Microsoft Surface Pro 11 Review
The Surface Pro 11 gets a huge Qualcomm boost
Verdict
The Surface Pro 11, at least in its OLED display-toting X Elite version, is the most complete Surface I have reviewed. The switch to efficient and powerful Qualcomm chips has been a huge success, the screen is glorious and the updated keyboard is a joy.
Pros
- The OLED screen is great
- Strong performance for everyday tasks
- Compact package
Cons
- Keyboard sold separately
- The whole package gets expensive fast
- Not for gaming
Key Features
- Powered by QualcommSnapdragon X Plus or X Elite chips inside
- OLED displayA wonderful 13-inch optional OLED display is a huge improvement over LCD
Introduction
The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is the latest entry in the long-running series of hybrid laptops, and it’s one of the best I have used.
Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro device is an important release for several reasons. This initial version has ditched Intel chips for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips, giving it a notable performance and battery life boost.
It’s also got new screen tech, and an updated keyboard attachment that can be used independently of the display.
Pricing starts at £1049/$999 for the X Plus (10 core) with LCD, and £1549/$1499 for the OLED-toting X Elite. Then the Flex keyboard is £339/$349 without the Slim Pen and £439/$449 with it. There are cheaper keyboards, starting from £139/$139.
The question remains, is this 2-in-1 device better than the best laptops and best tablets, or simply an adequate alternative? I’ve spent the last few weeks using the Surface Pro 11 OLED version to find out.
Design and Keyboard
- You still have to buy the keyboard separately
- Best used on a table
- Kickstand remains a feature I wish was more common
Microsoft has stuck to the blueprint set by previous Surface devices with this iteration, and that means that while it has a lot going for it, issues we’ve had with the series before still linger.
This is a hybrid 2-in-1 machine rather than a traditional laptop. I can’t really describe it as a ‘laptop’ at all, because it’s basically impossible to use on a lap due to the way it’s built. That’ll be fine for anyone who has used an entry in the series before, though it does take some getting used to if this is your first Surface.
The Surface Pro 11, in its simplest form, is a tablet with a 13-inch display. That display can either be an LCD or an OLED panel depending on how much you’re happy to spend. To get the most from the Surface Pro 11, you’ll want to pair it with the magnetic Flex Keyboard. I still find it baffling how Microsoft sells the Surface without a keyboard in the box as, unlike the iPad and Android tablets, it’s not as good as a tablet.
Unlike an iPad, the Surface Pro 11 has a kickstand on the back – a small flap that can be pulled out to prop the display up without a case. The kickstand is rigid and has a wide range of spots it can stand in. If you push it all the way back it sets the screen in a nice position for drawing while it can be set upright too.
There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the side – both capable of charging, transferring data and outputting video/audio – and a Surface connector on the other. In the box you get a charger that plugs in via this Surface connector; other USB-C chargers will work too.
The port selection is better than that of the iPad Pro and is on par with mid-range laptops, although it’s missing things like an HDMI port and full-size SD card slot.
Microsoft has always built good hardware, and the Surface Pro 11 continues that theme. It’s thin, light, extremely portable and the addition of the keyboard doesn’t add too much weight. I particularly like the new blue – Microsoft calls it Sapphire – colour option, which is a hue that almost sparkles in certain light. It really does look great. The more subtle Platinum colourway is a little more professional looking and there’s a Black and gold-tinged Dune offering too.
As I mentioned above, while the Surface Pro 11 doesn’t come with a keyboard in its base price you will want to get one to complete the package. I’ve been testing the Surface Pro 11 with the new Surface Flex keyboard, however the traditional Surface keyboard is still compatible.
The Surface Flex keyboard has a few tricks over its predecessors and it’s the option I would plump for, even if it is slightly more expensive. The Flex keyboard has Bluetooth, so while it can be used traditionally when docked to the display, it can also be used independently. This is a small tweak, but one that makes so much sense. I can prop the Surface Pro 11 on the desk and have the keyboard on my knees, or raise the display to a more comfortable height and sit back and type.
The trackpad is large and has a nice haptic response wherever it’s pressed. The keys are well-spaced out, with a backlight for night typing sessions and just enough travel. A neat addition is the CoPilot key, which takes you straight to the new AI skills of the machine with a single press.
Above the keys is the small cutout for the Slim Pen, which can be purchased in a combo with the Flex Keyboard or separately. It can also be left out completely if it’s of no use.
