Surface Pro 11 vs Surface Laptop 7 Review & Comparison

[@maddada]

This surface laptop with the anti glare OLED from the Samsung Edge and a 360 degree hinge would be an instant buy for me.

[@luc7976]

Thanks very much for the excellent comparison. To me speaker sounds little bit better on Laptop (better dynamic range) but both are decent. I compared the OLED vs IPS version at Best Buy and I couldn't really see OLED being that much better: - OLED shows bit more dynamic range in the wallpaper, but blacks looked about the same (in bright conditions granted so might be better in dark conditions). - Opening notepad with white background showed some faint flickering to my eyes on the OLED version but not on IPS (potentially misleading and caused by bright lights, not sure). Not everyone is sensitive to that though - Didn't notice an OLED screendoor effect as some people mentioned - OLED model was way too warm and had a reddish tint. Since it was locked in store mode couldn't calibrate. - I did see an advantage with HDR video with brighter highlights but nothing major For that $500 price difference I think most people will be fine with IPS.

[@darren6028]

Just to note, changing the SSD in the SL7 voids the warranty unlike previous SL generations. I picked up the SL7 X plus, amazing machine.

[@MashITTech]

it does say that but if you are careful I dont think they would even be able to tell.

[@darren6028]

@@MashITTech I havent opened mine yet, but from videos I have seen there is a tape across the drive which I assume is a form of warranty tape. Did you happen to see that?

[@MashITTech]

@@darren6028 I did but it looks like it will stick back down ok. I will be doing mine soon and video it so we can see if its viable

[@darren6028]

@@MashITTech Amazing thank you!

[@andyH_England]

@@MashITTechI am sure a quick check of the onboard analytics will tell engineers that you have been playing around with the SSD and any warranty matter could be blamed on you opening up and fiddling around with internals. I would 100% not recommend doing it yourself and instead go to an authorised IT shop. Of course, the cost would rise and maybe just use an external drive as I do backed up with cloud.

[@shirokuro73]

Thanks for a great comparison! I was very eager to try out these new machines, I got a Surface Laptop 7, Elite/16/15 and am very impressed with it so far. I keep going back and forth on whether to exchange it for a Surface Pro 11 - the form factor and the OLED screen are very tempting. My heart wants it, but my head says the laptop is more practical in most situations!

[@Croceye33]

The surface pro is literally a better laptop lol it just has a detachable keyboard

[@JoeNokers]

The surface pro is a worse laptop. It's battery is shorter, it can't be used on a lap, the screen is smaller, and it's more expensive. The pro is a more versatile device since it's a tablet and critically has pen input. If you don't need pen input and don't intend on using it in tablet mode much then the surface laptop makes a lot more sense ​@@Croceye33.

[@NizarNoor]

Wow the webcam on the Surface Pro looks and sounds incredible!

[@-The-Golden-God-]

I'm still waiting for someone to do a compairson of the different Surface Pro 11's from the perspective of a design/productivity user. I need a Windows tablet pretty much just for drawing and design (Adobe Fresco) and I have no idea if there's a tangible price:performance ratio between the x-Plus 16gb, the x-Elite 16gb and the x-Elite 32gb. I haven't seen a single outlet discuss this. Is the Surface 10 for Business a viable option? I have no clue.

[@MashITTech]

That's a really good question. I am not a designer but I can get Gary to start testing from this perspective as he is our designer and editor. The elite is not worth the premium over the plus but I think the OLED is such a good upgrade I would go that route anyway. Later this week we are working on our Surface pro 9 vs 11 and I will get this data included in that video.

[@-The-Golden-God-]

@@MashITTech Awesome, thanks! I'm curious as to how the pen performs on the two screen types and how RAM affects performance in design applications. There are very few windows based drawing tablets on the market at the moment, but theyre all expensive, so I'd like to be as informed as possible before I make a purchase.

[@jessegriffin9]

Quality content, Dave. I didn't even notice this video took 25 minutes. Seems like you do love Surface and you have a profound hatred of the price of Flex Cover.

[@musicalone8123]

For battery life testing, what was the screen brightness level, i.e. around 50%, 60%, 70%?

[@ianbishop360]

when you do a weight comparison, please include the charging cords and bricks too if they are different.

