Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus review| Tom's Guide
Our Verdict
The Surface Pro 7 Plus sports a vibrant display, amazing speakers and two sharp webcams, but the bombardment life could be better and it could use some more than ports.
For
- Customizable
- Precipitous webcams
- Replaceable SSD
- Vibrant display
- Amazing speakers
Against
- Battery life could be meliorate
- Thick bezels
- Limited ports
- Surface Pro Type Cover sold separately
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Surface Pro seven Plus sports a vibrant display, amazing speakers and two sharp webcams, merely the battery life could be better and it could use some more ports.
Pros
- +
Customizable
- +
Abrupt webcams
- +
Replaceable SSD
- +
Vibrant display
- +
Amazing speakers
Cons
- -
Battery life could be better
- -
Thick bezels
- -
Limited ports
- -
Surface Pro Blazon Cover sold separately
The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus is a super-portable detachable that'due south easy to utilize while traveling, whether it be for business organization or pleasure.
The 2-in-1 tablet offers a number of configurations for about budgets, and for $1,649 you can become 1 configured like our review unit, which offers smashing webcams, a vibrant 12.3-inch display and astonishing speakers. To height it off, this Plus version of the Surface Pro seven tablet lets you lot replace or upgrade your SSD practically at the push of a push.
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Yet, with highs come some lows. The battery life on the Surface Pro vii Plus could be better, and I really wish the bezels were slimmer to give the screen a bigger picture. Along with that, information technology has a limited number of ports. Only what bugs me the about is that the Surface Pro Type Cover, which includes a physical keyboard, is sold separately from the tablet for an additional price.
The Surface Pro 7 Plus isn't quite good enough to brand our best laptop list. But if you're willing to put down the money, the Surface Pro 7 Plus is a smashing 2-in-ane detachable.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Cost and configuration
- Predominantly sold via third-party retailers
- Expect to pay between $i,600 and upward, depending on configuration
The Surface Pro 7 Plus we tested comes with an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, a 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824-pixel touchscreen display and 4G LTE connectivity. With the LTE selection, this particular model costs $1,649 on Microsoft's website.
However, if you want a non- Plus version of the Surface Pro seven ii-in-1, information technology'south available from retailers like Best Buy at prices starting around $899. With the non-Plus version you won't exist able to go LTE, the power to remove the SSD or the improved thermals added to the Plus version of the Pro 7 tablet.
Microsoft also has a load of dissimilar customization options for the Surface Pro 7 Plus. There are two choices of colors, including Platinum and Matte Black. Matte Black does have fewer options for the specs though, so beware.
The base model for the Surface Pro seven Plus comes only in Platinum, and starts at $899. This particular one comes with an Intel Cadre i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD and can but work through Wi-Fi connectivity. Meanwhile, the more expensive option is again only offered in Platinum, and comes with an Intel Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and again can only role through Wi-Fi connectivity. That version costs a whopping $2,799.
The Surface Pro seven Plus also comes with a load of different accessories, which includes the Surface Pen for $99, the Surface Headphone 2 for $249, the Surface Arc Mouse (which starts at $59 and goes upwards to $79), and finally, the Surface Pro Type Comprehend for $159. Each also has a variety of color options.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Blueprint
- Easy to carry thanks to lightweight blueprint
- Replaceable SSD is a dainty touch on for the Plus
- Thick bezels don't look great
The Surface Pro seven Plus offers a lightweight pattern, making it easy to carry around during daily travel.
The model I reviewed has a platinum-painted magnesium alloy chassis absolute with a silver sleeky Microsoft logo in the lesser-center. The logo sits on a kickstand, which tin be lifted through the two indentations on either side of the tablet. The summit-middle of the chassis also holds room for a small webcam.
By lifting the kickstand, you'll unlock two secrets inside the Surface Pro 7 Plus. This'll give y'all access to the SSD slot, which you'll open only when you upgrade or replace your SSD, and the SIM card slot, which you lot'll use to get 4G LTE upwardly and running. To access these, you'll need to utilise the SIM tool that comes included with the tablet.
Each side of the tablet has some sort of useful little mechanism, whether information technology be a port, push button or connector. When you have the tablet horizontal, the top has the power button and the volume buttons. The bottom has a connector for the Surface Pro Type Cover, which, as you tin can guess from the title, serves as a keyboard and a cover. As previously mentioned, the simply frustrating thing about this is the additional toll.
