more common on gaming rigs so most
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productivity and business laptops have
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60 hertz displays but even if you're
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just doing work in office and chrome it
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totally makes a difference and once
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you've used 120hz you won't want to go
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back the cursor is nicer to look as you
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drag it around the screen there's less
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lag when you're writing with the pen and
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the scrolling is so much smoother
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whether you're blazing through a google
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doc or a very long verge article it just
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makes the whole windows experience
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slightly nicer to look at especially if
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you're using the touch screen now the
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downside of 120 hertz refresh rate is
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that it negatively impacts battery life
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so if you want to save power you can
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also use the pro 8 at the regular 60
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hertz rate so when i was using the pro 8
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for my standard office workload with the
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screen at 60hz i was seeing close to
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eight and a half hours to a charge well
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i was only getting around seven with the
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screen at 120 hertz windows 11 is
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supposed to have a feature called
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dynamic refresh rate which will
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automatically swap a device between
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120hz and 60hz depending on the app
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you're using but that's not a feature
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that the pro 8 currently supports and
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microsoft hasn't given us a timeline for
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if or when we'll see it here so for the
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foreseeable future you need to dig into
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advanced display settings to change the
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screen's refresh rate and that's kind of
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a pain and unless you want to be doing
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that multiple times a day you're going
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to be choosing between smooth scrolling
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and an extra hour of battery so please
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microsoft please give us dynamic refresh
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rate soon but the screen isn't the only
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thing that's new so in addition to the
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dual farfield studio microphones the pro
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8 has a 10 megapixel rear camera that
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can also shoot 4k video for zoom calls
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there's also a 5 megapixel front-facing
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camera which shoots in up to 1080p
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speaking of zoom calls the two watt
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speakers sound pretty reasonable you can
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actually hear the bass the keyboard
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cover is made of carbon fiber which
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makes it stiffer and sturdier than
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surface pro type covers we've seen in
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the past it's not quite the typing
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experience you'll get from a full-size
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laptop but it's certainly the best
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detachable keyboard that i've ever used
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the pro 8 borrows a couple other things
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from the pro x so there's a removable
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ssd which you can pop out under the
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kickstand there's also a handy place to
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put microsoft's surface slim pen too you
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just pull out the keyboard deck and it
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lives and charges in a little slot
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against the screen and there are finally
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two usbc thunderbolt 4 ports on the
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surface pro in addition to a headphone
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jack now this slim pen 2 comes with a
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built-in haptic motor which you uses to
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make you feel like you're actually
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writing on physical paper while you draw
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or take notes even with the intensity
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cranked all the way up the vibrations
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were pretty subtle i could only feel
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them if i was paying close attention
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also only a few apps currently support
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this haptic feedback so i'd look forward
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to seeing microsoft expand it so our
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test model has the intel core i7 1185 g7
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which is one of the most powerful chips
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that intel makes for thin and light
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laptops this chip is in some of the best
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laptops on the market from companies
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like dell and lenovo and it's probably
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more power than the typical surface pro
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user actually needs my model also has 16
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gigabytes of ram and it's fast i was
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regularly running video calls over 15 to
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16 chrome tabs a couple different apps
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and even some streaming it could handle
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whatever i threw it without the tiniest
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amount of slow down or heat now that's
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about the bare minimum for this
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processor it's a chip meant for powerful
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portable devices so it would be very
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concerning if things were like freezing
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all over the place but what's impressive
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here isn't just the pro 8 speed it's the
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fact that it's able to maintain that
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speed for long periods of time so part
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of the reason microsoft put an arm chip
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in the pro x rather than a big and fancy
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chip like this is that the x was so thin
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and light that microsoft couldn't fit a
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fan inside now when computers can't cool
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their processors with fans they throttle
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them that is they bump down the chip's
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performance so it doesn't fry itself
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which translates to your apps slowing
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down but the reason that surface pro 8
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has such a powerful chip is that it does
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have a fan and that fan did a good job
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here the chassis never got hot even when
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i was pushing it through pretty intense
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loads and i was able to do that for
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hours at a time in the past few years i
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can't tell you how many people i've
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talked to who weren't sure whether to
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buy the pro 7 or the pro x they wanted
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the pro 7's powerful processor but they
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hated the way it looked and they loved
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the pro x's design but it wasn't
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powerful enough for the things they
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wanted to do and it was hard for me to
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recommend either device to those people
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because they both came with serious
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compromises the pro 8 is the computer
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that those people have been waiting for
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it combines the pro x's flagship design
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with the pro 7's flagship hardware and
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for the first time i think the surface
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proline has a real mainstream flagship
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on its hands it's finally service pro
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that's well pro
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with all that said
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none of this comes cheap so surface pro
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8 models start at 10.99 but that's
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without the keyboard cover which of
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course you're going to buy so the
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keyboard adds 179 to the price meaning
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you're going to pay at least 12.79 for
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the base model and then if you want the
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slim pen 2 that's another 100
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bringing that total to 13.79 and that
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base model has a core i5 just 128
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gigabytes of storage and 8 gigabytes of
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ram but then you know many people
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probably want a bigger ssd and more
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memory for the work that they're doing
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so if you want my specked up test model
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alongside the keyboard and stylus you'll
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be paying
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18.79 that's a lot of money for these
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specs guys and well i don't have major
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problems with surface pro 8 that price
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tag does limit who's gonna be able to
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buy this sure it's got one of the most
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powerful processors you can find in an
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ultra portable device and it crams it
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into a beautiful chassis that's
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unbelievably thin and light but most
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people will be able to find just as much
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power and better battery life for
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several hundred dollars cheaper in a
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macbook pro or a dell xps 13. again that
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doesn't make a pro 8 a bad device but
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the people it's going to be the best
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device for are going to be the people
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who are willing to pay a premium
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specifically for the surface pro form
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factor that is something as thin and
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light as a tablet but with the power of
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a full-size computer so in the past that
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kind of device hasn't really existed
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using a windows tablet this portable
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meant compromising on performance but
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this year you're not sacrificing that
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performance you're just sacrificing some
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extra cash hey guys if you enjoyed this
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review make sure you go to theverge.com
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where we also have reviews of the
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surface laptop studio and the surface go
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3 and also make sure you like and
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