Surface Pro 11 with Intel Core Ultra 2 lands

Microsoft announced yesterday a significant addition to the Copilot+PC range with the new Surface Pro 11th edition and Surface Laptop 7th edition supporting the Intel Core Ultra 2 chipset. This brings Intel into the Copilot+PC specification alongside Qualcomm.

A significant improvement?

Yes, the previous chipset used in the Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 was Intel's Meteor Lake chipset, while having a Nueral Processing Unit built in it would only achieve 11 TOPS, meaning it fell short of being a Copilot+PC standard. Therefore, this meant these devices did not get the full functionality of Windows 24H2 when released.

Improvements in Core Ultra 2 (Lunar Lake) are a NPU up to 48 TOPS, improved power efficiency, and the highly talked-about Intel Arc graphics, and with 12 cores instead of 8 and a clock speed of 5.2 GHz, really lands Core Ultra 2 in the Copilot + PC standard.

The new Surface Pro 11th Edition now contains a choice for the user, either Intel or Snapdragon, and each will have its own merits. Remember, Surface Pro 11th Edition is a Surface for Business offering. As of 2025, consumer versions of the Surface were based around the Snapdragon device range.

Is a smaller Pro coming later this year?

The news widely reported by the likes of WindowsCentral and XDA—in fact, the majority of the computing press—is that Microsoft is working on smaller Pro and laptop versions featuring an 11-inch screen and power from the Snapdragon X 8 core at a lower price point than the current range. This has been rumoured for a consumer launch sometime in 2025. Hopefully this will follow with a corporate launch later in the year. 

This is a great opportunity to go head-to-head with the Apple iPad range by offering an 11-inch and 13-inch device with a range of Snapdragon chips in them.

What next from Intel?

Based on the Snapdragon range of X, X Plus and X Elite Intel's next offering, Panther Lake, could see a smaller, more efficient unit driving a lower-end devices. Built on the Intel 18a (1.8 nm class) process nore. This could be a direct competitor to the 8-core Snapdragon X.

Expect an announcement in the second half of 2025.

What next from Qualcomm?

Expect the Snapdragon X2 chipset to launch by the end of 2025, designed to compete with high-end offerings from AMD and Intel. Though deemed the X2, its actually the X2, as the Snapdragon X2 Elite is a mobile-only chipset that recently landed in the new Samsung S25 range.

Revisiting project Surface Go 1 with Windows X-Lite

Spoiler alert: this is an enthusiast post! 

Always keen to see how you can get the best from old tech?, I dug out my gen 1 Surface Go device.  This was an 8 GB model with the faster Intel Gold processor. It came orginally with Windows 10S; I upgraded that to 10 Pro, as most people did, and then finally to Windows 11.

First Stop Ubuntu

Now it did run Windows 11 but as expected not amazingly fast, good enough for some web browsing and using Office Online. So I looked for some alternatives:

Linux, of course, had to be a great choice to start with; I chose Ubuntu, as this is a mainstream distro. Once installed I updated the Surface Kernel through Github and even got my Surface pen to work!  I could install Microsoft Edge, sync to my M365 account and all was good.   

By using Microsoft Edge, I could create a Progressive Web App (PWA) of any web page and have it behave like an application.

Second stop: Windows 10X

Next I tried going back to Github and found the project for Windows 10x. If you don't remember Windows 10X, it was released to support dual-screen devices such as the Surface Neo (and potentially the Surface Duo, but that went Android). A refreshed OS UI (aka Windows 11), a partitioned OS installation, and some nice tweaks regarding security meant this was a new OS. Sadly, it lacked support for Win32 apps and was canned in 2021.

Windows 10X project on Github - look familiar?

However, several GitHub users revived it with a project, and I tried that. Now due to the nature of Windows 10x, there is an easy way and a hard way. I chose the easy way and installed it on the Surface Go. Nicely slick and quick was an understatement for the device; everything worked except the WiFi driver... so after a couple of hours, I moved to my third and final choice—Windows X-Lite

Third and final choice: Windows X-Lite

Windows X-Lite is described as 

An optimised build of Windows designed to optimise performance, stability, and efficiency; lower resource use; and improve responsiveness on any hardware.

To get started, go to https://windowsxlite.com to download the version in ISO format. You can select from Windows 10 Builds or Windows 11 Builds, which have all been optimised. To install simply create a boot media using Rufus, and point it to the ISO you have downloaded. Work your way through the OOBE, and you will be up and running in no time.

Once installed, you have a baseline OS running. You will need to install the fundamentals, like a web browser and the Microsoft Store. This is done by clicking on the Windows X-Lite folder and then the Options folder.

After installation, and installing my favourite apps, such as Microsoft Edge, Journal, and Teams for work, Windows X-Lite has taken up a whopping 15GB out of my 120GB.

What about updates?

Well, the secret sauce of Windows X-Lite is the fact that they suspend updates until at least the year 3000! Which is almost like the ultimate Long Term Servicing Branch of Windows (LTSB), which ensures the devices continue to work as expected.

So remember to tread gently with bringing life back to old tech and have fun, but do go and check out https://windowsxlite.com  I am looking to update to the Neon build next !