While the display itself looks squeamish, the thick bezels around it do not compliment it whatsoever. There'south also a discreet fiddling webcam located on the top (when the tablet is horizontal), equally well as 1 located on the backside in the aforementioned spot.
The Surface Pro 7 Plus weighs a pleasant 1.8 pounds, and comes in at 11.five ten 7.9 10 0.3 inches. Though information technology has similar dimensions, the Surface Pro 7 Plus is much lighter than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-ane (11.six x 7.8 10 0.6 inches, 2.9 pounds). However, the 12.nine-inch iPad Pro 2021 (11.04 x 8.46 10 0.25 inches, 1.51 pounds) is slightly thinner and lighter than both.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Ports
- Few ports
- At to the lowest degree you get USB-C and USB-A
The Surface Pro vii Plus doesn't have too many different ports, simply I'g grateful it has a USB Type-A port and a headphone jack at the very least.
When horizontal, the right side of the tablet has a USB Blazon-C port, a USB three.0 Type-A port and a magnetic Surface Connect port for charging. Meanwhile, the left side only has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Under the kickstand and located correct next to the SD card door, there is a SIM menu slot for 4G LTE connectivity. The tablet comes with a SIM tool in the packaging to help you access both. The underside besides has a magnetic connection located in the middle for the keyboard.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Brandish
- Great movie quality with vibrant colors
- Could be brighter
I honey the Surface Pro seven Plus'south 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824-pixel display despite its unusual number of pixels — but hey, if it'south good, it doesn't thing.
While watching the trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy, the pic was astonishingly clear, with every detail popping on screen. A great case of this is when LeBron James is in the lift with his son — the close up shot on his face was and so crisp I could come across the curly strands of hair in his beard, the furrows in his forehead and even the pores on his nose. The color doesn't disappoint either. When James was traveling through the server-verse, the imperial, orange and blue hues of the different worlds exploded against the background like confetti.
According to our colorimeter, the Surface Pro 7 Plus scored 106% on the sRGB color gamut, which is slightly amend than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-i (99%), merely both aren't every bit expert as the iPad Pro (114.nine%).
However, our tests as well determined that the Surface Pro 7 Plus didn't accept the brightest display, with it just reaching 358 nits of effulgence. That is relatively bright compared to nigh laptops, but it'due south much dimmer than the Dell XPS thirteen two-in-1 (488 nits), and much lower than the incredible brightness (ane,251 nits) of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro'southward mini-LED display.
Microsoft Surface Pro seven Plus: Surface Pro Type Cover
- Optional keyboard is serviceable but shallow
- Touchpad is silky polish
Having the Surface Pro Blazon Encompass as an addition for the keyboard is quite handy, merely it's a scrap of a nuisance that it doesn't come included when buying the Surface Pro vii Plus. Rather, you lot're paying an boosted $159 for it. Just no worries if you can't buy it correct away — the tablet offers a keyboard in the touchscreen, which besides allows for a slide-to-type characteristic for like shooting fish in a barrel use.
The Surface Pro Blazon Cover is pretty easy to hook up thank you to the magnetics doing most of the work. Since it'southward pretty thin, and also used as a comprehend, the keys are thin and shallow. Notwithstanding, the keyboard itself is a decent size, as the keys are bulky and characteristic a neat white font. You won't become fancy backlighting on this two-in-1, but the keys do produce a overnice clicking sound. In a typing exam on 10fastfingers.com I scored 27 words per infinitesimal, which is way off my usual 53-wpm boilerplate.
While the Surface Pro Type Cover is better than typing on a screen, it's not a skillful keyboard. The palm rests were then pocket-sized that I couldn't get comfortable while typing. It doesn't help that the touchpad is modest, too. However, the touchpad was silky smoothen and synced nicely to my touch and scrolls. It also does feature Windows x gestures like three-finger tabbing.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Sound
- Unobtrusive speakers
- Smashing sound
The location of Surface Pro 7 Plus's speakers are basically unnoticeable, merely don't exist fooled, they're there. Located on the upper left and right sides hidden in the bezels are 2 speakers which produced an astonishing sound.
While listening to a embrace of "Creep" by Mxmtoon, the speakers were able to handle the loftier pitched-echo like tune in the intro nicely. As the bass began, there was no noticeable overlapping or muffled sounds. Maia'southward voice was angelic, with the speakers picking upwards the mixture of each tone of her vocals beautifully.
Microsoft Surface Pro seven Plus: Performance
- Decent performance on everyday tasks
- Not great at video work
The Surface Pro 7 Plus that I reviewed came with an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor and 16GB of RAM. I was able to open around 20 tabs, with two tabs playing 1080p YouTube videos, earlier it started to show slight signs of slowdown.
