-
Surface Pro 11
Microsoft’s all-new Surface Pro 11 tablet features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip alongside an OLED display option and support for Windows 11’s suite of AI tech, Copilot. If you’re looking for a premium Windows tablet, your search stops here.
Pros
- Windows 11 + Copilot
- Snapdragon X chips
- Optional OLED display
Cons
- No Thunderbolt 4 support
-
iPad Pro (M4, 2024)
The 2024 iPad Pro packs in Apple’s newest, fastest chip: the M4. Now, the world’s most powerful tablet is even faster thanks to an up to 2x performance uplift. If you want a no-compromises tablet, the iPad Pro is more than worth your consideration.
Pros
- Tandem OLED display
- Support for up to 2TB of storage
- Blazing fast M4 chip
Cons
- Quickly gets expensive
So, you’re looking for a tablet, but you’re not sure whether to go for a top iPad or a great Android machine. The situation gets even more complicated when you start thinking about Microsoft’s Windows-powered Surface tablets. Luckily, we’re here to help with a comparison between Apple’s best iPad, the M4 iPad Pro, and Microsoft’s all-new flagship Windows tablet, the Surface Pro 11.
Here’s everything you need to know to decide between an iPad Pro and a Surface Pro in 2024.
Price, availability, and specs
The Surface arrives in June, but the iPad is here now
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 11 is up for pre-order right now, and it’ll start shipping in June. Pricing begins at $1000, and then it scales up depending on what configuration you decide on. As a note, though, models with 5G aren’t currently up for sale, Microsoft notes they’ll likely become available later this year.
On the other hand, the iPad Pro is on sale at your retailer of choice. Pricing starts at $999, scaling up depending on how you configure yours. You only get two colorways to choose from, either Space Black or Silver. 5G is an option, and you can get yours with 5G now vs. theoretically soon.
-
Surface Pro 11
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
- Memory
- 16GB or 32GB LPDDR5x
- Operating System
- Windows 11
- Battery
- Up to 14 hours of video playback
- Ports
- 2x USB4, 1x Surface Connect
- Display type
- IPS or OLED PixelSense Flow, 13-inches, 2880×1920 resolution
- Connectivity
- Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, optional 5G
- Colors
- Platinum, Black, Sapphire, or Dune
- Weight
- 1.97 pounds
- SoC
- Snapdragon X
- Dimensions
- 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches
-
iPad Pro (M4, 2024)
- Storage
- 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB
- Memory
- 8GB or 16GB LPDDR5
- Operating System
- iPadOS 17.5
- Battery
- 11-inch: 31.29Wh, 13-inch: 38.99Wh
- Ports
- Thunderbolt/USB4
- Display type
- 11-inch: Tandem OLED, 10-120Hz ProMotion, 10.9 inches, 16:11 aspect ratio, 2420 x 1668 resolution, 264 PPI, optional nanotexture, 13-inch: Tandem OLED, 10-120Hz ProMotion, 12.9 inches, 4:3 aspect ratio, 2752 x 2064 resolution at 264 PPI, optional nanotexture
- Connectivity
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, optional 5G Cellular
- Colors
- Space Black, silver
- Weight
- 11-inch Wi-Fi only: 444g, 11-inch Wi-Fi + Cellular: 446g, 13-inch Wi-Fi only: 579g, 13-inch Wi-Fi + Cellular: 582g
- SoC
- Apple M4
- Dimensions
- 11-inch: 249.7 x 177.5 x 5.3mm, 13-inch: 281.6 x 215.5 x 5.1mm
Related
Surface Pro 11: Everything you need know about Microsoft’s most exciting tablet yet
The Surface Pro 11 is real, and it’s a big deal. From specs, release date, and everything else, here’s what you need to know.
Related
iPad Pro (M4, 2024) review: The best tablet in the world gets better, but by how much?
The new iPad Pro with M4 is the most capable and powerful tablet on the market. But is it that much better than the M2 iPad Pro?
Design and display
OLED vs. Tandem OLED
In general, there are a lot of similarities in design between the two. Both the iPad and Surface are sleek, minimalist rectangles with trim bezels and premium construction. Naturally, the Surface has its trademark built-in kickstand, but, of course, there are many iPad cases with kickstands.
The iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 13-inch flavors. The Surface is largely a match with the 13-inch model’s size, although a bit thicker. It’s also heavier, coming in at nearly two pounds, while the iPad Pro caps out at 1.28 pounds. Nonetheless, these are both very portable tablets.
