Microsoft Surface Pro 11
Specifications
Secondary Camera: 3.6 MPix
Price comparison
Average of 2 scores (from 2 reviews)
Reviews for the Microsoft Surface Pro 11
Source: It Pro
Despite some misses, the Surface Pro has always had the makings of a great business device. More so than Apple's more creative-focused iPad Pro, the Surface Pro provides all the power of a laptop with the portability of a tablet, in a flexible 2-in-1 style. Poor processing power and a lack of battery life have traditionally been the main sticking points with the Pro, but that has been largely rectified with the 11. The latest Surface Pro is faster than most mainstream laptops, and last significantly longer than previous models. Even going throughout a whole workday without needing a charge. Sadly it isn't completely faultless; not every Windows application will run on ARM64 hardware (though that list is getting shorter). And the price is still extraordinarily high, almost one year after it was first released. The starting price is over $1,000 and that's before you add any bells and whistles... or even a stylus. That being said, this is the best Surface Pro to date.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 04/16/2025
Rating: Total score: 100%
Foreign Reviews
Source: Chip.de
DE→ENSingle Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/24/2025
Rating: Total score: 97% price: 93% performance: 97% features: 93% display: 99% mobility: 100%
Comment
Series:
Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) is the fifth generation in the Surface Pro family. The Surface Pro is solid as a rock and exudes a sense of futuristic quality. It’s also well-designed, with a look and feels that, while minimally changed from the Surface Pro 4, is still an improvement. The corners are more rounded, and the exhaust vents along the edges are less pronounced. There aren’t many moving parts in the Surface Pro itself. The power and volume buttons along the top are easy to find by feel, and have a crisp action, while the kickstand is smooth and reliably holds the tablet at chosen angle. It now opens up to 165 degrees, an increase from the Surface Pro 4, which opened 150 degrees. Fully flexed, the kickstand can turn Surface Pro into a nearly-flat slate. If a user decides to flip into tablet mode for a moment and fold back the Type Cover, the keyboard will turn off when the cover is tucked back. It can even switch Windows 10 into tablet mode if desired. It attaches to the tablet with strong magnets and connects via a physical port, meaning there’s zero lag when typing. The Surface Pro sports two front-firing speakers on each side of the display. There are small cutouts in the glass to let the sound through, and the design provides impressive sound for a tablet. Music is great, with surprising range, and there’s even a hint of bass. The speakers also get surprisingly loud and can fill a decent sized room without distorting.
The Surface Pro features up to a seventh-generation Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It is seen that the Surface Pro offers a cutting-edge CPU, solid RAM and SSD options, and full support for all of Microsoft’s most innovative Windows 10 technologies. All that will keep the machine relevant for years to come. The Surface Pro is refreshingly light on bloatware. While it’s stocked with the usual Microsoft Windows 10 apps and a handful of casual games, it’s otherwise unencumbered with junk software. The Surface utility is also a nice app that offers the ability to configure the Surface Pen and get some useful information about your machine. Microsoft is using a 45-watt-hour battery in the Surface Pro, which is an increase from the 38 watt-hour battery that was packed into the Surface Pro 4. The Surface Pro also uses more efficient seventh-generation Intel Core processors. Taken together, the new model offers improved battery life over its predecessor. The Surface Pro is eminently portable, at 0.33 inches thick and 1.73 pounds. Even with the Signature Type Cover attached, the machine is easy to carry around and slip into a bag. It might not be quite as thin and light as the iPad Pro, but it’s also a much more powerful machine that can run real PC applications. The Surface Pro bring a whole new meaning to the word tablet. It is a iPad like device but is actually a real computer.
Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam
Intel Arc 130V: An integrated graphics adapter that lower-end Intel Lunar Lake family processors employ. This is a direct successor to the Arc 7 iGPU; DirectX 12 Ultimate is fully supported here and the iGPU also supports hardware-decoding a long list of popular video codecs such as h.266 VVC, h.265 HEVC, h.264 AVC, AV1 and VP9. It is clear the 130V isn't fast enough to run most triple-A 2024 games at 1080p. However, it's still more than good enough for an occasional gaming session Helldivers 2 and Ready or Not run perfectly well at 1080p / Low.
Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Core Ultra 5 236V: A mid-range Lunar Lake family processor. It features 4 new Skymont E-cores and 4 new Lion Cove P-cores running at up to 3.5 GHz and 4.7 GHz respectively, along with the new Arc 130V iGPU and 16 GB of on-package LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. The 236V's level 3 cache is pretty small as compared to more expensive Ultra 7 2xxV and Ultra 9 2xxV chips at 8 MB vs 12 MB. Its multi-thread performance should be about as good as that of AMD's Ryzen 7 7735HS and Apple's M2, and it eats up to 37 W in short-term loads.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
13.00":
This range of display format is largely the upper limit for tablets and the lower limit for subnotebooks.
The advantage of subnotebooks is that the entire laptop can be small in size and therefore easily portable. The tiny display has the added advantage of requiring little power, which further improves battery life and thus mobility. The disadvantage is that reading texts is exhausting for the eyes. High resolutions, which one is used to from a standard laptop, are almost not usable.
The same applies to tablets in this size range.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.Microsoft:
Microsoft smartphones and tablets have been tested since 2012. There are many reviews with average ratings. The reader's interest is quite given, but the market share is not big enough for the Top 5 smartphone manufacturers (as of 2016).
98.5%: This model is obviously considered exceptional by the testers. There are almost no laptops that are rated this well. If the reviews or the sources that give these ratings are to be taken seriously, then it is a very clear buy recommendation. Unfortunately, sometimes top scores are also squandered.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
