Surface Pro 8 Full Review: The Most Outstanding Update in Years

In this review, we're taking an extensive look at the Surface Pro 8, Surface Slim Pen 2, and the refreshed Surface Pro Signature Keyboards.

This is the longest review that I've ever made to date—even surpassing the length and quality of my now second longest review, which was on the Microsoft Surface Pro X. I'm super late to the party with this review, but I hope someone out there will find it useful regardless.

I'll see you guys soon—in my review of the Surface Pro 9. Stay tuned. 💖

•••

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:59 CPU
• 9:22 Port Placements
• 14:07 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 1)
• 16:13 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 2)
• 20:40 Surface Slim Pen 2
• 25:39 Taking Notes
• 30:42 Drawing
• 34:19 Display
• 36:21 Cameras
• 38:00 Speakers
• 38:56 Gaming
• 45:26 Thermals
• 48:09 Fans
• 48:46 Storage
• 50:05 Battery Life
• 52:38 Charging Information
• 54:07 Final Assessment

•••

Highlights

• 3:08, 7:24 - 9:21 CPU Information
• 9:34 Port Selection
• 14:07 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 1)
• 16:13 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 2)
• 27:28 Palm Rejection
• 34:09 Surface Dial Support
• 36:53 Sample Photos from the Rear Camera
• 43:39 Gaming: Frame Rates w/ iGPU
• 44:11 Gaming: Frame Rates w/ eGPU
• 48:46 Drive Speeds
• 45:26 GeekBench 5 Benchmark (i7 / 16 GB RAM / 1 TB SSD)
• 50:30 Graph from the Battery Life Section
• 53:14 My thoughts on the Surface Connect interface

These timestamps are for jumping to specific moments in the video. For timestamps to the start of each major section of this review, please use the timestamps provided under the "Chapters" section.

•••

So, this review was intended to come out much earlier this year. Like, around February or March. But due to some complications, I had a lot of trouble making that happen. 😅

I've been working on this review since October of 2021—back when the Surface Pro 8 came out, believe it or not—so I didn't want to scrap all the hard work I had put into this video just because I was taking a very long time to finish it. But as a result, there are some parts of the video that are now slightly out of date. It doesn't affect the review in any way—as I still agree with all of the assessments that I've made throughout the video—but I do still think that it's important for you guys to be informed about what's changed between now and then. Here are some quick updates to my review that you should definitely be aware of:

1:22 — [Minor Update] As of November 2022, we're now on the 13th generation of Intel Core CPUs. These 13th-gen Intel CPUs were announced last month, October 2022, so please keep this in mind as the 12th-gen Intel CPUs are no longer current-gen. (Mobile 12th-gen Intel CPUs are still significantly better than the mobile 11th-gen Intel CPUs and the mobile AMD Ryzen 5000 / 6000 Series CPUs in terms of performance though.)

1:54 — [Minor Update] As of November 2022, we're now on the "7000 Series" of AMD Ryzen CPUs. AMD Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs were announced three months ago, August 2022.

1:54 — [Correction / Reminder] Please keep in mind that, around the time the Surface Pro 8 came out, the AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs were AMD's equivocal generation to the 11th-gen Intel CPUs aforementioned, not the AMD Ryzen 6000 Series CPUs. The AMD Ryzen 6000 Series CPUs came out ~5 months after the Surface Pro 8 released.

13:39 — [Major Update] The Surface Pro 9 has been released.

31:42 — [Major Update] The latest version of Windows 11 is now Windows 11 Version 22H2, not OS build 22000. Version 22H2 heavily improves the usability of ARM-based Windows PCs, which means the general consensus about ARM on Windows will now be changing heavily these next few months (and surely even more in the foreseeable future).

36:44 — [Minor Update] macOS Ventura has been released as of November 2022. It was publicly released for all Mac users last month, late-October 2022. As a result, Continuity Camera is now available.

•••

My apologies for my occasional blurry shots and also for some bad audio during certain parts of the video. I've been gone for a while, so I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. 😅

As always, if you have any constructive feedback for me, please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments! Your feedback is important to me!

•••

Special thanks to Kevin Thai and Joe Hoang for letting me film them playing Valorant for certain parts of this review!

Special thanks to Koe Bennett for creating original music for this review! ♪

Cloud Kyuro artwork made by @konvee_kou on Twitter!

•••

EJ's Website

Twitter: @EJYuTech

Instagram: @EJ.Yu

Ko-fi: @EJYuTech

•••

Hey, I'm looking for laptops to review!

📢 Business Inquiries — Send me an email:

📢 Everyone Else — What should I review next?
💬 Leave a comment below!

[EJYu]

Hey everyone! It's been a while! And yes, that title *does* say Surface Pro 8, not Surface Pro 9. It's a long story—and feel free to ask me about it in the comments if you're genuinely curious about what's going on with that—but, for now, this new video is all I've got for you guys. As always, you can expand this pinned comment to find some timestamps that I've typed up for your convenience. Timestamps will be provided in the video description as well.

