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Surface Pro 11 Black 13" + Keyboard Bundle - Snapdragon X 10-core / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD / LCD $899.99
$900
$1,350
33% off
Best Buy
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Brand new, best bang for buck configuration for the Surface Pro. Was 949 last week, now 899.
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/m...ku/6598717
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/m...ku/6598717
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Community Notes
About the Poster
Brand new, best bang for buck configuration for the Surface Pro. Was 949 last week, now 899.
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/m...ku/6598717
https://www.bestbuy.com/product/m...ku/6598717
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Community Reviews
The Surface Pro 11 bundle stands out as a thin 2 in 1 for portable productivity, with the 13 inch LCD panel, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and keyboard making it a strong travel and desk companion. The LCD screen gets praise for accurate color and solid black levels, and the Snapdragon X chip is described as plenty fast for office work, web use, and general apps. Battery life is repeatedly described as excellent, with quick wake and strong standby behavior. The main cautions are that the keyboard lacks a pen charging slot, the Pro form factor is less comfortable on a lap than a laptop, and 16GB may feel tight for heavier future use.
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The speaker, who has been waiting for an OLED Surface Pro for over a decade (0:26-0:31), shares his surprising findings.
Key comparisons: Display Quality (IPS vs. OLED): While the OLED generally offers a more vibrant visual experience, the IPS display unexpectedly demonstrates more accurate color reproduction and better rendering of black levels in the speaker's testing (2:42-3:11, 4:06-4:21).
The OLED model struggled with rendering dark images, appearing completely black where detail should have been visible (3:25-3:43).
The speaker suspects the OLED panel used is a budget-friendly option, possibly from LG rather than Samsung, as its peak brightness is under 600 nits, which is low for current OLED standards (5:50-6:16). Some users have also reported a "screen door effect" on the OLED due to the touchscreen layer, though the speaker doesn't find it makes the OLED unusable (7:25-8:26). IPS displays also generally reproduce white colors better than OLEDs (8:54-8:58).
Processor Performance (Snapdragon X Elite vs. X+):
The speaker found no discernible difference in performance between the more powerful Snapdragon X Elite and the X+ in typical usage scenarios like office work and content consumption (9:26-9:58, 10:39-10:47). This is largely attributed to Microsoft's emulation layer, which prevents the full utilization of the beefier X Elite chip (9:47-10:06).
Battery Life: Both models offer similar battery life, with over 10 hours of use (12:47-12:51, 21:24-21:27).
The battery life difference depends on content consumption; OLED performs better with dark themes due to pixel shutdown, while IPS might do slightly better with predominantly white content (12:51-13:20).
Overall Recommendation: Despite his initial enthusiasm for the OLED, the speaker ultimately cannot recommend the OLED and Snapdragon X Elite configurations over the base IPS and X+ models, primarily due to the significant price difference of $400-$500 for a negligible performance improvement and unexpected display shortcomings (16:08-16:52, 19:46-19:52). The only scenario where the OLED model might be necessary is if a user requires 32GB of RAM, which is currently only available with the X Elite processor (17:06-17:14, 18:47-18:50). He emphasizes that these machines are not for heavy lifting or gaming, but excel in portability, battery life, and quick recharging (15:10-15:12, 15:43-15:49).
This video compares the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 with an IPS display and Snapdragon X+ processor to the OLED display and Snapdragon X Elite processor models (0:41-0:47).
The speaker, who has been waiting for an OLED Surface Pro for over a decade (0:26-0:31), shares his surprising findings.
Key comparisons: Display Quality (IPS vs. OLED): While the OLED generally offers a more vibrant visual experience, the IPS display unexpectedly demonstrates more accurate color reproduction and better rendering of black levels in the speaker's testing (2:42-3:11, 4:06-4:21).
The OLED model struggled with rendering dark images, appearing completely black where detail should have been visible (3:25-3:43).
The speaker suspects the OLED panel used is a budget-friendly option, possibly from LG rather than Samsung, as its peak brightness is under 600 nits, which is low for current OLED standards (5:50-6:16). Some users have also reported a "screen door effect" on the OLED due to the touchscreen layer, though the speaker doesn't find it makes the OLED unusable (7:25-8:26). IPS displays also generally reproduce white colors better than OLEDs (8:54-8:58).
