To me, the Surface Pro seems like a proof of concept. Can a very powerful Windows laptop be turned into a tablet? Turns out it can. Now, it's all very well me saying, 'I can't see the point of this for most people, why wouldn't you just buy a proper laptop or a proper tablet?

Superb screen; Good battery life; Undeniably versatile

Expensive at higher specs; Keyboard costs extra and is poor; Stylus costs extra again; although it is; admittedly; excellent

The new iteration of the Microsoft Surface Pro is a performance-oriented laptop replacement that impresses with close to 14 hours of battery life, a brilliant higher-than-full-HD screen, top-notch benchmark results, and excellent build quality.

Powerful Core i7 processor with Iris Plus graphics; Improved battery life, kickstand, keyboard cover, and Pen; Higher-than-full-HD screen resolution

Pricey; Type Cover and Pen sold separately; Lacks USB-C and Thunderbolt 3

The guts of a laptop packed into a tablet.

This is the best hybrid you can buy

It is still not a laptop

When Microsoft released the original Surface products –the first-gen Surface Pro and Surface RT–, we all asked: ‘' Did Microsoft have to make a Tablet?'' Now with the latest Surface, everyone is asking: ‘'Did Microsoft have to do it again?'' At first, we didn't understand…

Newer seventh-generation processors; Better, prolonged battery life (13 hours); Intuitive Surface Pen and Type Cover; Versatile motion on kickstand

Lacks USB-C or Thunderbolt 3; Type Cover and Pen Sold separately

We explain what's new in the 2017 Surface Pro and how it compares to the Surface Pro 4

A tough question. It's neither a straightforward tablet, nor a tablet/laptop hybrid. It's more ambitious. The Surface Pro is nothing less than an attempt to create the perfect PC for the ‘Post PC' era. It's a tablet you can use at home on the sofa.

Outstanding screen; Innovative design; Windows 8 at its best; Comes with Wacom digitser pen

Heat and noise; No digitiser pen storage; Woeful battery life; Shallow app store