Surface Pro 11 review: tantalizingly close to the dream

For 11 years, the Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s best articulation of its vision for the future of personal computing: the power of a Windows laptop, with the flexibility and battery life of a tablet.

But x86 chips were too power-hungry, and Arm chips were too slow. So Microsoft split the Surface lineup in two: there was a fast Surface with an x86 chip and bad battery life and a slow Arm one with great battery life. But having to choose between them was never the dream.

The Surface Pro 11 is supposed to have it all. For the first time, it mostly does. Thanks to the new Snapdragon X processor, it’s the first Arm-based Surface Pro that runs Windows and most apps without tripping over itself. More than that, it’s fast as hell. It’s beautifully built and surprisingly repairable, and the new Flex Keyboard is downright magical.

I’ve spent over a month using the Surface Pro 11 as my main computer — forsaking my desktop PC, work MacBook Air, and iPad. Each of them is better than the Surface Pro in at least one way. The desktop has better app compatibility, and its eight-year-old midrange GPU mops the floor with the one in the Surface Pro. The MacBook has better battery life and a less cluttered operating system, and it’s nicer to use on your actual lap. The iPad is a much, much better tablet. And the Surface Pro costs more than any two of them put together. But it’s good enough at the important things and more flexible than any of the others. It’s the closest Microsoft has come to achieving the dream.

I’ve spent a month using the $2,100 top-of-the-line configuration with a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite chip, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an OLED screen. Add the new Flex Keyboard and stylus, and it costs $2,550.

The hardware is as refined as you’d expect from a device in its 11th year. The chassis is nearly identical to the 9th edition, from the ports to the peripheral venting that wraps around the top half of the tablet. The most significant differences are the OLED panel on the step-up model, the Flex Keyboard, and of course, the Snapdragon X processor.