Microsoft hasn't let its business-customer base lie fallow with the Surface Pro Windows tablet line, and this year’s model enriches that soil. This year’s refresh of the Surface Pro for Business has a higher starting price than the previous generation (rising from $1,700 to $1,949.99). It's a fordmidable $2,799.99 in our test configuration, but features like optional 5G connectivity keep it a first-tier business-tablet contender.

Fresh Intel "Panther Lake" processors are the main new draw here; the Surface Pro is otherwise unchanged year-on-year. (To remind shoppers: The Surface Pro for Business is Microsoft's showcase for x86, Intel-based hardware; the ordinary, non-"for Business" Surface Pros now feature Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips, running Windows on Arm.) Still, despite the lack of major changes, Microsoft has maintained the Surface Pro's top-tier quality amid scarce competition in business-class 2-in-1 detachables. This latest model's pricing (both for the tablet alone, and for its accessories) keeps it from an Editors' Choice victory lap, but it remains a worthy Windows tablet for highly mobile executives, especially those who need the 5G functionality.

Configurations: Security Comes at a Price

If you’re an Individual contractor or the owner of a super-small business, you might balk at Microsoft’s Surface Pro pricing, especially since those prices are before tacking on the cost of its accessories. The Surface Pro for Business starts at $1,949.99, in a base configuration that includes an eight-core Intel Core Ultra 5 335 processor, 16GB of LPDDR5x memory, and a removable PCI Express Gen 4 256GB solid-state drive. Naturally, this system includes Microsoft's basic screen option, a 2,280-by-1,920-pixel LCD touch screen with a 120Hz peak refresh rate. 

The $2,799.99 unit I’ve tested for this review doubles the RAM capacity (to 32GB), adds a 5G radio, and keeps everything else the same. That's quite a steep price, even if you were to cut it by half, for the component mix served up here.

(Credit: John Burek)

The most tricked-out Surface Pro comes with a 16-core Intel Core Ultra 7 366H chip inside, paired with 64GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD (as well as the 5G radio). This model costs a jaw-dropping $4,699.99. The amount of sheer laptop power you could find for that price, regardless of form factor, can't be overstated.

Clearly, those prices are astronomical for a tablet without accessories and a midrange processor. However, just like any PC vendor, Microsoft has exclusive business-to-business sales channels for organizations buying in bulk and therefore serves them with discounted prices. Still, this is expensive computing hardware, no matter how you slice it.

(Credit: John Burek)

What about the Surface for Business line justifies these prices? Namely, it’s potent Intel processing paired with additional secure silicon designed by Microsoft. The Surface Pro is a Windows 11 Secured-core PC, an initiative from Microsoft that embeds deeper security measures into the system at the hardware and BIOS levels. These measures include a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip and a Microsoft Pluton security processor on the logic board alongside the CPU. Secured-core PCs are suitable for data-sensitive fields such as finance, healthcare, and government work.

That kind of additional hardware and security tuning requires not only extra parts but also extra development and top-level manufacturing. While this doesn’t necessarily justify a $400 keyboard cover, it does help explain the Surface for Business line’s steeper pricing versus Microsoft's consumer-grade Surface models. 

Design: Maintaining a Well-Oiled Machine

The Surface Pro design hasn’t changed much in the past few revisions, largely because Microsoft doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent the Surface wheel with every iteration. Just as an iPad changes little from year to year, the Surface Pro maintains what works.

With that, the 13-inch Pro for 2026 measures 0.37 by 11.3 by 8.2 inches (HWD) and weighs just 2 pounds with a 5G radio inside—slightly less without one. These figures represent the tablet without Microsoft's optional Flex Keyboard, which adds a noticeable but modest amount of weight and thickness. Compared with traditional clamshells and convertible 2-in-1 laptops, this is about as portable as it gets for a work machine.

(Credit: John Burek)

A familiar round-edged, brushed silver aluminum frame wraps the tablet; ditto for the sturdy aluminum kickstand flap, with a well-engineered hinge for comfort and stability. Microsoft’s standard-setting Windows tablet still serves as the benchmark in 2-in-1 design that it set out to be 13 years ago.

All that retreading and legacy maintenance mean Microsoft didn't forget about a key design revision aimed squarely at mobile professionals: the user-removable, serviceable solid-state drive.

(Credit: John Burek)

You’ll find this SSD hiding under the kickstand, beneath a magnetic aluminum flap that you remove like a soda-can tab (albeit with much less force). It’s not a standard M.2 Type-2280 drive, however, but an NVMe Type-2230 module that’s closer to square (at 30mm long) than the long, rectangular 80mm ones.

You—preferably if you’re a fleet manager, since this is the boot drive—can easily remove the M.2 drive with a small Torx-head screwdriver for repairs or upgrades. This feature is not a system seller, but user-repairable anything in a 2-in-1 tablet is exceedingly rare. It’s also a sign of more repairable, user-accessible parts to come from Microsoft, which Andrew Hill, Microsoft's Surface Product CVP, confirmed for me recently.

