Customer Ratings & Reviews

So far this has been a surprisingly painless experience. It's my first foray into an ARM powered windows machine, and so far the experience has been almost indistinguishable from a typical x86 machine. There are a few hiccups, some x86 programs don't run well emulated (or at all), although they're usually niche things that most people don't need. Also, because Windows on ARM isn't quite mainstream, it can be hard to find programs compiled for it - I had to go to a few different websites to find Java 21 compiled for ARM. Most of this will be resolved with time however, and it's already quite usable. Regarding AI and Copilot+, honestly at the time of writing they're mostly just a gimmick. most of the available features are rather useless in daily usage. And in case this isn't clear to anyone, the copilot AI assistant does NOT run locally, it's purely cloud based. Won't even load without an internet connection. Studio effects (camera stuff) could be useful in online meetings, and live captions can be useful to view content in other languages. I hope to see some more useful features come out eventually, but right now it's mostly just a shiny new gimmick. The camera is great quality - compared to almost any other laptop webcam, this is in another class altogether. From what I've heard, Qualcomm actually has an image signal processor on the SOC, and typical x86 laptops rely on whatever cheap ISP is inside the webcam - which usually leads to really low quality, even if the webcam is "1080p" or even "4k". It also helps that the Surface Pro is a tablet form factor and has much more room for a quality image sensor. I was hoping to dual boot Linux, however at the time of writing the Snapdragon X aren't supported on Linux yet. As far as I'm aware, these chips are designed in such a way that you have to add support directly to the Linux kernel for each specific chip to be able to run it, which is unfortunate. However, Qualcomm is actively working on making Linux work with these chips - which is really nice to see. Now to the device - The OLED screen is gorgeous, brightness is great - even sufficient outdoors (at least in shade, haven't tested in direct sunlight). As it is a touchscreen device, there is a slight pattern from the digitizer visible up close to the screen - I can only see it from distances unreasonable for any average user (say, 6-8 inches away from the screen). HDR looks great, 120hz is fluid, VRR provides a nice power saving option. Battery life has been pretty good compared to some other laptops I've owned, it lasted quite awhile even streaming HD content for hours. The build is solid, the hinge feels pretty durable. The power and volume buttons are plastic which is a slight disappointment but not a huge issue. The SSD is easily accessible through a magnetically attached door, which is great to see from a repairability standpoint, albeit a little odd. The form factor is a bit uncomfortable sometimes, it's a bit hard to use they keyboard cover if you're not at a desk or table. As a tablet it works great wherever though, as most tablets do. Windows is fairly usable touch only, minus a few UI quirks. You tap with two fingers to "right click," but if you need to do that with any sort of precision then you long press with a single finger - unfortunately there's no haptics, sound, or visual indicator to let you know it's been long enough, so you end up wasting time holding it too long. Could get used to it with time, but an indicator of any kind would be a much better option. Overall it's a great device, just needs a bit of time for software to catch up.

Everything you need plus AI-based features that amp up how you work and play. This Copilot+PC Surface Pro Tablet is fast, slim, lasts longer on a charge and helps you get stuff done more quickly and easily. Highlights: * Fast! * Relatively light. * Sleek all-metal chassis with great build quality. * Great battery life. * Includes magnetic (proprietary) 35W charger. * Charging via USB-C also works. * Integrated Copilot features are useful and have potential. * Live Caption is amazing! Room for Improvement: * Copilot’s integrations into Windows still feel a tad disjointed. * Windows still isn’t completely easy to use with Touch. Setup: Windows continues to get easier to set up. Plug in the provided 35W AC adapter to the wall and the magnetic slot on the side of the tablet to charge it up. Power it on and run through the initial Windows setup which is not short, but at least it’s easy to progress through and shows informative stuff while you wait. The AC adapter has a permanently attached cable that goes to the tablet and a removable cable that goes to the wall so you can substitute it for a different one if you’re traveling to a foreign country. There’s no cable management but it’s a relatively small AC adapter. Once completed and you’re at the Windows desktop, you can start to use it right away or begin customizations and installing your favorite apps. I use both Windows and Apple for work and all of my work is done either via a web browser or in apps that are available for both Windows and MacOS. I started off by installing all of my core apps like Figma, Slack, Office365, Snagit and 1Password. Everything I needed installed quickly and ran smoothly. I’m even using Edge instead of Chrome to check it out. Usage: There are three aspects of this Copilot+ Surface Pro Tablet I’ll cover; the hardware, Windows 11 and the new Copilot+ features accelerated by this new hardware and Windows 11. This Surface Pro Tablet is fast, thin, has great battery life, so far runs everything I need and is built really well. It takes the standard Surface Tablet formula and refines it further. The display has rounded corners that add some flair and the touchscreen is responsive to both fingers and the optional Surface Slim Pen. The kickstand is sturdy and allows for a variety of support angles. The LCD screen is bright and crisp with a high resolution and great viewing angles. There is the proprietary Surface Connect port where the provided AC charger connects as well as two USB-C ports that support USB4, Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort 1.4a. You can even leave the AC adapter at home and charge from one of the USB-C ports if you have a big enough USB power brick (35W min). This tablet is thin and feels substantially built but isn’t too heavy. The 13” LCD screen is just short of 4k resolution at 2880x1920 (267 dpi). The Quad-HD (1440p) front-facing camera is great for video calls and the 10MP rear-facing camera is actually pretty good, too. The built-in 2W Atmos speakers are surprisingly loud and clear and with support for BTLE Audio, you can connect just about any Bluetooth speakers or headsets when needed. If you’re working in a private environment, the dual microphones with voice focus work great for voice and video calls without the need to connect headphones or a headset. Windows 11 running on this new Snapdragon X Plus chipset feels fast and fluid. So far, I’ve noticed no heat or noise while running my suite of work apps. Windows has come a long way to being “finger-friendly”, and while I enjoy using touch to navigate occasionally rather than a trackpad or mouse, there’s still a lot within Windows that is hard to do with a finger. For that, the optional Surface Slim Pen works well. There is nowhere to leave the pen when you’re not actively using it, but it works great for writing on the screen or doing stuff where more precision is needed than your fingers can provide. Copilot+ is a suite of AI-based integrations to help you through your work day or home computing adventures. The most obvious and useful is a new Copilot “app” that is launched from the Windows Taskbar but also has a dedicated button on the optional keyboard. This opens a window with two main functions; Copilot and Notebook. Copilot is similar to the chatbots that you might have tried on other systems. You type or verbalize your question and it compiles an AI-summarized response. It’s nice that there are citations and references to the data sources used for the response so you can research further and read the original information that was used to compile the summary. You can also rate the summary, copy the text to put it elsewhere, have it read aloud or download it. Conversations are threaded in that you can build on the last question and answer without repeating yourself. If you’re done with that rabbit hole, just tap the “new topic” button to start a conversation on a different topic. You can even upload a photo or use the built-in cameras to take a photo as the source for the question. When generating the answer to your question, the response appears on screen almost as if you’re watching someone else type the answer live…. I’m not sure I like that versus just showing the answer, but it’s not a huge distraction as the responses seem to be accurate, fast and appropriate. The Notebook aspect of Copilot lets you use the AI to create new content based on the idea that you provide. For example, I wrote “A poem about squid” and the AI came back with iambic pentameter about the ocean creature. Fun. Again, you can type or use a photo as the idea and let the AI create something new from that. It can also translate into just about any language using spoken or typed content on either end. The standalone Copilot app is fun, helpful and handy. Some other AI-based features of this Copilot+ Surface Pro Tablet are integrated into standard Windows apps such as the Edge web browser, Paint, the built-in Camera, and others. For example, in the Edge browser, there is a Copilot icon that opens the same Copilot features in a sidebar in the browser window. Here, the two tabs are called “Chat” and “Compose” versus “Copilot” and “Notebook” but they essentially do the same things. There’s a handy “Generate page summary” button that takes the contents of the web page being shown and summarizes it for you. Another fun thing it can do is generate questions to investigate based on content in the web page. You can still upload an image to use as the source of a query or take a new photo with the built-in cameras, but when accessed from within Edge, you can also easily take and include a screenshot as the source. In Paint, you can describe the image you want to create and have Copilot make an image to match your vision. This is powered by DALL-E and as of the time I write this review, this feature is in Preview and only allows 50 uses. Perhaps this will change later? Another AI-based feature in Paint is “Cocreator” which takes the image you start drawing and embellishes it to create something more professional or in a different artistic style. The Snipping Tool for screenshots has a few new tricks. It can quickly find text in a screenshot to be copied elsewhere as text (OCR). It can also detect phone numbers and email addresses in the image and redact them so that information is hidden in the resulting image that is shared. When on a video call, the live caption feature will add real-time automatic subtitles for every word spoken in any of 40+ languages. Have a video chat with people who speak different languages but never miss a beat! The camera has some cool effects, too. Automatically zoom and focus on where you are in the frame, adjust your eyes so they appear to be looking at the camera even though you’re really looking at the screen below it, change or blur the background or apply filters to your appearance - all live in the moment. Even with all of this new AI goodness sprinkled throughout, this Copilot+ Surface Pro Tablet isn’t slowing down or heating up, and the battery is still chugging along. Overall: The Surface line of laptops and tablets has always been a great example of how great a Windows PC can be. These Copilot+ versions are faster, buttery smooth, last longer on a charge and get more done more easily. They take everything you need in a Windows PC and add in some AI smarts to tie things together better and be more creative. If a Windows PC is what you need, these Copilot+ PCs will exceed your expectations.

