**Microsoft's Surface Pro X: A Half-Baked Experience?**

In the past, Microsoft's new SQ3 arm-based processor, co-developed with Qualcomm, effectively streamlines what was the Surface Pro X into the Brand's core product line. To be clear, because The Branding here absolutely sucks, you can still buy a Surface Pro 9 with an Intel based 12 Gen processor. This isn't my first rodeo when it comes to Windows on arm; I actually covered the Surface Pro X back in 2019 on the Austin Evans Channel.

Windows on arm clearly wasn't ready for Prime Time simple browser-based tasks work the best, but apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom – things that you would actually use on a creative device like the surface straight up or unusable through 32-bit x86 emulation, and they wouldn't see arm optimization for months after release. In fact, I was so scarred by the whole thing that it made me dread Apple transitioning their computers to their own arm-based silicon.

But Apple following through ended up being the surprise of the year. So has the Windows on arm experience gotten any better? More apps are optimized than ever; there's finally 64-bit x86 emulation, also factoring in what the SQ3 gives you: a fanless design, good battery life, 5G connectivity, and a built-in neural processor that will take the load off of your CPU for AI-driven tasks. All this is cool and all, but there's still some performance issues.

Doing as much as I can on Microsoft Edge and Light Photoshop work to make YouTube thumbnails, there's still split seconds of lag that you just don't get on traditional x86 PCs. With that in mind, two things: one, I don't think the SQ3 offers a premium experience that's worth twelve hundred dollars for my SKU or almost 1500 including the pen and keyboard that makes the Surface usable as a PC.

Two, frankly, I don't think it's a consumer-friendly marketing play to integrate this half-baked experience into your core product line. But what manufacturers think and what consumers think can often be two different things. Now again, Microsoft is still selling Intel-based Surface Pro 9s, and it's hard to say without having it in front of me, but I'm almost certain that that's the one most people should buy.

You might be missing out on things like 5G better battery life, but otherwise, it's hard to argue with better performance and reliability in day-to-day use. This really makes me wonder why Microsoft is using the Arm-based Surface as its flagship product so soon.

**To My Original Point: Surface as a Brand Being Lost**

For as long as I can remember, for all the generations of them that I've used, they always drop the ball in execution one way or another – whether it's price, hardware, or just oddball decisions. It's a shame because I really like surface as a brand.

A few weeks ago, they flew me out to their R&D facilities in Redmond to see it firsthand. I love these experiences a lot because it gives me a chance to see the processes and meet the people behind the products that I actually use. But you wouldn't think with how big Microsoft as a company is that through the corporate veil surfaces are made with close attention to detail and passion.

But what I'm trying to get at is that all of this extra effort means nil if these premium products that cost lots of money for the end user to buy compromise too much in the scheme of every other high-end Windows computer or even Mac or iPad as far as meeting expectations in user experience.

**Microsoft's Mistakes**

I know I'm beating the Apple drum to death, but where they were able to axe their old partners to move at their own pace, Microsoft needs to tow strategic lines between numerous software and hardware partners – Qualcomm, Intel, at some point in recent memory there was also AMD, and we have to consider all of the OEMs that ship Windows desktops and laptops that Microsoft and Surface also now compete with.

Surface can make great hardware no problem, but Microsoft can't control all of their variables in the same way Apple can. I've said it a lot in this video, but to wrap up my thoughts in very simple terms: I like surface a lot but I want to love Surface – unfortunately that's looking like a tall order.

