Microsoft brings Snapdragon X2 Plus to 13-inch Surface Laptop, 12-inch Surface Pro — low-end systems finally get upgrades

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The change was announced at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit

Microsoft Surface Laptop
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is finally updating its lowest-end computers: the 13-inch Surface Laptop and 12-inch Surface Pro. Both systems are getting the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus processor (including an 80 TOPS NPU), up from a first-gen Snapdragon X Plus. The company announced the new Surfaces on its blog, in timing with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit.

Both new devices will launch on October 13. The Laptop will start at $1,199, while the Surface Pro will be $1,149. These are substantial increases over the previous versions, which started at $899 and $799, respectively, when they launched.

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Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman
Senior Editor

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net. You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alan.campbell99
    Hmm, I don't expect their service support to have improved from terrible though. PITA to deal with both hardware and software-wise.
    Reply
  • VizzieTheViz
    18% faster at best for over 40% more $ for sure. No thanks.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    These are going to sell like hotcakes! LOLOLOL
    Reply
  • kealii123
    alan.campbell99 said:
    Hmm, I don't expect their service support to have improved from terrible though. PITA to deal with both hardware and software-wise.
    All my windows 11 devices have been so buggy, so bad, so full of bloatware that I swore I would never use that OS again. I had an older Qualcomm 8CX tablet that had decent performance, but the only thing that held it back was the laggy/buggy windows OS and its dearth of tablet centric applications.


    All my work is done in macOS. My gaming rig is ubuntu.

    However, after breaking my tablet, I wanted something more portable than my 18 inch 4090 laptop, so I found a surface pro 11 Core Ultra 7. After doing battle with immature linux drivers for a week I decided to just give windows another chance. Ive been shocked by how good it is. IDK if its Windows Pro vs Home edition, or that its a Microsoft branded device running Windows 11, but its night and day better.

    TLDR after experiencing windows Pro on a modern microsoft branded device, its actually a good OS and a good experience, and I'm considering the 12 incher for my wife for Christmas.
    Reply
  • VizzieTheViz
    kealii123 said:
    All my windows 11 devices have been so buggy, so bad, so full of bloatware that I swore I would never use that OS again. I had an older Qualcomm 8CX tablet that had decent performance, but the only thing that held it back was the laggy/buggy windows OS and its dearth of tablet centric applications.


    All my work is done in macOS. My gaming rig is ubuntu.

    However, after breaking my tablet, I wanted something more portable than my 18 inch 4090 laptop, so I found a surface pro 11 Core Ultra 7. After doing battle with immature linux drivers for a week I decided to just give windows another chance. Ive been shocked by how good it is. IDK if its Windows Pro vs Home edition, or that its a Microsoft branded device running Windows 11, but its night and day better.

    TLDR after experiencing windows Pro on a modern microsoft branded device, its actually a good OS and a good experience, and I'm considering the 12 incher for my wife for Christmas.
    Might be more down to the devices you bought being filled with bloatware and/or bad drivers by their manufacturers than down the difference between windows 11 home and pro.

    There’s hardly any difference unless you need specific features from the pro version (like virtualization or remote management or stuff like that) which you generally don’t need at *home*.
    Reply
  • kealii123
    VizzieTheViz said:
    Might be more down to the devices you bought being filled with bloatware and/or bad drivers by their manufacturers than down the difference between windows 11 home and pro.

    There’s hardly any difference unless you need specific features from the pro version (like virtualization or remote management or stuff like that) which you generally don’t need at *home*.
    My previous windows devices, which trained me to hate windows:

    Surface book 1
    Surface book 2
    Surface go 1
    Surface go 2
    Razer pro 17
    8th gen i5 custom desktop
    Robo and Kala tablet

    Of course I've had more in the deeper past, but I think this illustrates the point
    Reply