2024 Surface Pro OLED Review (Snapdragon X)

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This isn't the first Arm based Surface Pro, but it's the first one that's actually good. The Surface Pro Copilot+ PC: Between the speed of the processor and the translation layer Microsoft is using to run old x86 programs this computer works really well for many things. But not everything.
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[@scribblingjoe]

Screw Adobe anyway.

[@mikearisbrocken8507]

Same

[@houcemkabboudi]

Adobe: You can install what we allow you to Paying users: dang! we can't use your apps on the new surface Pirates: pathetic!

[@spade5713]

lmao

[@trowawayacc]

Dont pirate adobe. Its not worth it. Use affinity!

[@CammieRacing]

Shocking that those who pirate their software are getting a superior service to us who paid!

[@candylord2739]

@@CammieRacing Piracy was always a service problem not a money problem lol

[@50V0N]

​@@candylord2739what service do you need to use Adobe softwares 😵‍💫.

[@limenzyme]

Time for Samsung to come out with an iPad Pro competitor with a tablet form factor that has S-Pen and runs WINDOWS!

[@alyxredmond8753]

I'd rather they don't waste any breath if they don't include some AMD processor. It's WILD that after all these year not even 1 company ever made an AMD tablet that can do some heavy 3D workloads (which requires the GPU).

[@pabloarias7917]

I would love a samsumg ultra windows PC size

[@eyhtwozed2606]

@@alyxredmond8753what about minisforum v3 tablet?

[@htsunmiku]

I think they have a flippy laptop that had spent support already?

[@Stanin84]

@@alyxredmond8753Minisforum Tablet V3 has Ryzen 8840U.

[@EPeltzer]

Hard to understand why MS pen is not absolutely first rate drawing instrument by this iteration. 11 years of Surface Pro, that's way more than enough time to perfect this technology.

[@Dave102693]

Maybe they might improve the tech now

[@darkmagistric]

@@Dave102693 They don't update the pen with every iteration. The last time was pen tech itself was updated was when the Slim Pen 2 was released with the Pro 8. So if you are coming from a Pro 8, 9, or 10, this Pro 11's pen will behave exactly the same.

[@PixogenPixels]

@@darkmagistric To be fair the update from the 8 made it good enough. It's not the best but its finally usable, it wasn't before for pro work imo.

[@orlfane1622]

It's a shame. It's the only thing that is stopping me from switching over from an ipad. The apple pencil is superior, and it really shouldn't be at this point.

[@israelramirez0202]

​@@orlfane1622 how is it superior?

[@christianr.5868]

Blender for arm is in beta as we speak

[@thebradcolbow]

Nice! and not surprising at all, that team is really on top of things.

[@Mayos1010]

I've been googling and youtubing fir this for about 2 weeks

[@luthfihakim4861]

No wonder why it so smooth on a arm windows tablet 🤯

[@schizofennec]

Blender has been on ARM for a while via Apple Silicon and Metal

[@christianr.5868]

@@schizofennec arm64 for windows is what I meant

[@BrightExposure]

Canva/Affinity decision to run on ARM chips natively is a very good move.

[@mrwoodcat]

an arm wrestle!

[@thebradcolbow]

That would have made a great title :D

[@RoktimBhattacharjya811]

Nice!

[@SellyS.]

Good one!!

[@franciscodetonne4797]

ARM race joke also works :P

[@zendragon6]

Or, hear me out, you could cancel Creative Cloud and help push the movement against Adobe and their predatory practices.

[@rkgibbons]

Not really an option for many professionals.

[@ToddOgasawara]

Thanks for this great review of something I'm on the fence about buying. As an unapologetic doodler (not an "artist"), your UX focused review was useful to me. Also, many thanks for not adding distracting background music! Your voice and excellent script writing is more than enough (also thanks for not yelling at your audience :-)

[@SixPathsOfJin]

Strange to see an actual useful tablet - The new ipad pro is severely lacking when it comes to software.

[@fabio_gioffre]

great video thanks for breaking this down. Do you think this would be a good option to run an animation program like toonboom?

[@rafehsaleh]

Thanks for the review. Does it heat up? How’s the heat management compared to an iPad?

[@rockyiu7541]

It never did in my first few days of use (updates, batch install apps, a few drawing session in krita). It is only warm to the touch when charging. The difference is night and day if you are coming from a surface pro 8/9.

[@mikearisbrocken8507]

Me hearing you can install Clip Studio Paint: "Good." Me hearing you can't install Adobe tools: "GOOD!"

[@Redgyart]

Your review is the one I've been waiting for!! Ty

[@Phil-tb7wr]

I love your reviews! It’s amazing how little reviewers there are for art focused consumers you really do a great job :) one question if I may, Do you think you could run Blender on this for 2D animation pretty reliably? Looking for something to run Blender without fear of breaking the screen (galaxy book4) with an at least okay drawing experience. Thank you!

