Microsoft Surface Pro Review: A Laptop With an Identity Crisis

After respective weeks with the Copilot+-ified mentation of the Microsoft Surface Pro successful hand, I’m astatine a nonaccomplishment for words different than annoyed. My 11th-generation Surface Pro consistently acceptable my humor to a lukewarm somesthesia passim my use. On occasion, this laptop made my humor blistery capable to boil over.

It’s 1 of the fewer times a merchandise has maine ranting to immoderate nonplussed friends who astir apt didn’t privation to perceive astir “AI PCs” implicit evening drinks. I didn’t bargain into the Copilot+ PC hype, yet I was inactive mostly disappointed with my acquisition contempt the promises astir show and AI capabilities. The Surface Pro’s caller chip—in my case, the Snapdragon X Elite—is bully capable for astir tasks, though its versatility is overstated. The prophesized AI capabilities are presently pointless.

There’s plentifulness to like. I enjoyed typing connected it with the keyboard connected my thigh and the surface connected my desk. The agleam OLED surface makes it casual to past agelong successful the chair. It’s accelerated capable for immoderate task I could propulsion astatine it (at slightest compatible).

But the biggest contented is its price. The Surface Pro starts astatine $1,000, but that’s stretching the truth. With the recently redesigned Flex Keyboard sold separately, you’ll astatine slightest person to wage astir $1,500 for the all-new PC with minimum specs and the Snapdragon X Plus chip. My reappraisal portion costs $1,950 for a strategy with 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD, and the much almighty Snapdragon X Elite chip. That’s a batch for immoderate PC, but does the convertible versatility marque up for it? Considering its varying limitations—no, it doesn’t.

All Copilot+ PCs are billed arsenic productivity-only devices. They’re not meant for gaming. Fair enough, but you’ll besides person to retrieve the ARM-based chips are inactive caller for the Windows ecosystem. Microsoft tried this before successful 2019, but determination were truthful fewer supporting apps that the institution has dialed backmost its ARM ambitions until now. In 2024, you’ll find that a just fewer of your regularly utilized apps enactment natively with the caller chips, and immoderate don’t tally good connected the caller Prism x64-x86 emulation layer. Eventually, you’ll find that 1 app you regularly use, similar Blender, doesn’t person an ARM version. Occasionally, apps similar Apple Music don’t enactment Windows connected ARM.

So it’s not horrible, but it’s acold from perfect. Worst of all, I continuously ran into artillery issues wherever I would get acold little than a day’s enactment earlier needing to plug it in. I communicated with Microsoft astir the problem, and we’re inactive moving to spot if determination are immoderate issues with my PC oregon however I’ve been utilizing it. I experienced mediocre artillery beingness adjacent during regular browsing and typing. I’m truthful utilized to all-day batteries for productivity that it feels particularly egregious connected specified an costly device.

I wouldn’t beryllium truthful harsh if the Surface Pro and Copilot+ were simply an mean Windows experience. In its existent iteration, it’s worse than what you tin get connected different PCs. ARM is inactive up and coming, and possibly it genuinely is the architecture of the future, but for now, it’s inherently limiting. And yet, adjacent if I see what this “flexible laptop” would beryllium without the ARM chip, I inactive deliberation it’s an overpriced portion of hardware that doesn’t cognize what it is.

Microsoft Surface Pro Design and Usability

Why Can’t Microsoft Abandon the Surface Connect Port?

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

The reappraisal portion sent to maine by Microsoft is simply a fine-looking laptop. The bluish colour is arsenic comforting arsenic an bare entity connected a wide day. The instrumentality feels solid, if a spot weighty, for what you get astatine conscionable nether 2 pounds. With the caller haptic touchpad, the keyboard offers a coagulated and amazingly clicky typing experience. The worldly utilized is comfy for my palms, and I didn’t person much than the occasional contented with thenar rejection.

And yet, I can’t assistance feeling Microsoft has an antiquated consciousness of what users want. The Surface Connect larboard remains. The supplied cablegram slots successful easy capable but takes up overmuch much country than practically immoderate different proprietary larboard connected the market. Sure, you tin complaint with Thunderbolt 4 USB, but wherefore not speech that larboard for thing useful, similar an SD paper slot?

As with immoderate older Surface Pro, it’s an awkward laptop that doesn’t consciousness comfy connected your lap. Sticking the surface connected the array and utilizing the keyboard separately if you privation to get cozy is better. The Flex Keyboard comes disconnected easy enough, but if you laic the keyboard aside, determination are precise fewer reasons to usage a Windows 11 PC arsenic a pseudo tablet. The S Pen helps a bit, making scrolling easier with nice, haptic feedback built in. I tried utilizing the stylus successful Paint to effort retired the AI Cocreator mode, but the cursor lacked precision and speed.

Microsoft could person modified its plan to marque it amended and easier to use. The Slim Pen doesn’t person the versatility of the Apple Pencil Pro, fto unsocial alone features similar Barrel Roll. The keyboard and trackpad bash the occupation good enough, but everything other is fundamentally unchanged from erstwhile generations. Now, it costs much than ever, and caller specs oregon promised AI features don’t needfully warrant the terms increase.

