I’m a laptop expert and this Microsoft Surface Pro offer is the best Black Friday deal I’ve seen so far
The Snapdragon Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is a battery life beast and it’s my favourite Black Friday laptop deal so far
We’ve reviewed a ton of laptops this year on Expert Reviews, and many of them impressed me, but if I had to pick out a favourite, it would be one of the laptops based on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips. Like the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, which is now on offer this Black Friday 2024 at the highly tempting price of £849.
I reviewed the premium version, which comes with a Snapdragon X Elite chip inside it and loved it, but didn’t much like the high price that went along with it. Even the cheaper X Plus model was £1,049 and that was just for the tablet part. You had to add the keyboard to turn it into a usable laptop and that brought the price to at least £1,189.
This deal brings the price of the tablet down to a much lower £899; add the price of the Signature Keyboard and Surface Slim Pen 2 and that’s the full package for £1,159. That’s less than the price of the tablet on its own was a few months ago.
Better battery life than a MacBook Air
Even at those prices it was worth considering, though. The new Arm-based Snapdragon laptops have proved time and again that they have the beating of Intel’s offerings this year when it comes to battery life. They’re also better than the equivalent Apple MacBook Air.
In my testing, the X Elite Surface Pro 11 lasted a barely believable 17hrs 17mins in our video playback test – barely believable by previous Windows laptop standards at least – and while I haven’t tested the cheaper 10-core X Plus version, it’s likely to last a similar length of time, or maybe better if what I’ve seen on other laptops is anything to go by.
For example, the Acer Swift 14 AI with a Snapdragon X Plus inside lasted more than 24 hours – the longest lasting laptop we’ve ever tested – so there’s no reason to think that the Surface Pro 11 will last any less.
Slim, light design and a gorgeous screen
Great stamina isn’t all this machine delivers, though. It’s also speedy and responsive, delivers a solid specification for the money – 16GB of RAM and 512GB of fast SSD storage – and its design is second to none.
The design might not have changed dramatically since the previous model, but that’s no bad thing. This is one of the most sleek, attractive Windows machines you can buy – it is 5.3mm thick and weighs only 895g without the keyboard attached and its built-in kickstand means you can use it like a portable TV when you’re not typing or sketching using the Slim Pen 2.
And its 13in touchscreen is a real beauty. I looked at the OLED version for my review back in September, but the regular IPS version is the same as previous years and it’s highly impressive, delivering vibrant, colour accurate images, a sharp resolution of 2,880 x 1,920 and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that will have you wondering how you ever managed put up with 60Hz.
And while the keyboard is an optional and rather pricey extra, trust me, you really want the official version because it’s a dream to type on. There’s loads of nice positive feedback, the backlight is bright and makes typing in dim conditions easy, and even the touchpad – which is on the small side – is a pleasure to use.
Overall, this is a stunning package for £1,159 and although that might sound expensive, remember that you’re getting the very latest tech here with a respectable specification at a knockdown price only a few months after it first launched. It’s a truly lovely machine, it has battery life to die for and it’s the best 2-in-1 laptop around.
