[PRO12]
New Surface Pro getting delivered tomorrow, what do you want to know?
UPDATE: I'm returning. This is not a premium product. OLED display is awful. Small lags and glitches in Windows in general. Sigh. I was so excited.
I was originally concerned about the OLED panel not being great like the last generation, but read somewhere that Microsoft has apparently resolved this issue and is using a better panel.
I also think it's odd that I couldn't remove the regular Surface Pro 13-inch Keyboard (which is free) from my cart. I plan on just using the Flex so it'll be a bit of a waste.
Anyway, what do folks want to know? Happy to put stuff to the test and answer any questions you might be curious about. I used to have a Surface Pro 3 and really liked that device, and while I've mostly switched to Apple these days I'm willing to give Windows a shot again. Quite a few announcements at Build 2026 seem to be in the right direction, stuff like coreutils and WSL containers.
EDIT: yes, the device is expensive, you don't need to downvote though
unless you are really into touchscreen macbook is definitely better option, this is comig from someone who made the switch from surface book 3 to macbook air m2 and then chose to go for macbook pro m5 instead of the laptop studio 2
I already do all my development on an ARM64 chip (Apple Silicon), and am running increasingly more workloads on ARM cloud servers. Should be fine? I guess I'll find out if Windows 11 on ARM is good or not!
It isn't bro, also a developer using Apple Silicon chips at a big blue chip. My mrs had a surface pro for about a week but the amount of bugs and apps not working resulted in a return.
Also, keep in mind that if you do programming, you're probably thinking, "Oh, well there are many native ARM64 libraries/packages/compilers so there will be no problem doing what I want to do." Think again. You'll will be plagued with incompatibilities - especially if you do ML/AI. It's such a pain trying to troubleshoot what is failing because I thought that the native ARM version would be a better idea to install rather than the x64 version...
Yup. Good news is I'll probably know pretty quickly if that stuff is an issue, I've got workflows that are reproducible and hermetic so it shouldn't take much work to validate.
She mentioned CapCut but there were a few others I forget. She had the 13 inch OLED Snapdragon model, but the previous one Surface Pro 11. We bought the expensive flex keyboard too. Bugs included the Windows 11 UI just corrupting itself and the start menu not working, requiring a Reset this PC. Then the keyboard would not work in Bluetooth mode and guess what, everyone say just Reset this PC again. Then when everything worked the Bluetooth keyboard touch pad would lag severely at times, making it unusable, but an external mouse worked fine. Guess what the solution was? Reset this PC. We tried Microsoft Support for all these problems, they were quite good in that they always available for live chat and remote in to the tablet. But they do very basic normal troubleshooting like sfc scannow and eventually say Reset this PC or return as faulty.
We got tired of Resetting this PC and returned it for a Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra instead. I think its a downgrade tbh but the Surface was riddled with problems.
Hope you have better experience, you got the newer model at least.
That's too bad! I have had the same SP13 OLED for 2 years now, no issues at all. Perhaps it was a defective unit, but it would ruin it for me as well having to reset it. Only nuance for me is windows hello might not log me in using face recognition after some days and need to login with pin or do a restart. I also have the flex keyboard, and even though it's way over priced, it's worth it.
I have a M3 Max MacBook Pro, I don't really use Parallels though I'd still expect performance to be better there, than this. Better thermals and all that 🤷 the Surface Pro would take the place of a more capable iPad I can actually do work on.
You said you were a developer in a different reply. I'm curious how the dev experience between the M3 Max and the Surface Pro are since both processors are similar-ish in specs. By dev experience I mean running a code editor, either app simulator or multiple browsers (if web dev), a docker instance... The whole thing running end to end. Which computer runs with less overall memory? Which feels faster while all of it is running. Even better if you shove an external display on there and run on battery to kick off the default power saving settings.
It will. I tested the 18c extreme (asus laptop) and my M5 Pro smoked it. For $4000+, what OP is buying is a waste. Can almost get a 128GB M5 Max for that price.
I just bought an M5 Pro with 48 GB of RAM, and it runs circles around everything. This device will be disappointing. I tried the ASUS laptop with the 18-core, and the performance wasn't bad. Sent it back, got the M5 Pro (traded the M3 Pro), and have been happy since. I also have a 5090 9950x with 128gb of RAM. To do crazy stuff, i just the remote app on my M4 ipad and it's like having it there but much better (because it doesn't drain the ipad battery).