•••

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:59 CPU
• 9:22 Port Placements
• 14:07 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 1)
• 16:13 Keyboard and Trackpad (Part 2)
• 20:40 Surface Slim Pen 2
• 25:39 Taking Notes
• 30:42 Drawing
• 34:19 Display
• 36:21 Cameras
• 38:00 Speakers
• 38:56 Gaming
• 45:26 Thermals
• 48:09 Fans
• 48:46 Storage
• 50:05 Battery Life
• 52:38 Charging Information
• 54:07 Final Assessment

•••

I'm always looking for feedback, so please don't hesitate to let me know what you like or dislike about my review down here in the comments section. Thank you so much in advance! I really appreciate it!

I'm 100% aware that I'm super late to the party with this review, but I hope someone out there will still enjoy it or find it useful regardless. I've been working on this review since October of 2021—back when the Surface Pro 8 came out, believe it or not—so I didn't want to scrap all the hard work I had put into this video just because I was taking a very long time to finish it. But with that said, I do want to mention that there _are_ some things that were stated in this video that are now slightly out of date. Fortunately, it doesn't affect the review in any way, but I do think that it's still important for you guys to be informed about what's changed between now and then. I'll put all this information in the description, so please take a moment to read through that, as this information is pretty important.

We'll talk about the Surface Pro 9 very soon. Hang tight!

[alihamdani]

Best SP8 review of dozens I've watched on youtube, especially for those who will use it for office tasks

[tomrydval]

Probably best review of SP8 I've seen. Thanks 🙏 Is there a chance you would test DaVinci Resolve on it? How smooth is it? You said you can edit moderately large raw video project on it. Does it mean it's also capable of eding dime effect in Fusion and playing back in full 4k without stuttering and drop frames?Did you use DaVinci or different video editor?
Thank you very much indeed!

[JiPan]

I know that purchasing a device like a computer can be overwhelming and one of the most essential factors to consider is the specs. Your review has provided an in-depth analysis of the technical features of SP8, which will undoubtedly help us to make an informed decision. This made me hit liked and subscribed button. Hope you can make reviews of galaxy phones as well. Thank you.

[POVwithRC]

Actually this is useful to me. I'm weighing out the purchase of a surface and it's worth seeing if the 8 is suitable over the newer and not on sale 9

[lour]

I just purchased the Pro 8 because of the huge drop in price and based on your review ... thank you and please keep your quality videos coming!

[andreasandersson]

Really nice review from an actual user, thanks! About to upgrade from a SP4 and it's bit confusing selecting between SP8 and SP9, maybe your future review will clear things out. SP8 got a nice discount but SP9 might run cooler, superior button placement and raised connect port.

[jiccereno]

Hey man! You're back!! Been binge watching your previous videos. Keep it up!

[nellybolt]

Thank you for this comprehensive review. I really appreciate your excellent work. ♥️ I ordered my Surface 8 Pro last week and I'm looking forward to receiving the device very soon.
I've been watching a couple of reviews, yours was the most helpful covering so many aspects. Thanks a lot. ♥️

[hannahjoyhopes]

Thank you for this review! I’ve been agonizing about which surface I should get (or honestly if I should just get a laptop. The jury is still out on that one) and I appreciate how thorough you are, especially since I can tell you spent a good deal of time with it. Also, love to see the correct “pique” in the captions! 😂

[mahfah]

Liked Subscribed. Didn’t knew 12 gen is such a big deal to Amd chips. I thought amd won all the way. Many many tips and details in this review which for surface users are very helpful and realistic. My surface pro 2017 has started to show age. But what a marvelous long lasting product. I am surface customer for life for what they did to make it future proof. Kudos to Panos and his team. And I have iPad too. But surface is full on computer for anything plus it plays classic XP games. Surfs and does everything which PC does. Win win.
.

[LouRao]

Awesome review for the Surface Pro 8!!👍Although wished you had demonstrated Video editing as much you did for gaming.

[extremium_studios]

Kind of a late comment but this is one of the best reviews on any product I've seen! Keep up the good work! 💪

[haseebkahn]

Wow your editing has gotten to next level!

[nathachai.b]

You're finally back, immediately click on your video right before I sleep!

[trixin]

Great review, new subscriber here! I just bought a Surface Pro 8.. almost went with the 9 but I really don't do anything heavy and I found the Pro 8 i5/256/8gb on Amazon renewed for $645.. that with a $150 Keyboard/pen2 also renewed I'm under $800 for the package.. vs about $1200 at least for the 9. The only thing I do that could be considered heavy would be some light gaming when I'm away from my desktop but from the other reviews I watched the Graphics performance was similar.

[diotitus]

I know the surface pro 9 is out and I am considering getting one. However, I see that the price on Amazon is around $970 for the Pro 9 for the 256GB/8GB RAM Core i5 Option. On Amazon Renewed I also saw that I can get the previous generation for around $90 less, with the same amount of storage but 16GB of RAM and the Core i7. Even though it's a generation older, I am thinking this would be a better deal.

[histrionicman]

Great job! Looking forward to the Surface Pro 9.

[kyngEli]

YOU FINALLY UPLOADED!!!! I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!

[e]

If i only need it for youtube watching would this be equally as good as the ipad pro?