ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Microsoft has made one of the best work tablets of 2024 with the 11th-generation Surface Pro.
- It’s one of the new Copilot+ PCs housing next-gen hardware, long-lasting battery, and a stunning OLED touchscreen.
- As great as it may be, the device’s generative AI features don’t perform at the same level as the rest of the machine’s features.
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Copilot+ PCs. When they were first announced back in May, Microsoft waxed on about how well they perform, how they’re better than the M3 MacBook Air, and all the new features they’re coming with. So far, it seems consumers have responded to the hype, believing the company finally managed to create a worthwhile Windows on arm machine.
Also: I bought the cheapest Surface Pro 11 laptop: 3 takeaways as a Windows expert
Recently, I had the opportunity to test out one of these machines: the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition<!–>, and I had one question in mind going into it: does it live up to the hype? Now that I’ve had a chance to test it, I can confidently say that the device meets the hype in some ways, and doesn’t in others.
It starts with the model’s hardware. The Surface Pro houses Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite, which, if the hype is to be believed, make this laptop a “MacBook killer”. It certainly performs well enough. Browsers ran smoothly, even with multiple videos playing and a lot of open tabs. First-party software and some third-party apps also did pretty well.
I did, however, have some difficulty properly testing the hardware. The Snapdragon X Elite chips are so new that many of the usual benchmark tests we use at ZDNET don’t work as intended yet. Geekbench was one of the few that did, earning a score of 14,564, placing the processor above the M3 MacBook Air but below the M3 MacBook Pro. While this suggests the new Surface Pro is better than Apple’s hardware, it’s hard to say for without proper testing.
We have to wait until the developers update their benchmark software to get a better picture. Additionally, as Windows releases further updates to optimize performance with the new chips, we’ll see increased efficiency and performance over the next few months.
Also: The best Windows laptops you can buy: Expert tested
Regarding third-party apps’ performance on the new Copilot+ PCs, you may have heard that some are slow, glitchy, or don’t work at all. Thankfully, Microsoft’s Prism emulator allows may such apps to run on Windows on arm PCs (similar to how Apple’s Rosetta lets you run non-native apps on MacOS), although not everything works perfectly yet.
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As a Copilot+ PC, its AI capabilities are a big part of the device’s draw. But in practice, I found most of the immediately-available features a little disappointing. Content from the Cocreator AI image generator was low quality. Live Captions was slow and often inaccurate. Studio Effects, on the other hand, was pretty good. It enhances the already fantastic 1440p webcam by improving lighting in video calls, centering the camera, and blurring the background among other things.
Speaking of work, professional users will fall in love with the gorgeous PixelSense Flow touchscreen. It’s a 13-inch OLED display that pumps out an image resolution of 2,880 x 1,920 pixels. The PixelSense even has a refresh rate of 120Hz for velvety-smooth visuals. And with all the software enhancers, image quality is nothing short of stunning.
Also: How we test laptops at ZDNET in 2024
The speaker system on the Surface Pro was surprisingly good as well, as I was fully expecting tinny audio, but the output has a nice bass to it. The drivers won’t be filling the room, but you can watch a movie and feel like you’re a part of the action.
Accessories also play an important role in the Surface Pro ecosystem. I had the opportunity to try out the Surface Slim Pen–>