[@bicillinjw]

Thank you for the review. Bought the elite, 32GB, 1TB Surface laptop but think I am going to return for the plus with 16GB, 512 after watching your review. Just not worth the extra 700 USD for my use. Also, getting a lot of ghosting on my screen.

[@rasundesilva6088]

What did you end up doing

[@Zeinab-q4s]

Which one would you say is better for engineering students? I already have a tablet for note taking.

[@Imcuriousman]

Conclusion: 7 hours battery life difference (Surface Laptop wins) vs portability (Surface Pro wins). The surface laptop would have been perfect if the pen works on it and it can twist 360 degrees. But anyways, battery life is always better. Both are already portable.

[@StaticPlaya]

I have to say this is a great comparison. Very detailed and helpful in helping me make my choice. I will be using mine mainly for productivity and they fit in with what I need to for work. Battery life is the main thing for me so the SL7 with the X Elite chip would be the one for me. I will do some XCloud gaming on it as it has worked well for me on my phone so I know that this will be a great device for it too. I need to pop to the Microsoft store and have a play with them and see the colour options closeup as the blue looks amazing. I'm looking forward to more videos.

[@MashITTech]

Thanks mate, we are beavering away on more content for the coming weeks :) and yes, the blue looks amazing, I wish I bought the laptop on blue

[@davidfonje3668]

Awesome review Now I know exactly what to buy. Please what camera and editor app do you use for your videos? I’ll appreciate if you could give me the properties of the camera as well.

[@MashITTech]

NLE for editing is Davinci resolve Studio All our cameras are Sony, we use Sony alpha 7iv with 35mm 1.4 g master on A cam, Sony FX30 with sigma 18-50 f2.8 for top cam and sony zv-e1 with sigma 18-50 for B roll and slider work

[@deathdogg0]

There's no need to buy some expensive keyboard for the surface pro 11. I bought the tablet and a foldable wireless keyboard, and that's all you need. It's amazing value for the portability. It takes up the same amount of space on whatever surface you place the device on. And if you really want a mouse pad, they have much cheaper yet still great wireless keyboard mouse combos. I think this is the most portable setup and still doesn't come close to the 300 dollars for the surface keyboards

[@Antonis24]

In regards to gaming, Qualcomm is largely to blame as they were advertising better performance than AMD's 780M iGPU and that all games will "just work"

[@Burbanana]

thanks for the great videos man! I have a question though; I want to use a surface laptop for my personal software projects and was aiming for 32GB RAM and say a Thinkpad T14S. But these are impressive; however there is no real 32GB option besides the 2500 euro SL 15" which is real overkill. Do you recommend the 16GB option at all, or would you rather recommend the more future-proofed 32GB for medium-load dev work and some very light gaming on the side?

[@MashITTech]

what dev work are we talking? for the majority of people 16gb will still be enough. I do a lot of web design, 3d modelling, light Dev (business systems and intranets) and an odd bit of game development for fun and have no issues with 16gb. My multi stream 4k 10 bit video editing for these videos is never going to cope though. I have been using a T14 Gen 4 until I started using the surface laptop and that had 32gb and ryzen 7840u, it's a great machine also and probably cheaper so might actually be better for you. Also Lenovo have just released a snapdragon T14s Gen 6, I haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet but they may have a 32gb option

[@Burbanana]

@@MashITTech thanks for your input, yeah the T14s Gen 6 is listed but very overpriced. They do have the Slim 7x with 32gb for 1650, but its the X1E 78 version. Not sure if worth it. Also heard about intel Lunar lake and AMD Strix CPUs coming soon to rival Qualcomm. Might have to get that Gen4 T14 and wait things out until next year?

[@the_aurora]

I am currently on SB2 with 16GB and my bare minimum is 32GB. If you are running backend + frontend with docker, you are going to fill up those 16GB instantly. I really don't want to spend the 1000€ for 16GB->32GB (assuming negligable M.2 swap) but unfortunately I might have to.

[@Burbanana]

@@the_aurora get the Lenovo Slim 7X, wonderful OLED and 32GB for a great price. Otherwise the new Ryzen AI 370 on the Asus Zenbook S 16 looks great too.

