Surface Pro X Gen2

My first attempt to start a thread on the new site.
Take this with a grain of salt, but Japanese Gizmodo claims that there is a new Pro X (the label it Gen2) being benchmarked right now. They say it comes with a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor and that it compares favorable with Intel gen 11 CPUs.

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I’ve said this on Reddit and said similar things on the old forum before but even as someone who uses a Pro X daily as my main computer, I’m skeptical. Not that I don’t believe the 8cx Gen 3 will be faster, and not that I don’t think Microsoft will put out a computer using it, but of any mainstream support for native ARM64 going forward.

And if you’re stuck using it in emulation most of the time, what’s the point?

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@Kumabjorn : Thanks for passing this report along, but like @jhoff80 , I don’t know what the compelling case would be to buy this thing. I’ve railed at Microsoft enough about their lack of advancement of the Pro X, so I won’t repeat that here (new forums, new start, ya know…) but to parallel jhoff’s comment, as x86 hardware becomes faster and more efficient, and as long as there are new and legacy 64-bit apps that people need to run, the X86 Surface Pro is all that the market needs…

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@Kumabjorn and all.

We are hearing rumors this morning along similar lines, but with a twist. Our business partner in South Korea is hearing that rumors of a new Pro X are true, but…

It will actually be an addition to the line and not a replacement with an 11 inch display, possibly the same overall height and width as the current Surface Go (and possibly compatible with the same keyboards) but significantly thinner. The display will also be HDR compatible, unlike the current Pro X

It would seem to me that possibly they are going directly at Apple’s Pro 11 which we understand is Apples 2nd best selling iPad behind the standard 10.2 iPad.

ETA, late Q4, but in time for holiday shopping season.

Again RUMOR, so take as such. OTOH there is a new panel (LCD) from a supplier that MS has used in the past, that would seem to fit the above dimensions.

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Ooooo (typing this from my Pro X, which I took with me to school today). What I really want is for my Pro X to fold in half coughNEOcough but I would absolutely take a smaller screen version of it. I love the thinness overall, but I find 13" to be cumbersome for casual carrying around the house to wherever my kids feel like doing schoolwork for the day, so I mostly use the Galaxybook 10.6 at home. If I can’t get a foldy Neo, I would accept a Pro X mini for now. Preferably with some decent RAM and storage options so it could function as a primary machine and not just an add on.

15 posts were merged into an existing topic: New devices announced at MWC 2022

Hi all, I’ve moved some posts about Lenovo and Samsung devices to a new MWC thread so we can keep things here focused on rumors and dreams about a future Surface Pro X.

The relevant bit to future Pro X iterations is that Lenovo’s first ARM ThinkPad features an 8cx Gen 3m, the first 5 nm Windows PC SoC with four Arm Cortex-X1 cores at up to 3 GHz and four Cortex-A78 cores at 2.4 GHz. So perhaps this chip will make it into a future Pro X as well.

Okay, Microsoft has my attention. If the 8cx is fast enough to permit emulation to run at reasonable speeds and supported software to run at even faster speeds, it could replace the m3 in my Go2. I would be glad to upgrade to a ProX11 if only for the better battery life and native 5G support and the power deficit is not too significant. It would be even better if Microsloth treated the ProX11 as its smaller line of tablets and prices it accordingly. What are the odds?

My Go2 will hold me over until the end of the year if need be. Hopefully, the new ProX11 will also have decent cameras and the dual microphones that makes the Go2 such a great Zoom device. I am zooming so much these days that it is probably the second most used function on my device with writing and research still holding the number one spot.

Oh, and thinner with smaller bezels would be nice too. Is OLED too much to hope for?

Wait and hope! :vb-wink:

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I hope you don’t need to blur backgrounds ever, because it’s unsupported on ARM.

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Nah. I usually zoom from my office which is set up perfectly.

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A smaller Pro X with WOA would be nice, but I feel like the Pro 8 is really growing on me. The extra screen real estate compared to the Go, the beefed up internals, surround sound, the inking experience, coupled with the excellent deal (thanks to @Hifihedgehog) and I’m a very satisfied camper.

Between the ZF3, SD and the SP8, don’t think I’m gonna be in the market for a device any time soon :smiling_face:

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This rumor about a “Pro X 11” makes sense to me, much as I like the Pro 8 generally (huge jump over the 7) it’s still too big IMHO for a lot of tablet centric tasks.

