Artist Review: Surface Pro 11 (2024)

Review unit on loan from Microsoft Singapore

This review is written from the artist and graphic designer perspective.

If you’re thinking of buying the Surface Pro 11 (2024) for drawing or graphic design work, please skip to the App Compatibility section to read about the deal breakers.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (2024) is probably the first tablet from the Surface series that's finally exciting. It seems Microsoft is now putting more effort into ARM architecture because the latest Surface Pro has several significant upgrades.

The new Snapdragon X series processors now allows the tablets to run fast, without heat and hence with no fan noise, increased the battery life by almost two times, and OLED is now an option for displays. The downside is the Microsoft Slim Pen 2 still suffers from diagonal line jitter or wobble, so drawing accuracy is still behind the Apple Pencil and Samsung S Pen.

Video review

Specifications

here are the specifications of the loaner review unit from Microsoft Singapore

• Snapdragon X Elite (12 Core), with OLED display
• Qualcomm Hexagon NPU
• Qualcomm Adreno GPU
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB NVMe SSD (user removable)
• 13-inch OLED touchscreen display with 120Hz refresh rate
• 2880 x 1920 (267 PPI) resolution
• 3:2 aspect ratio
• 1 million:1 contrast ratio
• Length: 287 mm (11.3 inch)
• Width: 209 mm (8.2 inch)
• Height: 9.3 mm (0.37 inch)
• Weight: 895 g (1.97 lbs)
• 2 speaker with Dolby Atmos
• 2 USB-4 ports
• 1x Surface Connect port
• Wifi 7 (5G optional)
• Windows 11 OS
• 46Wh battery capacity (min)

In Singapore, prices are as follows:

• Snapdragon X Plus (10 core), LCD, 16GB RAM and 256GB storage: SGD 1599
• Snapdragon X Elite (12 core), OLED, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: SGD 2348

The prices are actually similar to the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 that I also reviewed recently:

• 13.8-inch model, Snapdragon X Plus (10 core), 16GB RAM and 256GB storage: SGD 1599
• 15-inch, Snapdragon X Elite (12 core), 16GB RAM, 512GB storage: SGD 2348

The main differences here would be display sizes, the Surface Laptop no longer has pen support, and the Surface Pro keyboard and pen are sold separately. Price of the Surface Pro is significantly higher after you add the keyboard cover and the pen.

App compatibility

The most important thing you need to know about the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is these new tablets are transitioning from Intel to ARM processors, and not all Intel apps are compatible with ARM processors.

I wasn’t able to test all the drawing and graphic design apps obviously, but here are some the potential dealbreakers as of 23 Sep 2024

Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, Lightroom Classic are not available for installation from Creative Cloud as of 23 Sep 2024. Premiere Pro is 2023 version which has bugs. Affinity apps work fine.

Intel X64 versions of drawing apps would run on emulation and the ones I’ve tested work fine, namely Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Medibang Paint.

Design

This is a beautiful looking tablet with premium build quality.

Colours available are Sapphire, Dune, Platinum and Black.

The weight of 895g is reasonable for a tablet this size, but once you add the keyboard cover, it weighs just like any other compact laptop.

The 13-inch touchscreen OLED display is beautiful and the huge selling point here for me is the 3:2 aspect ratio.

The two USB 4 type C ports by the side are useful. The fan grills run along the sides to the top. Fan noise when spinning at full speed is not that loud. The sides are also angled slightly so that it’s easier to pick up the tablet from the table.

The Surface Connect port on the other side can be used with the included charger, or the Microsoft Surface Dock 2 (SGD 394) which provides more ports. I wish Microsoft would replace this port with another USB-C port which would have been way more useful.

The kickstand is useful. Hinge is stiff but will not hold its position when you press down while drawing or writing on it. For drawing purposes, I recommend you get a laptop or tablet stand instead.

The removable 2230 NVMe SSD can be found behind a magnetic plate behind the kickstand.

Add-ons

Shown below are the keyboard options:

• Surface Pro Keyboard without pen slot (SGD 219)
• Surface Pro Keyboard with pen slot, without pen (SGD 299)
• Surface Pro Keyboard with pen slot, with pen (SGD 439)
• Surface Pro Keyboard (Bluetooth) with pen slot, without pen (SGD 499)
• Surface Pro Keyboard (Bluetooth) with pen slot, with pen (SGD 599)

If you need the pen, make sure it’s included with the keyboard.

I probably won’t recommend buying the Microsoft Slim Pen 2 (SGD 213) separately because you need either the keyboard cover or a separate accessory (SGD 60) to charge the pen.

Yes, these accessories are expensive.

The keyboard cover is nice to type on and is quite an essential accessory.

The other add-on from the order page is Microsoft 365 which includes the Microsoft Office apps and 1TB OneDrive online storage. I highly recommend Microsoft 365 because this can backup your whole computer. I’ve been using MS 365 for years and this is almost a must-buy.

Microsoft Slim Pen 2

The Microsoft Slim Pen 2 (SGD 213) supports palm rejection, tilt and pressure sensitivity.

The design is shaped like a carpenter’s pencil and even though it’s quite comfortable to hold, I still can’t quite get used to it even all these years. Build quality is good and I like the matte texture.

