Our Take on the New Surface 5… I Mean New Surface Pro

Many people are already asking whats with the new surface pro?  Is it worth an upgrade?  Well after a quick review of what the new surface can do we came up with a short list of items that we thought brought the most value to the New Surface Pro.

Our Top 3 reasons we would consider an upgrade from a Surface Pro 3 or Surface Pro 4

  1. Connectivity – With the arrival of the New Surface Pro Microsoft is finally adding the option for integrated 4G LTE.  This has been long overdue for a business tool such as the surface.  We all want to compute on the go and now we can much more easily.
  2. Battery Life – Microsoft claims that the New Surface Pro will last up to 13.5 hours on a single charge. This compares to nine hours with the Surface Pro 4 which is a significant improvement.  This claim is based on figures that refer to video playback so I’m hopefully optimistic that it translates to similar increases overall.
  3. Size Matters – Surface Pro is both lighter and quieter. There’s no longer a fan inside the m3 and i5 models, thus reducing the weight of the i5 version from 1.73 lbs to 1.7 lbs.  And if you’re upgrading from the Surface Pro 3 you go from 1.76 to 1.7 and get a larger display to boot.

Interesting and notable mentions: Though price is similar to the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft’s actually charging more because the Surface Pen ($99) is no longer included.

Our Opinion: The New Surface Pro is likely a practical and worthwhile update for Surface 3 Owners.  Surface Pro 4 owners are unlikely to be motivated to upgrade unless battery life and 4G connectivity are essential or important deciding factors.