(Credit: Joe Osborne)

“[That’s] 1,000,000% the philosophy and it is where the world is headed, both from an ecological perspective, an economic perspective, and a customer demand perspective,” Hill said. “It is 100% where the world is headed, and we want to lead there.”

Does a future exist where Surface Pro tablets have accessible SO-DIMM slots or modular ports, for instance? That’s an exciting prospect for many reasons. For now, Microsoft COO Nancie Gaskill wrote in a blog post that “nearly every major device component” in its Surface for Business lineup “is replaceable,” and the company provides a dedicated supply chain for repair technicians to source from.

(Credit: John Burek)

The Surface Pro is at a comfortable phase of its life, having long ago set the benchmark for Microsoft’s PC vendor partners, and now with the space to make small but impactful changes to its own designs. It’s like Microsoft hit a no-doubter a while ago, and it's still on its lap around the bases.

Display and Cameras: Sharp, Speedy, and Splashy

Microsoft’s tried-and-true 2.8K OLED PixelSense touch screen returns here, still refreshing at up to 120Hz and ready for high-contrast HDR content. It’s still an optional upgrade that costs $300 extra (at least under single-unit pricing), and for certain applications, it’s well worth it. This screen is an absolutely gorgeous implementation of Microsoft’s PixelSense development, and it doesn’t need much improvement.

(Credit: John Burek)

Base models, like my review unit, come with an anti-reflective 2.8K LCD PixelSense panel instead, which still refreshes at up to 120Hz and supports HDR content. Likely thanks to its adaptive color feature, which adjusts color temperature based on ambient light, and its broad sRGB gamut coverage, I had to confirm whether my non-OLED sample was actually an OLED in disguise.

Microsoft gives you decent control over the refresh rate and HDR, too, allowing you to toggle HDR on or off and adjust the refresh rate among 60Hz, 120Hz, and variable 24Hz-to-120Hz settings.

(Credit: John Burek)

The biggest difference between the Surface Pro's two panel options is the color depth and contrast ratio that OLED unlocks versus traditional LED-backlit LCDs. You won’t suffer a markedly worse experience with the LCD version of the screen, but you’ll want OLED if you carry out color-critical work.

Regardless of panel type, I appreciate the 3:2 screen’s rounded corners, which make it feel more inviting to grip than right angles. The 120Hz refresh rate is also one of those features that makes returning to an inferior screen feel extra deflating.

(Credit: John Burek)

Microsoft fitted a 1440p wide-angle Surface Studio webcam atop the display, within a slightly thicker upper bezel than the side bezels. The webcam doesn’t seem quite as sharp as I’d expect from 1440p. Still, it’s plenty for basic video meetings, and Copilot’s Windows Studio Effects enhance image quality a bit.

(Credit: John Burek)

The rear camera uses a 4K 10-megapixel sensor that looks sharper than the front-facing webcam, but it’s not the highest-fidelity image I’ve seen from a camera of this type. In the business-level edge cases that you’ll use this rear camera for, such as badge or ID scanning and kiosk photography, it should work just fine.

Accessories and Connectivity: High Quality and High Cost

Microsoft’s PixelSense display works just as well as it has for years regarding touch controls, but you’ll want the optional Surface Slim Pen for proper digital drafting. The Slim Pen has also received updates to its haptic motor via Microsoft’s latest Advanced Haptics API for developers in Windows 11.

These enhanced haptics are small potatoes for the Surface Pro compared with the newest Surface Laptop models, but they’re an exciting prospect for the future. The Advanced Haptics API allows developers to implement contextual haptic triggers into their Windows apps. Microsoft has implemented some Windows-wide contextual haptics, too, like a vibration when the Slim Pen hovers over the “X” on an app’s window pane.

(Credit: John Burek)

Not only is this helpful for visually impaired users, but you can imagine what an additional “sense” this feature can introduce to specialized apps, like creation software and drafting tools. The Surface Slim Pen costs $129.99 individually priced.

Microsoft’s (somehow still optional) Flex Keyboard cover will run you a whopping $399.99 by itself or $499.99 bundled with the Slim Pen. (Considering the tablet's starting price alone, these prices are prohibitive for independent contractors and smaller businesses.) The Flex Keyboard, at least, is Microsoft’s best keyboard cover to date, with key travel as deep and key feedback as forceful as you can reasonably expect from such a keyboard.

It’s also a uniformly backlit set of keys, and the cover itself is extremely resistant to flexing, getting impressively close to a clamshell laptop’s level of rigidity. (While the Flex Keyboard will never fully compare, I welcome anyone’s attempt to make a better detachable keyboard.) I do wish, however, that the touchpad were even a little wider—it’s a smooth but small tracking surface.