Thanks very much for watching this episode of Denki Channel and let me know whether you agree or disagree with my points in this video.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enboth apple and Microsoft decided techtober is prime time to launch their new tablets but after spending time with both the newest base model iPad and Surface Pro 9. I'm pretty convinced that both companies are absolutely lost let's talk about it this isn't a comprehensive review nor a comparison between any particular product but rather a bigger picture look at where these two Tech Giants are with their tablets I mean comparing a tablet that costs 450 against one that costs twelve hundred dollars would it be fair in the slightest but in the few days that I've spent testing them I've come to realize that both tablets do a good job at demonstrating that both product lines are in the midst of an identity crisis if I'm being honest part of the reason why I don't want to make a whole dedicated piece on Apple's newest base iPad is because it makes me angry usually I know enough to take rumors with a grain of salt but after months of credible speculation I was genuinely ready for a full on replacement to the base 330 iPad but Apple really dropped the ball this generation this newer design meshes well with the rest of the iPad lineup and I'm especially digging the playful colors this year like this yellow that kind of reminds me of the iPhone 10r also compared to the 9th generation iPad the squared off profile feels more substantial in the hands there's also finally a USBC Port though it is limited to USB 2 speeds Apple also showed some love to the front facing camera which is now aligned for landscape what this gets to you is optimal framing especially while docked on a keyboard okay so that's most of the key positives everything else is pretty annoying people are absolutely memeing on the fact that this only supports the first gen apple pencil which still charges via lightning the goofy solution here is to top off using a USBC to lightning adapter but I found a better way sometimes my genius is it's almost frightening at 449 for the 64 gigabyte model it's a far cry from that 9th gen base model at 330 bucks in fact Apple's probably a bit self-aware here because that model is not going anywhere and is staying at the exact same price 449 dollars is spitting distance to the iPad Mini which has better specs though to be fair has a worse screen and is a different class of device altogether factor in accessories you might want to buy for your base model iPad that full first party kit will run you 800 bones that might as well be iPad Pro territory certainly without accessories but it's still hard to not make that value comparison call me overreaching but I really think this 450 dollar base model iPad is very hard to justify but as I mentioned in the beginning of this video this singular product is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Apple's identity crisis with the iPad what does Apple want the iPad to be and what's holding them back from making it great the answer to that second one is a little more obvious it's Mac OS from a ux perspective apple is inching closer and closer to merging iPad OS and Mac OS every single year but it presents a bit of a conundrum now that the iPad and MacBook share a similar Hardware base where does the software go despite Apple's best efforts with features like stage manager put simply the iPad is not a good laptop replacement I know a lot of people out there including myself have asked what about Mac OS on the iPad there's no doubt in my mind that Apple can figure out how to make it happen and it'll certainly make the best use out of the M1 and M2 on the iPad Air and iPad Pro but here in reality I'm sure they'd rather not cannibalize their other products and disrupt their Market strategy where the iPad has always been a tablet trying to put on its best laptop impression on the other side of the spectrum I've always viewed the Surface Pro as a laptop trying to do tablet things and that product line is also having somewhat of a crisis of its own believe it or not this is the 10th year of Microsoft's in-house PC Hardware brand and this far in it's easy to forget that they Pioneer the convertible two-in-one PC as we know it today not only did surface end up informing how Windows mix both desktop and tablet experiences on the software front but also spawned competition in the hardware space competing even against Microsoft's own third-party Partners but here in 2022 the brand is leaving me scratching my head for a multitude of reasons especially with this the Surface Pro 9 5G it Bears the same tried and true design that's worked for them in the past but internally this device is rocking Microsoft's new sq3 arm-based processor that they co-developed with Qualcomm this effectively streamlines what was the Surface Pro X into the Brand's core product line now to be clear because The Branding here absolutely sucks you can still buy a Surface Pro 9 with an Intel based 12 Gen processor this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to Windows on arm I actually covered the Surface Pro X back in 2019 on the Austin Evans Channel windows on arm clearly wasn't ready for Prime Time simple browser-based tasks work the best but apps like Photoshop illustrator and Lightroom things that you would actually use on a creative device like the surface straight up or unusable through 32-bit x86 emulation and they wouldn't see arm optimization for months after release in fact I was so scarred by the whole thing that it made me dread Apple transitioning their computers to their own arm-based silicon but Apple following through ended up being the surprise of the year so has the windows on arm experience gotten any better more apps are optimized than ever there's finally 64-bit x86 emulation also factoring in what the sq3 gives you a fanless