Getting to know the new Surface Pro seven is like hanging out with an old friend.
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Every year around this time Microsoft announces a slew of new computing products.
And at least one or two of them ended up being some of my favorites and I use them for months and months, usually at least until the end of the year.
Now in 2019, we have the Surface Pro seven, the latest version of this.
Laptop tablet hybrid, they really got it down to a science so much so that the changes year to year are really pretty minimal at this point.
For this version, we've gone from 9th generation Intel processors to 10th generation Intel processor.
So they should be a little bit faster for most everyday computing task you're not likely to notice Possibly more consequential, is we finally have on the side of these, a USBC port just one or two years after everybody else.
But it is a pretty universally useful thing to add.
People tend to feel very conflicted about the USBC port.
Some people love them because they're very universal.
You can use it for power, and for accessories, and for video.
Other people really missed the old USB ports because otherwise they're going to have to carry around all loaded dongles or old USB sticks are not going to fit in or just throw them in the garbage.
So Microsoft has done something smart here, they've got USB C and USB A on here, do you have the best of both worlds at least for now in the future.
Who knows whether the A will stick around, this disappearing from all kinds of products.
But this is a good in-between compromise, so I think everyone would be at least reasonably happy with.
So what I'm trying to say here, is that if you have let's say the surface pro 6 from last year, there's really no compelling reason to upgrade, it's not that much different.
But because this is pretty much the best [UNKNOWN] example Of someone taking a tablet, putting Windows on it, and having a keyboard attachment makes it feel a lot like a laptop.
And if you're going to get into that laptop tablet hybrid space, this is pretty much where you wanna go on the Windows side.
On the other side, there's a little bit of sleight of hand that goes on here with the price.
The Surface Pro 7 starts at 749.
Sounds very attractive Now keep in mind, that's for a version with a Core i3 processor and just 4GB of RAM which is not very much at all, 128GB of storage.
Now, if I were buying one I would upgrade to at least the next model, which has a Core i5 and 8GB of RAM which would make windows much comfortable, make the machine, you know, feel much more modern.
So that's $899, still pretty reasonable.
Here's where the catch comes in, every time I have ever seen a Surface Pro in a commercial, in a TV or movie placement and they get these things in a lot of TV and movies, it's always the tablet with the keyboard and usually with the pen.
But here's the thing you go buy your Surface Pro 7 you open up the box and inside It's just the tablet.
You gotta go out and buy the type covered keyboard separately and you gotta but the surface pen separately.
They do not come packaged in the box even though they're always shown together and frankly in order to be a thoroughly useful device You really need to have them especially the keyboard.
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Windows 10 is really not a tablet operating system so they're just have a standalone slate.
It is not as useful as having this keyboard which clips on magnetically and also forms a protective cover when you have it closed.
Very lightweight.
It's really the best example of a clip on keyboard especially for a Windows two in one that I've seen and continues to be Really the coolest thing about the surface pro lie which makes it an extra shame that you have to buy it separately and it's $160 now the surface pan that's $99 still a lot and when you put a boat together while that takes your 899 core I five surface pro and gets it past 1150 and once you get up to that price range.
Your world of choices really greatly expands what your past $ 1100 or so.
And whether it's a laptop, or a tablet or hybrid or two in one, you really have a lot more choices.
So psychologically, you may think this is an inexpensive device to start with.
But once you add in all the stuff that frankly you really need, it becomes much more of a high end laptop experience.
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Long story short, the Microsoft Surface Pro is really so much more useful with these accessories.
They really ought to be included in the box.
They're not dude, so it's a little bit of pricing theater.
Now there's one other wild card in here and that is the Surface Pro X which is not out yet.
And it's a version of this, little bit more compact, and it runs an ARM chip, Microsoft's custom version of the same kind of chip that's in a lot of smartphones.
It also has a stylus that actually tucks into a neat little pocket here.
You still have to buy all that stuff separately, but they claim it's going to have really long battery life I can say it's definitely not going to be as powerful processor wise as this guy.>> But if you want something that has that always on LTE connectivity and runs for a long time and a little more compact and frankly is just a little different and fresher looking,it certainly could be worth waiting and looking at that the Surface Pro X.
But until then, really the best example still of taking a Windows computer, and breaking into a tablet, and a 2-in-1, and a laptop, all-in-one package is this guy right here, the Surface Pro 7.
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