I think it's important to ask yourself what you are looking for in a tablet. What are you looking to get out of it? I think sometimes the use case you will find is better suited for a laptop or vice versa, maybe your use case does indeed justify a tablet. This is important to establish because it will correctly set your expectations for the device. For me, I wanted something ultra portable that I could do some non intensive tasking with such as browsing the web, shopping, checking email but also something I could do some post processing of photos on and some light video editing. I don't expect to game or do any sort of heavy production that a performance desktop or laptop would be more suited for. I also wanted to dive into the world of AI and I feel these new devices sporting the new NPUs would be perfect for this. Specs Up Front: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus - 10 cores Neural Processing Unit (NPU): Qualcomm Hexagon - 45 trillion operations per second Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno GPU Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x RAM Storage: 512GB Gen4 SSD Display: 13-inch LCD PixelSense Flow display Operating System: Windows 11 I/O: 2x USB-C/ USB4 supporting: -Charging -Data transfer -DisplayPort 1.4a -Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock and other accessories Surface Pro Keyboard port Surface Connect port with fast charge support Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth v5.4 Audio: 2W stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos Dual Studio Mics with voice focus Battery Life: Approximately 14 hours of video playback Weight: 1.04 lbs Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches Build Quality: I appreciate the design and craftsmanship Microsoft put into the Surface Pro 11. This is my first tablet style Surface so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but I’m impressed with the quality materials and simple design. The power button and volume button location is convenient and well placed as are the two usb-c ports and the power port. The webcam is perfectly placed in the center of the device making great for video conferences. I also appreciate the rounded edges which makes the tablet more comfortable to use and hold. I also want to mention that upgrading the SSD storage in this device is easy as you can access it directly from the rear of the device without having to disassemble the device to get to it. This is a fantastic feature. Setup: Setup includes your typical Microsoft Windows software setup guiding you through everything you need to setup and establish your Microsoft account on your new device. Very straightforward and easy to accomplish with minimal effort. I did my Microsoft updates immediately following the setup as I always do with my systems. Features: Along with the hardware features I listed above, are some included AI features with CoPilot+. The “Neural Processing Unit (NPU)” is the new hardware built into the tablet that allows us to take advantage of these new AI features and processes them on-device. This allows greater security by keeping this data local as well as allows for faster processing for AI. I have used Live Captions and Cocreator and although these both are still new, they are very powerful. Live Captions has the ability to caption other languages, in real time, and translate them to English. I tested Live Captions in several different scenarios, playing foreign movies off youtube, as well as other video sources. I didn't feel that it was able to keep up very well with the foreign language when I tested it. It definitely a neat concept but in my testing, so far, it falls short of being impressive. Cocreator is neat and I definitely feel like it will improve over time. I tested Cocreator with several different hand drawn images in MS Paint and was pretty impressed when I described my drawing and adjusted the creativity slider to achieve different levels of effects. This is really neat to play around with but I’m not sure there is a specific use case I have for it at this time. Maybe in the future I can find a reason to use it but right now, I think at least for me, it's just something fun to play around with. CoPilot itself from a conversation based AI assistant is a nice feature for any operating system and I see myself using it more and more for different things even if its just to look something up really quick. I used to use search engines but I feel like I get pretty good results from using the AI assistant. I can see these features only growing to provide additional features and benefits for us in the future. I asked myself the question, would I purchase this just for the AI features it includes? But I don't feel that is a practical question to ask. I feel like this is a great device for my use case with the added benefit and future proof of having the ability to take advantage of these features, even if they aren't something I need or currently use today. Performance: I was somewhat apprehensive about the Snapdragon ARM architecture but I honestly have not had any performance issues at all with the Surface Pro. It is very fast and the battery life is excellent. I can heavily use it for hours without having to recharge it and when I do need to recharge it, it seems to charge pretty quickly. I didn't start a timer to determine exactly how much time the battery lasted from 100% to 0% nor did I time how long the device took to charge so I have no real data numbers but for someone who DOES pay attention to these details, I am happy with both. I did notice when I was working with Cocreator that the images took some time to display. I think this may be a software delay as it has its own processor (the NPU) for these tasks. Like I mentioned above, the AI features are still in their infancy and will grow and become better and faster in time. But this is truly an awesome piece of technology and I look forward to watching the updates and rollouts in the future. I also want to state that this has one of the best looking LCD panels I’ve seen on a tablet and the 120Hz refresh rate makes it very enjoyable to use. The peak brightness is also perfect for me. The speakers are also fantastic on this device. Everything sounds fantastic and the volume goes up pretty high. The sound quality and the speaker placement is really good. I've had other devices in the past that really didn't sound good and it's a big deal if you are using your device for anything dealing with audio and video so I'm very happy the speakers are so good on this tablet. Overall Impressions: I love it! It has become my daily driver from a tablet perspective. I feel like I can do more with this tablet than I can my Android or IOS tablets because it's running Windows 11 and many applications are not as fully featured on Android/IOS as they are on a Windows system. They are getting there but I really feel more comfortable using those applications on this tablet. With the beautiful screen, excellent audio, fast processor, AI features, and perfect size for portability, this makes a perfect tablet for my use. I'm very impressed with the battery life as well.

