


In watching the performance, the graphics card and processor appear to cope well but the RAM is right up there at 7GB or more in use most of the time. This is more noticeable when connected via my USB-C dock to connect two external HD monitors along with the laptop screen. Performance wise, the SPX does generally feel slower than my HP. Having to peck around to go on mute via the screen button is nowhere near as easy as having a dedicated mute button with a visual light. My last 3 laptops have had mute keys and with a lot of my time spent on Microsoft Teams calls I think this is a big miss for the SPX and the entire Surface line up for that matter. The first thing I hate about my SPX is having to give up my mute key. This is a far cry from my HP dual fan wind machine and a welcome change when working from a quiet home office. My smartphone does not spin up fans to cool itself down and neither does my SPX. The first thing I love about my SPX is the fan-less design. There is a lot to like about this PC but like with all PCs there is always room for improvement. It had a touch screen, the ability to fold back into tablet mode, but not the ability to remove the keyboard. Prior to this machine I was using a 2019 HP EliteBook G3 1030 with LTE. As with all my hardware reviews this is a real-world ownership review for a sustained period not just a thin 1-week test drive and conclusion. Below is my real-world feedback from living life exclusively on what I will call an overgrown smartphone with a keyboard or officially called a Microsoft Surface Pro X (SPX). Is it 3rd time lucky? I think the answer is yes… and unfortunately no. I consider this effort to be v3 after Windows RT and Windows Mobile with Continuum, which both attempted to run Windows on smartphone chipsets and both of which I have lived life on as my primary machine. This time partnering with Qualcomm to develop a chip more akin to a smartphone rather than an off the shelf traditional desktop offering from the likes of Intel and AMD.

Back in late 2019 Microsoft decided to have another crack at delivering Windows as a mobile OS vs Windows as a desktop OS.
