

What the Surface Pro 8 does do, however, is amp up the CPU options. The Surface Pro series hasn't ever offered discrete graphics and that doesn't change for the Pro 8 - you'll need to look for the Surface Laptop Studio, coming 2022, for Nvidia RTX support.


It would also appear that the Pro 8's screen is capable of a higher maximum brightness, on account of Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) support, although Microsoft's technical specification doesn't make any specific mention of this - so it's possible the two panels are equally bright, except that the newer product has the relevant Dolby licence. That will make for smoother visuals where needed, but as it's adaptive it may also aid with battery life - keeping a low refresh rate for more static, document-based content, for example. The Pro 8's screen brings other of-the-moment upgrades too: there's a variable refresh rate, at up to 120Hz, meaning it can cycle at double the frames per second compared to the Pro 7.