Out of the box, the unit doesn’t break any new designs looking pretty like all surface tablets, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Case is anodized aluminum. My unit came with; Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU’ NPU (Neural Processing Unit – can you say Terminator) Copilot+PC 512GB Samsung MZ9L4512HBLU-00BMV 2230 NVMe Gen4 SSD. This can be upgraded through a nifty magnetic “door” you just flip open. 16GB LPDDR5X ram – not upgradable OLED 2880x1920 3:2 13-inch 120 Hz touchscreen. Gorillas Glass 5 and unit still has the 165-degree kick-stand, which I really like. 2 USB-C (4.0 ports). Supports charging, data transfer, DisplayPort 1.4 as well as Thunderbolt 4.0 dock User facing 1440p ultrawide camera with studio affects and facial recognition (windows hello) Rear facing 10-MP UHD camera. Built-in microphone Built-in 2 W Dolby Atmos Qualcomm Aqstic adapter speakers. They sound nice for their size and somewhat immersive. Wifi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 Surface Pro keyboard port Surface Connect 39-watt AC adapter. About 7 ft long with inline brick. Lithium-ion battery Windows 11 home I also received the Surface Pro keyboard and Pen. Very light at just under 2 lbs. (before adding keyboard/pen). 1-year warranty Use This is my 1st machine using ARM architecture and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance. It tested very well using Cinebench. I did, however, run into an unexpected issue trying to install some of my “go-to” security, testing and taskbar software. It appears not all x86 based software will install/work with ARM. I had not considered this, and it is certainly disappointing – but I am not sure where the fault lies exactly? So just be aware. OLED screen is very impressive and supports HDR (my info shows 900 nits) but is very reflective. The 4:3 aspect ratio seems a tad odd, nice for docs, scrolling, etc. but lacks a little when viewing a movie. But movies look almost 3-D they have so much color/resolution. Very responsive touch as well. Easily connected to my wifi 7 mesh network. Battery life is very impressive. In recommended mode I looped a movie (stored on SSD – not streaming) with Wifi and Bluetooth both on and at 13-hour mark there was still 6% battery left. Best-performance mode ran about 75% of that. Super quiet while running and size/weight makes it very portable. AI experience. Co-pilot key was easy enough to use. It opened a search engine type window. Co-creator in Paint is easy to access. You draw in a box on the left side, giving a description of what you would like to create while also selecting a style, on the right. I described Godzilla (grandsons) and drew a very rudimentary figure but what it generated certainly wasn’t what I was looking for. Photos AI inspired Restyle tool accessed by selecting edit then AI colored button. Has options such as Fantasy, Anime, Watercolor, etc. Fun to play with but needs better rendering. Photos also has Image Creator where you can give description and it will generate photos/pic. I tried dinosaurs (again grandsons) and it provided several nice options. This was my favorite out of the 3. As with any new software/process there are going to be issues. Mine are not really with the software per se but with the fact you must sign into your MS account and have an internet connection to use them. You cannot use these features off-line. With that being the case there are any number of online editing tools you could also use. Negatives. Not great for gaming Touch-screen is reflective. No keyboard included (additional cost). This is kind of a must have for me to give it some semblance to a true laptop. No pen included (additional cost). Using finger to paint, etc. is nice but you really need a pen. No headphone jack – easily “fixed” with USB-C to mini connector. No Micro SD to easily add storage. No HDMI connector. Given tablets sleek design is not surprising. Easily “fixed” as well with USB-C dongle or hub. Since you can charge using USB-C connection I would prefer an additional USB-C connection replacing the Surface connect. ARM/X86 software issues but should be resolved soon hopefully. Cannot use AI software off-line. Also, for an additional monthly charge you can access CoPilot Pro. While I feel that AI is not ready for prime time yet, this unit should have you ready when it is. It is a nice compact unit filling that line between a tablet and laptop. Powerful, compact/light and energy efficient for everyday use I would recommend but it is a tad pricey especially if you add keyboard and a pen. There are more AI machines coming out every day. Also, I had Copilot rewrite the above and this is what it produced; • The tablet features an anodized aluminum case and a 13-inch OLED touchscreen with a 2880x1920 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. • It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit). • The storage includes a 512GB Samsung NVMe Gen4 SSD, which can be upgraded via a magnetic door. • The tablet has 16GB LPDDR5X RAM, user-facing 1440p ultrawide camera, rear-facing 10-MP UHD camera, built-in microphone, and 2W Dolby Atmos speakers. • Connectivity options include USB-C (4.0), Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and a Surface Pro keyboard port. • It runs Windows 11 Home on ARM architecture. • The OLED screen supports HDR but is reflective due to Gorilla Glass 5. • The 3:2 aspect ratio is great for documents but may not be ideal for movies. Regarding compatibility, some x86-based software may not work on ARM architecture. Keep that in mind when installing applications. Overall, it’s a lightweight tablet with impressive performance and features! 😊📱

Over the years, Microsoft has shown innovation with its Surface line. At one point, the Surface was the best all-around Two-In-One available for users who wanted to experience a device that offered the benefits of a tablet and a mobile laptop. The Surface Pro was first introduced in 2013, and even though it's been a solid choice, it has yet to evolve exactly how Microsoft wanted it to. Enter Surface Pro 11, equipped with the latest computer world's latest buzzword: A.I. Or, more specifically, Microsoft's Co-Pilot. A.I. has pushed harder than anything I can remember. It's everywhere. No matter what company you're loyal to, Apple, Google, or Microsoft, you'll be constantly reminded that A.I. is the future and the future is now. It's been talked about so much that you'd think this new Surface Pro will be a personal assistant you can converse with and ask to do projects on your behalf. But sadly, it is not. The A.I. aspect, as of right now, is underwhelming. There's just not much here yet, however. I'm sure a lot is around the corner. The most unique aspect of it is a dedicated "Co-Pilot" button. It does open up the co-pilot program, but not much else yet. On the other hand, when you get past the A.I. hype, you get an excellent machine that will impress with its quality hardware. This thing is beautiful. The OLED screen pops with contrast and solid blacks. I'm a sucker for OLED and find it difficult to use any other screen with anything bigger than a phone, and Microsoft did not disappoint in the screen. The built-in kickstand is as solid as ever with the Surface, and the new Dune color separates itself from the pack of devices out there. The entire package is very stunning. I received the Snapdragon X Elite version, and the speed and power of the machine can be seen immediately. Everything is snappy and quick, with no hiccups or delays. Power consumption is well managed, as the battery life is better than most 2-In-Ones I've used in the past. I wish Microsoft would market the build quality of these machines more than the A.I., because working on this has made me forget it even has A.I. features. I don't use them yet, but I am a freelance writer and do a lot of photography editing. I haven't delved too much into the editing capabilities yet, but writing on this with the Pro keyboard has been comfortable. If you haven't had a Surface Pro and have always thought about it, then I'd say it's the perfect time to get one with the 11. PROS: • OLED screen is beautiful • build quality is excellent • battery life is impressive • speedy and powerful CONS: • A.I. is underwhelming • Pen can be a bit more hefty

I bought the new Microsoft Surface Pro (11th Edition, OLED, Snapdragon X Elite) for my son to use for college, and he absolutely loves it! He takes it to class every day and uses it for homework, assignments, and everything in between. It’s incredibly fast and smooth, with an amazing OLED display that’s bright and crisp. The lightweight design makes it easy to carry around, and it feels sturdy and durable. I also bought the keyboard and pen, and they’re worth every penny — great typing feel and perfect for note-taking. Battery life is impressive, and overall it’s a powerful, reliable device that makes schoolwork easier and more enjoyable. Highly recommend!