[@the_aurora]

@@Burbanana I am split between SP11 (versitality, pen support, oled), SL7 (more of a laptop that the SP and cheaper if you account for the keyboard+pen, lap-able, bigger screen, possibly better cooling, more ports, etc) and a Lenovo with 32GB. The only thing keeping me away from Lenovo is the experience from my previous surface device and the all-round pleasant day-to-day use of the device, just the small details that you appreciate. If there were a framework with snapdragon I would likely go for that instead.

[@singlemaltbarrel]

Great video Sir!

[@ekerazha]

It would be nice to have a XPS-like (I should say Asus Zephyrus-like) Surface laptop with NVIDIA GPU, but simpler and cheaper than the Surface Studio (no touchscreen etc. just a Surface laptop with NVIDIA GPU).

[@SouryaDP]

Oh yeah, a semi professional laptop. It would punch against Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra and Dell XPS, while MS could work out some software magic on that for some edge. However, MS needs to make sure that it is feeding adequate power to the chipset to ensure good performance. Luckily, the magnetic surface connector can feed upto 200W, so some serious performance can be unlocked, just with a 140W charger.

[@wookang3466]

Would both devices work with Virtual Machine and Rstudio please?

[@chandershekhar9251]

Sir is this laptop capable of handling ai ml tasks? I want to build projects for my college

[@Stanly450]

How's the material of the Pro's keyboard? WIll it last for several years? Thanks!

[@MashITTech]

Yes it certainly should. We have used surfaces for years (with the same keyboard materials) and we still have surface pro 4 keyboards in surface that looks great still

[@Tectectech]

Microsoft really did a great job this year. Even as an Apple user, I would like to see 120hz on my MacBook Air (which price range is similar to laptop surface 7).

[@lolidasterner414]

Do both of them include a bios option thus a bootmanager and install of linux ?

[@Burbanana]

AFAIK: no they do not (yet).

[@SagaciousSilence]

I have the 2022 Surface Pro 9. Would upgrading to this 2024 model result in performance boosts? My Surface Pro 9 has a lot of lag when it comes to file management and using Microsoft Outlook.

[@chocophye]

Can you do a comparison of older surface pro models (like 7+) vs surface pro 11?

[@gavinarmstrmg]

Or you could simple opt for one of the many 3rd party bt keyboards like the k380 at around 40 USD if you want the tablet form factor anyway

[@sakshamsharma5338]

Does the new surface laptop 7 comes with fingerprint unlock or just windows hello face recognition?

[@MashITTech]

sadly only the surface go gets a finger print reader. The laptop only gets windows hello

[@4n0r]

very good review

[@peterhastings703]

Interesting video! I'm still conflicted between the Pro and laptop though. I've had a Surface Pro 4 for over 8 years and it has been great for using on the road - but the keyboard no longer connects and Bluetooth kb/mouse are a pain - as well as the battery life now! One bit of data though - I popped into the Microsoft store in London today to feel the hardware in my hands. I eventually gave in and spoke to an assistant and said that I was undecided, but wanted to look at an OLED Surface. I think it was the base X elite/16GB/512GB option, but he did say that he could include a free type cover and pen (not the 'Flex' cover though)! Maybe only offered in person, but perhaps some discounts are on the way? He also specifically mentioned the SSD access - why would they make it so easy to get to it if changing it voided the warranty?

[@akin242002]

I'd rather take the Surface Laptop 7. More comfortable on the lap at an airport when there isn't a desk to sit at. Also, 3 hours of extra battery life. Losing OLED screen doesn't matter at that size (13-15 inches). I have a 4k at TV at home and a 27-inch 4k monitor for my desktop. Both with excellent color accuracy.

[@MashITTech]

that is exactly where I am at but damn that OLED screen is good though

[@fakuridesne]

Surface 11 more expensive keyboard so expensive 😢😢

[@sudstahgaming]

It's a movement forward but they aren't for gaming but are good for productivity on the move, if you aren't on the move and want to game stick with a traditional desktop, for the price unless your a professional or a student on the move the price doesn't really justify it for everyone else.

[@thevoid11223]

Yo, Mashy Mash a high-pressure laptop cooler called the MEMO FL08 that you think I should try. You said it should reduce temperatures by about 20 degrees Celsius and that it has a foam seal as well.

