Recent reports have said Microsoft is working on an 11-inch Surface Pro model for launch later this year, joining the existing 13-inch model and the 10.5-inch Surface Go. This would be the first time Microsoft shrinks the Surface Pro below 12 inches since the Surface Pro 2 in 2013, which is already exciting, but it’s also high time we got a powerful, smaller tablet. Windows users deserve a truly portable and capable device, and it could be a major competitor to Apple’s iPad Pro.
It’s filling a gap that was sorely needed in terms of size and performance. The Surface Go is a good enough device for browsing the web, but anything beyond that is a struggle due to the low-power processors inside. If you want to edit photos and video on it, you’ll definitely be struggling, and the power of a Surface Pro can make a big difference.
The Windows tablet market has a big void to fill
As it stands, the Windows tablet market is boring and only really caters to two segments. You either have budget-oriented devices like the Surface Go family and Lenovo’s IdeaPad Duet tablets, or you have super high-end Surface Pro tablets, which are also massive. When you think about it as a laptop, it may not seem large, but the 13-inch screen as a tablet makes a portability compromise that doesn’t make much sense.
The reason why most people would buy a tablet over a traditional laptop is for portability and versatility. But when you have this big 13-inch screen, you’re already giving up a lot of the former, even if you’re somebody who often carries around a bag. If you want an actually portable Windows machine, you have to step down to a slow device like the Surface Go 3. You can’t really get a very capable experience on Windows that still comes in a portable form factor.
An 11-inch laptop might not be ideal in terms of size, but there’s a market for high-end tablets that are still portable, especially now that Windows 11 can run Android apps. You could use this tablet to play some touchscreen-based games on the go, in addition to browsing the web and maybe for light video or image editing. Windows’ current laptop
Apple’s iPad family is pretty much unrivaled in the tablet space, and that’s particularly true for the 11-inch model. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro can be directly compared to the Surface Pro 9, but there’s nothing to compete with the smaller variant. An 11-inch Surface Pro could change that and bring some much-needed heat to the tablet market, which is pretty stale, even beyond the Windows space. Android tablets are mostly boring, too, minus players from Samsung, and Microsoft could really rejuvenate the market.
The software is (mostly) ready for smaller screens
Part of the reason the Windows tablet market has grown so stale over the past few years is the lack of optimizations for touch devices on Windows 10. After leaning a bit too hard into a touch UI with Windows 8, Microsoft heavily corrected its course with Windows 10, offering an experience that was clearly designed for desktops and laptops first. Using a 10-inch or 11-inch Windows 10 tablet just wouldn’t have been great.
However, Windows 11 has been slowly making strides to bridge these two experiences, and now is the best time it’s ever been to make a more compact Windows tablet. Windows 11 version 22H2 implemented a ton of new touch-based gestures, so now it’s easier to switch apps and open the notification center and quick actions panel, all using touch gestures. Plus, the revamped File Explorer and context menus have bigger touch targets, it’s almost perfect, barring some minor flaws and of course, traditional desktop apps that haven’t been adapted for touch use yet. There’s even a collapsible taskbar designed for touch devices, which is perfect for a smaller screen like this purported 11-inch Surface Pro.
Source: Microsoft
There’s potential for some improvements. For example, I find that it’s a little too easy to open the Start menu instead of just expanding the taskbar, but these are minor things. Windows 11 is the best tablet experience Microsoft has offered in quite some time, so there’s never been a better time for a smaller high-end tablet.
Windows on Arm is finally good to improve on performance
Of course, one thing to consider if we’re looking at a small Windows 11 tablet is that battery life may end up being atrocious because Intel processors use way too much power for such a small device. While it could deliver in terms of performance, an Intel-powered Surface Pro may fail to deliver on portability due to weak battery life.
For example, a high-end version of the Surface Go 3 had a dual-core, four-thread Core i3-10100Y CPU, and it only lasted around 3-5 hours in our testing. An Intel Core i5 in a newer tablet would have 10 cores and 12 threads, and even an Arm-based processor would have at least 8 cores.
Thankfully, Intel doesn’t have to be the only option anymore. Windows on Arm debuted over five years ago, and while it promised great battery life, it didn’t deliver on it at the time. It also didn’t deliver a great experience, since x64 apps wouldn’t run, and most apps that run through emulation were very slow on the hardware.
Things have improved a lot on the hardware and software fronts, and Windows on Arm might finally be ready. The Microsoft SQ3 inside the Surface Pro 9 with 5G is actually pretty fast and more than good enough for most day-to-day tasks, especially if you can run apps that are native to Arm64. And the good news is, most Android apps are, so if you’re using it to play Android games, you’ll see great performance. Plus, Microsoft has finally been compiling many built-in Windows 11 apps for Arm64. It’s kind of amazing that that wasn’t done in the first place, but at least you can expect a good experience overall with Windows 11 on Arm.
Windows 11 also added support for x64 emulation on Arm, so many apps that may not have run at all on Windows 10 can now be used on Windows 11, even if they run under emulation. Adding to this, Microsoft has been doubling down on Arm64 development with a fully native Arm64 developer toolchain, including Arm64 support in Visual Studio. There’s even a high-end development kit for Arm. For developers, there’s even more good news with Arm64EC, so more complex apps can slowly start to be moved to Arm64 without breaking compatibility with legacy components.
All of this is to say that an Arm-powered 11-inch Surface Pro could make all the sense in the world. You’d get high-end performance, a premium display, a portable form factor, and good battery life, combined with an experience that’s as optimized for touch as it’s ever been. And it’s bound to get even better if Qualcomm can get its powerful Nuvia chips off the ground anytime soon.
The potential is there; Microsoft just needs to act on it
It’s been many years since you’ve been able to buy a good Windows tablet that you can actually use as a tablet, and I hope this 11-inch Surface Pro comes to fruition. There’s potential for it to be one of the most exciting Windows tablets in a long time, and it would make perfect sense for a lot of people. Microsoft will probably face some challenges with designing a keyboard for it, but it would be worth it. Whether it ends up happening or not remains to be seen, but we should have less than six months to wait to find out.