The slim, flat design of the stylus is a little odd, and I much prefer the round Apple Pencil Pro. As much as I tried, I just couldn’t find a comfortable spot to grip the Slim Pen for extended periods. It’s still a welcome addition though, especially for quickly signing documents or jotting the odd note – I just wouldn’t recommend it for art or creative work.
Display and Sound
- OLED or LCD options
- 13-inch size whichever tech is chosen
- Excellent brightness levels and overall quality
The Surface Pro 11 can be configured with either an LCD or an OLED display and which screen tech you get is tied to which version of the Snapdragon X chipset is inside. The entry-level X Plus is paired with the LCD, while the higher-end X Elite comes with the OLED display. There’s about a £500/$500 difference between the two models.
For this review, I have been using the OLED model and while it’s pricer, the screen is far superior to the LCD alternative. In my tests, I have found that it produces excellent colours, impressive HDR performance and can hit high brightness levels.
The OLED panel features a 2880 x 1920 resolution, and a dynamic refresh rate that maxes out at 120Hz. To my eye, it’s a stunning panel. I fired up Ripley – a gorgeous black and white show on Netflix – and was blown away by the detail in the Italian landscapes. Something a little more colourful, Eric (again on Netflix), showcased the HDR skills of this panel excellently.
My lab testing backed my real-world tests. Using a colorimeter, I measured 151% sRGB coverage and 112% DCI-P3 coverage, meaning it’s a top panel for colour-sensitive workloads and far above what we consider acceptable. Moving onto brightness tests, the Surface Pro 11 hit over 550 nits in SDR and regular everyday use, moving up to around 800 nits for HDR playback. Both are above expectations and show just how good this screen really is.
While the screen is fantastic, the speakers aren’t quite so. That’s to be expected for a thin tablet device, but they can’t really compare to larger laptops. Bass is lacking, and everything sounds a little flat, whether it’s music or videos. One positive is that the audio is pushed out of the sides of the display, so it won’t blocked by your hands on the keyboard. There’s also no headphone jack, so Bluetooth or USB-C headphones are a must.
Performance
- Qualcomm chipset – tested here is the X Elite
- 16GB or 32GB LPDDR5x RAM
- Storage up to 1TB
Like with the Surface Pro 7, the star of the show with the Surface Laptop 11 is the new direction Microsoft has taken with the internals. This is a huge change of direction for Microsoft’s Surface devices and it has similarities to Apple’s move from Intel chips to the M-series.
Rather than plumping for an x86 chip from big names like Intel or AMD, Microsoft has used either Qualcomm’s top-class Snapdragon X Elite or the mid-range X Plus to power the latest Surface.
The Elite – the chip inside the model I am reviewing – is a 12 core/24 thread SoC and while it’s not really suited to gaming, in my tests I was impressed with its performance in everyday tasks.
In our benchmark tests in both Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23, the Surface Pro 11 can’t quite compete with some of the other ultrabooks powered by high-end Intel or AMD hardware. However for a first attempt, I think it’s pretty impressive and a far cry from the Snapdragon Arm experiment that hampered the Surface X a number of years ago.
Benchmarks only tell half the story, and in real-world use the Surface Pro 11 is great. Apps open immediately, everything feels smooth and it’s very responsive.
When I first received an M1 series MacBook Air I noted that the chip was so capable that it made me forget about the possibility of slowdown or poor performance and it’s a similar feeling here. Now, of course, this machine (especially with the keyboard) is a lot more expensive than Apple’s initial M1 MacBook Air so that does need to be taken into consideration.
There’s a choice between 16GB or 32GB LPDDR5x RAM, and storage options including 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. Wi-Fi 7 is onboard too, for those with compatible routers, and Bluetooth 5.4.
As this is a tablet, there are cameras on both the front and back. The front Windows Hello-capable snapper is good: crisp, with nice skin tone reproduction and well-managed exposure levels. The rear 10MP sensor is fine for scanning in documents.
Software
- Free of annoying bloatware
- AI features are limited currently
- Good app compatibility
There are two important aspects of the software with the Surface Pro 11, and that’s app compatibility with the Arm infrastructure and the heavily hyped AI CoPilot Plus features. One is a hit – the other less so.
Where the Surface Pro 11 surprised me the most was when it came to app compatibility. Of course, apps built specifically for Arm performed admirably and the list of these is growing all the time with big hitters from Adobe and Google already built for this hardware.