design good battery 5G connectivity and has a built-in neural processor that will take the load off of your CPU for AI driven tasks all this is cool and all but there's still some performance issues doing as much as I can on Microsoft Edge and light Photoshop work to make YouTube thumbnails there's still split seconds of lag that you just don't get on traditional x86 PCS with that in mind two things one I don't think the sq3 offers a premium experience that's worth twelve hundred dollars for my SKU or almost 1500 including the pen and keyboard that makes the surface usable as a PC two frankly I don't think it's a consumer friendly marketing play to integrate this half-baked experience into your core product line but what manufacturers think and what consumers think can often be two different things now again Microsoft is still selling Intel based Surface Pro 9s and it's hard to say without having it in front of me but I'm almost certain that that's the one most people should buy you might be missing out on things like 5G better battery life but otherwise it's hard to argue with better performance and reliability in day-to-day use this really makes me wonder why Microsoft is using the Arm based surface as its Flagship product so soon to my original point of surface as a brand being lost for as long as I can remember for all the generations of them that I've used they always drop the ball in execution one way or another whether it's price Hardware or just Oddball decisions it's a shame because I really like surface as a brand a few weeks ago they flew me out to their r d facilities in Redmond to see it firsthand I love these experiences a lot because it gives me a chance to see the processes and meet the people behind the products that I actually use but you wouldn't think with how big Microsoft as a company is that through the corporate veil surfaces are made with close attention to detail and passion but what I'm trying to get at is that all of this extra effort means nil if these premium products that cost lots of money for the end user to buy compromises too much in the the scheme of every other high-end Windows computer or even Mac or iPad as far as meeting expectations in user experience I know I'm beating the Apple drum to death but where they were able to ax their old Partners to move at their own pace Microsoft needs to tow strategic lines between numerous software and Hardware Partners there's Qualcomm Intel at some point in recent memory there was also AMD and we have to consider all of the oems that ship Windows desktops and laptops that Microsoft and surface also now compete with surface can make great Hardware no problem but Microsoft can't control all of their variables in the same way Apple can I've said it a lot in this video but to wrap up my thoughts in very simple terms I like surface a lot but I want to love service don't unfortunately that's looking like a tall order thanks very much for watching this episode of denki Channel and let me know whether you agree or disagree with my points in this videoboth apple and Microsoft decided techtober is prime time to launch their new tablets but after spending time with both the newest base model iPad and Surface Pro 9. I'm pretty convinced that both companies are absolutely lost let's talk about it this isn't a comprehensive review nor a comparison between any particular product but rather a bigger picture look at where these two Tech Giants are with their tablets I mean comparing a tablet that costs 450 against one that costs twelve hundred dollars would it be fair in the slightest but in the few days that I've spent testing them I've come to realize that both tablets do a good job at demonstrating that both product lines are in the midst of an identity crisis if I'm being honest part of the reason why I don't want to make a whole dedicated piece on Apple's newest base iPad is because it makes me angry usually I know enough to take rumors with a grain of salt but after months of credible speculation I was genuinely ready for a full on replacement to the base 330 iPad but Apple really dropped the ball this generation this newer design meshes well with the rest of the iPad lineup and I'm especially digging the playful colors this year like this yellow that kind of reminds me of the iPhone 10r also compared to the 9th generation iPad the squared off profile feels more substantial in the hands there's also finally a USBC Port though it is limited to USB 2 speeds Apple also showed some love to the front facing camera which is now aligned for landscape what this gets to you is optimal framing especially while docked on a keyboard okay so that's most of the key positives everything else is pretty annoying people are absolutely memeing on the fact that this only supports the first gen apple pencil which still charges via lightning the goofy solution here is to top off using a USBC to lightning adapter but I found a better way sometimes my genius is it's almost frightening at 449 for the 64 gigabyte model it's a far cry from that 9th gen base model at 330 bucks in fact Apple's probably a bit self-aware here because that model is not going anywhere and is staying at the exact same price 449 dollars is spitting distance to the iPad Mini which has better specs though to be fair has a worse screen and is a different class of device altogether factor in accessories you might want to buy for your base model iPad that full first party kit will run you 800 bones that might as well be iPad Pro territory certainly without accessories but it's still hard to not make that value comparison call me overreaching but I really think this 450 dollar base model iPad is very hard to justify but as I mentioned in the beginning of this video this singular product is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Apple's identity crisis with the iPad what does Apple want the iPad to be and what's holding them