Microsoft arms Surface Pro 9 with Qualcomm SQ3, 12th-gen Intel chips

Microsoft put a coat of polish on its Surface line this week, including its third-generation tablet powered by an Arm-based CPU. During a virtual presentation Wednesday, coinciding with its Ignite conference, Microsoft showed off five new Surface devices, including two Surface Pro tablets, a pair of Surface Laptops, and a …

[Sandtitz]

Re: 12th Gen

Intel has not launched mobile 13th Gen CPU's which these tablets are using. The mobile parts are coming perhaps later this year - or not.

Micros~1 - like any other PC manufacturers - need working CPU samples for testing early in the design phase. Because the devices are coming out in couple of weeks, they should be mostly built and waiting in warehouses/transit. This means that Intel would have had mobile 13th Gen's built in quantity already. Intel would also have generally launched them already to counter AMD and ARM.

[jonslon]

A shame the ARM version of the Pro 9 is no slimmer or lighter than the Intel. One of the advantages of the Pro X is the slimmer/lighter form factor when usong at as a true tablet. Also, the price premium on the ARM version is very hard to justify, even with 5G. A bit disappointing, for my personal us case, I was considering replacing my Pro X SQ2 but will hold tight a while longer.

[Geoff Campbell]

I'm not sure I find it disappointing, it's a valid design decision which presumably gives a bigger battery for the ARM version than it would have had in a slimmer case.

However, I also don't see any compelling reason to upgrade my Pro X SQ1, this time around. Maybe next time.

GJC

[Steve Davies 3]

Much ado about nothing...

Move along there.

Seriously, I'd like to know how many Surface devices they sell (note not ship) in a year and how that compares to others in the marketplace.

The few people I know who had (note the past tense) hated them with a vengeance. They were so locked down as to make them next to useless.

Weren't these hyped as the big Mac killer? Now that Apple has shown how to make an Arm based laptop, MS is IMHO, pissing in the wind with these. Old CPU's and not a lot to warrant replacing existing units with new shiny-shiny.

[karlkarl]

Re: Much ado about nothing...

The hardware is pretty decent for ARM, but yes, Microsoft is still being crazy and locking these things down at the BIOS/UEFI level so it can ultimately only boot old versions of Windows.

So... Straight to the landfill with you foul demon!

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: Much ado about nothing...

Microsoft has never said anything about Surface being a Mac killer, and neither do they have particularly big aspirations for sales figures. They are, if you like, reference builds for vanilla Windows machines.

Me, I like them. My regular travelling machine is a Surface Pro X, and my work "laptop" is a Surface Pro 7+. Both excellent machines, that do everything I need in a light yet reasonably rugged package. I have no idea what you mean by them being "locked down", perhaps this is a reference to installing Linux on them? I've not tried, I have other machines for that, as I mostly use Linux on servers rather than on desktops or portable machines.

The Pro 9 and Laptop 5 are nice evolutions of the line. Nobody is claiming that they are revolutionary.

They don't fit your needs? That's cool, buy something else. They're not compulsory.

GJC

[Henry Wertz 1]

Expensive much?

Expensive much? I can't imagine spending that kind of dosh on these systems. But ok, if you want to...

[Jason Hindle]

Pity about the hardware - the Microsoft ARM software is looking good

ARM Windows is surprisingly good. Based on running it as a virtual machine, on a Mac, I estimate Microsoft’s Intel emulation is close to that of Apple. Yet the Qualcomm silicon remains behind at the moment.