The Surface Pro X is a 2-in-1 detachable tablet computer developed by Microsoft. It was developed alongside and was announced on 2 October 2019 alongside the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3.[1] Updated hardware was announced alongside Surface Laptop Go and Surface accessories on October 1, 2020[2] and September 22, 2021.[3] The device starts at $899.99 USD / £849.99.[4][5]
The Surface Pro X comes with a Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2ARM processor, which the company claimed has three times the performance of an x86 MacBook Air, whilst also having a 13-hour battery life. This is due to the increased power efficiency of ARM processors compared to traditional x86 processors.[1][6][7] Microsoft has previously used ARM processors in the discontinued Surface RT and Windows Phone devices.
Microsoft now offers a Wifi-only version of the device as announced at their Surface Event on September 22, 2021.[8]
Configuration
The Surface Pro X starts at US$899.99 / £849.99 for the least expensive model with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage.
The device can be bought with either 8 GB or 16 GB RAM. Users can also choose between 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB of storage.[9]
The Surface Pro X is the 7th addition to Surface Pro lineup alongside the Surface Pro 7. Microsoft markets the tablet as a "go-anywhere, do-anything PC".[13] Microsoft claims the Surface Pro X's battery can last up to 13 hours of use.
Compared to the Surface Pro 6, the Surface Pro X is slimmer and has rounder edges featuring a matte black finish construction in platinum and black finish. The device contains 2 USB-C ports, an eSIM and a SIM card slot for LTE, a removable SSD, and the Surface Connect port for charging. There are no microSD card slot and headphone jack on the tablet, requiring its users to use dongles and USB-C or Bluetooth enabled headphones.[13]
The device's screen is a 13-inch touchscreen display, with smaller bezels compared to other Surface Pro devices.[14]
The device uses Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2[15] ARM processors co-developed by Qualcomm, based on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 1 and Gen 2 processors respectively. A Qualcomm X24 LTE modem is also featured in the device for both processors.
Software
The Surface Pro X comes pre-installed with an ARM-based version of Windows 10, which supports ARM32 and ARM64 UWP and desktop apps from the Microsoft Store or from other sources. x86 applications can be run through emulation, addressing a major issue of Windows RT.[16][17][18] Emulation of x64 applications is an upcoming feature that is already available to Windows Insiders for testing.[19] In addition, Hyper-V can be installed on ARM64 devices such as the Surface Pro X running the Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows 10.[20]