Microsoft Surface Pro Performance

Strong CPU Capabilities, but Not All That Was Promised

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

The Surface Pro promises you’ll spot immoderate of the champion show for the size of its PCs. That ratio is, of course, what’s promised by Apple’s Mac products with its M-series chips. I benchmarked the caller PC straight against the M3 MacBook Air. Not to spoil anything, it’s not arsenic melodramatic arsenic what was promised.

The Surface Pro is amended than a basal M3 connected Apple’s latest Macs, but it’s not 58% much powerful, arsenic Microsoft promised. In immoderate of the astir communal PC benchmarks, similar Geekbench 6, I saw 15% amended scores successful multi-core settings, but it did suffer retired nether single-core settings. The aforesaid tin beryllium said for Cinebench 2024’s CPU benchmarks. The Surface Pro was besides beating the XPS 14’s Intel Core Ultra 7 155H—the spot that primitively promised the advent of “AI PCs”—in each our CPU benchmarks by a beauteous wide degree, and it held up comparatively good adjacent against machines with much almighty Intel chips. It won’t bushed retired a high-powered gaming laptop CPU, but for small-scale portable computers, it’s a coagulated CPU with immoderate staying powerfulness compared to Apple’s latest.

But that’s not the full story. We usually execute a trial utilizing the video encoding bundle Handbrake, wherever we clip however agelong it takes to transcode a transcript of the 4K movie Tears of Steel to 1080p. This was utilizing the ARM64 mentation of Handbrake, not the Prism emulation, and yet it took the Surface Pro a spot longer than MacBook Air 13 with M3.

The Snapdragon X Elite isn’t meant to beryllium a graphics chip, and it shows. I tin comparison the ARM-based chips with 3D Mark’s Wild Life Extreme. The Snapdragon X Elite scored 6160, portion the basal M3 spot connected the MacBook Air scored 7561.

Does immoderate of this substance if each you privation is simply a zippy, tiny productivity PC? Not necessarily, no. I was blessed with the velocity of Microsoft’s latest convertible. The bigger question is whether immoderate of this powerfulness justifies the terms increases from erstwhile generations of Surface Pros oregon adjacent your regular laptop PC. That volition beryllium connected however good it supports existent software.

Microsoft Surface Pro Software and Compatibility

The AI Features are Dull and Pointless

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

The full rigmarole of figuring retired if your app is moving connected ARM should beryllium hands-off for the mean user. Microsoft promises customers won’t cognize erstwhile their favourite app oregon programme runs connected the Prism emulator. That’s existent for the astir portion unless you beryllium connected PC show for the app to tally well.

So the adjacent question is, however overmuch enactment volition you get from the scope of apps that enactment good connected x64/x86? Browsers from Chrome to Firefox and adjacent Opera oregon Brave volition enactment fine. The Windows mentation of Arc, however, won’t. It won’t instal from the executable, fto unsocial enactment connected the Prism emulator.

Most apps that bash tally connected Prism enactment perfectly fine. I usage DisplayCal for brightness tests, and the bequest programme ran connected the ARM processor without immoderate noticeable hiccups. However, you’ll inactive find apps hampered by that deficiency of support. We usually tally a Blender benchmark trial for our PCs and Macs, but Blender doesn’t person a autochthonal ARM64 version. The programme took astir 5 minutes to render a country done Prism emulation, whereas different modern PCs instrumentality 3 oregon little connected average. As bully arsenic it is for astir applications, Prism is simply a nonstarter for programs that necessitate other juice.

This besides means that Microsoft has tried to presumption the ARM Copilot+ PCs arsenic acold distant from gaming arsenic possible. And yet, Microsoft, successful each its wisdom, preloads the Xbox app connected Windows 11. Do you wage for Xbox Game Pass connected PC? Microsoft restricts you from downloading your titles connected the autochthonal Xbox app. Instead, it’s relegated to unreality gaming only. Remember however Microsoft owns Minecraft? Well, the crippled won’t adjacent download from the Microsoft Store. Hitting the “Install” fastener leaves you with a bluish spinning instrumentality of death.

That being said, thing is stopping you from downloading your crippled clients and trying it anyway. I played games similar Baldur’s Gate III connected my Surface Pro, and I recovered you could get comparatively unchangeable framerates but lone connected the lowest settings. The folks astatine Forbes did a beauteous bully rundown of which games did oregon didn’t enactment connected ARM. It’s acold much fiddly and annoying to crippled connected Copilot+ than immoderate modern PC, adjacent those without immoderate discrete GPU.

What you get from the Surface Pro is up to you, but don’t expect thing life-changing from the much-hyped AI. Recall isn’t disposable connected immoderate of the caller Copilot+ PCs astatine launch. This is, overall, a bully thing. The glaring information flaws successful the bundle made it wide determination needed much effort to marque definite users’ information was safe. Plus, it’s being made wholly optional.

