When Microsoft revealed its latest members of the Surface family in March, the biggest news from the event was what the company didn’t talk about. The new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, equipped with Intel processors, are marketed and sold exclusively to professional customers. Meanwhile, the most exciting models – with Arm-based SoCs inside – have remained firmly under wraps.
Over on Windows Central, Zac Bowden found evidence that a new Surface Pro 10 with a member of the new Snapdragon X family is currently being tested. Several new Arm-based machines are widely expected to debut at a Microsoft event in Seattle on May 20. In addition to Surface-branded devices, we can expect to see new PCs using the latest Qualcomm chips from Lenovo and Samsung, among others. .
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This week, Qualcomm officially announced the Snapdragon X Plus SoC, the entry-level alternative to the previously announced Snapdragon X Elite. And while Microsoft and Qualcomm have managed – so far – to keep an eye on leaks from real machines and corresponding benchmark tests, they have also strategically shared their confidence that Windows on Arm is finally ready to take on Apple’s powerful system. M-series processors.
Last year, I wrote about Microsoft’s efforts to migrate Windows to an Arm-based model, with a focus on “custom silicon to…ensure the competitiveness of the entire Windows ecosystem and Surface hardware.
As I noted at the time, “If they’re really serious about this bespoke silicon effort, they better pick up the pace.” Unfortunately, Microsoft’s historical reliance on investments and partnerships is a real liability in keeping up with Apple, which develops its own custom silicon for iPhones, iPads and Macs in close collaboration with operating system developers.
Apple’s approach ties the silicon and operating system together in a way that allows them to optimize performance and battery life without having to pay a third-party chip vendor (like Qualcomm or Intel).
See also: Can Microsoft deliver a silicon surprise before the end of the year?
That’s why Apple has been shipping third-generation Apple Silicon devices for months, while Microsoft is still months away from shipping its first Surface devices built from custom silicon. (Current Arm-powered Surface devices are based on slightly customized versions of Qualcomm processors but can’t really be considered “custom silicon.”)
In early 2023, Qualcomm optimistically predicted that it would ship devices based on the next-generation SoC, which was eventually dubbed Snapdragon X Elite. That obviously didn’t happen, which is why these new Arm-based Surface PCs won’t be here for several months. This gives Apple three or four months to sell its all-new MacBook Air M3s without the competition that the new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 might offer.
The biggest advantage of the Arm architecture is of course its energy efficiency. Existing Arm-based Surface models are thin and light and offer much better battery life than their Intel-based rivals, without generating heat or requiring fans. (My first-generation Surface Pro an M2 or M3 processor. And Apple’s laptops are blowing the doors off their Surface rivals for more demanding tasks.
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Bowden’s sources tell Windows Central that “these new chips will deliver huge performance and efficiency gains over previous Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models.” They would do better.
Meanwhile, someone at Microsoft told Tom Warren at The Verge that the company is “so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than a MacBook Air M3 for CPU tasks”.
That’s some pretty bold talk, and long-time Microsoft watchers are understandably skeptical. But this is a watershed moment for Redmond. If Microsoft wants the market to take its new devices seriously, it needs to make huge improvements in performance and battery life over its current models, and it needs to be competitive with what Apple offers today.
More importantly, these Surface devices need to be good enough to convince the two largest PC makers, HP and Dell, to begin the big shift to an Arm-based model and away from the classic Intel architecture.
It’s no coincidence that these new devices are touted as being purpose-built for AI, with neural processing units that can move demanding AI workloads off the GPU, as well as a Copilot key that accesses directly to Windows 11 AI features.
See also: What is an AI PC? (And should you buy one?)
A few months ago, it seemed certain that Microsoft would release Windows 12 this year. I think we’ll probably still see early releases before the end of 2024, but the official release could wait until next year. If so, that gives Apple another year to extend its lead in hardware and software.