Surface Pro 11 review: Microsoft’s big Arm leap almost pays off

Dumping Intel for Qualcomm chips delivers big boost in speed but not battery life and breaks some apps

Microsoft’s latest Surface tablet promises to be a generational upgrade that goes beyond just being faster, quieter and more efficient – all down to a change in the type of processor at its heart.

The Surface Pro 11 is not the first Microsoft machine to swap traditional Intel or AMD PC processors for Arm-based chips, similar to those in your smartphone or Apple’s recent Macs and iPads. But it is by far the most successful, leaving even recent editions such as the 2020 Surface Pro X and last year’s Surface Pro 9 5G in the dust.