
That makes it feel closer to a laptop than ever before, although the tablet itself is significantly lighter. The key design upgrade you’ll probably notice is much slimmer bezels, which allows for a larger 13in display within almost the same footprint. It’s your only option for biometric unlocking, with no fingerprint scanner on the device itself or either of the compatible keyboard covers. This is easy to set up and works extremely well, with an extra scan recommended if you wear glasses.

Also, its selection of higher-end Intel 9th Gen CPUs outperforms the more power-efficient Intel 11th Gen CPUs on the Surface, and you can get the MacBook with dedicated mobile workstation GPUs.Next to it, you’ll find a separate infrared lens, meaning the Pro 8 supports Windows Hello face unlock. On the other hand, the MacBook's display has a wider color gamut with full DCI P3 coverage, its touchpad and speakers are far better, it has more Thunderbolt ports, and its battery lasts much longer. Additionally, it's easier to bring around since it's much smaller and lighter, its keyboard feels significantly better to use, and its 1080p webcam is better for video conferences. The Surface's screen looks sharper, it supports a faster 120Hz refresh rate, and its slightly taller 3:2 aspect ratio means you have to scroll less when reading articles or formatting text.

The MacBook is a mobile workstation aimed at content creators with heavy workloads, whereas the Surface is a tablet meant for productivity use. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (2021) and the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2019) are both very different laptops. Some tests, like black uniformity and color accuracy, may vary between individual units. If you come across a different configuration option not listed above, or you have a similar Microsoft Surface Pro 8 that doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update it. Our display and performance results are only valid for the configuration we tested.


