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

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

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

The Surface Pro lineup has always been one of the most powerful tablet class devices around. Microsoft is no longer marketing it as a tablet that can replace your laptop anymore though, and they've acknowledged that most of the customers who buy and use the Surface Pro are looking for an...

It's been a week with the new Pro - Microsoft's part-tablet/part-laptop hybrid machine - and I already find myself looking longingly at the . It's not that the isn't a good and capable machine (it is), it's just that, well, the Laptop is much better for my needs - and, I'm sure, the needs of most...

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

We've used the Surface Pro series since the third generation, and there's no doubt this Surface Pro is the best one yet. It has good performance and great battery life and, because it's both a tablet and a laptop, it's a very versatile machine.

Say hello to the Microsoft Surface 5. Ok, ok, so it's "the new Microsoft Surface Pro", rather than adopting the generational number format in its name. And that's quite possibly because this fifth-generation model looks suspiciously like its predecessor.

Refined design is its best yet; new keyboard (sold separately) makes for best typing experience yet; great screen resolution and brightness; plenty of power available - but fanless Core i5 is probably your best bet

Battery life still isn't great (not in the Core i7 model anyway - fanless Core i5 ought to be better in this regard); keyboard not included; can get mighty expensive - to the point a laptop might make more sense