The display is where things get interesting. The Surface can sport an OLED display, but the iPad has its Tandem OLED setup that enables it to reach a truly stunning 1600 nits of peak brightness. We don’t know the peak brightness of the Surface, but we’d wager the iPad will be brighter.
For webcams, the front-facing camera on the Surface is a 5MP IR cam, while the iPad has a 12MP UW front-facing cam. Naturally, the iPad’s is more impressive, but both of these will do a great job in Zoom meetings and on video calls, far beyond what a standard 1080p webcam could provide.
Overall, thanks to a lighter construction, its novel Tandem OLED display setup, and a superior front-facing camera, the iPad Pro pulls ahead of the Surface when it comes to design and display.
Winner: iPad Pro
Hardware and performance
Snapdragon X or M4
Under the hood, there are some major differences in the hardware of these tablets.
The iPad Pro sports Apple’s latest M4 chip, which Apple claims is significantly more powerful than its impressive M2 chip, but how does it compare with the last-gen M3? Well, benchmarks suggest there is actually a meaningful improvement over the M3, particularly in single core performance, and that’s no small feat because the M3 is still an extraordinarily powerful chip today in 2024.
So, with best-in-class performance on the iPad, can the Surface even hope to compare? The answer here is yes, thanks to the Surface’s Snapdragon X Elite chip, but it’s not entirely clear exactly how it will stack up. Qualcomm, for one, says that the Snapdragon X Elite can outperform an M3 in multithreaded applications, which early benchmarks seem to confirm.
However, how the Snapdragon will compare to the M4 outside of benchmarks in real-world usage remains to be seen. That aside, the Surface can feature up to 32GB of RAM, whereas the iPad caps out at 16GB. However, it’s worth noting that iPadOS generally requires less RAM than Windows does. Regarding storage, the iPad can have up to 2TB of storage, while the Surface maxes out at 1TB.
The Surface also features a powerful NPU that works with Windows 11’s Copilot+ system, which means a variety of AI-powered features, like Recall, Auto Super Resolution, and Live Captions, among others. iPad, on the other hand, has a Neural Engine that can similarly enable AI features, more of which seem to be on the way and may arrive in the near future.
Ultimately, how well the Snapdragon X Elite compares to the M4, and how Copilot+ stacks up against what Apple has planned for AI features, will all be a determining factor in which you should ideally go with. That said, the iPad Pro is (here and now) an astonishingly powerful tablet, which makes it the winner in our eyes until further data is made available.
Winner: iPad Pro
Battery life
Not much to worry about
To be clear, we’ll need to get our hands on a Surface Pro 11 to truly evaluate its battery life. Nonetheless, there are some takeaways to keep in mind when it comes to battery life.
In our review of the new iPad Pro, we were impressed by its battery life, finding it had no problem making it through a day with casual usage, and it lasted 4-4.5 hours when doing intensive tasks like gaming. This puts the iPad Pro in line with the Surface’s estimated 14 hours of video playback battery life, which is about what we’d expect from a power-efficient chip like a Snapdragon X Elite.
In general, we wouldn’t expect you’ll need to be tethered to a charger in most situations with either device.
Winner: Tie
Overall winner: iPad Pro
A premium price for a premium tablet
Thanks to a gorgeous display, light construction, crisp front-facing camera, impressive battery life, and some of the best performance, hands down, of any tablet out there, the iPad Pro is our overall winner. However, there are definitely some good reasons to opt for the Surface.
For one, if you want a Windows tablet, the Surface Pro 11 is an excellent pick. Also, depending on how its Snapdragon X Elite chip stacks up against the M4, you may even be better off with the Surface in some situations. Plus, you may not even need something like the best front-facing camera. Ultimately, you can’t really go wrong here.
iPad Pro (M4, 2024)
Winner
The 2024 iPad Pro packs in Apple’s newest, fastest chip: the M4. Now, the world’s most powerful tablet is even faster thanks to an up to 2x performance uplift. If you want a no-compromises tablet, the iPad Pro is more than worth your consideration.
Surface Pro 11
Runner-up
Microsoft’s all-new Surface Pro 11 tablet features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip alongside an OLED display option and support for Windows 11’s suite of AI tech, Copilot. If you’re looking for a premium Windows tablet, your search stops here.