The Surface Pro with Copilot+ Snapdragon X Plus is fast, lightweight, and perfect for work on the go. The battery lasts all day, the screen is beautiful, and Copilot makes tasks so much easier. Super smooth performance—I highly recommend it!

There are some real advantages and a few disadvantages to this Surface Pro 11. You get the portability and long battery life of a tablet with the processing power of a laptop. Beyond this you get the cutting edge AI capabilities offered by Microsoft and possible AI applications that are just being released. But you also have to worry about possible compatibility issues due to the ARM64 architecture used in the Surface Pro especially if you are a gamer. Most programs are written to run on the older x64 architecture but more programs are now being written to run the Windows-on-Arm (ARM64) natively. Those that are not native to ARM64 use Microsoft’s emulation software to operate but this is not the preferred approach. Overall this Surface Pro 11 matched with the Surface Pro keyboard provides an opening into the AI computing world and the ARM64 architecture. How significant this Surface Pro is over other Windows x64 capable devices will be determined as more AI apps are released and more apps become ARM64 compatible. Here are the benefits as I see them: - The new Snapdragon Plus has 10 Cores and scored high in Geekbench testing see below - The display is a touch screen with a resolution of 2880 x 1920 with a 120 hz refresh rate - There are two USB-C ports and a proprietary power port - It comes with 16 gb of DDR 5 memory but this memory also gets used to support video processing and it’s not upgradeable - There is a 512 GB SSD that can be easily upgraded but not necessary for most uses - Front and rear facing cameras for conferencing - Matched with the Surface Pro keyboard it becomes a competitive Windows laptop - Wi-Fi 7 wireless capabilities Here are some counter points as I experienced them: - If you are gamer its best to research your games. Using my Steam library War Thunder and Forza 5 will not play but Humans Fall Flat worked fine. In time I expect more games to be compatible. - The lack of a dedicated GPU means the 16 GB of memory is shared for video and cpu processing and accounts for the poor benchmarking scores for video see below - Not all the popular programs run natively in ARM64 as can be checked in Task Manager Overall Thoughts: The Surface Pro does not come with a keyboard or pen, its more tablet than laptop. After using it though I would highly recommend purchasing the Microsoft Surface Pro keyboard because it really adds to the overall value and use of the Surface Pro. The keyboard magnetically connects to the Surface Pro so you remove it when you want a tablet or install it when you want a laptop. The display and speakers are good and typical of what you get in a laptop in this price range. The kickstand allows you to adjust the viewing angle to your preference. The touch screen is responsive and using the optional Slim Pen 2 enhances the capabilities. The proprietary power plug has a magnetic attachment but it still seems to come undone too easily. I am a fan of CoPilot so having AI capabilities built in makes this even better. So far the only issues I have had are that many of my games are not compatible. I continue to research and monitor which programs work on Windows-on-Arm natively and which are being emulated. So far McAfee, Steam Client, DuckDuckGo and HP Smart are not native to ARM64 and are being emulated but work just fine. You can check this by viewing the Details tab in the Task Manager and looking for x64 vs ARM64. Before I install any new programs I use CoPilot to help research any compatibility issues because the emulation can cause problems. I have also used CoPilot to give me a list of the best AI programs to explore based upon my interest and I am just starting to look into those. Setup and Testing: Once I charged the Surface Pro and attached the Surface Pro keyboard I updated all the software and set the System power setting to Performance. I then ran it through several benchmark test including Geekbench 6 and 3DMark. The Geekbench scores were comparable to laptops that I own with Intel i7 and AMD R9 processors so this has great computing power. But without a dedicated GPU the video scores were quite low. For 3DMark I tested using the new Steel Nomad Light which is geared towards Windows-on-ARM laptops. Because this software is so new it does not give fps scores for various games yet. Geekbench 6 Single Core = 2453 Multi Core = 13191 Open CL = 19743 Vulcan 23542 3DMARK 3DMARK score for Steel Nomad Light Graphics = 1965 3DMARK Steel Nomad Graphics test = 14.56 fps

I’ve been intrigued by the Microsoft Surface for many years but I haven’t had the chance to try it out until now. I’m an Apple user for the most part but I do use Windows machines for gaming and my fiancé uses them sometimes for work. But neither of us have had the chance to try out the flagship tablet from Microsoft. My fiancé was immediately taken with it. She said the screen was breathtaking and one of the first things she wanted to try was watching high-quality video on it. We set up Netflix and Disney+ on it and watched some videos. The speaker quality is very good on the Surface Pro and we didn’t feel the need to immediately connect it to external speakers. The tablet comes with a full version of Windows 11 on it. My fiancé works with software developers so she’s done a lot of prompt training with bots and she asked a variety of questions to Copilot+. It was quick with responses and one of the things that we both really liked was that it provided references for where it found its answers. We tried image creation and looking up answers to some basic questions and it worked just as well as ChatGPT. The best part is that it’s integrated into the system. There are other system enhancements that Copilot+ provides, but they are a work in progress. We ran a Geekbench test on it to see how it compared to the benchmark. The single-core score was 2440 and the multi-core score was 13196. Both of these scores surpassed the top Android device listed in Geekbench’s Benchmark Charts (Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 2.3 GHz) and was in line with Intel Core i5 13th and 14th generation processors. The tablet is quiet and it doesn’t seem to get overly hot — even with prolonged use. The battery life is very good. We had it on standby for a couple of days and it still had 18% battery left when we picked it up again. It seems to be very efficient power-wise. The only thing I would change about its power features is its charging method. While it will charge using USB-C the charging option that came with it is a magnetic connector and a two-part power supply/cable that is quite bulky to lug around. The Surface Pro is sleek and easy to transport — except for the charging cable. One of the most remarkable things about this tablet is that it’s running Windows 11 — and running it very well. It’s a fluid experience and even though there was pre-installed software on it, the system didn’t seem to be bogged down at all. Overall, the Surface Pro Snapdrago X Plus is a remarkable device that provides a high level of productivity for the end-user. We certainly like having it as an additional machine in our home.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot+PC OLED is a thing of beauty! This is clearly a big move forward in the future of laptops/tablets. Externally, it really doesn't differ much from previous Surface models. That's not a bad thing as Microsoft already had a good thing going with the design. The changes from previous models are under the hood. Most notably the new Snapdragon X Elite chip. This new ARM processor is a game changer. A lot of hype has been made of this chip and it delivers. Incredibly fast and the battery life is simply amazing. 12+ hours of use is not out of the question. You heard me right, A Windows laptop that can do 12+ hours! Not sure I ever thought I would see the day. Everything I have thrown at this chip has worked great. Web browsing, spreadsheets, videos (4K at that) all work fast and without hesitation. I was particularly interested in the Surface Pro as a portable Photoshop/Lightroom station that I could fit in my camera bag. I've tried other small & lightweight tablets and laptops for this use and they all have left a lot to be desired. Not the case here. I can honestly say the full Windows versions of Photoshop and Lightroom run very well. In fact, better than others I have tried that cost more. The new OLED screen (a Surface Pro first) is beautiful with accurate color. Copilot is of course a big selling point. I'm still new to it, but so far I'm impressed with the abilities of Copilot. It is really an all around assistant. Using it for information search has worked well. I'm getting the hang of using it for photos as well. I wasn't really sold on the use of AI until now. Copilot has shown me enough so far to see its great potential. It can do a ton already and it's still new. Downsides. Well, keep in mind this is an ARM based machine. That means there are still some programs that may not run natively. However, the emulator works so flawlessly that it's not much of an issue. The only issues it has caused for me so far is that a few of my favorite Photoshop plugins won't work. But, these are also older plugins so that isn't surprising. Not a deal breaker in any way. It should be obvious, but I should mention this is for productivity and creation. There are games that will work with the Surface Pro, but this is in no way a gaming machine. The Surface Pro 11 Copilot+PC has finally closed the gap between PC and tablet and has clearly shown that ARM is the future and that's a great thing. I couldn't recommend this more highly.

