ZDNET's key takeaways Microsoft made one of the best work tablets of 2024 with the 11th-generation Surface Pro for $1,000.
It's one of the latest 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. $999.99 at Best Buy
At Amazon, the 512GB Microsoft Surface Pro is on sale for $900. That is a 25% disount.
Copilot+ PCs have consistently been the subject of excitement since they were first announced in May 2024. 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.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to test out one of these machines: the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition. I had one question in mind going into it: Does it live up to the hype? Now that I've had a chance to use it thoroughly, I can confidently say that the device meets the hype in some ways and doesn't in others.
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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, makes 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. At the time, the Snapdragon X Elite chips were so new that many of the usual benchmark tests we use at ZDNET didn't work. Geekbench was among 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 without further testing.
Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET
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