It makes the whole unit look and feel like a fancy notebook when closed up, soft and fibrous to the touch. Our ‘Sapphire’ keyboard is constructed using a ‘partially bio-based Alcantara material’, containing 12% renewable content derived from sugarcane waste.

The keyboard is super lightweight and is magnetized to stay shut against the screen when you're carrying it. Although it’s a rarity nowadays when actually using it on your lap, the top-heaviness of the unit makes it feel pretty unstable, and we certainly wouldn’t be comfortable using it that way on public transport. Microsoft included an accessibility kit in the box for us, and the additional tab to lift up the screen makes it a lot easier to open up. It feels slightly strange at first having the keyboard weighing much less than the screen and also makes it slightly awkward to open as the keyboard is magnetized to the screen. The kickstand works nicely when you’re at a desk, allowing you to easily change the angle of the screen. It’s a little bulkier than our MacBook Pro, but not by much.

Surface 9 pro