The new Surface Pro 11 is remarkably fast and power-efficient, thanks to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU. It blazes through native apps and, more importantly, emulates older apps without much struggle. Essentially, it’s a killer laptop – or more accurately, a killer tablet with amazing battery life. This leads to perhaps my main issue. While a tablet is certainly useful in certain situations, as a general productivity tool, it’s not the most practical. For instance, I’m writing this review on the Surface Pro, but doing so with the virtual keyboard would be excruciating. I received this Surface, but the optional Flex Keyboard, which was supposed to come with it, was delayed over a week. I ended up relegating the Surface to the corner of my desk and waited for the keyboard to arrive. Once it did, the narrative changed immediately. The Flex keyboard is easy to attach and a joy to use – you can even detach it, leave the Surface on the desk, kick back in your chair, and use the keyboard from your lap. It gives the Surface a different personality and makes it a joy to use. The crisp display makes it easy to use for extended periods, the keyboard has a great feel, and you can use it just about anywhere. So why is this an issue? Well, the keyboard (which comes with a pen) is optional, and it’s a significant investment that drives the price of the total package up considerably. It’s an excellent keyboard, but is it worth the cost of other inexpensive laptops by itself? So, what’s this Copilot+ AI thing? Other than a marketing term to get consumers excited about AI, it doesn’t offer much in my opinion. Microsoft has held back the main AI feature, leaving the AI features of Copilot+ largely pointless. There’s an AI restyle that lets you experiment with images, but I found it doesn’t do much. There’s an automatic language translator that might be useful in specific instances, but unless the speaker is clearly enunciating the words, it’s slow and not particularly accurate. You can also do AI image generation, which happens on the device using the NPU (neural processing unit), but it’s very underwhelming compared to what you can do in the cloud. There may be some better uses for the NPU with new apps that leverage the chip, which I haven’t tried, but given the built-in uses, I don’t have high expectations. The battery life is exceptional – I used it all day for off-and-on work and still had 50% remaining at the end of the day. The Surface did get warm a few times (mainly when I was playing Forza Horizon), and it has fans you can hear in a quiet room, but it’s not distracting in most situations. The webcam was of good quality, and the speakers were very good for such a small device. Audio from movies and YouTube videos was heard clearly. Overall, I found the Surface to be fast, and with the Flex keyboard, I could work with it just about anywhere. Battery life was superb, and while there are some compatibility issues, none of the apps I ran exhibited any. The Surface Pro 11 isn’t a revolution—it’s an evolution, bit in my opinion it’s the best Surface Pro yet. Whether you’re a creative pro, a student, or just someone who wants a sleek 2-in-1 companion, this little marvel deserves a spot on your radar. Just remember to budget for those peripherals…

The Microsoft Surface Pro has exceeded my expectations in every way. Its sleek and lightweight design makes it incredibly portable, while the powerful performance ensures smooth multitasking whether I’m working, streaming, or creating content. The high-resolution touchscreen is crisp and vibrant, perfect for both productivity and entertainment. I especially love the flexibility of switching between laptop and tablet mode, making it ideal for work on the go. The Surface Pen support is a game-changer for note-taking and drawing, adding to its versatility. Battery life is impressive, lasting through my entire workday without needing a recharge. Overall, the Surface Pro is a reliable, fast, and beautifully designed device that combines the functionality of a laptop with the convenience of a tablet. Highly recommended for professionals, students, and anyone who values performance and portability!

My wife is an EMT and uses this Surface Pro daily for entering patient reports and navigating various work systems—and it’s been flawless. The lightweight design makes it easy to carry on shifts, and the 13" OLED display is stunningly sharp and bright, even in outdoor lighting. It boots quickly, runs smooth with zero lag, and the battery life comfortably lasts through long shifts. The 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD provide more than enough performance for multitasking between apps, reports, and cloud systems. The detachable keyboard (Sold seperate) and touchscreen combo give her flexibility whether she’s at a desk, in the ambulance, or on the go. It's durable, sleek, and handles everything a mobile professional needs without weighing them down. Highly recommended for anyone in a fast-paced field who needs speed, clarity, and reliability in a portable device.

