We've used the Surface Pro series since the third generation, and there's no doubt this Surface Pro is the best one yet. It has good performance and great battery life and, because it's both a tablet and a laptop, it's a very versatile machine.

A tough question. It's neither a straightforward tablet, nor a tablet/laptop hybrid. It's more ambitious. The Surface Pro is nothing less than an attempt to create the perfect PC for the ‘Post PC' era. It's a tablet you can use at home on the sofa.

Outstanding screen; Innovative design; Windows 8 at its best; Comes with Wacom digitser pen

Heat and noise; No digitiser pen storage; Woeful battery life; Shallow app store

To me, the Surface Pro seems like a proof of concept. Can a very powerful Windows laptop be turned into a tablet? Turns out it can. Now, it's all very well me saying, 'I can't see the point of this for most people, why wouldn't you just buy a proper laptop or a proper tablet?

Superb screen; Good battery life; Undeniably versatile

Expensive at higher specs; Keyboard costs extra and is poor; Stylus costs extra again; although it is; admittedly; excellent

Say hello to the Microsoft Surface 5. Ok, ok, so it's "the new Microsoft Surface Pro", rather than adopting the generational number format in its name. And that's quite possibly because this fifth-generation model looks suspiciously like its predecessor.

Refined design is its best yet; new keyboard (sold separately) makes for best typing experience yet; great screen resolution and brightness; plenty of power available - but fanless Core i5 is probably your best bet

Battery life still isn't great (not in the Core i7 model anyway - fanless Core i5 ought to be better in this regard); keyboard not included; can get mighty expensive - to the point a laptop might make more sense

The most noticeable difference between the old Surface Pro 4 and the new Surface Pro 2017 is the latter's improved battery life: more than 12 instead of 7 hours in our Wi-Fi test. No other contestant was able to get even close.

solid; classy design; noiseless; very good battery life (12 - 17 hours; decent camera with support for Windows Hello; very good microphone; bright display with good sRGB coverage; charges in 2 hours; very good performance in short bursts <2 minutes

significant throttling in sustained load scenarios; no USB Type-C; Signature Type Cover (2017) optional; Surface Pen (2017) optional; high price

Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) review: After a hiatus of almost two years Microsoft is returning to the form factor that originally defined the Surface line with a 2017 rendition of the Surface Pro.

Excellent software compatibility; Powerful hardware; Stunning screen; Versatile design

There's one word you will rarely hear from Microsoft when it talks about the new Surface Pro: "tablet". Yes, if you take off the Type Cover (or just don't buy it), the Surface Pro looks and feels very much like a tablet. But Microsoft doesn't want you to think of it like that.

After first windows update, the facial recognition function of the camera no longer working. Wasted a few days tried all the resolutions available online, no luck. It seems to be a known issue for a few years for the Intel image front camera. No definitive solution to it.

I really like the feel of the Surface Pro.

The new iteration of the Microsoft Surface Pro is a performance-oriented laptop replacement that impresses with close to 14 hours of battery life, a brilliant higher-than-full-HD screen, top-notch benchmark results, and excellent build quality.

Powerful Core i7 processor with Iris Plus graphics; Improved battery life, kickstand, keyboard cover, and Pen; Higher-than-full-HD screen resolution

Pricey; Type Cover and Pen sold separately; Lacks USB-C and Thunderbolt 3