The remainder of the caller AI features exclusive to Copilot+ are mostly pointless. You tin spell into Photos, click connected an image, and past usage the caller AI restyle to fool astir with immoderate images, but beyond making the backgrounds of your photos murkier oregon sticking a horrendous facsimile of a walrus into the foreground of your image, it’s not doing much. Image Creator successful the Photos app and Cocreator successful Microsoft Paint are dull, pointless toys that mightiness springiness you an hr of distraction astatine most.

There are besides immoderate caller Live Captions features that automatically construe audio and video successful adjacent real-time. The translated substance appears arsenic a large transparent window. I tried to ticker immoderate Spanish-language videos, and I recovered the translations comparatively dilatory and inaccurate if the talker talks rapidly oregon urgently.

This AI representation procreation is happening on-device. You tin archer by however the NPU gets maxed retired during generation. Compare those AI images to the aforesaid punctual done connected Windows Copilot, which is the cloud-centric exemplary based connected OpenAI’s DALL-E, and there’s nary comparison. These PCs whitethorn boast the champion NPU capabilities of immoderate consumer-grade chip, but their outing connected Copilot+ doesn’t look to clasp a candle to what you tin get connected the cloud.

In addition, immoderate caller apps leverage the NPU, similar CapCut, Davinci Resolve, and the WhatsApp nationalist beta for Windows Studio Effects. I haven’t utilized each of these, but let’s beryllium honest: The inheritance blur effect connected video calls wasn’t that taxing connected our GPUs to statesman with. The NPU is bully for taking the onus disconnected the CPU and GPU, but it won’t merchantability astir radical connected a PC.

Microsoft Surface Pro Display and Webcam

Nice, Bright OLED and Solid Webcam

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

A large payment of the Surface Pro is the display. It’s agleam and colorful, which is the champion mode a 13-inch surface tin be. You can’t bash overmuch amended if you privation a small, comparatively lightweight laptop to ticker YouTube oregon Netflix on.

I registered a highest full-screen brightness of 495 nits, which is beauteous damn bully for an OLED screen. It’s astir the aforesaid full-screen brightness connected the iPad Pro 2024 with its tandem-OLED display. Some others who person utilized the Surface Pro noted issues with substance legibility and graininess with whites connected the OLED screen, but I didn’t acquisition immoderate hint of that implicit respective weeks of use.

There’s besides a astonishing payment to the Surface Pro with its webcam. It’s not thing I enactment overmuch banal successful for a PC nowadays (do my coworkers request to spot the bags nether my eyes successful hi-def?). Yet, I was pleasantly amazed by the prime of the representation coming through, adjacent nether the murky fluorescent lights of our office.

Microsoft Surface Pro Battery Life

It’s Not an ‘All-Day Battery’

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

Microsoft promised 14 hours of artillery life, which the institution meant included 14 hours of video playback and 10 hours of web usage. Either way, it’s expected to beryllium an “all-day battery” with a 53 Whr capacity.

Basic video playback tests bespeak this convertible tin bash 14 hours of endless YouTube video, but I find those tests little utile than the anecdotal usage tests. As acold arsenic those went, the Surface Pro didn’t past a specified fewer hours earlier dipping into the red. While doing the astir basal tasks, not adjacent astatine highest brightness, with Windows acceptable to Best Power Efficiency Mode, I regularly watched the powerfulness leak from the strategy with the ratio of a spread successful a boat.

I could commencement a greeting astatine 77%, and by hr two, I had mislaid much than 50% of my battery. Even connected battery-saving mode with the surface brightness turned down, I was inactive moving connected fumes earlier my emblematic morning’s enactment was finished. Every time was the same, and arsenic I tried antithetic settings, I saw the Surface Pro arsenic a beleaguered racehorse, 1 being pressured to tally accelerated and bushed competitors contempt knowing it simply couldn’t lucifer up.

I brought my concerns to Microsoft but did not perceive backmost successful clip for our review. We’re keeping this 1 open-ended successful lawsuit we larn more.

Good Performance Can’t Overcome the Many Shortcomings

Photo: Artem Golub / Gizmodo

It doesn’t look viable astatine $450 for a keyboard and pen. You could usage a antithetic keyboard with the Surface Pro, but without the magnetic attachment points, they wouldn’t support your surface during transport. It seems similar Microsoft is taking a leafage from Apple’s playbook, oregon astatine slightest it’s learning each the incorrect lessons from its biggest tech competitor. At slightest with the iPad Pro 2024, it volition inactive enactment arsenic a tablet if you don’t wage $300 for the Magic Keyboard.

Is it almighty capable for mundane use? Yes, you’ll person to excuse the show connected different apps that don’t instantly person an ARM64 version. Even then, the Surface Pro doesn’t cognize what it is. It’s stuck successful limbo betwixt a tablet, a PC, and a newfangled AI device. When considering spending $2,000 for a comparatively tiny bump successful performance, you’re amended disconnected uncovering a laptop with a acold much comfy plan astatine a acold amended terms point.