Tough love! Microsoft has confirmed that not all Surface devices will get Windows 11, with the company making the tough decision to only make the new OS available on newer hardware in its family.
Gee, whatever happened to the notion of no one gets left behind in a family?
Redmond has not provided any specifics as to what makes a Surface device eligible for the upgrade. But in a statement for PCWorld, the tech giant made it clear that only the latest models will be allowed to install the new operating system.
This very likely has got to do with the fact that Windows 11 only plays nicely with just a handful of CPUs. Or rather, is allowed to play nicely with these newer processors from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm.
Here is the full list of Surface models that are getting the upgrade:
- Surface Book 3 (May 2020)
- Surface Book 2 (November 2017)
- Surface Go 2 (May 2020)
- Surface Laptop 4 13.5” (April 2021)
- Surface Laptop 4 15” (April 2021)
- Surface Laptop 3 13.5” (October 2019)
- Surface Laptop 3 15” (October. 2019)
- Surface Laptop 2 (October. 2018)
- Surface Laptop Go (October. 2020)
- Surface Pro 7+ (February 2021)
- Surface Pro 7 (October 2019)
- Surface Pro 6 (October 2018)
- Surface Pro X (November 2019)
As you can gleam from the launch dates of these Surface machines, the oldest one getting an invite to the party is the Surface Book 2, which was released all the way back in November 2017.
Though even then, this is an exclusive club, because this will only hold true if the device is powered by an 8th generation Intel Core processor. If you are the proud owner of a Surface Book 2 that houses an Intel Core i5-7300 chip, then you, my friend, are out of luck.
As is life!
