Microsoft Surface Pro vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop: mainstream battle

Since releasing the original Surface tablet in 2012, Microsoft has grown its PC business into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The mobile Surface line has expanded to include 2-in-1 and traditional clamshell laptops in various form factors. 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 best-of lists such as best tablets and best laptops.

The two most mainstream lines, though, are the Surface Pro 11 and the Surface Laptop 7. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and you’ll want to keep them in mind if you’re looking for a Surface and choosing between the two.

Specs and configurations

The Surface Pro 11 and 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 both start at $1,000. That nets a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and an IPS display. The 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 starts at $1,300, but it only uses the faster Snapdragon X Elite chipset. From there, upgrading to 512GB of storage adds $200, upgrading to the Snapdragon X Elite costs $300, and RAM upgrades add a varying amount.

The Surface Laptop 11 maxes out at $2,100 for a Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and an OLED display (which comes with the faster chipset). The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 is $2,400 with the Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The most expensive 15-inch model is $2,500.

These are premium prices, but you can get into each device a bit less expensively than in the past, with more attractive configurations.

Design

In the simplest terms, the Surface Pro 11 is a tablet and the Surface Laptop 7 is a traditional clamshell. That makes the former a very thin and light 13-inch slate that can morph into something akin to a clamshell when you connect its external keyboard. How thin and light? Try 0.37 inches and 1.97 pounds for just the tablet. The Surface Laptop 7, on the other hand, is a traditional clamshell design that’s wider, deeper, and thicker at 0.69 inches in its 13.8-inch version and 0.72 inches in its 15-inch version. They weigh 2.96 pounds and 3.67 pounds, respectively.

The Surface Pro 11 can do real work, just like the Surface Laptop 7. It’s not as comfortable in laptop mode, especially on your lap, where the combination of tablet and keyboard can be a little wobbly, but the keyboard itself is comfortable enough for fast typing without fatigue. The newest Surface Pro Flex Keyboard now works via Bluetooth and so offers more placement flexibility. The Surface Laptop 7 is great in traditional laptop form, and it has an excellent keyboard with deep travel and a precise, snappy mechanism.

The difference is that while the Surface Laptop 7’s display is touch- and pen-enabled, the Surface Pro 11 is made for touch and pen use. Inking on the tablet is smooth and accurate, letting you handwrite your notes and create professional sketches with ease. The haptic feedback built into the latest Surface Slim Pen simulates the feel of writing on paper. Pop off the keyboard, and you have a device that can be used more comfortably in more places than the larger Surface Laptop 7.

The Surface Pro 11 is constructed of aluminum alloy and can be purchased in the traditional Surface Platinum or in Sapphire, Dune, and Black color schemes. The optional keyboards come 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 machines offer top-notch build quality with no bending or flexing in the chassis or display.

In terms of connectivity, the two are similar but not identical. The Surface Pro 11 is limited to two USB-C USB4 port, a Surface Connect port to attach to the charger and Microsoft’s docking options, and a nanoSIM slot for cellular connectivity. The Surface Laptop 7 adds a USB-A port 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-inch Surface Laptop 7 uses the faster chipset by default. Both chipsets are meant to be more efficient than the previous model’s Intel chipsets, while also providing faster performance. Both chipsets have the same Neural Processing Unit (NPU) running at 45 tera operations per second (TOPS), and they have the same Adreno integrated graphics running at 3.8 TFLOPS.

We reviewed both with the same Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 chipset, the second-fastest X Elite running at 3.4GHz with a dual-core burst of 4.0GHz. Their performance was similar, providing more than enough speed for demanding productivity users. The Adreno graphics aren’t very fast, though, meaning that gaming and creative tasks won’t be particularly quick.

Display

The Surface Pro 11 is built around a choice of 13-inch 3:2 2.8K (2880 x 1920) displays, 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 running 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 panel is a bit more accurate. The biggest difference is in their contrast ratios, with the tablet’s OLED panel having the technologies to produce usual inky blacks.

Both are excellent displays, but the Surface Pro 11’s is better.

Portability

We’ve already established that the Surface Pro 11 is the thinner and lighter device, even with its external keyboard. But the Surface Laptop 7 is thin and light for its class, especially the 15-inch model. Neither will weigh you down or take up too much space in your backpack.

We tested the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7, and both laptops get very good battery life. In our web-browsing test, both lasted 14.5 hours. The Surface Laptop 7 lasted a long longer in our video-looping test, at 22.5 hours compared to 16.5 hours.

You’ll get all-day battery life out of both machines. That makes them both a lot longer-lasting than their predecessors.

Laptop or tablet? That’s what the decision comes down to

Which device is right for you comes down to whether you want 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 laptops 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 machine you choose.