On the Geekbench 5 overall performance test, the Surface Pro 7 Plus scored 4,825, which is a trivial lower than I hoped for but is still upwardly to par. Past comparison, the Dell XPS 13 ii-in-1'due south Intel Cadre i7-1165G7 scored v,639, beating the Surface Pro, while the M1-powered 2021 iPad Pro blew them both out of the water with a score of 7,298.
On the HandBrake test, the Surface Pro 7 Plus was able to transcode a 4K video to 1080p in 23 minutes and 41 seconds, which is immensely slow compared to the competition. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 was able to do the same task in 15 minutes and 52 seconds.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Graphics
- Undemanding games run reasonably well
- Don't expect to play the latest and greatest
The Surface Pro seven Plus comes packed with an Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip, which isn't the nigh reliable when playing a game at high frame rates, simply information technology will get you lot decent frames for games at lower graphics settings.
On the 3DMark Burn Strike Test, the Surface Pro seven Plus scored 3,215, which is slightly less than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, which scored 3,847.
While running Sid Meier's Civilization Vi: Gathering Storm (Medium, 1080p), the Surface Pro 7 Plus was able to run at fifteen frames per second, which again, isn't equally good as the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, which ran at 21 fps.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Bombardment life
- Battery lasted nether 9 hours of continuous employ
Co-ordinate to Microsoft, the Surface Pro seven Plus could final anywhere from 13.5 hours to xv hours. However, that's non nearly the amount nosotros got during our test. While continuously surfing the web over WiFi at 150 nits of effulgence, the tablet endured for only 8 hours and 49 minutes.
This tin't compare to the Dell XPS xiii 2-in-1 (10:52) or the iPad Pro (10:48), which both lasted two hours longer than the Surface Pro 7 Plus.
Microsoft Surface Pro vii Plus: Webcam
- Bully photographic camera on front
- Rear camera delivers even meliorate quality
This five-megapixel front end-facing camera is good, near too good. The Surface Pro seven Plus didn't waste whatsoever try with this camera, and for a concern/educational laptop, I appreciate this. COVID-19 aside, who isn't using a webcam for meetings and classes?
When I snapped a picture of my face, there were little-to-no flaws presented by the capture itself, besides a small hint of haziness along my hairline. The color was astonishing, showcasing very vivid hues in my confront, eyes and hair. I love when the pictures are capable of picking upwards the dark-green tint in my eyes, which is my all-time feature.
The rear-facing camera is even better, with it beingness an eight megapixel camera. I had my fiance be my model to test information technology, and over again there was little-to-no problems with the picture, too a slight haziness along his brow, merely the photographic camera picked upwards his pilus strands nicely, with it being much sharper compared to the front-facing photographic camera.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Software
- Petty bloatware
- Neat Surface-specific apps
It's always lovely when your screen isn't covered in unwanted bloatware and apps, and that's what this tablet gives yous. The Surface Pro 7 Plus runs on Windows 10 Pro and comes with a few apps that aren't typically there. This includes Microsoft Whiteboard, which allows you to be able to draw with other people.
Along with that comes an app chosen Surface, which allows you to go back up for different issues yous may be experiencing, or customize some of your tablets settings, which includes the settings in the keyboard and pen, among other things. This app pairs nicely with the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit, which will assistance you in determining if your Surface is running up to par.
Some other apps you tin can observe on the Surface Pro 7 Plus are Skype and Skype business, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Xbox app with the Xbox Game Bar, Office Suite and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Plus: Verdict
- Great webcams, speakers, and display
- Underwhelming performance and bombardment life
- Having to pay actress for the Blazon Encompass is frustrating
The Surface Pro 7 Plus is a solid ii-in-1 detachable that offers a number of configurations. The webcams and speakers are both fantastic and will definitely up your meeting game to a whole new level. The display is also pretty great, making watching your favorite shows on any streaming service enjoyable during your down time. You can even easily swap out the SSD if yous desire something bigger or if you lot need it replaced.
Nonetheless, the battery life could be better, and I wish the bezels were a tad bit smaller and there were a few more options for ports. The fact that the Surface Pro Blazon Encompass is sold separately is also frustrating.
If the strengths of this 2-in-1 don't involvement you lot, bank check out the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021, which offers longer battery life, a meliorate screen and better functioning than the Surface Pro 7 Plus.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/microsoft-surface-pro-7-plus-review
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