Microsoft has always made wonderful hardware, and I’ve been a fan of the Surface line of devices for a long time now. Through the years, the design hasn’t evolved very much. Surface introduced new form factors, such as the Surface Laptop and the (now-defunct) Surface Duo phone, but the garden-variety Surface Pro has been pretty consistent.
That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. The good part is, the design is pretty great. It’s a tablet with a detachable keyboard and a built-in kickstand that can position the device at basically any angle, which makes it versatile for drawing or just working like a normal Windows laptop.
It’s a bad thing because in all the time the Surface Pro has existed, Microsoft has never sold it with the keyboard cover. It’s always a separate purchase, and it is here, too. (Mashable has complained about this before.) It absolutely boggles my mind that Microsoft can’t figure out that a productivity tablet needs to have a keyboard in the box. I know, “Adam is complaining about no keyboard again,” is basically an evergreen statement, and that’s totally fair, but I will never not complain about this. You need to ship a keyboard in the box.
There’s one other issue I have with the design that I will get into in a bit. For now, there’s a lot to love here. I’ve been using the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition from mid-2024 as my main laptop for about two weeks, and here are my thoughts.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition: Just the basics
The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 11 starts at $1,199.99, but if you want to upgrade from a base Snapdragon X Plus processor to a zippy Snapdragon X Elite chip (and trust me, you do), you’ll need to pony up $1,499.99 — or more. That’s expensive, but still a touch less than elite M4 Apple MacBook Pros and other high-end laptops. And unlike the MacBook Pro, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 can function as a tablet and laptop in one.
The Surface Pro 11 is also a Copilot+ PC, meaning it has built-in AI features powered by Microsoft Copilot, which is itself powered by a custom version of ChatGPT.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
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Type: Tablet with kickstand and detachable keyboard (sold separately)
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Processor: Snapdragon X Plus (10-core) or Snapdragon X Elite (12-core)
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Display: 13-inch 2880 x 1920 touchscreen with up to 120Hz refresh rate; LCD on Snapdragon Plus models and OLED on Snapdragon X Elite variants
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Memory: 16GB or 32GB RAM
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Storage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD
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Ports: Two USB-C/USB4 ports, Surface Pro Keyboard port, and Surface Connect port
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Connectivity: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4; 5G upgrade available
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Colors: Platinum, Sapphire, Dune, and Black
A 12-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 11 with an eight-core Snapdragon X Plus chip and is also available as of mid-2025. It starts at $799.99. (This review only covers the flagship 13-inch model.)
Flippy keyboard
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
The keyboard in particular takes some getting used to, but I really like it. The keyboard attaches to the bottom of the Surface Pro 11 using two little points that slot into the device. Then you flip up a flap that magnetically attaches to the front of the tablet, raising your keyboard to a comfortable typing level.
The keyboard itself is a little floppy, for lack of a better word. It’s a little like typing on a raised piece of thin plywood. It’s a tad bouncy, but I actually appreciate that kind of feedback. The keys have a great pitch and travel. If you like typing on a chiclet-style keyboard, this is a winner. Plus, it gets even better.
The Surface Pro 11’s Bluetooth Flex Keyboard upgrade can switch to Bluetooth connection when it’s detached. That’s a fun addition to the keyboard that I first saw with a OnePlus tablet last year. Granted, my use cases for the Bluetooth keyboard are limited, but it’s a “better to have it and not need it” kind of situation.
Plus, this year, the Flex keyboard has a space in it to store the Surface Pen (also sold separately), which is a great thing to have when you need it, and nice to stow away when you don’t. Personally, I don’t use the Surface Pen all that often — it’s just not a part of my workflow — but I appreciate having it when I want to.
Mashable Light Speed
Software is coming along
Fortunately for Microsoft, Windows 11 is getting pretty good at working with unusual form factors, and while that’s not as important for a device like the Surface Pro 11, it’s still important because of its ability to switch between being a tablet and a “laptop.” These days, the most important thing is dealing with the virtual keyboard.