[@MashITTech]

thanks mate, will take a look

[@jamessakellatis]

Good video, thanks

[@cueball981]

Awesome review! Thank you!

[@Scythinite]

do you got any updates on betatek

[@MashITTech]

absolutely nothing. My calls and messages are not getting delivered

[@Scythinite]

​@@MashITTechdamn. Really looked like it had alot of potential too

[@RegiiPad]

The flex keyboard without the pen is more or less equivalent to the Apple iPads keyboard price wise. The pencils/pens are expensive by themselves. My little disappointment was regarding the excess of glare or lack of anti-glare not comparable with Macs. They are so reflexive that hurts😮

[@randeeppunia641]

Can you please make a video on the slim pen 2 its features, latency , comparability with older keyboards ? Its latency in different apps, its performance based on apps or windows across? Because this combo of flex keyboard and pen is almost of the price of discounted samsung tab s9.

[@MashITTech]

Leave it with me, I will put something together soon

[@randeeppunia641]

@@MashITTech 🙏

[@HenrikCaspersen]

I really want to have the option of using the pen for notes. Also really want the option of 5G coming September! And last a tablet function with OLED so my money will go to the surface 😊

[@BeyondTomorrowNow]

why do you recommend the the plus vs elite ?

[@MashITTech]

because th performance was almost the same between them, it isn't worth the massive price increase to get the elite

[@alansaji1016]

Hey can you compace the mac m3 air with the surface laptop 7

[@MashITTech]

I do have an m3 air! I am just finishing the Surface pro 11 vs surface pro 9 then I will take a look

[@Jan96106]

I have both. (But the Mac M3 Air is 15-inch.) I like them both. I like the keyboard better on the Surface 7. I think the Mac has longer battery life, but I have not officially tested that. The Surface battery seems to charge faster than the Mac. To finish my work for the semester, I opted for the Surface. But I plan to use the Mac more over break. Also, I like the touch screen on the Surface 7.

[@cueball981]

I'd be fine going to ARM based on those battery stats. Given that I already have a killer gaming laptop, I would choose the SP11 with the OLED. I love to draw, and also, I don't have an up-to-date tablet device. My SP2 is showing it's age.

[@MashITTech]

I have used a fair few OLED screens but the SP11's has been my favourite so far (mostly due to the lack of perceivable flicker which I find comfortable on my eyes). It is well worth the upgrade cost IMHO

[@luc7976]

@@MashITTechNotebookcheck tested PWM at 480 Hz < 69%, local dimming at 70-99% brightness. So vast majority of people will be happy with that. I briefly checked at store and I can detect some flickering at full white background but not otherwise. That said, not sure the extra price is worth it. Do you see deeper blacks on your OLED compared to SL7? I couldn't see it not even with HDR demo.

[@devmehta7197]

Sir is this laptop good for programming or godot gsme development and design? Or any other snapdragon laptops

[@seannightwal1765]

I'll wait for an OLED 16-inch Macbook Pro before upgrading my 2020 M1 13-inch Macbook Pro. I currently also have an M4 13-inch iPad Pro and all I can say once you go OLED. You can never go back.

[@ne7rawy67]

Amazing review thank you for the time and effort! I am looking for a device upgrade for my graduate level studies. that includes lots of note taking, assignments and PDF reading, but it also includes some software and lite coding. Do you think a 2-in-1 device like the surface pro 11 is a good choice for me? or should I get a laptop and a simple tablet for note taking and PDFs?

[@alljustatoms]

I got the surface pro 11 with 16 GB 512 GB storage and it’s working great I’m really impressed so nice to have a windows laptop that you can use for anything

[@bishalshrestha5405]

does it run photoshop with no any lags ??? i am also intrested to buy it.. but only after the checking the reviews.... also if not surface pro 11 ..i was planning on XPS 13 2024 model...

