Surface Pro 11 review: tantalizingly close to the dream

For 11 years, the Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s champion articulation of its imaginativeness for the aboriginal of idiosyncratic computing: the powerfulness of a Windows laptop, with the flexibility and artillery beingness of a tablet.

But x86 chips were excessively power-hungry, and Arm chips were excessively slow. So Microsoft divided the Surface lineup successful two: determination was a accelerated Surface with an x86 spot and atrocious artillery beingness and a dilatory Arm 1 with large artillery life. But having to take betwixt them was ne'er the dream. 

The Surface Pro 11 is expected to person it all. For the archetypal time, it mostly does. Thanks to the new Snapdragon X processor, it’s the archetypal Arm-based Surface Pro that runs Windows and astir apps without tripping implicit itself. More than that, it’s accelerated arsenic hell. It’s beautifully built and amazingly repairable, and the caller Flex Keyboard is downright magical.

I’ve spent implicit a period utilizing the Surface Pro 11 arsenic my main machine — forsaking my desktop PC, enactment MacBook Air, and iPad. Each of them is amended than the Surface Pro successful astatine slightest 1 way. The desktop has amended app compatibility, and its eight-year-old midrange GPU mops the level with the 1 successful the Surface Pro. The MacBook has amended artillery beingness and a little cluttered operating system, and it’s nicer to usage connected your existent lap. The iPad is simply a much, much amended tablet. And the Surface Pro costs much than immoderate 2 of them enactment together. But it’s bully capable astatine the important things and much flexible than immoderate of the others. It’s the closest Microsoft has travel to achieving the dream.

The Surface Pro 11 starts astatine $1,000 with a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 13-inch, 2880 x 1920 LCD touchscreen — keyboard and stylus not included. The step-up exemplary with a 12-core processor, 512GB of RAM, and OLED surface starts astatine $1,500.

I’ve spent a period utilizing the $2,100 top-of-the-line configuration with a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an OLED screen. Add the caller Flex Keyboard and stylus, and it costs $2,550.  

The hardware is arsenic refined arsenic you’d expect from a instrumentality successful its 11th year. The chassis is astir identical to the 9th edition, from the ports to the peripheral venting that wraps astir the apical fractional of the tablet. The astir important differences are the OLED sheet connected the step-up model, the Flex Keyboard, and of course, the Snapdragon X processor. 

The OLED show is Microsoft’s first. It’s agleam and often beautiful. HDR video looks great. (Fallout’s wasteland truly pops.) But Windows’ HDR enactment tin get screwy — it washes retired screenshots taken with the Snipping Tool, for illustration — truthful I support it disconnected astir of the time. 

And if you walk much clip successful documents than watching videos (which is simply a just stake if you’re funny successful the Surface Pro), the OLED whitethorn not beryllium for you. The subpixel array tin springiness it a grainy appearance, particularly connected a achromatic background. It drives my workfellow Tom Warren up the wall, but I hardly announcement it, perchance due to the fact that I don’t person different OLED laptops lying around. I bash announcement the glare. There’s nary antireflective coating connected the screen, and I person to crank up the brightness if I’m adjacent a window, adjacent connected a cloudy day. 

Late into my clip with the OLED Surface Pro, I bought a $1,199 exemplary with an LCD screen. The LCD looks fine. It doesn’t person the grain. If I’d been utilizing it the full time, I’d beryllium perfectly happy. But adjacent to the OLED, it looks washed out, and it’s conscionable arsenic prone to glare. I’d alternatively person the OLED, atom and glare and $300 other beryllium damned. 

The full constituent of the Surface Pro is that you tin instrumentality the keyboard off. Otherwise, you’d conscionable get a laptop. Maybe you privation to constitute oregon gully connected the surface with the stylus, possibly you’re trying to get amended ergonomics, possibly you privation to usage a keyboard you similar better, oregon possibly you’re conscionable trying to acceptable the darn happening connected an airplane tray array truthful you tin ticker a movie. Most benignant covers halt moving erstwhile you detach the keyboard, but the caller Flex Keyboard screen has Bluetooth, truthful it conscionable keeps going.

The handoff betwixt the carnal and Bluetooth connections is seamless, and the keyboard itself is beauteous good. For $349 ($449 with the stylus), it ought to be. The keys are shallow but person a decent tactile bump connected the downstroke and a snappy upstroke. It feels a batch similar typing connected a somewhat flexible MacBook Air — Microsoft reinforced the basal to support the battery, truthful the keys consciousness little bouncy than erstwhile benignant covers. The haptic trackpad is close and creaseless but feels a small excessively short. The keyboard platform is wrapped successful soft, heathered-looking alcantara fabric. It’s comfy and feels warmer nether the palms than metallic would, but I privation Microsoft had switched to aluminum like it did with the Surface Laptop. The thenar rests connected my reappraisal portion person started yellowing aft conscionable a fewer weeks. 

