Surface Pro 11 review: tantalizingly close to the dream

For 11 years, nan Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s champion articulation of its imagination for nan early of individual computing: nan powerfulness of a Windows laptop, pinch nan elasticity and artillery life of a tablet.

But x86 chips were excessively power-hungry, and Arm chips were excessively slow. So Microsoft divided nan Surface lineup successful two: location was a accelerated Surface pinch an x86 spot and bad artillery life and a slow Arm 1 pinch awesome artillery life. But having to take betwixt them was ne'er nan dream. 

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

I’ve spent complete a period utilizing nan Surface Pro 11 arsenic my main machine — forsaking my desktop PC, activity MacBook Air, and iPad. Each of them is amended than nan Surface Pro successful astatine slightest 1 way. The desktop has amended app compatibility, and its eight-year-old midrange GPU mops nan level pinch nan 1 successful nan Surface Pro. The MacBook has amended artillery life 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 nan Surface Pro costs much than immoderate 2 of them put together. But it’s bully capable astatine nan important things and much elastic than immoderate of nan others. It’s nan closest Microsoft has travel to achieving nan dream.

The Surface Pro 11 starts astatine $1,000 pinch 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 pinch a 12-core processor, 512GB of RAM, and OLED surface starts astatine $1,500.

I’ve spent a period utilizing nan $2,100 top-of-the-line configuration pinch a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an OLED screen. Add nan 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 nan 9th edition, from nan ports to nan peripheral venting that wraps astir nan apical half of nan tablet. The astir important differences are nan OLED sheet connected nan step-up model, nan Flex Keyboard, and of course, nan Snapdragon X processor. 

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

And if you walk much clip successful documents than watching videos (which is simply a adjacent stake if you’re willing successful nan Surface Pro), nan 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 nan wall, but I hardly announcement it, perchance because I don’t person different OLED laptops lying around. I do announcement nan glare. There’s nary antireflective coating connected nan screen, and I person to crank up nan brightness if I’m adjacent a window, moreover connected a cloudy day. 

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

The full constituent of nan Surface Pro is that you tin return nan keyboard off. Otherwise, you’d conscionable get a laptop. Maybe you want to constitute aliases tie connected nan surface pinch nan stylus, possibly you’re trying to get amended ergonomics, possibly you want to usage a keyboard you for illustration better, aliases possibly you’re conscionable trying to fresh nan darn point connected an airplane tray array truthful you tin watch a movie. Most type covers extremity moving erstwhile you detach nan keyboard, but nan caller Flex Keyboard screen has Bluetooth, truthful it conscionable keeps going.

The handoff betwixt nan beingness and Bluetooth connections is seamless, and nan keyboard itself is beautiful good. For $349 ($449 pinch nan stylus), it ought to be. The keys are shallow but person a decent tactile bump connected nan downstroke and a snappy upstroke. It feels a batch for illustration typing connected a somewhat elastic MacBook Air — Microsoft reinforced nan guidelines to protect nan battery, truthful nan keys consciousness little bouncy than erstwhile type covers. The haptic trackpad is meticulous and soft but feels a small excessively short. The keyboard platform is wrapped successful soft, heathered-looking alcantara fabric. It’s comfortable and feels warmer nether nan palms than metallic would, but I wish Microsoft had switched to aluminum like it did pinch nan 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 want to usage it alternatively of my regular keyboard and rodent erstwhile I’m astatine location — though I do extremity up utilizing it that measurement since I person it around. Fortunately, nan Surface Pro 11 useful pinch a half-dozen existent and erstwhile Surface Pro keyboard covers, which start astatine $140. For that matter, nan Flex Keyboard useful pinch Surface Pro models backmost to nan Surface Pro X from 2019. You tin get a cheaper keyboard for nan Surface Pro 11 aliases bargain conscionable nan Flex Keyboard for your older Surface Pro.

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

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

But it’s not rather a drop-in replacement for an Intel Surface Pro. Because astir Windows apps are still 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 still struggle pinch immoderate apps, particularly graphics-heavy ones, and immoderate programs garbage to tally astatine all. You’ll request to make judge your must-have apps activity good earlier committing to immoderate of nan caller Arm laptops. 

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

Most days, I sewage astir 8 hours of artillery life pinch nan surface astatine astir 50 aliases 60 percent brightness and each of Microsoft’s power-saving recommendations enabled, including acheronian mode and mounting nan Pro to slumber aft 3 minutes of inactivity. One day, I sewage astir 11 hours. But pinch awesome powerfulness comes awesome powerfulness consumption. Apps that really push nan processor, for illustration our Cinebench benchmark, chew done artillery life — and truthful do video calls, for immoderate reason.   

Outside of video calls and benchmarks, I saw a 9 aliases 10 percent driblet successful artillery level per hour. In calls, it’s doubly that, and connected days pinch tons of meetings, I sewage person to six hours connected a charge. And I looked bad nan full time.

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

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

Microsoft calls nan Surface Pro a 2-in-1. But you can’t really fresh 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 do agency activity connected and nary laptop rather this flexible, particularly now that you don’t person to take betwixt decent artillery life and nan expertise to tally existent apps without stumbling. 

Even if you’re sold connected nan thought of nan Surface Pro, nan smart move would beryllium to hold six months and spot really Arm compatibility shakes out, particularly if your activity requires immoderate benignant of graphics horsepower, you for illustration to game, aliases you want 5G, which isn’t disposable yet. You should astir apt do that.

After a period pinch nan Surface Pro 11, I’m not judge I tin spell backmost to a regular laptop. I don’t mind nan OLED grain, and I could moreover unrecorded pinch nan webcam situation. I wasn’t gaming overmuch anyway, and I’m judge nan Arc browser will travel to Arm64 someday. I emotion being capable to popular disconnected nan Flex Keyboard and instrumentality nan Surface Pro connected a stack of books for amended ergonomics aliases conscionable plug it successful beneath my show and usage my regular keyboard and mouse. I’m not rather fresh for it to beryllium my only computer, but it feels for illustration we’re astir there.