There’s one side button and an eraser at the back. The buttons may be customisable depending on the app you use, otherwise the shortcuts default to the Windows shortcuts.

Pen tip is firm and does not move when in contact with drawing surface. Pen tip can be replaced easily.

OLED display

The model with the OLED display is noticeably more expensive and the LCD option.

OLED has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio vs LCD’s 1,200:1 and OLED can show true HDR.

The OLED panel used by Microsoft has some grain, not really visible from one arm’s distance, but visible if you’re looking for it. This isn’t a deal breaker as it does not affect colours or sharpness.

There are no photos of the OLED grain because it's difficult to photograph properly.

One issue I had with the OLED display is my Spyder X2 Ultra does not work with OLED displays. Since I use multiple displays, I need to calibrate the displays for colours to match. Microsoft claims the Surface Pro 11s are already colour calibrated at the factory, but since we do not know the calibration standards, you can’t be sure the colours will match your other displays.

If I have to choose between OLED vs LCD, I will go with LCD to save money, and so that I can colour calibrate the display.

The display is laminated so there’s almost no gap between the pen tip and line when drawing or writing.

The display is very glossy. Microsoft should just put an anti-reflective coating on it already.

Performance

This new ARM architecture with the Snapdragon X processors is impressive.

Overall performance is smooth with multi-tasking, and the fans don’t even rev up. With the previous Surface Pro models, the tablets would get hot fast and fans would start spinning.

We are still in the early days of the Intel to ARM transition period, so not all X86 apps have been rewritten for ARM architecture. The good news is most X86 graphic design or drawing apps actually run without lag even on emulation. For example, Medibang Paint, Clip Studio Paint and Krita are all still X86 but they run without issues.

The important thing you have to research is advance is whether the app you NEED is actually available.

Co-Pilot and AI features

Seems like almost every computer nowadays are advertising AI features.

Microsoft is using AI in several areas. You can use CoPilot to help with research, summarising notes, transcribing from another language. There’s also AI art creation using CoCreator with Microsoft Paint. CoCreator does not work well when I tested it. My text prompt was “chicken talking to a duck” and the created image showed two chickens, and that’s if the 2nd one is actually a chicken. CoCreator also needs you to draw first so that it can then improve on what you draw, and most people in the world cannot draw.

Battery life

Battery life is great.

I was able to get at least 8 hours of battery life with heavy workflow that involves graphic design, editing photos.

With general usage, one can probably get 12 - 15 hours of battery life easily.

This is a significant upgrade over the previous Surface Pro models that can reach 8 hours battery life on a good day, usually just 6 hours.

Drawing tests

The line tests were created with Medibang Paint, and the performance is almost similar to what I can get with Clip Studio Paint.

1. The pen has low initial activation so thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. Unfortunately there’s wobble and jitter with slow diagonal lines.

2. Lines are not able to taper smoothly and sharply. This makes it difficult to draw things like grass, hair or fast hatching lines.

3. Transition from thin to thick lines is smooth. These are diagonal lines as well and there’s diagonal line wobble and jitter.

4. Pressure consistency seems fine, but there are occasions where I can get wavy lines when actually drawing.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. There are no issues with cursor misalignment. Separate lines can be joined easily without gaps or lines overshooting.

Tilt works fine.

Drawing performance

Drawing performance is affected by the diagonal line wobble or jitter, and the inability to taper lines smoothly.

This tablet can certainly be used for drawing, but if you need precision and accuracy, I don’t think it is gonna be good enough for professional digital artists. So right now, I would rank the pen performance here below Apple Pencil, Samsung S Pen and even the Xiaomi Focus Pen (with Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro).

Here's a sketch trying to replicate Sergio Toppi's line art. The difficult part here is getting the strokes to taper.

Whether this tablet is good enough for drawing really comes down to the type of art you create. The tablet and pen is good for graphic design, create vector art, edits photos but for drawing you need to know the limitations or downsides. The diagonal line wobble or jitter makes it challenging to draw angular subjects such as furniture, buildings and vehicles.

Conclusion

The hardware for Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (2024) is great.

The graphic design and drawing apps run smoothly even on emulation on the ARM architecture and that surprised me. Just make sure to research that the app you need is available.

Pen performance certainly can be improved if Microsoft wants to target digital artists. I believe there are many digital artists who would love a portable tablet with good battery life and excellent drawing performance. So the Surface Pro is actually just one step away (or years away) from reaching that stage.

If you’re not a graphic designer or artist, then you won’t be affected by those issues I’ve mentioned above.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design with solid build quality
+ Kickstand is useful
+ Choice of LCD or OLED displays
+ Display is sharp, bright, vibrant. OLED has excellent contrast ratio
+ Fast performance without heat
+ Fans barely rev as tablet does not run hot
+ Creative apps that run on emulation runs fine, fast
+ Amazing 12-15 hours battery life
+ Internal storage is user-upgradeable
- Surface Connect port not as useful as another USB-C port
- Pricey compared to Surface Laptop when accessories are included
- Not all creative apps are available yet
- OLED display has grain
- Pen has diagonal line wobble or jitter
- Limited number of ports

Availability

You can find the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (2024) on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP

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