Microsoft Surface Pro 11 - The End Of Tablets?

Here is another update on my experience with Surface Pro 11 for 2024, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite CPU.
-TDD

[RafaelRoden]

This about sums it up. Loving my Surface Pro 11. Even tho they've yet to send me the Flex Keyboard. The OLED is just that good. And being forced to use it as a tablet has shown me just how far Windows has come in that department. It's not completely horrible anymore. You'll need the virtual TouchPad occasionally, but it's workable and responsive. Could be much better with touch targets getting larger and an Android like gesture navigation system for sure

[WillyToons]

2:45 "Remember, OLED displays, you won't find that on anything Apple makes." OLEDs are available on Apple iPhones, iPads, VR headsets, and smartwatches.

[theTomRadziwill]

Im using the Surface Go 4 to run my whole business. I use it 75% of the time without keyboard. The SP line got too heavy to use it in tablet mode tbh. I hope for a ARM Go 5 with a 11.5 inch screen but under 600g ... Hopefully with even bezels around all sides like the go 4 :)

[christianr.]

This is gonna replace my iPad. It’s good, but the lack of desktop level software makes all of its power feel pointless

[BlazeingGoldReviews]

i have the Base model OLED. This thing is incredible. I am doing everything I did on my iPad and more. Great keyboard, great screen and stylus input methods. BTW Ai does not have to be a gimmick. The Live captions are really useful for YT content in other languages, as well as unsubbed anime.

[RemofRenaissance]

Thanks for the content. The surface Pro over the years has always been my most productive device but was always held back by poor battery life, slow speeds from time to time, overheating and fan noise. I would still always go back to my Surface Pro(s) to get work done and would use a charging cable often.
I picked up the Surface Pro 11 (base model /X Plus) and I'm really happy. This seems to be the model that brings everything together with the negatives gone. I say this as someone that has an M1 iPad Pro and had a ton of Macs in the past as well as at least 5 other generations of iPad over the last 20 years or so...

[mrwoodcat]

nicely put. I just hope they make surface go too with this chip.. that would be a PERFECT little productivity machine. ✨

[billymania]

In truth, the Surface Pro 9 hit the target from a performance standpoint. The battery aspect was still not great but I purchased an additional 65 watt charger. They are tiny and are no burden to carry around. These days, I rarely fire up my honking Xeon based desktop workstation, except to play a game or do some DB work.

[izzurzuhri]

as a dev, really enjoy Surface Pro 11, as most app I need either available natively or I can just compile it for arm64 architecture

[christianr.]

Some people have been using this for 4K editing

[nanodesu]

The thing i notice in the comment section. Those who complain quite alot about this device are those who are not even the target audience like gamers and power user, and worst of all, those who cant afford it in the first place 😂😂. Dude seriously, if you cant even afford it then you are not the target audience. Better stick to a budget windows laptop or chromebook. Complaining wont reduce the price lmao. 😂😂 Better wait for next year or black friday sale.

[itsacookie]

Does the Surface Pro match the performance of the Surface Laptop 15? or at least close?

I am considering the Pro 11 but it's still kind of small and I'm not sure about the cooling.

[bartekm]

Why no body test performance in android apps that on snapdragon windows machines?

[tiemji]

Thanks for suming up what make the surface a great device. Let's hope the Snapdragon platform will be upgraded over time

[mikeGietExperience]

I still have surface pro 6 and super happy about it - so yes when i'll be able to afford 11 i'll do it

[oes]

It was a great idea in concept, the concept of windows 8. I was going stay in the Surface camp forever because I had a great experience without it first time around. The whole multi input PC with a cross platform OS idea was great. Smoothly executed in performance, but with missing features and a GUI that many didn’t like. Thus it ended up not working out! I liked where they could have gone, I genuinely did (being one of very few). But now… isn’t that dead? Isn’t it just a laptop with a laptop OS in the form of a tablet with a pen now?

That’s my impression but I really don’t know. I might change my mind though. I will get back into checking it out in depth when upgrading my personal machine next time. It’s going to depend on how much point there is having a tablet form factor for windows 11 itself. How that experience feels. They need to polish things for once.

[nanodesu]

It woud be great if microsoft would create a skin/UI for windows optimized for touch input. Maybe increasing the icon size and text. An Optional or togglable feature or an auto activation if no keyboard is detected.

[mariosaternus]

I bought the iPad Pro 2024 with 1 TB of storage and the keyboard, because I thought iPadOS would be a little bit more optimised for desktop operations.
I also use a MacBook Pro 2021 (14 inch) as my main device.


I now bought the Surface Pro 11 OLED with 512 GB - I will test this and I hope the native ARM apps are more widespread.

I came from a Surface Pro X, which by the way works like a charm, even after almost 4, 5 years. Of course, it's slow compared to the MacBook and iPad Pro, but it's just with a 60 Hz screen and a pimped mobile SoC. Runs Windows 11 24H2 now.

[ahaimes]

I'm curious if Surface on ARM will save the Surface line-up, which has been in freefall in revenue for the last two years and is now below 2017 levels. I always understood that the demise of Windows as a tablet was it was significantly subpar to Android and iPadOS, and even the flexibility of a full OS needed to be more to stop the rot; $1.8 billion in revenue fell in 2023 alone. Maybe a last-chance saloon?

Anyway, when you can buy great tablets for $600, having a starting point of over $1000 makes it tough if you only want a tablet. Most people I know who need both use cases tend to buy a clamshell laptop and a tablet combo. People realise that compromising to have one less device to carry is not perfect. Even the ex-MS CEO said that making Windows a tablet hybrid was a billion-dollar mistake, with MS effectively becoming nobody in the tablet market and now seemingly giving up by killing off the Windows subsystem for Android.

Do yourself a favour and buy the best laptop and tablet you can afford, and do not settle for a halfway house that compromises both. But let us still hope that Surface sales stop crashing and burning as they have some hardcore fans who love the device, and we need them to survive for that diminishing demographic.

[eddiebyrns]

What case do you have on your surface?