I’ve been using the Microsoft Surface Pro (11th Edition) with Snapdragon X Elite and Copilot+ for two weeks now, and I’m genuinely impressed. This device is an absolute game changer. The 13” OLED display is stunning—vivid colors, perfect blacks, and buttery smooth scrolling. It’s a pleasure for both productivity and streaming. The Snapdragon X Elite chip offers instant-on performance, zero lag multitasking, and long-lasting battery life—I've gone nearly two full days on a single charge with moderate use! Windows 11 runs beautifully, and Copilot+ is surprisingly useful—especially for organizing my work, emails, and quick summaries. The 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD give me all the space and speed I need for design work, light video editing, and day-to-day tasks. The build is premium, lightweight, and portable—ideal for travel or work on-the-go. I opted for the device only version, and paired it with the Slim Pen and keyboard—no regrets. If you're looking for the latest-gen ultra-portable PC that can keep up with your workflow and look sleek doing it, this is the one to beat.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is one of most exciting tablets/laptops to come out in many years. The main benefit of using ARM64 instead of Intel/AMD is in power efficiency. Devices using ARM64 can usually run longer on battery without charging and provide exceptional performance while generating less heat and noise. The main drawback of using ARM64 for Windows is that there are fewer native applications so good emulation of legacy x86/x64 software is essential for it to succeed. With the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus SOC and Microsoft’s Prism emulation layer, Microsoft is now in the same position as Apple was with their first M1 based MacBooks. Emulation of legacy x86/x64 software is now more than “good enough” for a successful expansion of the Windows OS to ARM64. --Quick Specifications— My review unit comes with the following specifications: 1. Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus 10-core X1P6400 SOC with Adreno GPU and Hexagon NPU 2. 16GB LPDDR5x Memory (non-upgradable) 3. Samsung MZ9L4512HBLU 512 GB SSD (upgradable but it’s only recommended for repair and security purposes) 4. Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Mobile Connectivity System for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 5. PixelSense 13-inch Touch Screen LCD Display with 2880 x 1920 resolution, 1200:1 contrast ration and dynamic refresh up to 120Hz. 6. Built-in kick stand 7. Surface Connect port 8. Surface Pro Keyboard port 9. 2 USB-C ports (supports charging, data transfer, DisplayPort 1.4a) 10. 1440p Quad HD Front camera (supports Windows Hello) and 10MP Ultra HD rear camera. --Setup and First Impressions-- The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 comes in a premium looking but echo friendly box where the unboxing experience is very Apple-like. Inside the box is a 39W Surface Connect magnetic charger, a Quick Start Guide, and warranty and safety pamphlets. You can also charge through either of the two USB-C ports. The build quality is excellent and has a very premium feel. Setup is identical with other Windows based devices and was very quick and easy. Just turn the device on and follow and answer the prompts. The ability to seamlessly run both native ARM64 Windows applications and x86/x64 Windows applications side by side is so well executed that I would never have known the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 was using an ARM64 processor instead of an Intel/AMD processor without looking at the specifications. The display is sharp, vivid and provides rich colors so watching videos is fantastic. It probably has some of the best speakers I’ve ever heard in a tablet/laptop. The sound is crisp and clear while providing a surprisingly spacious soundstage and decent bass for a tablet. As a result, it is an excellent media consumption device. It is also the quietest Windows laptop I have ever used. Even during firmware and software updates, I didn’t hear any fan noise. On all other laptops these types of activities have always caused the fan noise to rev up. The only time I heard any fan noise and noticed that it got slightly warm was when I used Handbrake to transcode some video during my benchmarking. The webcams are also very good (much better than a lot of other tablets and laptops) so this would also make a great video conferencing device. --Application Experience— I have successfully run x86/x64 legacy applications like Quicken, KeePass 2, and Handbrake and they all ran without problems. For Quicken and KeePass2, I didn’t feel any difference at all compared to running these applications on an Intel/AMD based laptop. Starting up the applications felt normal, and they both felt zippy. With Handbrake, the transcoding process was noticeably slower compared to my newer Intel/AMD computers. I was getting only about 70 fps on the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 vs 1359 fps on an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 based desktop system. However, I think the reason for this was because Handbrake currently doesn’t support hardware encoding on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X SOC. If Handbrake ever gets this support, then I would expect much better performance. Even so, it’s amazing to me that Microsoft’s Prism emulation works as well as it does. The type of x86/x64 legacy software that I have experienced trouble running has been drivers for odd devices that I have in my home. I have a Silex USB network hub that allows me to share USB devices (such as older USB printers) with my computers at home. This requires installation of some client software on each computer that needs access to the shared USB printer. This driver software didn’t work. If you have some esoteric hardware, and there isn’t any native ARM64 based drivers for it, then it will probably not work. So, if you absolutely require some x86/x64 based application to run or need to have your laptop be able to work with some hardware, you should do some research before buying this tablet/laptop. The best experience will be using native ARM64 Windows applications such as Microsoft Edge and Microsoft 365. There is an ARM64 version of Visual Studio that I installed and from my brief experience with it, it seems to function exactly like the Intel/AMD based version that I have on my other computers. I did a quick little experiment with Visual Studio. I have a project that I created a few years ago for a BitString library that allows the user to easily manipulate bits in memory using a string like notation. There is a benchmark in my project that takes 14 seconds to run on my AMD Ryzen R7 7700 based computer. On the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, it takes 31 seconds to run the x86/x64 version of the benchmark using the Prism emulation layer. When I compiled the library to target ARM64, the benchmark took only 17 seconds. In my opinion, this illustrates how impressive Microsoft’s Prism emulation layer is (emulating an Intel/AMD processor only seems to cut performance in half for this situation) and it also illustrates that we can expect even better performance if an application is targeted to native ARM64. For general computing tasks (surfing the web, paying bills, creating reports, software development etc.) and media consumption (watching videos and listening to music), most people would probably be very happy with the Microsoft Surface Pro 11. --Gaming Experience— I personally wouldn’t buy this device solely for gaming, but it can play some games in a pinch. For my brief test, I installed the Steam client and downloaded my current gaming obsession “Age of Wonders 4” which was released in 2023. I was surprised both installed successfully, and the game plays! There were some graphical glitches in the game menus, but I didn’t see any glitches during actual gameplay. I was only getting about 14 fps at full resolution and 30 fps using 50% render resolution, so it wasn’t the best playing experience, but it was playable. --A.I Features— For the most part, I think that the A.I features are cool but somewhat gimmicky for now. I played around with Cocreator in Paint, and you can use it to generate one-shot artwork for stuff like posters, greeting cards, and video thumbnails. But it doesn’t seem suited to help with generating artwork for something like a comic book where you would need to generate multiple images containing a consistent looking character in a consistent world. One feature that I was excited to try was Live Captions. I wanted to see how it performed in translating foreign language films. I tried it with a French language movie and a Cantonese language movie. I think it handled translating French to English better than translating Cantonese to English. It didn’t quite handle Cantonese well, but I was impressed with the attempt. I see a lot of promise with this feature. Another feature that I think could be very useful is the Teleprompter feature (where it makes it look like you are looking at the camera instead of reading text from a teleprompter), but I didn't have a chance to test it. The last A.I feature I played around with was Windows Studio Effects in the Camera app where you can enable settings such as Automatic Framing so that even if you move around, the camera keeps you centered on the screen. It works very well. Other features that work well are background blurring. They also had Creative Filters (which makes your image look as if it was Illustrated, in Watercolor, or Animated). I had a hard time seeing the difference between the three effects. --Battery Life— Battery Life has been very good. I’ve been getting about 10 to 12 hours doing stuff like writing this review and watching YouTube videos in the background. It seems to drain about 10% for every hour or more of use. For me, the most impressive thing was how quiet and cool it was during these activities. --Summary— The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is a very exciting tablet/laptop. It would be an excellent choice for anyone who wants a new tablet/laptop for general computing tasks and media consumption. It would also be an exciting choice for a software developer who wants to develop native ARM64 Windows applications. Surprisingly, it can run games, but I would not buy this expecting it to be your sole gaming system. The A.I. features are promising but somewhat gimmicky now. This wouldn’t be the primary reason I would buy this device. But it’s good to have as a differentiating feature from other devices. If you have a specific need to use some older peripherals or legacy x86/x64 applications, you should do some research to make sure they are compatible before purchasing. As more and more native ARM64 Windows applications arrive, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 will only get better. And Microsoft did a great job with making the internal SSD user upgradable so you can expand it as your needs grow. Overall, I can easily recommend this exciting new tablet/laptop.