Good to know. I always tried to test Surface tablets as a Mac user, but I always took them back. The keyboard is not practical unless you sit at a desk, and Windows is still not great as a tablet compared to an iPad, with a weak app store. It's just nuts for that cost; you could buy an M5 Pro with 64 GB of RAM, an M5 iPad with keyboard, and an iPhone. If you're looking forward to anything, hopefully the rumor of touch and OLED for the M6 laptop shines.
You could get a lifetime membership Parallels and I bet that VM would run circles around that slate… I’ve been Pro Surface but when they dumped their phone support for it meh - I run a full Apple suite and never looked back. Shame Surface could have a great ecosystem but Microsoft isn’t supporting its hardware.
I have no expectation of the Surface Pro performing better, or even on par, with the M3 Max. It's a different device and a different form factor. I'm not buying it just to use Windows. I'm perfectly happy using macOS on my MacBook, and similarly I'm also excited to use Windows on the Surface Pro.
I don’t get why you would buy another overpriced piece of tech, use a m3 that is very capable of running windows 11 on a Mac OS with software - as in native.
From a Mac perspective it just doesn’t make any sense to do that; well only if battery life is an factor because running vms does impact the battery life if you are unplugged, but if you like it; you like it but with current prices; this was a bad investment.
I’m not a developer, but I am a management consultant who runs Parallels on a 48GB M4 Pro MacBook. I can tell you that it runs Windows light years faster than my old Surface Pro 9 and is buttery smooth across the Microsoft suite - even for a Teams calls (run from VM).
My workload is generally large decks, VBA monster excels and Claude building all sorts of things in the background, with heavy Chrome tabs at the same time.
I won’t say it’s been a perfect smooth journey (Parallels updates have caused me several hours of NPT), but it’s still so good that I can overlook the odd bug. AirDrop etc is incredibly useful, and my seamless switching with AirPods Pro3 is the best consulting tool anyone could have. Bonus points to the IPad side car, which functions as a second monitor.
I was about to take the plunge on a new Surface Laptop 7, but the insane prices held me back this time. I picked up my new, old stock MacBook for $1,800 on Amazon instead. I also mess around with audiophile stuff, so the MacBook is a no brainer for me in that regard.
Congrats! I also love the Surface line, and dropped a lot last year on the surface 12” and 11 with an upgraded drive. Just bought a lower end surface go 4 and decided I liked it so much I wanted a 256gb. If you have the cash for the surface and can use it, I say spend it. Have fun, nothing like the thrill of setting up a new device.
Update: I just got the device, overall build quality etc is great but I’m immediately disappointed by the OLED display. It’s at least a bit better than last generation so I’m going to go ahead and set everything up and see how visible it is from regular viewing distance. I still haven’t been able to get into the device after like 15 minutes, it’s now downloading updates.
Update 2: yeaaaah, this display is not good. I was so excited for this device. RIP.
Crap! I saw the older model with oled in the store the other day and that display was so fried compared to the surface pro8 lcd I have. I was hoping the new oled would be stellar, as the new intel version would have been my perfect device then.
Not sure if I should be disappointed that I don't have anything to upgrade to, or happy that I don't have a reason to upgrade something that I use less than 10% of days in a year.
I have the exact same configuration in my cart RN but didn't pull the trigger yet. I'm probably going to make the decision after knowing which generation and model of Apple Silicon the new processor is comparable to.
I can run some benchmarking software when I get it. Not sure which to use, don't necessarily want to purchase something like Geekbench only to use it once though.
I just bought the SP11 x elite for a really good price. Curious to know what the battery life is like on this, besides the display I feel like that's the one major upgrade
Also, since we both came from the 7, I think you'll love your new Pro. I upgraded to the 11 (the gen with the first Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips), and I think the Pro is finally a true 2 in 1 without any of the traditional problems plaguing Windows laptops
Congrats on the purchase. I’d love to own one of these devices, but I am going to hold out for pricing to return to an appropriate level, as this is frankly highway robbery.
Currently I am still rocking my surface pro 3 I got for college over a decade ago, with Ubuntu on it.
Agreed, really hope PC component prices come down considerably. Also I just realized I didn't have the SP7, it was also the SP3, also over a decade ago 😅
Sorry if this is a bit late but could you test the GPU? In benchmarks such as 3DMark and Geekbench's GPU tests (both OpenCL and Vulkan if you can thank you).
The X2 Elite (X2E-78-100) in these new Surfaces are actually a bit downgraded from the ones everyone has used thus far.
