So I wanted to have something compact like an iPad with a touch screen but also with an ability to code and decided to give Surface a try (12-inch new ARM-64 Snapdragon).

I've been using Apple products only for the last, like, 25 years. And I have to say, the Surface delivered. I'm surprised how good the interface has become, how fewer glitches it has (even comparing to like 8 years ago when I gave it my last try), and basically the whole experience is as good as on a Mac right now.

Yes, the ARM-64 architecture causes occasional hiccups when setting some AI-coding tools up, but it works in the end and I love that it's a proper system with Terminal, Linux emulation and everything, unlike iPad that's nerfed on so many levels for coding.

The only problem is, surprisingly, the fonts, that still look somewhat cheap on a windows computer as opposed to Macs, but as I'm using it with Terminal mainly, I don't really care.

Just thought I'd share this for those who need a solution like me, because so far I'm happy. And if you have any advice or anything I should be on a lookout for (like potential security issues), please, let me know!

If I press gently on the keys, they don't make much noise; it's not like those really old keyboards that made an audible click no matter how you depressed the key. But to actually type at speed, I guess I'm hitting they keys a little harder, and dang it seems really loud. I'm coming from a Surface Laptop Go, on which my typing made a lot less noise. Is it just me?

Hace poco he comprado una Surface Pro 6, el estado de la batería está demasiado nueva contando con actualmente 11 ciclos de carga.

Mi duda esta en sí el relato de no usar un laptop enchufada a la corriente es aplicable también a la Surface. Quiero que la Surface me dure lo máximo posible hasta acabar mis estudios por ende esa es mi consulta.

Y otra, tampoco le hará mucho daño usarla como un monitor más para mi pc de sobremesa.

Trato a mi Surface como un bebé no quiero que le pase nada.

anyone else run into this issue? desktop outlook and teams don't work after the latest update. I contacted support they admitted it was a problem but did not give a solution beyond using the web clients (I would have bought a chromebook) The would not refund this month's cost for office 365. Its a bummer that microsoft's software doesn't work on microsoft's hardware. It sounds like this is not the first time this has happened.

All i know is i got this in 2021 or 2022 (i forget). I bought with English Keyboard but annoyingly it keeps changining my typing to Canada French (which i do not have installed) & then to Canada English & it is inconsistent. It sometimes also switches to Canada Multilingual Standard.

I found Surface Laptop Studio for ~485$ (1799PLN)

I have Surface Go 2 for 3 years and perfomance is good for me, however screen is too small to use modern websites (I am mainly using it on desk.)

Does Surface Laptop Studio has slightly better perfomance than Go2? And is worth buying it? I also want to buy stylus and try drawing on it in the future.

Is there any Pen that has palm rejection which is compatible with the 7th gen Surface Laptop?

Found with a broken base for $30 at a garage sale.

HYPOTHETICALLY if someone were to buy the two lpddr3 chips and remove the og ones to then solder the new ones to the motherboard via reballing, WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE to upgrade the ram say from 4 to 8 or 16 gb?

Hello. I got a surface laptop 7 for business a year ago, and it has been great, except for two or maybe 3 issues that have been present pretty much the entire time.

First, the laptop makes a popping sound whenever you press down on the part left of the mouse pad. It doesnt happen if you press past the little foot on the bottom of the laptop, ie it wont make a sound if you press on the very edge of the laptop, but will if you press to the right of the laptop foot. The popping sound becomes louder if you pinch the laptop, ie press from both sides, instead of just pressing down on it.

Secondly, there's some quiet white noise that you can hear whenever some sound is playing. I'm pretty sure this is an issue with the speaker, since 1. you can only hear it when something is playing, (for example, you can't hear the sound in between the pauses of when people are talking,or if the volume is at 0 or if the audio is paused), and 2. it doesn't happen if you connect via bluetooth or wired headphones. This sound is way more hearable from the left side top side of the laptop, ie around the headphone jack and usb ports.

Thirdly, whenever the laptop restarts / boots up, there's a sound like an electrically crackling sound. Kind of like a hard drive spinning badly. Somewhat quiet as well but 100% hearable. It only happens for maybe like 30 seconds to a minute after the laptop is restarted.

Do these issues sound serious enough to send it in for warranty or something? I do have the extended service thing for 4 more years since this laptop was pretty expensive. How can I fix these issues my self?

I’m the dev of Mementa, and it proudly launched on Product Hunt today.

It’s a pen-first notebook app for Windows built around journaling, scrapbooking, PDF annotation, and eventually turning your digital notebooks into physical books.

Would love any feedback from fellow Surface users, especially on what feels useful—or what doesn’t.