[@fensn6172]

Hi. Is it possible to use earbuds with the surface pro 11 ? Thank you

[@michael.maurus]

Amazing thank you! Looks great

[@andyH_England]

I did watch ArtisRight, who does photography workflows, and he says to avoid the Surface Laptop X-Plus. Its performance could be better across the board. I expect issues with the software and drivers, but I would not recommend that the X-Elite is the better choice for every photography use case. The X-Elite destroys it in photography, but the Macbooks are still well ahead. If you are sold on these wait a few months and see how the land lies, but in real-life tests for creators and photographers, MacBooks still win on performance. As for battery life on X-Elite, 4-6 hours doing mid-high workloads from what I have seen, 7-9 hours on multitasking, and 14-20 hours watching video. But the latter is misleading; watching Netflix on HDR will full volume, that 20 hours easily becomes

[@reimeljose8160]

Is the Surface Slim Pen 2 working as a Pen on the Surface Laptop 7? I can use my Surface Slim Pen 2 on my Surface Laptop 5 with no problem but with the Surface Laptop 7 it only acts as a button to pull up OneNote and not actually write or act as a cursor.

[@luc7976]

If comparing lowest base cost, then arguably you get a cheaper pro keyboard without a pen. Note no pen support in Laptop 7 anymore I believe. But certainly nicer option for Pro to have a pen.

[@MashITTech]

correct, the laptop has a touch screen but no pen input anymore :(

[@roearchive6366]

I'm definitely buying the Surface Pro 11, no matter how much KZbin algorithm is going to bombard me with negative reviews (unlike this one). :-)

[@MashITTech]

haha. there are some niggles with ARM for windows but people need to be realistic. I am sure we will soon see ARM versions of most popular software and I was surprised how many old software packages worked with translation layer

[@brownfox1540]

What is the weight difference between the standard keyboard and the flex keyboard for the surface pro 11?

[@elliekim6666]

I love OLED but I am fine with the LCD display on my laptop 7 so far.

[@bharathmedala]

Does age of mythology retold work on this

[@phillipjames453]

The Dune colour used to be called Sandstone.

[@hakksim]

About the Adreno GPU being reviewed by many as underwhelming. This argument seems to be mostly about not being able to play games on these laptops. But what about heavy web application usage? I'm talking about having 50 Chrome tabs + Figma, Slack desktop apps open across 3 Windows workspaces. Occasionally my current laptop (2021 XPS13) gets very slow with Chrome using 90% of the GPU. Since there is a native Chrome app for Arm, would these laptops handle this type of load better?

[@nakedeye44]

I would love to have me a surface laptop7. it's what I've been looking for.

[@chetansachdev9749]

Thanks for the detailed comparison. Could you check if external display e.g. Apple Studio Display could be connected to any of these devices?

[@MashITTech]

there was a section in some of the videos where we use a Dell ultra sharp 4k display with 90w PD and it works perfectly in both (think it was detailed in the productivity video. I do also have a studio display so can test that when I am back in the studio on monday for you

[@chetansachdev9749]

@@MashITTech This would help, thank you

[@Mrclxxxx]

How's the fan noise?

[@MashITTech]

both the laptop and the pro fans max out at 42db. the fans do not kick in at all in light to medium load. When I was heavily using the CPU or GPU (gaming/exporting/rendering) the fans kicked in

[@Mrclxxxx]

@@MashITTech thanks so much! do both versions X Plus and X Elite have a fan?

[@MashITTech]

yes, all versions have a fan this year

[@Mrclxxxx]

@@MashITTech damn, I'd love to have them go without a fan.

[@MashITTech]

yes it would be nice but the snapdragon aren't quite efficient enough. To get the performance needed you are looking at 20+ watts, I think we would need to get it around 10 to be able to go fanless

[@rnoerachmad]

when it comes to perform, M series from Apple worked better/away better than SD as specially in Adobe ecosystem. it's too early saying this ecosystem out perform Macbook

[@bbosafredrick3579]

What about back-lit keyboard

[@MashITTech]

Yes, both have backlit keyboards

[@JL-OnwardandUpward]

15" Surface Laptop OLED option all daty long in platinum.

[@TheDragonaf1]

The issue for me is that the Surface laptop removes what the Surface GO made famous. Also the keyboard and screen is disappointing...it would be better value to get the surface pro and just set up a wirless keyboard with it.

[@MashITTech]

I really enjoy the keyboard, it is one of the best laptop keyboard currently on the market, dont get me wrong it wont replace my nuphy halo 75 but that is at my desk when I dock :)

[@haagengeorge8030]

Can you please make a detailed video guide on how to properly exit raid zero and shift from raid 0 to regular drive?

