Microsoft Surface Pro 11: Cheaper OLED variant already available for first Snapdragon X Elite 2-in-1

The dust has now settled on the unveiling of what Qualcomm succinctly described as 'Copilot+ devices powered by Snapdragon X series processors'. So far, OEMs have announced 16 consumer devices running Snapdragon X series silicon. Subsequently, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon Dev Kit though, a $899.99 mini-PC running what appears to be a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 chipset with an 80 W TDP.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Surface Pro 11 is the only Snapdragon X-powered device introduced so far that eschews the conventional laptop form factor. For context, although Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung all currently sell convertible laptops of one kind or another, they all refrained from offering this form factor for its first Snapdragon X releases. Conversely, the Surface Pro 11 is one of half a dozen Snapdragon X devices to feature an OLED display, with the others being:

• ASUS Vivobook S 15
• Dell XPS 13 9345
• Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6
• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9
• Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 14
• Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16

By all accounts, the Surface Pro 11 is one of the more expensive Snapdragon X devices when configured with an OLED display. According to Microsoft's product page, OLED SKUs start at $1,499.99 with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage and an unspecified Snapdragon X Elite chipset. The same is true of retailers like Best Buy, whose configurator does not allow you to select an OLED display without also jumping $500 from the Surface Pro's $999.99 starting price.

However, it turns out that Microsoft is supplying a cheaper OLED option to Amazon, which the retailer lists as an 'Amazon Exclusive'. Erroneously, the retailer shows the Surface Pro 11 with a Type Cover, which remains an optional accessory. Nonetheless, Amazon's SKU undercuts Microsoft's cheaper OLED option by $100, despite not compromising on a Snapdragon X Elite chipset or 16 GB of RAM. Instead, Amazon's SKU includes a 256 GB SSD, which remains user-replaceable, just like on all other recent Surface Pro machines. Consequently, Amazon is currently the cheapest way to purchase a Surface Pro 11 with an OLED display, which it will release on June 18.

Pre-order the Surface Pro 11 (X1 Elite/16 GB RAM/256 GB SSD) on Amazon