Yes Virginia, there is a Surface Pro 11 Intel edition, and apparently the title of this thread is its official name (what morons at these companies are given authority to name products - "Samsun Galaxy Z Fold 6" - REALLY?).
It wouldn't be a Strauss (mis)adventure without high drama and suspense (and ruined computer equipment). HOWEVER, I'm putting the blame cleanly on the shoulders of Microsoft. The SP-I (new shorthand, "I" for Intel, "S" for Snapdragon) arrived on Friday (three days late after paying the up charge for next day delivery). Set it up with its existing 256gb SSD and I have to admit it was fast (although not quite as "screen snappy" as the SP-S) and NO ISSUES with my OWC TB dock, HP printer, or my Canon R40 scanner! But then the trouble begins...
I create two recovery USB's, one for each device. Then I pull the 2tb SSD from the SP-S, start the recovery USB process (THANKS AGAiN TO CBUTTERS - our tech best friend - for clear instruction videos), but it FAILS because the drive is BitLockered - and I DID NOT DO THAT. Apparently MS enabled that with an update for "professional" systems, and also enabled Security Defaults for my account - because of course it's a "business account." No amount of work-arounds let me install the 2tb SSD. A day of research led me to a discussion by someone who worked around this by erasing and reformatting the data partition only and doing recovery. Out it came, connected it to my SP-I, reformatted the data partition and what luck, it now accepted the USB recovery and I have 2tb working on the SP-I...
Then the SP-S disaster begins. I put the original MS SSD (512gb - which has not been touched since I upgraded th\at device to 2tb last August) into the SP-S and guess what - it is BITLOCKERED TOO, and worse yet there is no BitLocker key in my account to enable it. Try using the Recovery USB, and of course that fails. I pull the drive, plug it into the SP-I with my USB-C enclosure and reformat the data partition, but this time that DOES NOT WORK with the ARM64 Recovery USB. I try all the tricks I can find, including building an ARM64 bootable USB with Rufus and the Microsoft ARM64 ISO, but still no dice. I've reported all this to Microsoft, and they said they'd get back to me (as I could hear them scratching their heads on the phone - by the way, trying to get customer support at Microsoft is like a colonoscopy WITHOUT anesthesia).
So here I sit all broken-hearted, tried to fix and only fried it...also contemplating that if they can find me a solution I'll return SP-I and use SP-S until Apple can send me a fully specc'd M4 MacBook Air...
As for the performance of the SP11 Lunar Lake edition:
It is fast, but not as "snappy" as the Snapdragon
Battery life is good (I'd say real life 7-8 hours with Office, Outlook, and Chrome)
No hot bagging; no overnight battery drain; haven't heard a fan yet
Compatibility - solid, like any other Intel processor (even my Canon R40 scanner is working)
Really miss the 5g of the SP-S
Renewed hatred for Microsoft - finally able to disable Security Defaults (the endless two factor sign-ins)
Made another brutal mistake of telling Updates to accept and install all updates, not paying attention that the latest Preview upgrade for 24H2 would be installed, with all its moronic advertising and add-ons
Worst of all - I do love the all-in-one solution of the Surface Pro...
Dstrauss & WhizzWr, I have also been playing around with both the Snapdragon and the Intel models of the Surface Pro 11.
The Snapdragon Pro 11 had a perfectly fine working digitizer with the Slim Pen 2
The Intel Pro 11...seems gimped. Reminds me a lot of the really terrible implantation of the Surface Pen with the Go line. Ink quality in clip studio just seems a mess.
Have either of you noticed any subpar pen performance with either of your Intel Pro 11s?
Also regarding Bit-locker, that's built into all the commercial/business models of like every Surface. However its engaged as soon as you log into the device with a Microsoft account, which it tries to force you to using at initial setup. There's a quick powershell command that bypasses that and allows you to set up a device with a local account not affiliated with an email. If you set it up that way, Bitlocker doesn't engage.
UPDATE 2
Just got email from MS that the SP11-S has been repaired and delivered to UPS for return shipment. I consider that exemplary service (plus the luck of being only 350 miles from the repair depot in El Paso). I'll report back when I receive it if it really is repaired (my bet is they slapped a new SSD in it and sent my Frankenstein mess to corporate to see how in the world he ever screwed the pooch so badly with all the lock downs they snuck in my system...
IT'S BECAUSE I AM A WORLD CLASS DESTROYER OF HARDWARE! In fact, THEY need to hire me to stress test for them...
wow, what a ride. hope they fix your Snadrsgon soon.
I'm also testing "SP-I" and "SP-S" 5G right now.
trying to made up my mind, but likely will return the Intel.
I think Intel variant is better (digitizer, battery management, NFC), and future and backward proof.. but losing 5G and more efficient processor, makes it hard to justify the $750 premium.
Thanks. Great tale.
Thanks for writing up the entire saga. I have an SPX that I have never been able to do a clean install on. No matter what I try, I can't get the dang thing to boot form USB-C. Microsoft: "It just works..against you"
UPDATE: I will give Microsoft some props - customer service really got on top of this and has sent me a shipping label for warranty repair (apparently they are as stumped as I am). They also offered cross shipping of a replacement, but that cost $140.00 so I opted for the free warranty repair.
Guess I'll have to resubmit to ItsWorthMore for new offer when it returns (they were offering $750 - not great for the 5g model but I don't have to hassle with FleaBay that way).