More specifically, when I detach the keyboard, I’ll usually want a virtual keyboard to appear. Microsoft muddies those waters when it introduced the Bluetooth-connected Flex Keyboard — you know that feature I was just extolling the virtues of? The problem I ran into was that the virtual keyboard popped up seemingly at random. Open search in the Windows 11 taskbar, and it didn’t come up. Open an app like Notepad, and it does. It’s a little hard to keep up with, to be perfectly honest.
Fortunately, the rest of the software is pretty solid — and it’s standard Windows 11 fare. There’s no bloatware or additional games installed, and that’s likely because Microsoft runs its own show here. Still, I appreciate that.
I’m a little bit over the form factor
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Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
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Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
The design of the Surface Pro 11 has one flaw that’s tricky to overcome — it’s top-heavy. Unlike a traditional laptop, where most of the components (and the battery) are in the lower part of the clamshell, the Surface Pro 11 has to fit literally everything into the tablet itself. The “bottom half” of the Surface Pro 11 is just a keyboard cover, and it’s fairly light at that. Also, that keyboard doesn’t have a hinge, per se. It just flops open and lands on the table you presumably have in front of you. That becomes problematic if you, you know, don’t have a table in front of you.
Maybe you’re wondering, “Where would someone be working on a laptop without a table or desk? The places I routinely use a laptop without a table or desk include in bed, on the couch, on an airplane, at launch events, and in the car, and that’s just in the last four weeks. The Surface Pro 11 struggles in all of those environments — or to be more accurate, I struggle to use the Surface Pro 11 in those environments.
Put simply, I’m a little over the design of the Surface Pro. At first, it seemed novel and fun, but in the years since, it has grown a little stale, at least for my use case.
Once you get past that, there’s still a lot to like here. The hinge on the back of the tablet in particular is a lovely innovation. I have laid that tablet down to its lowest setting and drawn/used the Surface Pen on a number of occasions, and every time, I absolutely adore it. So, if you’re into it, and you often sit at a desk or table to work, there’s nothing to worry about here.
Fast performance
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
The Surface Pro 11 I tested runs on the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor that debuted last year and is still super fast. The Snapdragon Elite X is built on ARM cores, and it may be the answer that Windows on ARM fans were waiting for. The fact that Microsoft launched its flagship hardware on the processor alone is enough to be positive about the chip.
Software is coming along too. One of the last holdouts that I needed for the PC was Google Drive on ARM. Yes, most of Google Drive is done in the cloud, but its ability to sync files locally is massive for my workflow, so I’m thankful that it’s here.
Another piece of software, DaVinci Resolve, was an early adopter of the Snapdragon processor. Coming from Adobe Premiere, it’s been something of a challenge, but I’ve gotten used to the app very quickly. Most of the videos I produce are shorter, more geared toward Instagram or TikTok, but this computer is no slouch in that department.
Speaking of power and performance, our Geekbench 6 performance test clocked this Surface Pro 11 at a 13,469 multi-core score, which is fairly high against other laptops Mashable has tested recently, though not the highest. Compared to the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, 7 with a Snapdragon X Elite chip, which notched a multi-core score of 14,548, it’s a hair slower.
But along with that power comes longevity — something the Snapdragon X Elite was designed for. In our battery rundown test, the Surface Pro 11 offered 15 hours and 56 minutes of video playback (off of WiFi and Bluetooth and set to 50 percent brightness). That’s worse than the Surface Laptop 7, which lasted almost 23 hours on a charge, but on par with the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro.
Overall, I love what the Snapdragon X Elite brings to the table.
Is the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition worth it?
Yes. The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition is lightweight, powerful, and has really great battery life. It can handle almost any task you can throw at it. It is also easily upgradable — the SSD is placed under a small door in the back that has toolless removal. That’s the kind of user friendliness you don’t often see in laptops this thin.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable
This is a great portable powerhouse, but it comes with a compromise in the design. This is not a traditional “laptop” that you can easily open on your lap. But if that’s not your use case and you prefer the versatility of a tablet or 2-in-1, then this hybrid device is a smart pickup.
So, this is a great buy. It’s not going to be a beast at gaming, nor will it export hour-long 8K videos easily. But chances are you don’t need to do that. For everyone else, this is a versatile 2-in-1 that won’t break the bank and provides great value. That’s all you can ask for in a great computing machine.