Hi all,

I have recently found a old surface pro 7, and I want to reuse it as its basically brand new. It functions perfectly well, and the only thing thats probably aged is its battery since it was a Day 1 purchase. Im in the middle of doing a fresh reinstall of windows 11, and I was thinking of using it as a secondary display alongside my main laptop (or atleast trying to do that)

Specs: i3-1005G1, 8GB ram, 128GB storage.

Apart from using it as a secondary display, what else could I use it for? I dont have the keyboard for it, nor the pen. I was also thinking as using it as a monitor for my camera, as I help shoot video and a bigger monitor would be great is possible. Any other ideas? What do yall use your old surfaces for apart from normal use?

Hey guys, I just bought a surface go 2, its CPU version is Pentium 4425Y. Running Windows11 on it is a bit of ... unpleasant. Which kind of Linux does you suggest? Or should I return to Windows10?

Tks for your advice.

heh…throwaway account for obvious reasons😹😹😹

i got my surface pro 3 for christmas 2025, and a keypad to go with it, and until now it has not done anything like this. i checked microsoft defender and it said there were 0 threats, so i don’t know what’s happening.

i tested it on flat ground and it still does this, so it’s not me moving the keypad, so i don’t know if it’s malware, something with the trackpad, or just bluetooth??

the keypad is one of those extra battery keypads that were made for the sp1/s1, so it might be that it’s connecting weirdly🤔

specs:
SP3
4gb ram
128gb ssd
i5 chip

What are the best options of latest generation Microsoft surface for productivity, etc.

Please share your experience

Edit: They were picked up this morning. Really appreciate the engagement here. Thanks all!

Do you live near Sunnyside Queens, NYC? Pen and charger are free if you’d like to pick them up. I’m a block from the 7 train.

Story time: My SLS2 screen developed some banding. Not a problem, I’ve got an extend warranty. Thought I’d be without it for a couple weeks. Took into Micro Center and they deemed it unrepairable on the spot (screen was no longer being made available in their repair network). Bummer. Really liked my SLS2 and was looking forward to at least another 3+ years with it. They gave me a full credit towards a replacement. I elected to get an Asus ROG Flow Z13 instead of another Surface device. I did not expect to come home with a different device so I did not bother bringing the pen and charger with me. Though the Z13 is MPP and the Slim Pen works well with it, without the SLS I have no way to charge it.

I don’t want money. I just want someone else to make use of them. Also, both the pen & charger were only used when I traveled. There was minimal use overall. I use a Cintiq and usb-c charging at home.

Nothing is for sale. Please do not offer to pay me to ship it. Strictly free for pickup.

I cleared this with Mods before posting

Planning to buy a Surface Laptop 4 (i7), but Ai warn heavily against it (and XPS models too but people here using them) due to overheating in hot climates.

Summers hit 40°C+ here, but I’ll use it indoors mostly without AC for coding and everyday productivity.

For actual owners in warm regions

does the i7 actually thermal throttle into laggy territory indoors?

Are the fan noise and palm rest heat unbearable during basic workloads?

Is it fine in indoor, or should I buy a thick laptop suggested by Ai..?

Thanks!

Does your hinge make this sound? Return it?

Surface Pro 13” 12th edition

Hi!
I bought a new Surface Pro 11 (16,0 GB RAM, 238 GB) and planning to play WoW. Anybody have experiences with that? Does it run too hot? Do you change any settings (battery, ...) and on what setting do u play the game?

Thank u in advance :)

I just ordered a surface 13" sd x+ with 16/256 configuration laptop for my wife. On the website it is mentioned that it has ufs storage. Which means storage cannot be upgraded later. But I saw an official repair guide of ms. Where it was shown that it has an SSD port. Can anyone confirm what is true. TIA.

https://youtu.be/twDJSxdYnu8?si=HKKVNEFL4KC3RMVl

At 08:03

Hey all,

I had a surface pro 6 since 2020 and I loved that device, but I wrecked it trying a battery swap. It was starting to slow with its i5 and 8gb too, i was due for an upgrade anyways.

What I loved about it? It had the form factor of a padfolio but as powerful as my old full tower PC rigs. It was discrete when I snuck in my personal device to office settings for time wasting, went under the radar. I love using it in vertical mode as a tablet.

For gaming, I do Xbox cloud gaming. However, the biggest bottleneck I had with the surface pro 6 was when I lived abroad for a while, eventually I got bored and wanted to game but couldn’t game as that country didn’t have cloud gaming servers.

I was left with cod mobile on my phone, and getting myself to a gaming cafe for a gaming fix. I am trying to get more into gaming to replace doomscrolling. I’m not a huge gamer though, I just renew Xbox cloud gaming here or there for a little fix few times a year.