Having been a user of Microsoft software since its inception — yes, I’m talking MS-DOS back in the day — this marks my first experience with Microsoft Surface hardware. In just a few days with the Surface Pro – Copilot+ PC, I can confidently say it has exceeded my expectations. The Surface Pro impresses with its sleek, lightweight design. Opting for the Dune color was a refreshing change for me, adding a new dimension to its aesthetic appeal. The Dune-colored Surface Pro keyboard is equally versatile, seamlessly attaching and detaching from the tablet. Its magnetic connector allows flexible positioning for comfortable typing, or lays flat to reveal the Slim Pen neatly stored in its tray (see attached pictures). The Alcantara material covering the keyboard, akin to a high-quality felt, not only feels soft but also ensures stability on any surface. I particularly appreciate the backlit keyboard with adjustable brightness levels, enhancing usability in different environments. Setting up the Surface Pro was straightforward, with Windows seamlessly restoring my previous computer’s settings, ensuring instant familiarity. The OLED display is stunning, delivering crisp details and vibrant colors, perfect for video editing tasks. Downloading various video editing programs and creating/editing videos has been a great experience thus far. Thanks to the Snapdragon X Elite processor, creating and saving videos has been exceptionally fast and enjoyable. Accessing the Copilot AI assistant, integrated into the keyboard, has been effortless. While I’ve only scratched the surface with Copilot my experience thus far has shown it to be intuitively useful and powerful. The Surface Pro’s versatility shines whether in tablet mode with its responsive touchscreen or as a laptop with the attached keyboard for typing tasks. Battery life has been excellent, I’ve used it all day unplugged and still have around 50% battery left. I’ve not used a Slim Pen before, I’ve been a laptop/mouse guy forever but I gotta say, I really like the functionality of the pen. Managing files and other functions become very easy in lieu of a mouse. See that? Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks, love the Slim Pen. In my opinion, the Surface Pro is a premium computing product. Its blend of design, usability, and processing power places it at the forefront compared to the numerous laptops and tablets I’ve used in the past.

DESIGN: Got the Surface Pro in the Dune color which reminded me of rose gold. It has a solid build, and physical power and volume buttons on the sides have a nice button press. The tablet feels light and touchscreen is responsive. Kickstand doesn’t feel flimsy although it feels like it possibly could flex with some force. Volume buttons in landscape mode are still left - volume up, and right - volume down.To me, when paired with a keyboard this action feels reversed, but it looks unchangeable as the + and - is imprinted on the button itself. Being able to charge via USB-C is great, however there are only 2 USB-C ports. SPEAKERS The speakers sound good for a tablet in my opinion. Low mids and even a little of subs in moving bass lines can be heard compared to other phone or laptop speakers. Disabling ‘audio enhancements’ in audio settings made the speakers sound very tinny. DISPLAY: I love the OLED display. Currently I have it set to 2880x1920 @ 120hz and things feel snappy and smooth. I’m not a color pro but personally it looks balanced after switching off the ‘Adaptive color’ setting because I was getting an orange tint (like night mode) under direct sunlight. Brightness is not an issue and it can get very very bright. The corners of the screen are rounded which felt different to me and I enjoyed that. I had no issues with the touchscreen which felt very responsive. LIVE CAPTIONS This was something I was really looking forward to, since I like to watch international content on YouTube but subtitles aren’t always available. Unfortunately it didn’t really get the job done - the captions felt like they were missing half of the things being said and even then it was a little slow and often mistranslated. To be fair there was background music with the dialogue but nowadays most content on YT has music in the background. Maybe Live Captions is better suited for video conferencing and professional situations since there is also a ‘include microphone audio’ option in the settings. There are 3 settings for positioning (above screen, below screen, overlaid on screen). On YouTube, choosing one position for the captions and then full screening the video will revert the captions to its default position (above screen), which was a bit of a buggy experience for me. COPILOT: I asked for a few movie recommendations (from a specific country) but it only gave me 2. When I asked for more, it gave me 3 additional titles for a total of 5 titles. Not bad, but another AI with the same prompt gave me 3 genres with 2-4 titles each for a total of 9 titles. CAMERA The front facing camera has a nice wide angle (making the room in the background look huge). As a result the video feels like there’s some breathing room around instead of just a talking head taking up the entire space. Something about the overall color feels off/dated somehow however, like the quality from a phone camera from 5-8 years ago. BATTERY I can’t accurately comment on this but while typing this with the Surface Pro Keyboard attached on the ‘recommended’ power setting at 50% brightness and 45 minutes of ‘display on time’, the battery has gone from 100% to 88%. Nothing else was in the background besides 3-5 other open browser tabs. OTHER THOUGHTS: Overall the Surface Pro feels very fast and responsive. For its price I was expecting it to, and it didn’t disappoint. Normal use such as browsing or watching things online doesn't make the tablet hot, it stays cool or just a little warm on the skin, although it did get hot to the touch while downloading/installing programs and updates during initial setup. IN THE END The biggest thing to consider for me was its form factor. For example, when connected with the Surface Pro Keyboard, moving the ensemble required two hands or else the keyboard would end up flapping around in the air. In addition, I couldn’t use the Surface Pro with Keyboard on narrow surfaces, forcing me to remove the keyboard and use other alternatives. PROS: Solid, light design. Fast and snappy. Speakers sound good for a tablet. OLED Display is 120 hz. Front camera is wide angle. Kickstand is great for videos without needing a tablet stand. CONS: Surface Pro tablet/keyboard combo has some limitations as to where it can be set up and the kickstand feels like an additional step that can take some getting used to. 2 USB-C ports only, will need a dock for extra peripherals

I have been wanting a Microsoft Surface tablet for a long while now, so was beyond excited to be able to get this one! The Dune color is beautiful! It reminds me of a dark rose gold, which I love. The 13" OLED display is super bright and crisp. Just, wow! It's honestly awesome. The magnetic 'snap on' power cord is really great. It latches on to the port on the side of the tablet securely, and even has a light to show that it is fastened on correctly. The 'fold out' lower panel on the backside of the Surface Pro is adjustable, so you are able to position the tablet at just the right angle you so choose. There are 2 handy USB-C ports on the side, as well. Setting up my new Surface Pro was actually fun. Since this was my first experience with a Microsoft tablet, I spent the time getting to know my new device. Updates took the usual time, and after a small "hiccup" being able to log into my OneDrive account, we were up and running! The Snapdragon X 12-core processor, so far, is performing above my expectations. It truly feels as though I'm using a mid-range laptop, and not a tablet. So responsive, with fast transitions when opening multiple windows, starting software, and switching between all of these operations with ease. The 16gb RAM also assists with helping numerous applications and tasks to run smoothly. I'm not a big fan, as of yet, of AI in general. However, as someone fascinated by technology and well versed in trying out innovative tech, I'm interested in seeing where AI will leads us as this "new" technology will certainly improve and be implimented in many more useful applications to come. Copilot itself was interesting. There are 3 "modes" - Creative, Balanced, and Precise. You can type in a short description of what you'd like to be created, or speak it. The AI does the rest. I tried all three modes and came to understand that depending on the criteria of what you'd like the AI to create for you, you should best choose which mode to use in order to get the desired result. That being said, the Live Captions feature proved quite useful. Sometimes the videos I watch from various international content creators can be difficult to understand. Being able to use this feature during video chats for business or school work, ie to make "in-person" conversations easier to understand in 'real time', is a big plus. CoCreator was also very very fun to play around with. The tools were basic, yet simple enough to understand, being similar to other types of creation software. I'm not an artist, but I've studied art and admire those skilled with this particular talent. While the Style options were simplistic and limited, they gave me several choices with which to manipulate the AI generated image that I had the program draw. Using the Creativity slider changed the image even more, but putting the slider all the way to the right, caused my drawing to become a bit weird (not necessarily a bad thing). Windows Studio Effects is another really fun feature to experiment with while using the camera and for videos. I liked how the creative filters removed the wrinkles on my face, but at the same time, there was that "unreal" AI look I've come to recognize and not like very much. But that's merely a matter of preference. My overall take? After trying out Copilot+ and all the new features this Microsoft Surface Pro has going for it, I'm beyond pleased! Using this tablet is FUN! Whether you are an artist, content creator, writer (like myself), or someone interested in AI software options for personal use or business/work, then this Surface tablet is one to consider. It's features are geared toward the future. With this device, Microsoft is "forward thinking." I've no doubt that this technology will improve and become even more innovative as time goes on.