(Credit: John Burek)

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll keep saying it until the situation improves: These “optional” accessories are essential to the Surface Pro experience, particularly the Flex Keyboard. Without one or both, the Surface Pro is a laptop without a keyboard or a drafting tablet without a pen. Apple’s iPads can get away with this because iPadOS is a tablet-first interface. Windows 11 is a desktop-first interface that can adapt to tablet use with bigger buttons and other minor changes, but it’s not a tablet OS.

(Credit: John Burek)

Designed primarily as a tablet, the Pro lacks ports compared with traditional laptops, but it has more than many 13-inch tablets. The Pro comes with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports on the left and a Surface Connect port on the right. This proprietary port gives the Surface Pro an advantage over competitors like the iPad Pro and its singular USB-C connection. Alas, the headphone jack left the house a long time ago and ain’t coming back, sadly.

Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 come standard on all Surface Pro models, and you can select a 5G radio upgrade for fully independent wireless connectivity. You know, so long as a cellular tower is relatively close by.

Performance Testing: Built for Portability, Not Power

At last, it’s time to see how the Surface Pro’s updated silicon stacks up against rivals in work-ready 2-in-1 laptops and clamshells. I’ve gathered a genuine rogue’s gallery of top-end business machines for Microsoft’s noble tablet to attempt to thwart with its fan-cooled Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor.

First up is the Dell Pro 14 Premium ($2,679.27 as tested), last year’s top-level work laptop from the Texas-based PC maker. Next, I gathered two top-notch Lenovo laptops, the leading business system for a year now in the $1,999.99 ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 and the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 10 ($1,799.99 as tested), an elite 2-in-1 for content creation. Finally, the Surface Pro’s white whale might be the $1,699.99 MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ we’ve tested, our top-class pick for convertible 2-in-1 laptops for work and the current leader in overall battery life. Save for the Dell model, all of these laptops are Editors’ Choice award holders.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. 

Three more tests we rely on are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.

Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators rates a PC's image-editing prowess through a variety of automated operations in the seminal photo editor Adobe Photoshop 25.

With a mid-tier processor aimed more at power savings than raw performance, these results aren’t shocking. The Surface Pro took last place in half of these tests (though at times by tiny margins), and placed in the middle of the pack in the others. These scores suggest decent performance on basic-to-moderate work tasks, including communication and spreadsheet management, which is acceptable for such a device. However, unless you specifically need a tablet-first 2-in-1 for whatever reason, you can find more power for less money from convertible 2-in-1 laptops and basic clamshells.

Graphics Tests

We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. Last up, we turn to 3DMark Solar Bay to measure ray-tracing performance.

Predictably, Microsoft’s Pro tablet came in dead last in four of five of these graphics benchmarks. It’s simply a lower-power Core Ultra Series 3 chip, focused on efficiency rather than peak performance. Its integrated graphics processor (IGP) just doesn’t emphasize maximum pixel-pushing prowess.

In contrast, from the MSI Flip laptop’s showing, you can see how well Intel’s premium Arc B390 IGP (the not-so-secret weapon of Intel's X7 and X9 Core Ultra 300 Panther Lake chips) can push complex visuals versus the more mainstream Intel IGPs in the other systems here. This Surface Pro may not be the computer to grab for next-level digital drafting or GPU-accelerated compute, but its IGP should do fine for presenting slides to clients and coworkers.

Surface Pro vs. iPad Pro: Apple’s Tablet Speeds Ahead, But It Still No Laptop

Following these productivity and graphics results, I looked to our latest iPad Pro testing to see how the new Surface Pro tablet compares. However, we only have two cross-comparable benchmarks for this: Geekbench 6 and 3DMark Wild Life Extreme.

In Geekbench, the 2025 iPad Pro’s M5 chip scored 4,141 points on the single-core test and 15,490 on the multi-core test, trouncing the Surface tablet’s Intel results (2,615 and 10,902, respectively). And, in Wild Life Extreme, the iPad Pro’s M5 GPU nearly lapped the Surface model’s Intel IGP, too—ouch. 

The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299, or $1,499 with a 5G radio inside, though it also does not come with a keyboard or stylus at that price. Still, it’s $650 cheaper than the Surface Pro to start. However, the iPad notably lacks the enhanced security features that Microsoft provides, which might preclude you from considering a (surprisingly) cheaper and more potent iPad Pro from the jump.

Battery Life and Display Tests

We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Microsoft said the Surface Pro would last up to 17 hours of local video playback, and our benchmark confirmed that. It’s not a record-setting figure by any stretch, but kudos to Microsoft for outpacing its own projections by nearly an hour in our benchmark. Know, though, that you’ll see more longevity from convertible 2-in-1 models and traditional laptops with room for larger batteries.

As for display performance, Microsoft makes no outsized claims for its standard LCD touch screen beyond the adaptive color and anti-reflective features built into the panel. With that, the screen showed full sRGB color coverage and better DCI-P3 performance than the OLED-equipped MSI laptop. Also, to its credit, the Surface Pro outshone its competition by a long shot in peak brightness testing—by more than 150 nits in this group.