I think Apple was on to something with the original iPad design, as the screen size has increased without generally increasing the overall size of the device (by shrinking the bezels etc.)

Faith in WOA (or lack thereof) aside, a device designed like the Pro X in an 11 inch-ish form factor with integrated 5G would be hard for me to resist, even if the top line performance is not in the same class as the Pro 8.

BTW: I know there is a dedicated " No WOA, no way, no how !" contingent here, but in some ways their objections are partially outdated.

One performance running native apps is right there with core i5 Pros (yes, I acknowledge that the number of native apps is pitiful, but Office is as well as several other key apps)

Two: Battery performance is still better than the Pro 8 and even more so when running Windows 11 (though emulation still is a battery hit)

Three: X86 64-bit emulation, which is only available via Windows 11 is significantly better performance wise than 32-bit (over 30% on average) though still not quite core i5/I7 levels (closer to core i3 in aggregate)

Lastly and this is highly subjective I’d admit, but the difference in thinness with the Pro x makes is significantly more comfortable to hold for extended periods, much more than I would have expected than just going by the numbers.

PS: To venture a good way in to rumor territory… One the gen 3 according to those that have claimed to have seen it, does represent a real jump. Probably not Apple M1 levels, but still a large jump over the SQ1/SQ2.

Not to mention that this mythical 11 is likely to be around the same overall vertical and horizontal dimensions as the Go 3 (and possibly even compatible with the Go 3 keyboard covers) but significantly thinner than the Go (rivaling the new Tab S8)

All that would be highly appealing to many, myself included.

So of course, this is all still rumor and speculation, but perhaps we will know late this year.

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For me it was always, “… until they get the performance up and bring decent x86 emulation along”. Can’t speak for others.

That was especially true when I was freelancing and I needed full Word with my own custom VB scripts and a third-party Add-In, neither of which WOA can have. Fortunately I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I haven’t even installed Word on my devices in a couple years. Yay!

I’ll be interested in the SPX11 if/when it comes out.

@Dellaster

Yeah, maybe it’s hitting a raw nerve with me. I’ve always been a big proponent of “the right tool for the job” approach to technology.

Yesterday I was onsite with a long-term customer discussing some new devices they wanted from us. As part of that conversation. part of the proposal was the use of AMD’s Ryzen instead of the Intel Core I that was used the last time. The CTO simply refused to consider them, even though we had a literal list of why in this case the Ryzen is a better option. He just simply won’t buy anything but Intel (and obviously Macs are now verboten as well).

I find some of that same sentiment even here unfortunately. :frowning:

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I have to admit to an Intel bias. :vb-agree:

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This is pretty much what got me into the Pro X in the first place.

For what it’s worth, I am not saying it’d be a NEVER for me to buy an ARM device again, but I’d have to see a lot more effort from Microsoft. Though I’ll admit the 10-11" form factor is closer to what I prefer, dating back to my Surface Pro 1 & 2.

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WOA in the Footprint size-ish of a Surface Go, with Tab S8 thinness’s, I too would almost instantly buy that. Now that Photoshop is WOA compatible, that would be enough to get me to give it a try.

But I would object to the Go 3 keyboard Compatibility, because that would mean again no Slim Pen 2 support which would be a tragic shame.

Another Shame would be if it still didn’t hit M1 levels. As impressive as M1 WAS, Apples has well already leapfrogged over that performance level. Granted in thicker devices, but approaching M1 performance almost two years after M1 launched I don’t feel should be acceptable.

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Agreed, and yet I’d take it in a heartbeat.

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Just curious, how are you finding performance and battery life on your GB2 after owning it for a few years? Is the SD850 a bottleneck in any of the tasks you’ve attempted?

Any other key features you’d be looking for in upgrading to a hypothetical SPX2?

@darkmagistric I’m not sure that supporting the Go keyboard would rule out slim pen 2 support. I think it’s possible that they could come out with a new (and more expensive) keyboard/slim pen combo like they did with the release of the Pro 8. Additionally the older existing Pro X keyboard is fully compatible with the Pro 8.

If anything, based on what MS has told us (among other things, that they have seen significant uptick in pen purchase/use with the Pro 8) if anything, i think adding slim pen support is something that will increase across the product line as each line gets refreshed.

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