MARCH 2020 • TECH ADVISOR 23Again, however, app compatibility, performance issues
and bugs complicate Microsoft’s effort. Calling it an
‘Edgebook’ isn’t quite right, because the Surface Pro
X runs Office and other Microsoft apps well. But it still
feels somewhat short of an actual PC.
One redeeming factor that we haven’t touched
much upon is the price: £999 for our base model
isn’t bad, but it’s still almost £200 more than the Core
i5/8GB/128GB model Microsoft Surface Pro 7.
We reviewed Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Tablet (3rd Gen)
eighteen months ago, with a 13in 2K display, an 8th-
gen Core processor, two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt
3, and a nanoSIM slot – and a bundled pen and
keyboard. These all match or exceed what the Surface
Pro X delivers. The ThinkPad’s big letdown was battery
life, which the Surface Pro X easily surpasses by about
90 minutes – but it’s not even close to the promises of
truly all-day battery life, which Qualcomm previously
delivered upon in earlier machines like the Asus
NovaGo and Samsung Galaxy Book 2.
The question that I hope Microsoft is asking itself is:
What compelling reason has it given for customers to
buy the Surface Pro X? Always-on connectivity? It’s not
a unique argument, and one that Intel itself is gunning
for. We haven’t tested Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7, but
we’d assume that that’s its best tablet, not the Surface
Pro X. With this tablet, we can’t see why Microsoft
would use the term ‘Pro’ at all. Mark Hachman
Specifications
- 13in(2,880x1,920;267ppi)touchPixelSensedisplay
- Windows 10 Home (consumer)/Windows 10 Pro