Processor Performance (Snapdragon X Elite vs. X+):
The speaker found no discernible difference in performance between the more powerful Snapdragon X Elite and the X+ in typical usage scenarios like office work and content consumption (9:26-9:58, 10:39-10:47). This is largely attributed to Microsoft's emulation layer, which prevents the full utilization of the beefier X Elite chip (9:47-10:06).
Battery Life: Both models offer similar battery life, with over 10 hours of use (12:47-12:51, 21:24-21:27).
The battery life difference depends on content consumption; OLED performs better with dark themes due to pixel shutdown, while IPS might do slightly better with predominantly white content (12:51-13:20).
Overall Recommendation: Despite his initial enthusiasm for the OLED, the speaker ultimately cannot recommend the OLED and Snapdragon X Elite configurations over the base IPS and X+ models, primarily due to the significant price difference of $400-$500 for a negligible performance improvement and unexpected display shortcomings (16:08-16:52, 19:46-19:52). The only scenario where the OLED model might be necessary is if a user requires 32GB of RAM, which is currently only available with the X Elite processor (17:06-17:14, 18:47-18:50). He emphasizes that these machines are not for heavy lifting or gaming, but excel in portability, battery life, and quick recharging (15:10-15:12, 15:43-15:49).
2. I don't see one for 650 at microcenter, but if you mean the one microcenter has for 600 that one is far inferior. The 13" surface pro with 10/12 core CPU has over 2x the GPU power of the 12" surface pro with 8 core CPU. the 13" also has faster storage and other bonuses
As far as I know this is the lowest price for a new condition surface with these specs with the keyboard bundled
2. I don't see one for 650 at microcenter, but if you mean the one microcenter has for 600 that one is far inferior. The 13" surface pro with 10/12 core CPU has over 2x the GPU power of the 12" surface pro with 8 core CPU. the 13" also has faster storage and other bonuses
As far as I know this is the lowest price for a new condition surface with these specs with the keyboard bundled
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This video did a good series of real world benchmarks and demonstrates this: https://youtu.be/1l6xqZexZVg?si=
That's with the surface laptop 7 but it has a higher thermal headroom than the Pro 11 so still relevant
This video did a good series of real world benchmarks and demonstrates this: https://youtu.be/1l6xqZexZVg?si=
That's with the surface laptop 7 but it has a higher thermal headroom than the Pro 11 so still relevant
Yes this is an AMAZING product but I will NOT buy any computer that does not have either 32GB of RAM or the possibility of upgrading t 32GB of RAM.
I also would want a larger hard drive but I can deal. Obviously, you are not buying this to game for you can only fit a few of them. I recently installed Baldur's Gate 3 and the install file was 130GB. So you download it, you unzip it... another 130GB and you install it... another 130GB... once installed you can delete the downloaded files but as you can see that one game requires more then half your hard drive space to install.
The last thing I will say is I upgraded my memory with my old laptops and they both have 16GB of RAM and I also installed a 1TB SSD... my old laptops are THIRTEEN YEARS OLD (3rd gen i7 and i5). And they have served me incredibly well. I am sure if I never upgraded the RAM and harddrive I would have purchased new over six years ago. I say this story because I am thinking of the future and 16GB of RAM is not enough IMHO.
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For me the form factor while being a strength is also the bigger dealbreaker. IMO the Surface Pro 11 - 13" is really only best for one specific use case, which is a do-it-all travel business device for someone who values the pen support. In almost every other use case, the Surface Laptop 7 13.8" + some other tablet is going to work better. The Surface Pro 11 is just too heavy for typical tablet usage outside of the productivity scenario, and the Laptop 7 is a better overall productivity device if you don't need the pen.
I think the Surface Pro 11 - 12", while having a much lesser CPU/GPU, actually has more potential with its form factor. Its about 0.5 lbs lighter than the 13" version, is designed to be charged with typical USB-C PD charger, and overall is closer to the expected size and weight of a tablet. The biggest issue with that is there is still no 5G version, which is crazy because that would make it the perfect travel device and general tablet. It would be worse for gaming and heavy duty apps than the surface laptop and surface pro 13", but I think thats a fair compromise given its much lighter and fits better in the hand. without 5G tho seems pointless
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