For apps not designed for Arm, there’s a translation layer built into Windows 11 that takes the x86 app and emulates it so it can run. Due to the extra process involved, there is always going to be some sort of impact on the overall performance of the app.
Thankfully the impact is small and I didn’t have any issues with apps I used daily, However, that’s not to say that issues won’t arise. and if you use a very specific app for an important process then it’s worth making sure that it works.
AI is the buzzword hanging around most higher-end laptops in 2024 and it’s very much the case here. Microsoft’s CoPilot Plus system is at play here, and there’s a dedicated CoPilot key on the keyboard for easy access.
I can’t say, at this stage, I am particularly impressed by much of the AI skills on offer, although they’ll likely only get better over time and at least there’s the powerful NPU (neural processing unit) here to keep up.
In the Photos app you can use generative AI to generate an image from a number of prompts, while the GoCreator function inside Microsoft Paint adds a little more detail to your artwork. There are some AI-infused Studio effects in the webcam too, making sure you always stay in frame and maintain eye contact even if you’re not looking at the screen.
The biggest feature of this CoPilot+ tech is Recall, however after some controversy, it was shelved shortly before release and is still (at the time of writing) only available to beta testers. The idea behind Recall is great – and I was thoroughly impressed with what I saw during the launch.
Simply put, Recall lets you search deeply across your whole computer using natural language. It can also search back, noting things you’ve looked at and. Using Recall, in theory, you could find something on a web page you looked at a few weeks ago but forgot to save anywhere.
The issue with Recall, is that to function the system would take constant screenshots of your activity and then use AI to search through them and bring the information back. There were some security concerns around this, and we’re still yet to see if things will differ once the feature is live for everyone.
Battery Life
- Strong endurance
- Included charger
Aside from performance benefits, switching to Arm chips has typically also benefited battery life. Our reviewer was thoroughly impressed with the endurance of the Surface Laptop 7, for example, and all the M-series MacBooks I have tested have performed better than older Intel-based versions. So, what’s the verdict with the Surface Pro 11?
On the whole, I have been very impressed with the battery here. It doesn’t quite hit the levels of the Surface Laptop (which lasted over 22 hours in our video playback test) but for a compact device, it rivals the iPad Pro M4 and can comfortably last a day of work with ease.
Microsoft claims the Surface Pro 11 can run for 14 hours of video playback, and in our video playback test I exceeded this number, nearly hitting 15 hours when the screen’s brightness was set to 150 nits. In general use, after a full day of work – a mixture of writing, video calls and lots of web-based activities in Chrome – I was left with upwards of 25% remaining.
Various battery-saver modes can be enabled to eke some extra juice out, but outside of specific circumstances, I tend to prefer enabling most of the features of the laptops as there’s little reason spending this much if you’re not going to take advantage of what’s available.
There are two ways to charge the device, either with the included Surface Connect charger or with a USB-C power adapter. If your plug is capable of outputting 65w then you’ll get the fastest speeds possible.
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Should you buy it?
You want a device that can do a lot
The Surface Pro 11 is a complete device, both an excellent everyday ‘laptop’ and a tablet. It’s fast, with good battery life and plenty of nice touches – like the optional OLED display.
You’re in the market for a standard laptop
You need to think about whether you’ll utilise the 2-in-1 design as if you just want a laptop – the Surface Laptop 7 is a cheaper choice that still packs the Qualcomm goodness.
Final Thoughts
The Surface Pro 11, at least in its OLED display-toting X Elite version, is the most complete Surface I have reviewed. The switch to efficient and powerful Qualcomm chips has been a huge success for a hybrid machine like this.
Performance is good for everyday tasks, battery life is strong and app compatibility isn’t a huge issue – at least for my needs. The screen is gorgeous too, and the whole package is compact and very portable.
There are issues though, and many of them are the same issues I have always had with the Surface Pro line. Selling the keyboard separately remains a pain and it’s not the easiest machine to use when space is tight, like on a plane’s tray table.
If you like the sound of the performance here but don’t need the hybrid form factor, the Surface Laptop 7 is a more traditional shape, performs just as well, is more affordable and has better battery life. It lacks the stunning OLED panel, though, The iPad Pro M4 is a better pure tablet, but it lacks the wide compatibility you get with a full-fat desktop operating system.
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key factors, including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps.
We test the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
We test the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.
We test the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.
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FAQs
The screen is great, so it’s lovely to watch films on the go – and the kickstand props it up, Windows isn’t the best tablet OS, though.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
