Few devices have elicited such mixed reactions. In many ways, the Surface Pro 11 is a joy to work and relax on. On the other hand, if you are looking for a PC with AI, go your way, at least for now.
I particularly like the Surface Pro line because of its sleek, aesthetic design and kickstand. This allows you to open the device on any desk, as well as on your lap and even on an airplane tray. The (optional) snap-on Alcantara keyboard feels nice and gives the device a soft, warm feel usually missing from most laptops or tablets.
We’ve been long-time fans of the Surface Pro line because of these strengths combined with solid battery life and a great screen. If you are not a video editing pro or an intensive gamer, you will find what you are looking for with this device, provided you have a small USB dongle, because the Surface only has two USB-C ports for connecting external devices.
This article examines the benefits of the Surface Pro 11, compares it to the Surface Pro 10 released last year, and analyzes the much-rumored AI capabilities.
Design
Those who have already handled a Surface can skip this section, because the Surface Pro 11 looks exactly the same as its predecessors.
If you are not looking for a work tool for video editing or intensive gaming, this device will be what you are looking for.
This is a compliment rather than a criticism, because Microsoft has been offering beautiful devices for years. It maintains a very thin thickness (9.3 millimeters) and a featherweight (895 grams), while playing the PC card more than complete.
On the left we see two USB-C connectors, on the right a separate power connector (in principle you can also charge via USB-C, but the speed depends on your cable and connector head). At the top, we find the volume and power buttons. The greatest visual innovation lies in… a single touch. In fact, the Surface’s snap-on keyboard now has a Copilot button. We will come back to this later.
Windows
The Surface range is Microsoft’s flagship for Windows. The most popular operating system can run on any PC, but Surface is designed to make it shine. You can automatically restore settings from old devices, there’s of course OneDrive to store (or restore) your files online, and you get a month of Xbox Ultimate, including Microsoft’s entire games library, at procurement.
Let’s make a first observation straight away: the Surface Pro 10 is not a gaming device. There’s no separate graphics card on board, and with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus instead of an Intel processor, the device isn’t targeted at gaming.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. “Light” games like Vampire Survivors or Dota Underlords work perfectly. The latter sometimes presents some hesitations, but it is perfectly playable. Keep in mind that not all graphics-intensive games will run, and in any case they will eat up your battery. An example is Dota Underlords, a game that has been around for several years and admittedly does not have the highest gaming requirements. Yet after 12 minutes the battery drops by 8%, so that no other applications are active.
If you want a more comprehensive look, check out Forbes, which tested 25 games on the Surface Pro 11 last summer.
However, we must say that we did not encounter any compatibility issues during our testing period. Early attempts to run Windows on PCs with ARM chip architectures (like the Snapdragon) came with installation and efficiency limitations. Since then, many steps have been taken, and for average office work or home use, you will hardly encounter any obstacles.
Battery: no sprint, but a marathon
The Surface Pro 11 promises 14 hours of battery life for video playback. We tested this claim in more or less realistic conditions: we installed the short film Big Buck Bunny with VLC Player in 1080p (30fps) in a loop for five hours while the device was in airplane mode and no applications was not active. We did this for the Surface Pro 11 and the Surface Pro 10 (with Intel chip), a year older.
The battery of the Surface Pro 11 is significantly more efficient than that of its predecessor.
After our test, the Pro 11 indicates that 43% battery remains. Do the math: 5 hours of film therefore consumes 57% of battery. Per hour of video, the device consumes approximately 11.4%. If we extrapolate, we get about 8 to 9 hours with a fully charged device. Of course, it should be clarified that this is not a scientific test. Brightness, background processes, and even VLC choice influence these numbers.
All things considered, 8 to 9 hours isn’t too bad. Certainly not if we compare with the Surface Pro 10, which is barely a year older, but which is equipped with an Intel chip. In this case, there is 10% battery left after five hours of video in the same conditions, or 18% battery per hour, which means that the Pro 10 would give up the ghost after… 5.5 hours.
However, this comparison calls for a remark: the Pro 10 is a laptop that has been used for a year and which may therefore already show some signs of wear on the battery. But the difference is such that we can’t help but conclude that the battery of the Surface Pro 11 is significantly more efficient than that of its predecessor.
Alongside this test, we also noticed that the heat emitted by the Pro 11 increases slightly less during prolonged video playback than that of the Pro 10 in this test. Note, however, that neither device heats up uncomfortably after hours of watching videos.
(None) Co-pilot-PC
If Microsoft were to introduce the latest Surface as a tablet-laptop combination, we would conclude at this point that the device is a worthy successor with excellent capabilities, a crystal-clear display, and great sound.
The Surface Pro 11, however, does not deserve its name as an AI PC.
But the Surface Pro 11 is marketed as an AI PC, or more precisely a Copilot PC, with an NPU to perform all these AI tasks. Since this year, Microsoft has even provided a dedicated button on the keyboard to activate Copilot. This is precisely the point which, let’s admit it, left us wanting more. Indeed, the Surface Pro 11 does not deserve the name AI PC.
When Microsoft showed what it could do with Copilot a year ago, we were ecstatic. We saw an AI assistant that knew your device: “Play me some music” and Spotify opens. “Increase the brightness” and the screen lights up more brightly. Copilot was meant to become a way to enable things big and small in your PC. Ideal in fact for those who don’t want to go through countless settings or find the right application. A year later, the observation is clear: all these great functions turn out to be empty promises.
Copilot on an AI PC was presented as a Ferrari, in practice it is a very mediocre cargo bike. The difference is that a cargo bike still allows you to go somewhere. Nothing we’ve tried in the Copilot app works. Even asking how much battery capacity is left gets a generic answer regarding laptop batteries. Copilot on the Surface is only a very short head above ChatGPT in a Microsoft package. The experience is so disappointing that we have deliberately chosen not to focus this article on the artificial intelligence functions. This is an excellent device that shines in both its design and its capabilities, which is where it should excel. But don’t buy it if you’re looking for an AI miracle. This may be for the next update or for a later version. But, for now, Microsoft is content to sell a fad for an otherwise excellent device.
