Eve V Improves On Surface Pro For Less Money

If you told me in 2016 that following Eve Tech’s detachable 2-in-1, the Eve V, would never be seen again after being funded on Indiegogo, I would’ve believed you. I also would have been very wrong. The company showed the device to the masses for the first time at Computex 2017, and it looks and feels like a winner. And perhaps most importantly, it has USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3, which Microsoft refuses to put on the Surface Pro.

Despite starting at $799, it feels like a premium product. The aluminum body felt sturdy in my hands, and the detachable Alcantara keyboard felt just as good as the one on Microsoft’s Surface Pro thanks to its 1.5 millimeters of travel. The kickstand seemed a little stiff, but it’s something I could get used to.

The base model includes a Core m3 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, as well as a stylus and keyboard (you’d have to buy those separately for the Surface Pro). Pricing has not yet been announced for other configurations, but they will go up to Core i7 Y-series processors, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

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It was hard to see the 12.3-inch screen, as the Eve Tech team showed me the device outside on a sunny day, but it has the same 3:2 ratio and 2734 x 1824 display resolution as the Surface Pro (sensing a pattern here?). The biggest improvement of the Surface Pro is its use of USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3. The laptop uses one of each port for either data transfer or charging. (CEO Konstantinos Katsevidis was quick to express his contempt for proprietary chargers.)

My favorite part of my brief time with the Eve V was discovering all of its little extras. The backspace button is labeled “oops!” and the V key is the laptop’s logo. On the back, under the kickstand, are logos for Eve Tech and the Eve V in a repeating pattern that feels personal and fun.

Getting your hands on the Eve V may be difficult, though, as the company is producing them in limited batches to sell direct to consumers. You can sign up here for a notification when they go on sale.