Microsoft Surface Pro 5 Microsoft Surface Pro 5 12.3" Tablet 256GB WiFi Review

The Surface Pro 5 is an older Windows tablet that still has some fight left in it. It's built around a sharp 12.3-inch screen and a design that's held up well, but you're buying into tech that's several years old now. For basic tasks, it's still a capable machine, especially if you find a good deal.

The dual-core 2.6GHz CPU and 8GB of RAM are the big bottlenecks here. It's fine for web browsing, document editing, and light creative work, landing in the 69th percentile for CPU performance. But try to do too much at once, and you'll feel it start to chug. The 8GB of RAM is a real weak spot, sitting in the bottom 26th percentile, so multitasking is limited.

At around $260, the value proposition is simple. You're getting a full Windows PC with a great screen for a very low price. The catch is that you're buying old hardware. If your needs are basic and your budget is tight, it's a decent stopgap. But if you need this to be your primary machine for the next few years, you'll likely outgrow its limitations fast.

Compared to a modern iPad Pro or Surface Pro 11, this is a dinosaur. Those machines are exponentially faster. But they also cost over ten times as much. A more direct competitor might be a used business laptop, which would give you more power and ports for a similar price, just without the tablet form factor. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is a better media consumption device, but it runs Android, not full Windows.

Buy this only if you need a portable Windows tablet on an extreme budget and your workload is very light. It's a good fit for students taking notes, casual web users, or as a secondary device for travel. For anyone doing serious work, multitasking, or wanting a device to last, your money is better spent elsewhere.