Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7 builds on pedigree to be the next great 2-in-1

Microsoft debuted the Surface Pro 7 at its big Surface event in New York on Wednesday, showing off the hardware and capabilities of its next generation of convertible laptops. Building upon the legacy of their predecessors, these 2-in-1s will pack fresh hardware and some exciting new features, making them intriguing for new buyers, and an exciting option for people in need of an upgrade.

The Surface line of Microsoft laptops hasn’t always been supremely popular, but in the past few generations, it’s really hit its stride. The Surface Pro has been our favorite 2-in-1 for a few years now, and the Surface Pro 6 did little to change what worked. It didn’t change much from the 2017 Surface Pro either, but it did enough to retain our interest and its status as the best 2-in-1 around. We expected much more with the Surface Pro 7 and Microsoft delivered.

The Surface Pro 7 is quite traditional in its offerings, with the same 12.3-inch display size that we saw on previous generations, as well as the same 3:2 aspect ratio, but resolution has been boosted to 2,736 x 1,824. Microsoft has finally moved it into the modern world with USB-C ports, though. That does mean you’re going to lose the Mini DisplayPort that previous generations enjoyed, but USB-C offers the kind of functionality where that shouldn’t be a problem. It also comes with the latest generation of CPUs for improved performance and efficiency. 

They’re Intel too, so the blue team can breathe a sigh of relief, as Microsoft has turned to Intel competitors Qualcomm and AMD for a number of its other Surface products this year.

Storage runs the gamut from a paltry 128GB to an impressive 1TB, with RAM ranging from 4GB all the way up to 16GB if you need some extra functionality.

A big part of Microsoft’s demonstration of the Surface Pro 7 was showing off the capabilities of the Surface Pen on the new 2-in-1. It can now edit in-line in Microsoft’s Office applications, letting you strike through text on the fly in Word, or edit individual cells in Excel.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is available to pre-order now and starts at $749. It will ship out on October 22.

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