I’ve waited nearly a month to write this review simply because I wanted to make sure my love for this machine was actual love and not infatuation. The latter is a legitimate concern because when you first set your eyes on this screen, you probably won’t believe you’re looking at a Microsoft design. To be frank, I went into Best Buy with the intention on buying a Surface Pro 7 to replace a Surface Pro 6 that I was passing on to a co-worker. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the SQ1 processor or even what an ARM64 processor was. After doing a bit of on-the-spot research, I decided to take a gamble and buy it. I was extremely nervous about the potential application limitations (i.e. no 64-bit support and the potential for performance issues during 32-bit emulation), but after using it for about a week, I quickly realized these concerns were largely overblown for my usage.
My typical day involves a lot of browser work, (I use Chromium Edge Canary, currently in beta release on the Microsoft Insiders Channel), lots of Microsoft Outlook, complex Excel spreadsheets, some Adobe Acrobat and occasional Tableau. Of those applications, only Chromium Edge is natively built for the ARM64 processor, yet I have not experienced any significant performance issues emulating the rest of the 32-bit applications. If you’re reading this and don’t understand what that means (first of all, don’t feel bad, neither did I until I researched ARM processors), it simply means that when it runs on your PC, there’s essentially an extra step that’s performed so the application can run on your system, which can use more resources.
In terms of applications that don’t work on the X, I won’t regurgitate any lists that can be readily Googled, but I’ll share what hasn’t worked for me. At my work, there are a slew of HP desktop all-in-one printers that are all connected with WiFi. The Surface Pro X was able to recognize all of these without issue, but when I tried to connect to my Ricoh IM C4500, it wasn’t recognized and the print drivers from Ricoh were not compatible. Fortunately, I was able to manually add it via an IP address. There was also one other proprietary software developed by my company that was not compatible. That’s it. Some other reviewers (incorrectly) said that the Pro X will not run third-party applications. This is 100% false. Most 32-bit applications and all ARM64 applications will absolutely run, whether it’s from the Microsoft Store or not.
Originally, I bought the 8GB RAM / 256 GB SSD version, but after reading about Adobe’s plans to eventually release their Creative Cloud suite of apps with compatibility for ARM as well as Microsoft’s suggestion that 64-bit emulation could possible be available in the (likely far) future, I decided to return that version of the X for the 16 GB RAM / 512 GB SSD to future-proof my purchase a bit. Please note, I did NOT experience any significant lag with the 8GB of RAM, but the 16 GB version is blazing FAST.
In terms of other miscellaneous notes, the addition of the USB-C port has been extremely convenient for me, since I also have a 2019 MacBook Pro. As a result, I bought an HP G5 USB-C dock, which is compatible with both computers. The re-designed Surface Type Cover with the Slim Pen charging port is also one of the most thoughtful designs in tech accessories that I have seen in a long timeNo more worrying about charging the pen separately, simply store it and go and when you go to use it again, it’s fully charged. This efficiency reminds me of the Apple Airpods. I still don’t love the feel/sound of clicking on the trackpad, but you can get around this by tapping instead of clicking, saving the noise.
All in all, I can’t put my finger on exactly why the Surface Pro X is so fun to use. I find myself regularly making excuses to use this device. Put simply, this device feels almost magical. Yes, I realize this sounds cheesy, but when is the last time you used a Microsoft product that felt magical? For me, it was probably my first PC running Windows 95. As for other devices, I felt a similar draw to my original iPad, the first retina display iPad and the iPad Pro. That’s it. Yet the Microsoft Surface Pro has the magical feeling for me.