Microsoft Surface Pro 11 with OLED: Amazon Offers a Cheaper Option
Microsoft is asking for at least $1,499.99 for a new Surface Pro with an OLED display. However, Amazon already offers a cheaper option that merely swaps the pre-installed M.2 2230 SSD.
The dust has cleared on Qualcomm's announcement of 'Copilot+ devices powered by Snapdragon X series CPUs'. So far, OEMs have disclosed 16 consumer devices that use Snapdragon X series technology. However, Qualcomm later announced the Snapdragon Dev Kit, an $899.99 mini-PC powered by what looks to be a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 chipset with an 80 watt TDP.
Surprisingly, the Surface Pro 11 is the only Snapdragon X-powered gadget released thus far that does not follow the traditional laptop form size. For background, while Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung all provide convertible laptops of some kind, none of them offered this form factor with their first Snapdragon X releases. In contrast, the Surface Pro 11 is one of half a dozen Snapdragon X devices with an OLED display, the others being:
- ASUS Vivobook S 15
- Dell XPS 13 9345
- Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6
- Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9
- Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 14
- Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16
When equipped with an OLED panel, the Surface Pro 11 is often regarded as one of the most expensive Snapdragon X gadgets. According to Microsoft's product page, OLED SKUs begin at $1,499.99 and include 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and an undisclosed Snapdragon X Elite CPU. The same is true for retailers like Best Buy, whose configurator does not enable you to select an OLED panel without also adding $500 to the Surface Pro's $999.99 base price.
However, it turns out that Microsoft is offering a cheaper OLED alternative to Amazon, which the firm refers it as a 'Amazon Exclusive'. The store incorrectly displays the Surface Pro 11 with a Type Cover, which remains an optional accessory. Nonetheless, Amazon's SKU costs $100 less than Microsoft's lesser OLED model, despite the fact that it includes a Snapdragon X Elite CPU and 16GB of RAM. Instead, Amazon's SKU has a 256 GB SSD, which is still user-replaceable, as with all other current Surface Pro computers. As a result, Amazon presently offers the cheapest way to purchase a Surface Pro 11 with an OLED panel, which will be available on June 18.
