Once upon a time, I bought a Surface Pro only to return it less than a month later. At the time, I felt it was a niche device lacking the foundational integrity of an iPad or a MacBook. I’ve grown a newfound respect for the Surface Pro line with the maturing of Windows, however, and now find the 2-in-1 nicely occupies the middle ground between a tablet and laptop. If I needed one today, Best Buy’s deal on the Surface Pro 9 with a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 chipset, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a Surface Pro Keyboard might win me over. It’s going for $999.99 ($540 off), after all, which matches its all-time low.
My favorite thing about the Surface Pro 9 compared to traditional 2-in-1s is that you can use it as a tablet without the heft of a keyboard. The 13-inch display can seem unwieldy on paper, but it’s surprisingly thin with a balanced, lightweight build. Creatives can use styluses such as the optional Surface Slim Pen 2 ($129.99) and the keyboard easily attaches via magnets when it’s time to crunch through serious work tasks. In addition to a lack of ports, one major downside of the Pro 9 compared to flippable 2-in-1s is that it’s not ideal for lap use, as it only has a built-in kickstand for propping up the screen.
Clearly, the translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus are for those of us who appreciate all the intricate soldering and wiring work that goes into the ultraportable tech we enjoy. And now until February 8th, Woot has them in refurbished, like-new condition for $89.99, which is $80 off the price of a new pair. Woot is selling them with a 90-day limited warranty, but Amazon and Best Buy are also discounting the wireless earbuds in new condition to $129.99 ($40 off), which is just $10 more than their all-time low.
The Beats Studio Buds Plus sound as good as they look. Although we feel they come up just short of Apple’s AirPods Pro in ANC performance and hallmark features like spatial audio, they’re a solid improvement over the original Studio Buds. They have better audio quality overall, and the call performance benefits from new microphones that do a better (albeit, still imperfect) job of cutting out ambient noise.