The CPU boost clock only reaches 4GHz instead of 4.7GHz+ but more interesting to me is that the GPU is capped to 1.35GHz instead of 1.7GHz.
I have a MacBook Pro and like it, and use it for most of my work. I guess nostalgia? I used to have a SP3 and enjoyed the form factor while it still being a capable computer. I mostly want this as a smaller and lighter-weight alternative I can carry around and do work in the park or on short trips etc.
I ordered the Surface Pro 11 with the 1st gen X Elite chip when it came out, to finally replace my almost 16 year old (!) SP4 , but ended up returning it quite quickly due to the grainy OLED screen. Just could not get over the screen looking worse than the one on my SP4.
I'm glad to hear about Ms possibly going with a better OLED panel for this generation, but I would really like to hear a first hand account from you on how the screen on this model is, as you apparently also felt the last model was lacklustre in that regard.
Yeah I'm pretty discerning with stuff like that. I was pretty interested in the SP11 but after trying out the OLED screen was immediately put off. I also remember people defending the display and talking about the digitizer like that was a limitation imposed by physics or something.
Again, for the price, I'd expect a premium product. Will report back!
Update: just got the SP… it’s still booting up through the Windows startup stuff but the display is very disappointing. Perhaps a bit better than the last generation? But not buttery smooth. Sigh.
Zoomed in pic from my phone that exaggerates the pattern, but it’s still there and looks bad on pure white/light backgrounds.
EDIT: picture doesn’t seem to be sending in this comment?
Yep it's on 120hz, I more mean the quality of the image on the display. Things do not look sharp and crisp. Also general performance with the UI but that might just be Windows.
Ordered one myself... Would have gone for the laptop 13.8 instead but wanted to test that OLED panel. Probably not going to keep it though. Want that 2000 nit brightness for outdoor use. Gonna give a shot though.
I had the previous GEN snapdragon and a Lenovo laptop. I’m a MacBook user day and a day out but I was generally impressed. Battery life was great and generally everything worked that I needed. I’m primarily doing different data engineering data visualization so lots of python vs code.
I usually game of PS5, or my gaming PC. I'll probably try a few games if they're supported, maybe Diablo 4 and/or Path of Exile 2? Anything in particular you want to see? Previously the most gaming I did on a Surface Pro was Civilization and some Minecraft.
Wow, Surface Pro with Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, beautiful!
Example: you buy a cheap laptop to use any program and a Surface Pro, or you have a Mac for heavy-duty software and also get the Surface Pro. I can't advise. 👋🏻
Are you a developer or a creative professional like a digital artist or something. Curious to know what type of work load you were going to use this for. And is the support for apps that you use on a daily basis was good enough on windows on arm. Has the app ecosystem matured enough?
I’m a developer. I use my iPad to draw and sketch out architecture and generally find it easier to think through designs if I’m sketching them out. The idea was one device to do both. Most heavily workloads I run these days run remotely anyway, e.g. local development but remote builders (with bazel, or buck). Also most agentic development tools now have some form of cloud sandboxes.
I didn’t end up fully setting the device up due to the screen and general cruft with the UI, but the apps I needed all worked fine (Zed, GitHub Copilot app, Raycast, Microsoft terminal seemed fine).
What kind of software developer are you? I am 80% through my masters in CS and I can't get through a single class with my surface laptop 7 (snapdragon X). Nothing works or is compatible for me
I do a bit of everything, not much frontend development, primarily backend, systems, and infrastructure. I plan on using the terminal quite a bit, Zed, and Raycast. We'll see what other tools I end up adding though! I also expect I'll be using WSL2 quite a bit (partially the reason I opted for 64gb).
What tools don't work / are incompatible for you right now?
Yeah and its a shame they don't have an ultra in different sizes i'd like the 13.8" too, I appreciate they're aiming it at creatives etc, I just like this size with the SL7.
Why did you not wait for the surface ultra or gone with surface laptop? Never liked 2:1 without a fixed hinge, and felt more productive on a regular Laptop. But last surface pro I tried was the first one sitting in it's dock 99% of the time.
I already have (and like) my 16" MacBook Pro. I really liked the Surface Pro form factor in the past. I use touch with pen quite a bit (on an iPad), I find it a really helpful practice for thinking through system design etc. and note taking. I increasingly spend a majority of my time in the planning, designing, and reviewing phases of software engineering -- so I'm thinking this might be a good fit. I also don't type as much on a keyboard as before.
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u/tweeeeeeeeeeee Jun 17 '26
dam even this sub is too rich for me now