

Note that the Type Cover keyboard will cost an additional $130 even though we’d consider it an essential accessory. You’ll pay up to $1,599 for the highest-end Core i7 version. The SP4 Microsoft gave us to test carries an Intel Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, a $1,299 tablet (though you can get it on Amazon for $1199). The Surface Pro 3 offered an $800 Core i3 starter option, but the Core m-based Surface Pro 4 starts at $899. Microsoft also re-engineered the Surface Pro 4 to distribute heat throughout the top portion of the rear panel, eliminating hot spots and allowing the optional Core i5 and Core i7 chips inside to run at full speed-something the SP3 couldn’t do.Īnd, of course, there’s the price. The Surface Pro 3 (left) and the new Microsoft Surface Pro 4. This time around, what sells the Surface Pro 4 is on the inside: a sixth-generation Intel Skylake processor that kicks up 3D performance by as much as 81 percent. (The additional pixels, though, were just enough that I had to bump up the text size to 175 percent, rather than the default suggestion of 150 percent.) Likewise, Microsoft gave the keys on the new Type Cover keyboard a bit more breathing room compared to the tight clump on the SP3’s Type Cover.

Look closer, and you’ll Microsoft trimmed the bezel and bumped up the display size from 12 inches and 2160×1440 pixels on the Surface Pro 3, to 12.3 inches and 2736×1824 pixels on the SP4’s display.