The Flex Keyboard is expensive, and it’s not needfully so bully that I’d privation to usage it alternatively of my regular keyboard and rodent erstwhile I’m astatine location — though I bash extremity up utilizing it that mode since I person it around. Fortunately, the Surface Pro 11 works with a half-dozen existent and erstwhile Surface Pro keyboard covers, which start astatine $140. For that matter, the Flex Keyboard works with Surface Pro models backmost to the Surface Pro X from 2019. You tin get a cheaper keyboard for the Surface Pro 11 oregon bargain conscionable the Flex Keyboard for your older Surface Pro.

The OLED show and the caller keyboard are some optional, but the Arm spot isn’t. The Surface Pro 11 runs connected Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X platform, which tries to bash for Windows machines what Apple Silicon has done for Macs and iPads: harvester the show of a laptop with the artillery beingness of a tablet. It feels similar it was made for the Surface Pro.

Most of the time, the Surface Pro 11 is arsenic accelerated arsenic the different Snapdragon X laptops we’ve tested and faster than the Intel and AMD chips we enactment it up against. More importantly, it feels fast, which is much than immoderate earlier Arm Surface Pro has managed. Even the 10-core spot connected the basal exemplary is fine.

But it’s not rather a drop-in replacement for an Intel Surface Pro. Because astir Windows apps are inactive compiled for x86 processors, Arm computers person to walk other cycles connected emulation. The caller Snapdragon X chips are way amended astatine emulation than earlier Arm processors, but they inactive conflict with immoderate apps, particularly graphics-heavy ones, and immoderate programs garbage to tally astatine all. You’ll request to marque definite your must-have apps enactment good earlier committing to immoderate of the caller Arm laptops. 

I’ve spent the past period utilizing the Surface Pro 11 arsenic my main enactment computer, and app compatibility doesn’t travel maine up much. Almost each my day-to-day apps person Arm64 versions, including Slack, Spotify, and the browser. (I tally a lot of tabs.) Most of those that don’t, similar Beeper and Obsidian, enactment good successful emulation. The app I miss the astir is the Arc browser (sorry, Edge), though my VPN lawsuit didn’t work, either, and I did person to power backmost to my desktop to usage the Via keyboard remapping software. Most games don’t tally good connected Arm yet, but GeForce Now crippled streaming works good — overmuch amended than it did successful mid-June.

Most days, I got astir 8 hours of artillery beingness with the surface astatine astir 50 oregon 60 percent brightness and each of Microsoft’s power-saving recommendations enabled, including acheronian mode and mounting the Pro to slumber aft 3 minutes of inactivity. One day, I got astir 11 hours. But with large powerfulness comes large powerfulness consumption. Apps that truly propulsion the processor, similar our Cinebench benchmark, chew done artillery beingness — and truthful bash video calls, for immoderate reason.   

Outside of video calls and benchmarks, I saw a 9 oregon 10 percent driblet successful artillery level per hour. In calls, it’s doubly that, and connected days with tons of meetings, I got person to six hours connected a charge. And I looked atrocious the full time.

The beforehand camera connected the Surface Pro is simply a 1440p ultrawide, and its fish-eye effect and default framing are unflattering and distracting. You loom implicit everyone other successful the call. There’s an automatic framing diagnostic that digitally zooms into your look and keeps you centered, but it oversharpens facial features to compensate for the debased solution and ne'er works the archetypal time. This is not a machine to bargain if you’re connected a batch of calls. 

On the agleam side, Windows Hello look authentication reliably unlocks the Surface Pro arsenic soon arsenic I aftermath it up, which is simply a quality-of-life betterment I wasn’t expecting.  

Microsoft calls the Surface Pro a 2-in-1. But you can’t truly acceptable 2 into 1 without compromising somewhere. It’s little lappable than a laptop and little tablet-y than a tablet, and it costs arsenic overmuch arsenic buying both. But there’s nary amended tablet to bash bureau enactment connected and nary laptop rather this flexible, particularly present that you don’t person to take betwixt decent artillery beingness and the quality to tally existent apps without stumbling. 

Even if you’re sold connected the thought of the Surface Pro, the astute determination would beryllium to hold six months and spot however Arm compatibility shakes out, particularly if your enactment requires immoderate benignant of graphics horsepower, you similar to game, oregon you privation 5G, which isn’t disposable yet. You should astir apt bash that.

After a period with the Surface Pro 11, I’m not definite I tin spell backmost to a regular laptop. I don’t caput the OLED grain, and I could adjacent unrecorded with the webcam situation. I wasn’t gaming overmuch anyway, and I’m definite the Arc browser volition travel to Arm64 someday. I emotion being capable to popular disconnected the Flex Keyboard and instrumentality the Surface Pro connected a stack of books for amended ergonomics oregon conscionable plug it successful beneath my show and usage my regular keyboard and mouse. I’m not rather acceptable for it to beryllium my lone computer, but it feels similar we’re astir there.