Surface Pro 8 Reddit Verdict: Great Device, Wrong RAM

I rock sp8 for 2 years now, doing even some small CAD projects on the go, movies, reading books, taking notes, some less demanding games. I never had a situation where it was not good enough, ESPECIALLY for that price point. Enjoy it!

They really like it, especially because it performs the best out of any Intel 12-28W CPU device they've tested while also having the best battery life, but they can't justify the price tag.

20% better peak performance than sp7 i7 but a lot better sustained. The new Surface Pro 8 consumes more power under load, which is a result of the improved performance utilization.

She mentions that she uses Chrome for her workload, which isn't the most efficient browser. I wonder if battery life would be even better if Edge was used. I was also really surprised at the camera and internal mic quality when she showed them off in the video review.

I really wanted the SP8, but when Black Friday hit and they had a Galaxy Book Pro 360 15" i7 16GB 1TB SSD for $999 (cheapest SP8 i7 would be $1500 with keyboard and pen on sale) - I gave up my SP8 dreams, but I still love surface.

Would have been nice if the keyboard cover could house a second battery. I could accept a little extra bulk if I could use it for longer when out and about.

I love my i7/16/256 (soon to be 1TB). If you accept this as a portable unit, you'll have some kind of cloud or side drive anyway, and save the internal for programs and working data.

Microsoft has insisted now for almost a decade that it's going to make a beautiful tablet with awful battery life.

For $65, that's a solid device. I still use mine for everything except gaming, and heavy processing tasks. It's an awesome small, lightweight web, office, PDF machine that also allows me to use a pen when needed. And I've had enough instances where I needed to use a pen that it's now a requirement for me whenever I decide to upgrade to another device.

And that cheapest sp8 comes with 128gb. Compared to 1tb on the samsung. It's actually just silly.

Happy with my i5/8GB/512GB model. It's actually fine for me to work on real life, money making web apps (ASP.NET Core) without any issues (since I don't run Virtual Machines).

my surface pro 9 is awesome but 8 gigs isn't awesome for anyone

Nope, nothing with less than 16gb is worth it

I dropped the monitor refresh to 60Hz, 'recommended' performance settings, battery saver, turned down screen brightness. Still runs pretty hot, battery life is abysmal.

No, this seems overpriced for a Pro 8 (now an old device) with only 8GB RAM. The processor will be 11th Gen which is fine, at the right price. You can use powercfg /batteryreport to check the health but that's not the issue.

I replaced my desktop with this thing for work and some league of legends without eGPU no problem. I hook it up with my 2x Dell 49" monitors, I could finish all my work (development). The only drawback is battery life, I'd say watching a 1080p movie on it will only last 5 hours max. But other than that, this is definitely a desktop replacement.

I paid retail at Best buy for my sp 8 with 16gb of ram and still use it to this day. I love surface products and would literally JUMP at a 8 or higher for that price!

There's nothing wrong with device itself, it's fine. The problem is the current state of windows 11. I own a SP7+ which has the same CPU generation as SP8 and it was lightning fast when I just got it. Now it is struggling to navigate the OS. Also, the amount of RAM you have won't let you do anything beyond basic tasks comfortably on this device.

Microsoft's strategy from the get go has always been to price high to leave room for its OEM partners. Microsoft doesn't really want to be a hardware company, and it definitely doesn't want to strongly compete with its partners. The surface is there to ensure Windows stays relevant. It's never been a value buy.

I use it docked daily for work purposes. I multi task heavily with browser tabs, word, excel, adobe acrobat pro, outlook and really never have hiccups. The battery life iMHO... sucks. The random standby drain or hibernation... annoying. The glare... inexcusable imho. Otherwise I really enjoy it. I travel frequently and the SP8 is lightweight and very portable.

I have the i7 16gb model and I've ran Eve online and Baldurs gate on it, nothing crazy but it works. I do digital painting and design work using mainly photoshop and illustrator and it's been amazing. Working on a piece now with like 20 layers and thousands of brush strokes and it still runs smooth.

I use my surface pro 8 everyday. I write papers, attend classes and do python and matlab coding on it every day. I only use my desktop computer with its mechanical keyboard and 2 4k displays for watching movies and YouTube. I never thought that I could do so much work on a tiny surface pro laptop.