I've owned several Surface Pro tablets over the years. Each felt like a step forward in power and capability. This one, however, feels like more of an event. The addition of the new Snapdragon X processors not only handle nearly everything you throw at them, they do it without sacrificing battery life. Emulation of x86 apps feels seamless, and for the most part, not like they're being emulated at all. It also feels like many developers are on board as well, with many of the more popular apps already having native ARM apps. I'm anxiously awaiting to see what the addition of AI will do throughout Windows as well. Cocreator and Live Translate are nice additions, especially Live Translate. It's impressive to just play any video and see translations appear as you're watching. Cocreator is a neat addition, and I can see how it would be a useful tool, especially for conceptual work. Giving a rough description of what you're doing, then watching as it updates and matches your sketch is pretty impressive. ** Hardware ** Surface devices are often very well designed and elegant. The new Surface Pro is no exception. The Dune color is very nice in person. It's kind of a newer take on gold colors in usual devices. It pairs well with the Surface type covers too. Another huge addition to this model is the OLED screen. And man, does It look beautiful. The inky blacks of OLED are pretty tough to beat. It's a very welcome addition to the Surface Pro. The thickness, weight and kickstand all feel comfortable to use, with the kickstand working well and keeping its position. I used it while sketching in my lap and was able to comfortably draw without the need for constant readjustment. I've also found that, even under heavy workloads, the fans aren't overly loud. You'll hear them, but they don't come close to previous Surface devices I've used. Speaking of sound, the audio is also pretty impressive on the Surface Pro. Things were sounding clear in my time so far. I was kind of shocked at how loud the speakers can actually get too. ** Performance ** I've already mentioned the new processor. If you're only using the tablet as a web browser, or Office work, you'll still appreciate its performance, but I wanted to try and push it a bit harder. I have tried using it with many different apps and games, just to see how and if it will be noticeable if it's being emulated. Photoshop, having a native ARM app, works flawlessly, as expected. So, I tried to put it through its paces a bit more using Rebelle 7. They don't have a native ARM version yet, but honestly, I couldn't tell. I was able to sketch, using a few layers, without any trouble. One downside to the processor architecture is games. If you intend to do some gaming on the Surface Pro, it's still somewhat early days of compatibility. I have every confidence that it will improve, but I did have some trouble getting games to run. Some do run, and some run well. But, as of right now, things are still pretty early. ** Battery Life ** Along with the performance, the huge benefit of the Snapdragon X processors is they are very efficient. Battery life will easily last you all day. And this is without regard to what you're doing. Sketching, browsing, watching videos, coding, whatever. The battery life is very impressive. With pretty steady use throughout the day, taking notes, sketching and browsing the web, the battery was around 50% by the end of my day. I'm pretty sure I could make it on a couple of days without the need for a charge. I also don't seem to notice any of the way previous Surface Pros would lose a bit of battery in standby. It seems like it keeps its battery life while not in use. ** Pros ** Excellent performance, battery life, OLED screen, app compatibility, nice sounding audio ** Cons ** Game compatibility is still a work in progress, I wish the pen and type cover were included

I have always been a fan of the Surface - it's a great hybrid tablet and tablet combo. Because I have a lot of familiarity with the Windows OS, it's nice having a full featured desktop OS in a portable tablet form. This means many of the application you use on a Windows desktop can be used with the Surface. Of course there are limitations given the specs if you're trying to run graphically intensive games like Microsoft Flight Simulator or Dragon Dogma 2. What Microsoft hyped about the Surface Pro is it being a Copilot+ PC. Personally I think those features are mostly nice to have; it's the hardware changes that's making the Pro 11 worthwhile. Gone from the 9 are in the Intel processors, the 11 uses a Snapdragon X processor and a Qualcomm Adreno as its GPU. What this means is that 10 is plenty fast and powerful. You can do some light gaming on it though you obviously won't be playing at higher resolutions. That said it is great for emulation of older titles. I wouldn't doubt that the Snapdragon contributes to a better battery life too given that the processor is geared more towards mobile devices. A disadvantage with the ARM architecture as opposed to the Intel one is that there are some applications that might not be that compatible though this isn't bad as it used to be. Speaking of battery life, it's an improvement over the the Surface 9. I swear from real world hours usage I was only getting like 5 hours on the 9. The battery drain on the 11 seems to be lesser so I'm able to get a little bit more maybe like 7 hours. When I say "real world usage" this is from browsing webpages and streaming videos without resulting to any battery saving measures. Microsoft claimed that the 9 could do 15.5 hours, but that was never what I usually experienced much like Microsoft claims of the 11 doing 14 hours. Design wise the Surface hasn't changed much with having all the similar ports from the Pro 8.... and still lacking a 3.5mm jack. I do wish the bezels were made a bit slimmer though. Of course the biggest difference is the OLED screen, which is fantastic. Combine the OLED screen with the native HDR support and you have a beautiful screen especially when you're viewing blacks. The camera and WiFi connectivity have been upgraded too as expected if you look at the specs. Front camera is 1440p(compared to 1080p on the 9), while the rear camera is 10 MP. WiFi 7 is supported and the supported Bluetooth version is 5.3. How are the Copilot+ features? Honestly they are not that great with what's currently. The 11 features a dedicated NPU chipset to Microsoft's Copilot. This allows features like the Live Captions app to provide real time translations if you're watching a video or having a video call with someone. Unfortunately for image creation like Paint(there's a Copilot button in it) and Windows 11's photo app, you have to be signed in online because the images are sent to Microsoft's Cloud servers to make sure it's "approved" to be shown to the user. All in all, the Surface Pro 11 is a nice upgrade over the 9 or a good starting point for someone who needs a tablet/laptop combo. It's pricey, but the hardware specs and OLED makes it worth owning even if the Copiot+ features aren't much to write about. Unfortunately, I can't give this a 4.5 star so I'll round the score up to a 5.