2019-09-01_Computer_Shopper

94 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

SURPRISINGLY, ONE OFthe most significa

changesto the MicrosoftSurface Pro 6isth

it has anumber; the 2017 Surface Pro having

droppedthe 5. Besidesthis and the expected

internal updates, however,there aren’t many

noteworthydifferences.

We tested amid-tier spec, comprisingan

Intel Core i5-8250Uprocessor,8GB of RAM

and a256GB SSD.One thing your £1,034

won’t get you is the Type Cover keyboard;

once again, Microsoftcharges an additional

£125 forthis nigh-essentialadd-on,while

the magneticallyattachableSurface Pen

stylus is afurther £100.

It’s expensiveto get runningas aproper

2-in-1, then, but then it is agorgeouslysleek

device.Itmeasuresjust 201x292x8.5mmand

weighs an ultra-light770g, which only goes up

to 1.08kg with the Type Cover attached.

COVER FEATURE

Youcan get much better connectivityfrom a

convertiblelaptop,but the Surface Pro 6has

adecent port selectionfora2-in-1 tablet.

There’s aUSB3 port and Mini DisplayPort on

the right side,with a3.5mm audio jack on the

left, while amicroSD slot sits concealed

behind the fully adjustablekickstand.

On the bottom edge of the Surface Pro 6

is the magneticconnector strip,intowhich

the Surface Type Cover snaps. It’s an

exceptionallystreamlinedprocess,and it’s

equallyeasy to separatethem, too, although

it also underlineshow incompletethe tablet

feels withoutaType Cover to transform it

intoabona fide laptop replacement.

The touchpadand keyboardon the Surface

Pro Type Cover are pretty compactand a

breeze to use.The only potential issue is that

there is some give when you press down on

keys, owing to acombinationof the cover’s

low weight and the fact that it’s raised at an

angle.This might take some getting used to if

you’re aparticularlyheavy typist.

The 12.3in, 2,736x1,824display

specificationsremain identicalto those of the

2017 MicrosoftSurface Pro.Performance

results are still great, but are oddly down

slightlyfrom the previous model. In our

calibrationtests, the sRGB colour gamut

coverage was clockedat 88.6%,

whereasthe old Surface Pro

had acoverage of 94.3%.

Delta-Ecolour accuracyis also

down: the Surface Pro had an average

delta-Eof 1.16, while the Surface Pro 6

MICROSOFT

SurfacePro6

★★★★★

£1,034•From http://www.microsoftco

VERDICT

Microsoft’shybridisassleekandpowerful

asever–wejustwishbothitandtheType

Coverwerebettervalue

g h ll l

h d g d d h d

the naked eyet here ’s no difference.The

maximumbrightnesson the Surface Pro 6

displayisanexceptional416.2cd/m2–again,

that’s slightlylower than in 2017,but vivid

enoughforworking in overly lit conditions.

The 1,308:1 contrastratio is also up to the

Surface Pro’s standards.

Notethat there is anothercolour profile

mode called Enhanced,which is objectively

worse,giving everythingagarish

oversaturated tone.This is similar to the

Vibrantmodes found on alot of smartphones

these days. On the Surface Pro 6, the default

sRGB mode is the waytogo.

FULL SPEEDAHEAD

While the displayquality mayhavesuffereda

small knock, performanceis on the up.Inour

media benchmarktest, which measuresthe

speed of video editing,image editing and

multitasking,the Surface Pro 6producedan

overall ascore of 69.That’s even higher than

the Core i7 versionof the previous Surface

Pro,which scored 60.

The Surface Pro 6also manageda

Geekbench4single-coretest result of 4,019,

as well as amulticoreresult of 12,647.Both of

these prove it to be amore powerful2-in-1

than the GooglePixel Slate, especiallyfor

multicoreperformance.

Using AS SSD,werecordedthe 256GB

SSD averagingasequentialread speed of

g

l d d gh

disappointingat just 173MB/s.Int erestingly,

read speeds were nearly twice as fast on the

Surface Pro 6astheyare on the Surface

Laptop 2, despitethe fact that both machines

run on identicalprocessorsand RAM.

Forbasic games, the Surface Pro 6will just

about suffice:it managedan average frame

rateof35fps in the Dirt Showdown720p

benchmarkwith the High detail setting.You

will, therefore,beable to playavariety of

older games on it, but don’t expect to blaze

throughthe latest AAA releasesas well.

Sadly,battery life–like displayquality –

has seen adowngrade.Given the respectable

11h 33m of video playback the 2017 Surface

Pro managed,we had high hopes, but this

time the Surface Pro 6only enduredour

rundowntest for8h2m. That’s average rather

than outrightbad, but ashame nonetheless.

OSVERSUSTHEM

At least you can run the latest versionof

Windows10 Home,however,and not be

limited to GooglePlayapps as you are on

the ChromeOS-poweredPixel Slate.

There aren’t as many Windows-based2-in-1s

comingout as there used to be,but one

things that makes them so attractiveover

devices such as the Pixel Slateand Apple’s

iPad Pro family is that it’s abona fide desktop

OS. That means full compatibilitywith all the

software you’d use on adesktop or traditional

laptop,and it’s all nativelysupported, so is

more reliablethan on the HP Envy x2.

Forthose in search of a2-in-1 laptop

that’s both stylish and speedy,the

MicrosoftSurface Pro 6isagood choice.

It’s pricey, and the fact that Microsoft

doesn’t even includeaType Cover is

becomingmore of atravesty with every

generation,but it’s also better value than

the Pixel Slate, and it has amore flexible,and

likely more familiar,operatingsystem.

If you alreadyhappento own the

2017 Surface Pro,it’s not worth upgrading,

but anyonenew to Microsoft’s 2-in-1

range will be happywith either.

2-IN-1sANDCONVERTIBLES

ant

that

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ed

ny

oft.com

manages1.28. That’s still up to professional

photo-editingstandards,however,and to

the ked there’ diff Th

1,122MB/s.That’s fine,ifnothing special,but

sequentialwritespeeds were downright

dis ointin tjust 173MB/s.Interestingly

S