Microsoft Surface Pro 12" 7

The 10th-gen i5 CPU lands at the 9th percentile, making this one of the slowest tablets we've tested lately. On the flip side, the 12.3" 2736x1824 display and 256GB SSD punch well above their weight class. At $313, it's a decent Windows tablet for light tasks, but the performance is a major compromise.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Renewed) is a tale of two halves. Its 256GB SSD sits in the 84th percentile, making it snappier than most tablets out there, and the 12.3" PixelSense display is a looker at the 83rd percentile. But the CPU? It's rough. Intel's 10th-gen i5-1035G4 lands in the 9th percentile, which is bottom-of-the-barrel performance in our database. If you're just browsing and typing, it'll get by, but don't expect it to handle much more.

This Surface Pro 7's weakest link is undeniably its quad-core i5 processor. At the 9th percentile, it's one of the slowest chips we've tested in this category, trailing far behind modern Arm-based tablets and even some budget Chromebooks. The integrated Iris Plus graphics fare only slightly better at the 15th percentile, so forget gaming or any GPU-accelerated work. On the bright side, the 256GB PCIe SSD is a standout, booting Windows 10 Pro in seconds and loading apps without lag. The 8GB of RAM is middle-of-the-pack, fine for light multitasking but you'll feel the pinch with more than a handful of browser tabs. The 12.3" 2736x1824 touchscreen is sharp and bright, easily one of the best in its price range, making it a joy for reading and note-taking with the Surface Pen.

With prices ranging from $313 to $568, the Surface Pro 7 (Renewed) only makes sense at the extreme low end. At $313, you're getting a sharp PixelSense display, a quick SSD, and full Windows 10 Pro for the price of a budget Chromebook. But if you're paying above $450, you're dangerously close to far more capable modern tablets that will run circles around this aging i5. The cheapest Amazon listing is where the value hides.

Stack it against the Apple iPad Pro M5, and the Surface Pro 7's CPU is utterly outclassed—the M5 ranks near the top of the charts while this i5 scrapes the bottom. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra offers a bigger, equally beautiful screen and battery life that nearly doubles this Surface's runtime. Even the Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro delivers a more modern processor and better graphics at a similar price. The Surface's lone advantage is its full Windows OS, which matters if you rely on legacy desktop apps.

Skip the Surface Pro 7 if you need any real processing muscle. Editors, designers, or anyone running demanding software will find the 9th-percentile CPU and 15th-percentile GPU infuriatingly slow. Frequent travelers should also look elsewhere: the battery life ranks in the bottom third, so you'll be tethered to a charger. And if you're after a tablet for media consumption, the speakers are nothing special and the screen, while sharp, isn't as vibrant as OLED competitors.

If you absolutely need Windows in a featherlight tablet and can snag this renewed Surface Pro 7 for around $300, it's a serviceable machine for basic Office work and web browsing. But for almost any other use case, especially creative tasks or long days away from an outlet, the weak CPU, poor GPU, and mediocre battery life are dealbreakers. We can only recommend it for budget-conscious students and light-duty professionals who value the screen and OS above all else.