Microsoft late unveiled the Surface Pro 11 , the previous update to its flagship line of 2 - in-1s with a renewed focus on AI .
Prices for the 13 - column inch Surface Pro 11 start at £ 1049 , while Apple’sMacBook Air M3starts at £ 1099 for the 13 - inch model or £ 1299 for the 15 - inch version . This means you could pluck up the MacBook for just £ 50 more , a factor that might leave you torn between the two gimmick .
We ’ve stone the Surface Pro 11 and the MacBook Air M3 head - to - drumhead to assist you decide which one is right for you .
The MacBook Air M3 is powered by Apple’s M3 chip
The MacBook Air M3 is power by the Apple M3 , a chip that made its debut alongside the MacBook Pro and iMac in late 2023 .
The M3 consist of an 8 - core group CPU , an up to 10 - core GPU , a 16 - core Neural Engine and support for up to 24 GB of unified memory . According to Apple , the MacBook Air M3 is up to 60 % faster than the MacBook Air M1 and up to 13x loyal than the fast Intel - base MacBook Air . These are improvements that should be reflected in demanding tasks like TV redaction and software package development as well as more passing mundane use .
The GPU also endure hardware - accelerated mesh blending and irradiation tracking for more accurate lighting and shadower when game .
The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is designed with AI in mind
The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is also design to propose powerful performance . Microsoft has placed a particular emphasis on AI this clock time around .
The Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors offer up to 90 % debauched performance compared to the Surface 9 professional , while the NPU enables up to 45 trillion operation per second . The chipset powers Microsoft ’s AI companion , Copilot , to assist you throughout your day .
Microsoft highlights a range of useful Copilot+ feature article , include live legend and translations for picture , better - seem and sounding TV calls , Recall to help locate specific documents and web pages , and Cocreator to generate digital art from textbook and image prompts .
The MacBook Air M3 includes a keyboard
The MacBook Air M3 is a laptop , meaning it come with a keyboard attached as part of its innovation .
The Surface Pro 11 , on the other hand , is a 2 - in-1 . This essentially means the gadget can be used as a tablet or pair off with a keyboard eccentric to function like a laptop . While this designing offers outstanding versatility and is great for portability , it also requires you to clean up a keyboard singly whereas the MacBook Air M3 comes ready for you to typecast out of the box .
The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 includes stylus support
Being a 2 - in-1 , the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 also features a touchscreen . When partner off with the Slim Pen ( sold separately ) , you may use the twist to take notes , sketch idea , and create digital art intuitively with a stylus .
The MacBook Air M3 does not offer touch support . If you need to sketch on an Apple product , you ’re better off choose for aniPad . Apple ’s tablet pipeline can also be paired with accessories like keyboards and the Apple Pencil , so you may configure your setup as you would the Surface Pro 11 .
The MacBook Air M3 has a longer battery life
When it comes to battery life , both gadget propose mark improvement over their respective predecessor . However , the MacBook Air M3 comes out on top when it comes to video playback , provide up to 18 hours of movie streaming in the Apple TV app .
The Surface Pro 11 , meanwhile , can deliver up to 14 hour of picture playback . That ’s four hour few than the MacBook Air M3 .