I have a SP8, i7/16 model. Mostly happy. The only complaint I have is connection drops on WiFi from time to time.

I've been running DaVinci Resolve on my SP8 i7 16G without any issues whatsoever. That said, I edit everything via proxy, but I've been very happy with the performance.

8 gig is the mistake I don't know why they even sell this model it tarnishes the brand

I game on my with the use of external GPU in one port and hub with everything else in another, pretty neat. Previously used TH3PP4G3 adapter with 3060, but had problems with stability, changed to GPD G1 (it has Radeon RX 7600M XT inside). Recently played Baldurs Gate 3 (high), Cyberpunk 2077 DLC (medium). Right now playing Arknights Endfield and Deadlock.

My SP8 experience has been quite good coming from ThinkPads. It doesn't get too hot or loud, goes to deep sleep to avoid overnight battery drain, also pleasantly surprised by how well 8GB of RAM holds up in this. It's obviously not perfect — 8GB does sometimes result in pauses when switching between many tabs, the RAM is not enough for creative apps, some windows animations are never smooth even in 120Hz.

I've got core i7 version with 32 Gb of RAM on board for more than two years. It's fine and runs smoothly with the latest win11 release from beta channel.

I have the SP 8 also. Got it in 2021 when it came out. I just reimaged it last week as it was starting to run slow over the years. Runs perfect now. Just need it to last until I graduate next Aug.

I'd say I'm satisfied with my i5/8GB model. I use it for school and sometimes Minecraft or some visual novels. It's definitely very good for note taking.

Great update. The Surface engineers and designers hit a home run.

After using the SP11 X Elite, I wouldn't want to go back to Intel. But for $64 I would have bought it with no need for it.

I've had the SP8 since released, it's a great device except for the abysmal battery life despite the battery size (A long standing Surface Pro Tradition), the type cover connection can get wonky at times, and the slightly disappointing speaker volume. For performance, this is 11th gen Tiger lake, Intel's first comeback after their stagnation in Lithography advancements. So, don't expect performances like Alder lake or above. It's still pretty fast when plugged in however.

I have the same specs on my Surface Pro 8. To be honest, after almost 3 years, it gave me a really good experience for most tasks. I made music on FL Studio, I'm a CS student so I ran all my studies on it, took notes, coded, made some drawings and sketches on Photoshop and did pretty much everything on this device. What I really loved is having two devices in one: a laptop and a tablet. It's perfect for travel and daily use.

My Surface Pro 8 i7 32gb 1tb has been my powerhouse computing device since February 2022 and after 4 years it is still very on and very up. I work on it for 10 hours daily at least, ever since.

I have an sp8 and im a tad iffy on it. I also got mine at a massive discount because I worked for Microsoft at the time, and as such drank the coolaid on it being the hottest shit ever (it isn't). The ipad pro kicks its ass in basically every area. I like the SP8 for the haptics, the screen's great quality, as are the speakers. But its biggest hurdle is the Windows OS itself.

Microsoft support sucks compared to Apple. I had a Surface Pro 7 that died shortly after warranty and they told me to kick rocks. Apple would have taken care of me.

It is a laptop trying to be an iPad. It completely fails. I'd rather have a laptop or an iPad. No data connection, BIG adapter just to get power, HUMONGOUS adapter if you want HDMI and USB (picture an actual redbrick in your laptop bag), the fans run heavy when the load hits medium, etc. I'm not impressed at all.

I have a surface pro 8 tablet, with the optional keyboard and 'pencil.' The only good thing about the device is that it loads quickly. Everything else sucks. Especially the screen freezing constantly, the cursor issues, the mouse issues, the everything. After about an hour, using the battery, problems begin.

I have this identical model with 8GB and does fine for light traveling and minor excel work. For daily use I say it would be too underpowered

Trust me. It's a great device. Don't listen to the other people saying you need ARM. The Intel chips are plenty. I've been using them off and on through the years and they just work.

These guys do awesome reviews of the specs. SP8 is clearly a step up in design. Performance/Battery is still in that limited zone however. Clearly a future ARM chip is going to be the area for Price:Performance and Battery improvements to come for the ultra-portable device.