You’re also getting around 96% sRGB coverage and 450 nits of brightness, which is impressive but overshadowed by other, similarly priced rivals on the market like the 2020 iPad Pro 12.9-inch which rocks a 120% sRGB colour gamut and 550 nits. You’re getting 267 pixel-per-inch (PPI), which actually works out to be the same as the Surface Pro 7 due to the differences in display size vs resolution, so while the actual screen is bigger, you’re not getting a clearer image. It still lacks the modern styling we see in other tablet devices, especially as those bezels, while slimmer, are still notable thicker than competitor products like the iPad Pro range, but it no longer looks like an outdated device thanks to the screen design.

The 13-inch display has a 2880x1920 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio that manages to look a little fresher than other Surface devices on the market thanks to slimming down the previously chunky bezels seen on the Surface Pro 7. This means the most that the minimum you’d have to spend to get the ‘full Surface Pro X experience’ is £1,178 unless you can pick some things up in an annual sale or clearance. Additions like the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard will cost you $180/£160, and the Surface Slim Pen 2 costs $130/£120, though you can often find the two accessories bundled together for around $269/£259. The kicker of course is that many of the benefits of the Surface Pro X are not included in that already heft price tag, as this is the asking price for the tablet only. The price is far from cheap, but this is in line with pricing for similar hardware from the current generation of iPad Pro tablets powered by Apple’s own Silicon, the M1 chip.

We would suggest opting for the top spec model, which has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage for $1,499.99/£1,509.

If you're just wanting to use it for light work such as emails, surfing the web and streaming content then that'll serve you just fine, though you'll need some additional beef to run the small number of creative applications available. You can pick up the Surface Pro X for around $799/£919, though this will only net you 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD.

Microsoft surface pro x sq1