[@nauscakes1868]

I wish more reviewers would mention the "dots" effect on the OLEDs.

[@schrute.farms1312]

rocking the base model SP11. no complaints at all. i couldn't justify the price increase for the elite chip for an OLED display and minimal improvement in specs.

[@ArcturusSky]

Good video

[@prodromosregalides3402]

It is unbelievable how Microsoft manages to bury ARM and ARM itself every single time , with their negligence and awfully slow reflexes. They launch an SOC, that would be competitive in 2023 with 1 year delay. They fail to address compatibility issues, while they had eons to work with this and ample silicon from Qualcomm. They launch products with subpar specs , few ports, just ok displays, hardly adequate storage , so so RAM. They charge a lot for them , very unbecoming and late of Microsoft and Qualcomm to mimic the lame practices of Apple. Why in hell they would imitate this insulting behavior to consumers? But they do! Lasting long is not a selling point anymore . AMD ryzen AI 300 series and Intel lunar lake chips already last 12+ and 20+ hours , if you only want to do light work. They do not have compatibility issues . Their CPU is as fast as the "elite" version of snapdragon or better . Their gpus are better. They cost the same . They have more ports , they have stylus support. Their screens are a little or a lot bigger They have 32gb of RAM , and much more SSD storage. So, tell me why , oh why would I buy these microsoft laptops? Of course there is a slight possibility I have never thought. Maybe , just maybe Microsoft works secretly for the benefit of AMD and Intel.

[@editiongamingyt5761]

I returned my surface laptop, seven because of build quality issues. It made a creaking noise every time I put my hand on the trackpad, and it would bend so easily from picking it up from the corner that if you set it on a flat table, one side of the armrest will be in the air and the other side would be on the table and that’s not even pushing hard or bending very rough, this was just regular day to day use. I’m sad by this and I’m kind of torn because the device itself was really awesome and the chip itself was fantastic so I ended up picking up a MacBook and I’m so much happier with the bill quality please who’s going to get a snapdragon laptop. Do not buy the surface laptop seven

[@thevoid11223]

YOOOOO!!!!!

[@mannkeithc]

I would pick the Surface Pro 11 OLED to replace my M1 12.9-inch iPad Pro. I want a tablet PC with a desktop class OS and iPoor OS cripples the iPad Pro.

[@MashITTech]

Yeah I had a 12.9” iPad and sold it. Was a great media consumption device but was terrible for anything productive yet they want to charge insane prices for it and call it a pro 😂

[@rick-d5c]

take off windows and install linux you might have a decent machine; if your running windows; wasted your money

[@hexagonal7075]

Microsoft is just dumb when it comes to making products. No OLED on the laptop 7? who's idea was that. Fire that guy already!. This laptop would have been perfect.

[@MashITTech]

yep, idiotic decision by M$

[@Leornianæfre]

Surface laptop 7 looks to be a step in the right direction of a proper laptop. A few things I’d like to see though 1) is easier upgradability for the Battery, proper m.2 SSD and RAM. 2) a non touch screen laptop. 3) intel ultra with intel arc graphics. 4) Something around the £900-£1200 mark. 5) easier repairability with more components available directly from Microsoft for a good 10 year period.

[@Do·not·reply·to·me]

I bought a new Pro 11 OLED with 16GB for 963€ with the student discount on Amazon and switched the 256GB SSD for a Crucial 1TB for about 80€. I think I can definitely sell it for a profit even used in the next year (>1040€). I love this thing, but I don't know why there are strange patterns visible of the screen. I don't think it's the OLED. Theres some kind of touch digitizer visible in front of it and it's very perceptible imo. Also keep in mind, that most printer drivers don't support WoA so you'll have to get along with the bare minimum functionality that the default Windows network printer driver offers.

[@MashITTech]

you are not the first person to spot some grid on the display. Mine was perfect, I scrutinised it and had no grids, lines or anything! And yes snap dragon /arm support is still pretty flaky, really disappointed with how they sold it before it released, still no promised ARM premier and the ARM resolve is terrible. Blender is hit and miss plus loads of other software issues I have dealt with. Certainly not as smooth as I hoped

[@rousing22]

No google drive for desktop…. Deal breaker