Microsoft Surface Pro 3 vs 11

[RhoXS]

I currently have a MS Surface Pro 3. It still works mostly acceptably as my away from home laptop but it is on the annoyingly slow side (it never was 'snappy") and its Wi-Fi cannot do better than inconsequentially above 200 Gb/s due to the Marvell modem. I have been thinking about replacing it for some time but now MS has made the decision for me by preventing installation of W11. Sure, I can force the issue, but that is widely reported as meaning probably limited or no MS support and it is still a slow 11 year old machine. Therefore I decided to replace it.

I am considering two new machines; The latest Surface Pro 11 or the Apple iMac Air. Both are very thin, very light weight, have 13" screens, and cost more or less the same for the configuration I would buy. I actually want to go with the Apple but lack of some Windows only software I regularly use (esp. Paperport) is making me lean toward the Surface Pro 11. Although I have no experience with Apple other than my phone/iPad, I seem to have more overall confidence with respect to reliability and overall lack of BS with an Apple laptop. I do no video or audio editing but I do want a machine where there is no perceptible delay between a mouse click and a response (something that is very noticeably annoying with the Surface Pro 3).

So, my primary question: Will the Surface Pro 11 be noticeably faster (snappier) than the Surface Pro 3? I have seen some search results that imply it is only a marginal improvement in performance over my 11 year old model and that does not at all justify ~$1,500 for me.

Any thought relative to the Apple iMac Air would also be welcome.

 

[gdansk]

It should be snappier based on the benchmarks available. However, if it's the Qualcomm version you may encounter poor application support and require emulation. The business version of the Surface Pro 11 would be preferable, because it has a Intel processor and doesn't need emulation, but I think it is pricier. Microsoft really doesn't want to sell these.

Overall the iPad Air may be better hardware but if it doesn't have software you use then it is hard to recommend.

 

[Sgraffite]

I have a Surface Pro 2 and always felt it was sluggish. Not sure if that is attributed to the packaging, as it doesn't have the best cooling/airflow.

If running a Windows VM on the Mac for Paperport is an option, that might be a good way to go. From what I have seen the M4 chip runs Windows quite fast. I expect the M4 to be a lot more power efficient than the Intel Surface Book version, if heat/battery life is a concern. I think overall the Mac offers nicer hardware.