Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
Since liberate the original Surface pill in 2012 , Microsoft has grown its PC job into a multibillion - dollar mark enterprise . The mobile Surface note has expanded to admit 2 - in-1 and traditional clamshell laptop computer in various form gene . There ’s the Surface Pro 11 , Surface Laptop 7 , Surface Laptop Go 3 , and Surface Laptop Studio 2 . That ’s quite the lineup , and you ’ll find a Surface on a number of our good - of lists such asbest tabletsandbest laptops .
The two most mainstream lines , though , are theSurface Pro 11and theSurface Laptop 7 . Each has its strong point and weaknesses , and you ’ll require to keep them in mind if you ’re look for a Surface and choosing between the two .
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends
Specs and configurations
The Surface Pro 11 and 13.8 - column inch Surface Laptop 7 both start at $ 1,000 . That nets a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset , 16 GB of RAM , a 256 GB SSD , and an IPS display . The 15 - in Surface Laptop 7 starts at $ 1,300 , but it only practice the quick Snapdragon X Elite chipset . From there , upgrading to 512 GB of memory adds $ 200 , upgrading to the Snapdragon X Elite costs $ 300 , and RAM upgrades tot a vary amount .
The Surface Laptop 11 maxes out at $ 2,100 for a Snapdragon X Elite , 32 GB of RAM , a 1 TB SSD , and an OLED showing ( which come with the faster chipset ) . The 13.8 - in Surface Laptop 7 is $ 2,400 with the Snapdragon X Elite , 64 GB of RAM , and a 1 TB SSD . The most expensive 15 - in model is $ 2,500 .
These are premium prices , but you’re able to get into each gimmick a bit less expensively than in the past , with more attractive configuration .
Design
In the bare terms , the Surface Pro 11 is a tab and the Surface Laptop 7 is a traditional clamshell . That cause the former a very lean and light 13 - inch ticket that can morph into something akin to a grapple when you link its external keyboard . How slender and light ? try out 0.37 inches and 1.97 pounds for just the pill . The Surface Laptop 7 , on the other hand , is a traditional grapple design that ’s wide , rich , and thicker at 0.69 inches in its 13.8 - in version and 0.72 inch in its 15 - column inch interlingual rendition . They consider 2.96 pounds and 3.67 pounds , severally .
The Surface Pro 11 can do real piece of work , just like the Surface Laptop 7 . It ’s not as comfortable in laptop modality , especially on your lick , where the compounding of tab and keyboard can be a little wobbly , but the keyboard itself is comfortable enough for fast typewriting without weariness . The newest Surface Pro Flex Keyboard now works via Bluetooth and so offers more location flexibility . The Surface Laptop 7 is heavy in traditional laptop computer variant , and it has an excellent keyboard with mysterious change of location and a precise , snappy chemical mechanism .
The difference is that while the Surface Laptop 7 ’s display is touch- and pen - enable , the Surface Pro 11 ismadefor touch and pen use . ink on the tablet is smooth and accurate , allow you handwrite your note and make professional sketches with ease . The tactual feedback built into the former Surface Slim Pen simulates the feel of compose on paper . bulge out off the keyboard , and you have a gimmick that can be used more comfortably in more places than the great Surface Laptop 7 .
The Surface Pro 11 is retrace of aluminum admixture and can be purchased in the traditional Surface Platinum or in Sapphire , Dune , and grim colour scheme . The optional keyboard hail in a variety of models and can be covered in either standard or Alcantara fabric . The most expensive is the $ 450 Surface Pro Flex . The Surface Laptop 7 is made of aluminum alloy , with the same color schemes as the Surface Pro 11 . Both auto offer top - notch build quality with no bending or flexing in the frame or presentation .
In term of connectivity , the two are similar but not indistinguishable . The Surface Pro 11 is limited to two USB - C USB4 port , a Surface Connect port to attach to the courser and Microsoft ’s tying up option , and a nanoSIM slot for cellular connectivity . The Surface Laptop 7 supply a USB - A larboard and drops the nanoSIM slot . Both machines offer cutting - edge Wi - Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connectivity .
Performance
Both Surface machines offer a choice between the 10 - core Snapdragon X Plus chipset and the 12 - core Snapdragon X Elite . The 15 - in Surface Laptop 7 uses the faster chipset by nonremittal . Both chipsets are meant to be more effective than the former mannequin ’s Intel chipsets , while also ply immobile performance . Both chipsets have the same Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) running at 45 tera operations per second ( TOPS ) , and they have the same Adreno incorporate graphic run at 3.8 TFLOPS .
We reviewed both with the same Snapdragon X elect X1E-80 - 100 chipset , the second - profligate ten Elite pass at 3.4GHz with a dual - heart burst of 4.0GHz . Their performance was like , provide more than enough speed for demanding productivity users . The Adreno graphics are n’t very fast , though , think that gambling and originative tasks wo n’t be in particular quick .
Display
The Surface Pro 11 is built around a choice of 13 - column inch 3:2 2.8 K ( 2880 x 1920 ) showing , IPS and OLED , running at 120Hz . The Surface Laptop 74 offers either 13.8 - inch 3:2 2304 x 1536 IPS or 15.0 - inch 3:2 2496 x 1664 IPS , both run at 120Hz .
We tested the Surface Pro 11 with its OLED display and the 15 - inch Surface Pro 7 . Both laptops are incredibly bright and both have wide colors — less than some OLED displays and more than most IPS displays — and the Surface Pro 11 ’s board is a spot more accurate . The full-grown difference is in their contrast ratios , with the pad ’s OLED panel make the technologies to bring forth usual inky black .
Both are splendid displays , but the Surface Pro 11 ’s is better .
Portability
We ’ve already established that the Surface Pro 11 is the thinner and light twist , even with its external keyboard . But the Surface Laptop 7 is thin and light for its category , specially the 15 - inch model . Neither will weigh you down or take up too much infinite in your backpack .
We tested the 15 - inch Surface Laptop 7 , and both laptops get very good barrage fire life . In our web - browsing mental testing , both lasted 14.5 hours . The Surface Laptop 7 go a long longer in our video - loop test , at 22.5 hours compared to 16.5 hours .
You ’ll get all - day barrage fire animation out of both machine . That makes them both a heap longer - endure than their predecessors .
Laptop or tablet? That’s what the decision comes down to
Which twist is proper for you come down to whether you need a tablet or a traditional laptop . Either way , you ’ll get excellent build quality , a great display , and support for Windows 11 ’s full suite of touch and ink . Both laptop computer run Windows on Arm , so there ’s the same potential compatibility concerns with both . And you ’ll spend around the same money regardless of which simple machine you choose .
