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Alejandro Silem photo
South Korea, Seoul
1 Level
680 Review
38 Karma

Review on πŸ’» Microsoft Surface Pro X 13" Touch-Screen SQ1 - 16GB 256GB Wifi 4G LTE Matte Black QFM-00001 by Alejandro Silem

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Really very good, but not perfect

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this device (8/128GB model) but I was actually very impressed with it. You must understand the limitations of the device before purchasing it. First of all, ARM applications are incredibly fast. Crazy how fast they are. Using the ARM Edgium browser (you can find its executable online, it hasn't been released by MS yet) works as fast or even faster than my 8th gen Intel laptop. Even websites with a lot of content load very quickly and smooth scrolling is not a problem. Every ARM app I've tried works great. The problem occurs when using x86 applications. Some apps like MS Office, Chrome, and VS Code work great, but some apps like Spotify and 1Password work like absolute garbage. They slow down the entire system and even a simple click on something can take 2-3 seconds. Adobe also says it will "soon" optimize all of its Creative Cloud apps for ARM. WSL (Linux for Windows) also works great. The build quality is also fantastic. It feels very durable and well put together. The user-replaceable SSD is also a nice touch. The battery life is also very good. Playing videos from ARM apps like Netflix uses little to no power. With normal use, you can easily work 9 hours. The LTE connection is also reliable and works great. I use it with T-Mobile and get about the same speed as my Note 10. I keep LTE always connected (even when connected to Wi-Fi) with very little battery drain (benefit or ARM/Qualcomm chips really shown here) . If you use a Digits SIM card (T-Mobile only), you can also use this device to receive text messages and make calls. There are some strange bugs like a very dark display after waking from sleep (you can fix this by manually increasing the brightness) and the night light not working on external displays, but hopefully Microsoft will fix them with firmware updates soon. All in all, this is a good choice if you already have a main laptop and just want an additional device. I wish it was cheaper as it costs at least $1100 with the keyboard and will probably be out in a few months. It is a bit strange that the own browser does not yet officially support Edge (Chromium) and Office ARM.

Pros
  • Easy setup
Cons
  • There are other interesting options.