Just don't expect it to run Fallout 4 very well. The Surface Pro 4 is similarly capable of running older Steam games - such as Team Fortress 2 - at the golden 60 FPS mark if you lower the resolution and quality details a few notches. It had no trouble running Halo: Spartan Assault from the Microsoft Store with no slowdown. One huge advantage the Surface Pro 4 has over tablets such as Apple's iPad Pro is that you can play proper desktop games on it, in addition to Windows 10 apps. A low hum as the processor crunched through its calculations was the only sign that the device was under any pressure. The Surface Pro 4 showed no signs of slowdown, and with everything open it still managed to resize a 70MP image down to 900 pixels wide in just a few seconds. I launched two separate browsers and opened around 25 tabs in each, alongside the Skype desktop client and the Kindle app.

It was difficult to really push the Surface Pro 4 by opening programs and apps on the desktop. The model supplied to T3 for review ran the 64-bit version of Windows 10 and housed an Intel Core i5-6300U backed up by 8GB (configurable up to 16GB) of DDR3 memory, paired with a 256GB SSD (configurable up to 512GB) for storage and Intel HD 520 graphics. Core m3's benefits from featuring no mechanical parts and runs whisper quiet, while being marginally thinner. At the lower end it comes with Intel's Core m3 processor, a passively-cooled Skylake CPU that's less powerful the Core i5 and Core i7 chips inside the more expensive Surface Pro 4 models. Microsoft is offering the Surface Pro 4 in six different configurations, depending on how much power you need under the bonnet. Communication options include 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. The Surface Pro 4's ports include one USB 3.0 port, DisplayPort, a microSD card reader and a headphone/mic combo jack.

Handily, the new Surface Pen clips to the left-hand side of the display magnetically for storing away when not in use. Microsoft calls the technology 'PixelSense', and it makes writing or drawing with the pen feel more natural.

At the same time it has reduced the gap between the sensors under the Surface 4's display and the glass panel above it. Microsoft has also upped the Pen's sensitivity from 256 to 1,024 levels of pressure.

Surface 4 pro