Surface Pro 12-inch: MS Store and Best Buy Pre-Sale Launch Date Disappoints Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12inch

You can preorder the new Surface Pro 12-inch today at Microsoft’s own store or at Best Buy, with pricing starting at $799. Microsoft is shipping the new Surface Pro and a smaller 13-inch Surface Laptop on May 20th to consumers, and businesses will be able to purchase these devices on July 22nd.

The Surface Laptop 13-inch qualifies as a Copilot Plus PC with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus chip inside, so you get access to the new Recall feature as well as AI-powered Windows search, Click to Do, and a number of other Windows AI features inside Paint, Photos, and other apps.

The 13-inch Surface Laptop is fan-less, so it’s disappointing. Microsoft made the switch to a fan-less design on the new Surface Pro 12-inch, but it’s keeping a fan inside the smaller Laptop variant to help keep it running cool. This should mean that the Surface Laptop 13-inch will throttle less than the Surface Pro 12-inch, but we’ll have to test that during reviews.

Disappointingly, Microsoft has also ditched Windows Hello facial recognition support on this smaller Surface Laptop, so you’ll have to use a fingerprint reader that’s positioned on the power button if you want to log into this laptop without a password or PIN code. Microsoft still has a1080p front-facing camera in the 13-inch Surface Laptop, even though it is smaller than the Surface Pro 12-inch.

The new Surface Pro 12-inch keyboard also lacks an insert for the Surface Pen. You can attach the stylus to the back of the device, where it will be able to charge. Microsoft says it has done a lot of work to ensure the Surface Pen won’t simply detach when you slide the Surface Pro 12-inch into a bag, and during my hands-on I wasn’t able to easily detach it from the rear of the device — it felt rather sturdy.

Is the Surface Pro 12 inch at all smooth? The Surface Pro 12-inch is smoother than the larger Surface Pro 11 and lower Surface Pro 10

I briefly tried out the display and it didn’t look noticeably worse than the larger models, but if you’re used to the smoothness that the 120Hz panel provides then the drop to 60Hz will certainly be noticeable.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 12 inch has a front-facing camera with a higher resolution than the larger model. There’s also a 10-megapixel rear-facing camera that has been repositioned on the Surface Pro 12-inch so it’s easier to take portrait video or photos, if you really want to use a tablet for that.

Microsoft dropped some of the alcantara fabric it uses on Surface Pro keyboards with this new model. The palm rests are no longer alcantara, and have been replaced with a smooth matte finish. The rear of the keyboard maintains the alcantara fabric with options for slate, violet, or ocean green colors across the keyboard and Surface Pro 12-inch.

I tested both the larger Surface Pro 11 and smaller Surface Pro 10 on my lap, and I prefer the larger Surface Pro 11 to the smaller Surface Pro 10 because it has an easier to use keyboard. Both are good at reducing the bounce and flex that you’d find on older versions of the Surface Pro, though.