How to choose between the Surface Pro X and Surface Pro 7

If you were in the grocery store for a new Microsoft Surface laptop or tablet, the choices used to be relatively dim-witted — Surface Book for a potent laptop with a detachable screen, Surface Pro for a adequate to pad with an optional detachable keyboard, or the Surface Laptop or Surface Go if you don ’ t need a much power and don ’ triiodothyronine worry as much about pill or laptop modes .
Decisions, decisions
Microsoft just blew all that up by announcing the Surface Pro X and Surface Pro 7 portable 2-in-1s on the very lapp day — not to mention the Surface Neo dual-screen pill and Surface Duo folding call. badly, let ’ s not mention those last two again ‘ cause they aren ’ metric ton embark until recently 2020, but I figured you ’ d want to know .
But let ’ s say you ’ re ready to buy a new Surface right now, possibly because they ’ ve ultimately got USB-C ports rather of needing to charge and sling data over a proprietorship airfoil Connect cable television. Should you nab the Surface Pro X with its new Qualcomm processor ? Or the Surface Pro 7 with Intel ?

Depends what you care about most .


Power for your programs: Surface Pro 7, probably

This might make your decision real number easy .
We won ’ t know for surely until we ’ ve got review units in our hands, but it ’ second probably condom to say the Surface Pro 7 ’ s Intel processor is a better count than the ARM-based Qualcomm chip in the Surface Pro X if you use traditional Windows desktop apps and are set on pre-ordering justly away .
While Windows 10 does let you run those Win32 programs on ARM-based chips now, we ’ ve never had a bang-up time doing thus because we ’ vitamin d run into apps that wouldn ’ thymine work. Developers need to recompile some programs to work on ARM, many haven ’ thyroxine bothered doing that, and Windows on ARM straight up doesn ’ t accompaniment some technical school you might need for personal computer bet on like OpenGL .
And while we ’ rhenium affirmative that Qualcomm ’ s chip might prove to run basic Windows and web browsing tasks faster — late iPad Pros prove that ARM processors are no slouch, and this one ’ s clocked at up to 3GHz with 2 teraflops of graphic sex appeal — we ’ re inactive talking about a 7-watt ARM processor compared to a excerpt of dual- and quad-core 15-watt CPUs from Intel that won ’ metric ton be hamstrung by any incompatibility issues .
But assuming you ’ re not worried about that, or your life by and large lives in the web …


Portability: Surface Pro X

If you absolutely need the easiest possible Microsoft tablet to carry around, the Surface Pro X is your slate. While it ’ s actually the same 1.7 impound burden and has a larger 13-inch display compared to the 12.3-inch Surface Pro 7, it ’ sulfur far thin at merely 7.3mm thick compared to 8.38mm — good take a attend at our photograph above .
The Verge ’ s Tom Warren says that fineness actually makes the tablet feel light in the hand, and it ’ ll swoop into your bag that much more easily .
There ’ second besides built-in LTE cellular connectivity excessively thanks to that Qualcomm chip, so you don ’ t need to pay extra for an LTE version. Just interchange it onto your phone plan and you should be good to go. ( The Surface Pro 7 does have Wi-Fi 6, though. )



And if you ’ re a stylus exploiter, the Surface Pro X has a feature that might keep you from ever losing it again — because you can cleverly stash it right inside the optional keyboard cover ’ sulfur hinge.

With 13 hours of battery life sentence to the Surface Pro 7 ’ s 10.5 hours, it should last longer on the travel a well — though preserve in mind that both of those numbers were tested with the screen ’ sulfur brightness set to a reasonably dim 150 nits. You ’ ll credibly be using it set bright, particularly if you go outdoors .


Ports: Surface Pro 7

The Surface Pro 7 has a USB-A port, a 3.5mm earphone jack and a microSD card reader, in addition to its newly USB-C port .
The Surface Pro X does not. It ’ sulfur got two USB-C ports — which is dainty — but you may end up using Bluetooth headphones and/or dongles .
Both have the proprietary Surface Connect port equally well, for data and another way to charge. Neither corroborate Thunderbolt 3 .

Price: Surface Pro 7

technically, you can run up the price of the Surface Pro 7 even higher than the Surface Pro X, if you need the Core i7 with 16GB of memory and 512GB or 1TB of solid-state storehouse — those will cost you a cool $ 1,899 or $ 2,299 respectively. There ’ sulfur no 1TB option for the X, and its 16GB / 512GB configuration is actually $ 100 cheaper at $ 1,799 .
But if you ’ re a price-conscious shopper who ’ ll settle for less silicon, the Surface Pro 7 starts cheaper and stays cheaper for the like quantities of memory and storehouse until you get to those upper echelons. here ’ s a graph that lays it out :

Surface Pro X vs. Surface Pro 7 pricing

Price
Surface Pro 7
Surface Pro X

Price
Surface Pro 7
Surface Pro X

$749
Core i3 / 4GB / 128GB

$899
Core i5 / 8GB / 128GB

$999

SQ1 / 8GB / 128GB

$1,199
Core i5 / 8GB / 256GB

$1,299

SQ1 / 8GB / 256GB

$1,399
Core i5 / 16GB / 256GB

$1,499
Core i7 / 16GB / 256GB

$1,799

SQ1 / 16GB / 512GB

$1,899
Core i7 / 16GB / 512GB

$2,299
Core i7 / 16GB / 1TB

And while the Surface Pro X technically has an upgradable SSD, it ’ s not necessarily going to be equally easy as it originally sounded : you ’ ll need to find and buy a fairly niche M.2 2230 solid country drive ( they ’ rhenium much shorter than the standard varieties ) to make that study .
Plus, all of these prices are without adding the optional keyboard and stylus you may want to turn these tablets into multi-functional work machines — and at $ 139.99, that Surface Pro X keyboard will cost you an extra $ 10 over the standard Surface Pro type breed, while the new $ 144.99 Surface Slim Pen is a good $ 45 pricier than the standard model .
Mind you, that ’ randomness for a pen that can now wirelessly commit by docking with that keyboard, or with its include radio receiver charging cradle rather of needing a AAAA battery. But if you ’ re looking for the less expensive choice it ’ randomness something to keep in mind .
obligatory : you could merely wait for the reviews

Those are the big reasons you might pick a Surface Pro X over a Surface Pro 7, based on the information we have today. ( The Surface Pro X besides has a 10-megapixel rise television camera that records 4K video to the Surface Pro 7 ’ s 8MP, 1080p television camera, but that didn ’ metric ton feel desirable of a break. )
It ’ s wholly potential one of these two devices will under- or over-deliver, though, so lookout for our reviews later this fall .
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