back from making it great the answer to that second one is a little more obvious it's Mac OS from a ux perspective apple is inching closer and closer to merging iPad OS and Mac OS every single year but it presents a bit of a conundrum now that the iPad and MacBook share a similar Hardware base where does the software go despite Apple's best efforts with features like stage manager put simply the iPad is not a good laptop replacement I know a lot of people out there including myself have asked what about Mac OS on the iPad there's no doubt in my mind that Apple can figure out how to make it happen and it'll certainly make the best use out of the M1 and M2 on the iPad Air and iPad Pro but here in reality I'm sure they'd rather not cannibalize their other products and disrupt their Market strategy where the iPad has always been a tablet trying to put on its best laptop impression on the other side of the spectrum I've always viewed the Surface Pro as a laptop trying to do tablet things and that product line is also having somewhat of a crisis of its own believe it or not this is the 10th year of Microsoft's in-house PC Hardware brand and this far in it's easy to forget that they Pioneer the convertible two-in-one PC as we know it today not only did surface end up informing how Windows mix both desktop and tablet experiences on the software front but also spawned competition in the hardware space competing even against Microsoft's own third-party Partners but here in 2022 the brand is leaving me scratching my head for a multitude of reasons especially with this the Surface Pro 9 5G it Bears the same tried and true design that's worked for them in the past but internally this device is rocking Microsoft's new sq3 arm-based processor that they co-developed with Qualcomm this effectively streamlines what was the Surface Pro X into the Brand's core product line now to be clear because The Branding here absolutely sucks you can still buy a Surface Pro 9 with an Intel based 12 Gen processor this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to Windows on arm I actually covered the Surface Pro X back in 2019 on the Austin Evans Channel windows on arm clearly wasn't ready for Prime Time simple browser-based tasks work the best but apps like Photoshop illustrator and Lightroom things that you would actually use on a creative device like the surface straight up or unusable through 32-bit x86 emulation and they wouldn't see arm optimization for months after release in fact I was so scarred by the whole thing that it made me dread Apple transitioning their computers to their own arm-based silicon but Apple following through ended up being the surprise of the year so has the windows on arm experience gotten any better more apps are optimized than ever there's finally 64-bit x86 emulation also factoring in what the sq3 gives you a fanless design good battery 5G connectivity and has a built-in neural processor that will take the load off of your CPU for AI driven tasks all this is cool and all but there's still some performance issues doing as much as I can on Microsoft Edge and light Photoshop work to make YouTube thumbnails there's still split seconds of lag that you just don't get on traditional x86 PCS with that in mind two things one I don't think the sq3 offers a premium experience that's worth twelve hundred dollars for my SKU or almost 1500 including the pen and keyboard that makes the surface usable as a PC two frankly I don't think it's a consumer friendly marketing play to integrate this half-baked experience into your core product line but what manufacturers think and what consumers think can often be two different things now again Microsoft is still selling Intel based Surface Pro 9s and it's hard to say without having it in front of me but I'm almost certain that that's the one most people should buy you might be missing out on things like 5G better battery life but otherwise it's hard to argue with better performance and reliability in day-to-day use this really makes me wonder why Microsoft is using the Arm based surface as its Flagship product so soon to my original point of surface as a brand being lost for as long as I can remember for all the generations of them that I've used they always drop the ball in execution one way or another whether it's price Hardware or just Oddball decisions it's a shame because I really like surface as a brand a few weeks ago they flew me out to their r d facilities in Redmond to see it firsthand I love these experiences a lot because it gives me a chance to see the processes and meet the people behind the products that I actually use but you wouldn't think with how big Microsoft as a company is that through the corporate veil surfaces are made with close attention to detail and passion but what I'm trying to get at is that all of this extra effort means nil if these premium products that cost lots of money for the end user to buy compromises too much in the the scheme of every other high-end Windows computer or even Mac or iPad as far as meeting expectations in user experience I know I'm beating the Apple drum to death but where they were able to ax their old Partners to move at their own pace Microsoft needs to tow strategic lines between numerous software and Hardware Partners there's Qualcomm Intel at some point in recent memory there was also AMD and we have to consider all of the oems that ship Windows desktops and laptops that Microsoft and surface also now compete with surface can make great Hardware no problem but Microsoft can't control all of their variables in the same way Apple can I've said it a lot in this video but to wrap up my thoughts in very simple terms I like surface a lot but I want to love service don't unfortunately that's looking like a tall order thanks very much for watching this episode of denki Channel and let me know whether you agree or disagree with my points in this video