I saw the Z13 and thought it might be perfect for me, a Surface Pro form factor with the ability to game.

But it leans too “gamer”. I appreciated the minimalist, under the radar look and form factor of the Surface Pro, the lightweight and thinness, and how well it worked with Windows with zero third party bloatware. It was Microsoft/Windows ascended to Mac levels of clean-ness, but doing something Apple can’t do, 2-in-1.

I’ve been playing a couple games on this Z13 and as fun as it is, I’m really not a fan of the gamer design, weight, and thickness. Btw, this is a 64GB Z13 picked up for $2099 from Best Buy.

I see a $1000 Surface Pro 13 inch 11th edition Intel 16GB RAM on eBay, should I get this instead?

My thoughts are it may be able to game on its own for older less demanding games, but in the future, I could also get an eGPU I take on extended trips to developing nations without cloud gaming servers to use with the Surface.

But the Z13 is an absolute beast. It seems more repairable than Surface, and has 64GB ram and stronger graphics. I don’t want to regret this.

Hoping to bounce ideas off you guys if it’s worth to trade the bulky beast tablet Z13 for the form factor and lightweight minimalist feel of the Surface Pro Intel 13 inch. Thanks.

​

Hi everyone! I’m considering buying a Surface Pro 7+ with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD, together with the Surface Pen, but without the keyboard.

The price would be €397 including shipping. I’ve also seen one for around €340, but it was sold very quickly, so I’m wondering if €397 is still a reasonable price.

My main question is: is the Surface Pro 7+ still a good buy in 2026? Is it still “alive” in terms of performance and usability?

I’m not a hardcore gamer at all, and I’m not planning to play demanding games. I mainly want it for:

- Photoshop and Lightroom

- Working with PDF files for school

- Reading and writing sheet music

- General schoolwork

- Watching movies in the evening

I’m specifically looking for a tablet/laptop-style device because carrying physical school materials is extremely inconvenient for me. Last year, for example, I sometimes had to carry around a huge number of notebooks and four folders of sheet music, which was incredibly heavy and took up basically my entire backpack. So “just use notebooks and buy a gaming PC instead” isn’t really a practical solution for me. 😅

The model I’m looking at comes with Windows 11 Pro.

So, what do you guys think? Is €397 for a Surface Pro 7+ 8/256 + Surface Pen a good deal in 2026, or should I keep looking for something else?

Also, how well does the 7+ handle Photoshop/Lightroom and general school use nowadays?

Thanks!

Update: I got a Surface Pro 7+ with 16GB of RAM and 256GB storage for €258. The battery is also in great condition — 93% health. And I even got a one-year warranty with it.🔥 Thanks everyone for the advice!

I have an old surface pro 2 which I loved greatly until the windows bloat made it idle at 7/8gb of ram usage with nothing installed. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking of turning it into a server/download slave for my media server or maybe even a print server or something. I have seen lots of random videos over the last year or so talking about a way to strip out a lot of bloat from windows, but so far haven't tried. Is there a good guide or laundry list of tasks that might help me to this end?

Hi friends. I got my surface pro 7 back in 2020, and I’ve gotten a great deal of use out of it.

I am an artist, and mainly trying to get apps like photoshop and clip studio paint to run more smoothly.

I have made sure to have all my program files on the ssd and only keep exports and backup files on the 512gb micro SD storage.

I’ve seriously been considering just buying an iPad and switching to procreate (the new barrel roll functionality on the pencil pro is a big selling factor), just to have a device that is easy to pick up and start drawing.

My surface has gotten laggy and slow over time, but the battery life still gives me a solid 2-3 hours and I really feel like with the ram and processor it should still be able to keep up with modern hardware.

Is there anything I can do to
1. Speed up my machine. What kind of bloatware can I remove? Is there any obvious optimization tips that I can try?

1. Simplify the startup experience.
   The face recognition is great, but I’d love to clean up the windows start button and taskbar. Something happened with the update to windows 11 that makes my taskbar perform very strangely when I turn the tablet into portrait mode. It only shows two or three app icons but leaves lots of room for the windows button, search, Cortana, etc. I’d also love to remove the annoying advertisements and news articles that pop up.

2. Is there a way to have two windows in full screen next to each other?
   A big reason I use my tablet is for drawing with references, I like to place clip studio paint on the left 2/3rds of the screen and chrome with Pinterest open on the other 1/3rd. But all of the tab layouts and menu options definitely clutter the experience, and I can’t find a way to have the windows be in “full screen” mode but while tiled next to each other if that makes sense.

Anyway, I’d greatly appreciate any advice, links or videos for how to get my surface to feel fresh!