Microsoft Surface Pro LTE review: seamless connectivity, light and portable design, and satisfactory battery life, but its 7th gen Intel Core CPU is outdated
The cellular-connected laptop for consumers has arrived — For the past week or so, I've been using a computer to work from a train, at a park, and in a coffee shop.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft made LTE an option when it launched the 2017 Surface Pro with Kaby Lake and a claimed 13.5-hour battery life (optional 4G LTE at $799), and this review is the verdict on that bet: the always-connected part works well, but shipping a 7th-gen Intel Core CPU means buyers are paying a premium for last-generation silicon. The review frames cellular as finally arriving for consumers, not just business fleets.
The follow-on coverage shows how contested that bet was: the cheaper Surface Go LTE couldn't justify its $130 cellular surcharge, the ARM-based Surface Pro X made LTE standard but stumbled on app compatibility, and by the Surface Pro 7 Microsoft had dropped LTE from the flagship entirely.
First-order effects
- Consumers buying the Surface Pro LTE get genuinely seamless train-and-coffee-shop connectivity but inherit an outdated 7th-gen Intel Core CPU, paying a connectivity tax on top of stale performance.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft is forced to split its cellular strategy across price points — a $130 LTE surcharge on the budget Surface Go and an ARM-based Pro X — because the Intel flagship can't carry the feature profitably.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, cellular modems migrate out of x86 flagships toward ARM designs like the Pro X, where integrated silicon makes always-on connectivity economical, leaving Intel-based laptops treating LTE as a niche option.
The trend: Cellular connectivity in laptops is migrating from Intel-based flagships to ARM designs, as x86 vendors repeatedly fail to make LTE worth its premium.