The only downside is that battery life takes a hit. Scrolling through web pages and emails feel more responsive and your cursor now floats around the screen more fluidly.

It now goes up to 120Hz which makes a huge difference because everything just looks smoother. The other big improvement to the display is the refresh rate. By all accounts, this is a nice display but it's not quite a match for the OLED displays you find on new ultraportables like the HP Spectre x360 14 and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon, which look more vivid and life-like. There’s also an Adaptive Colour feature that automatically adjusts the colour profile depending on your environment. The colours look fantastic, as you’d expect. Resolution is now up to 2880 x 1920 pixels so the pixel density is unchanged at 267 pixels per inch. Fortunately, the 3:2 aspect ratio remains which is something longtime Surface Pro owners love. The screen is now a PixelSense Flow display that's 13 inches large (up from 12.3 inches).

Overall, it looks more contemporary and I’m confident most readers will like it. The body also has more rounded edges that make it look less blocky. The top and bottom bezels are still quite large but they are necessary as they give users something to hold on to when the device is detached and used as a tablet. The Surface Pro 8 features a larger display with slimmer bezels on the sides. The big change is obviously the design, which closely resembles the Surface Pro X.

Why Microsoft has to take this long to release products locally will forever remain a mystery, but better late than never right? It might have taken a while but the Surface Pro 8 is finally available here. Guess what, that’s exactly what Microsoft has given us. What people really wanted was a new x86-based Surface Pro that had the looks of the Surface Pro X. But that was a completely different kind of device that ran an Arm processor which limited its capabilites. Sure, they dropped the Surface Pro X in 2019 which had a sleek new design. However, Microsoft has been curiously tardy with the last four generations since the design hasn’t really changed. There’s no question that Microsoft’s Surface Pro is the premier detachable notebook. Note: This review was first published on 22 February 2022.

Surface 8 specs