[@thebradcolbow]

Yes and no. It really depends on what you want to do in blender. Building models or environments or animating in 3D: Yes. Rendering is really slow, so if you want to see how your animation runs with the cycles engine on it's going to be really rough. Also exporting your animation here is going to take forever.

[@Phil-tb7wr]

@@thebradcolbow Thank you for the quick reply! I’ll take that into consideration, it’s been rough trying to find a 2 in 1 laptop, I would just get an iPad and run Fresco but I’ve heard it’s not really made for longer form animations. 🫠

[@theforgedone]

did you try video editing with davinci resolve?

[@Waij13]

Cool, i was waiting for your vid on this device. Thank you!

[@Robin-wr3qv]

How is the oled screen ? Not too grainy?

[@anderbeau]

WHY won't Apple just put MacOS on the M4 iPad Pro I just bough 'cause now I wanna buy this Surface... minus that hideous flat pen. Gag. Computer in tablet, love. But... what's gonna happen to Intel and AMD with everybody and their Mom switching to ARM 😂

[@PixogenPixels]

It'd prolly kill their macbook sells lol. I mean would anyone really need one with a M4 on a ipad? haha

[@DivyanshBalchandani]

Can't find the link, but someone ran pirated Adobe apps (coz what else can you do?) on this chip and they said they run fine. So that's good.

[@codebraker12]

What happen to the SQ1 processor on the previous surface X? did it got the new translation layer of this windows 11 update?

[@FenixTech10]

It might, but it’s still going to be slow. Half the magic is the pure performance of the X chips which the SQ1 and similar chips and generations just severely lack.

[@MsAlanos]

Yes, I use the one with sg2 and it has the same new prism translation layer

[@codebraker12]

@@MsAlanos thank you, what about the performance has it increased?

[@MsAlanos]

@codebraker12 slight Increase, nothing ground breaking, but I use only two lightweight apps in emulation. Everything else is already arm compatible so I don't know how it would behave in heavier workloads

[@rockyiu7541]

It did. You can watch the gadget guy's video on it.

[@Kratos30000]

It's great to see you test as a tablet! Im looking foreard to picking up one. I wonder ifnthe 32 GB is worth the money... What do you think? Does the OLED display have any graininess? That's what people are criticizing.

[@pantokrator1988]

There is 32gb ram option?

[@Kratos30000]

Finally got a MacBook M1 pro 😅

[@GaganV173]

Hey Brad, would you be trying out the ProArt PZ13. Seems like a very decent and very cost effective rival to the surface pro. Also if you could do a video on windows convertibles such as the spectre x360 14. It has constantly been regarded as one of the best all around laptops. Would love to see your artsy take on it!

[@alinafembendera]

If Apple does not change ipad os by next year (2025) - we are all migrating to Surface Pro with Windows !!

[@swissheartydogs]

2024, now…

[@dantower8268]

When using photoshop do you use wintab or windows ink? Do you see any performance difference between the two settings?

[@tobylee1170]

Thanks for covering the graphics tablet driver piece. Apple had the same problem too, but I don't know how long it took to be fixed. Hopefully Wacom and the other tablet manufacturers add Arm support for their Windows drivers soon.

[@Longlius]

Major difference is that Apple had developer transition kits out like six months before the first Apple Silicon Macs were released so vendors had time to port their software. Qualcomm and Microsoft really dropped the ball on dev kits and we're only just now getting dev kits about a month after the first Snapdragon X Windows machines are already out.

[@xionpentagast]

Adobe happens when u give one company too much of ur money

[@D4nSS]

Do you think the Surface Pro is a better option than the iPad Pro for illustration?

[@thebradcolbow]

I prefer the iPad. It really depends on all the things you need to do. The ipad is a great companion device where this can be your everyday computer but it's not as fun to draw on.

[@Isengardtom]

@@thebradcolbow+ too heavy for tablet use

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

​@Isengardtom an iPad is not that heavy but yeah, without kickstand, a chore to always have to carry, I agree.

[@mannyw_]

they’re probably talking about the Surface Pro

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

@@mannyw_ what do you mean ? Surface has a kickstand. You do not "carry" it when using it. The only time you CARRY the tablet, therefore with the keyboard, actually, the iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard is 25%...HEAVIER. So I do not see how you could refer to the Surface Pro in this context.

[@CampamentoUL]

Im drawing on a galaxy book 3 360 and tried procreate on the new ipad and i knew It was going to be my next drawing machine, util I heard about the new surface which I've always loved the desing but see it lacking in other ways specially price, but since drawing is a bit worse here than the ipad im still going for the later thanks to your review ;)

[@waterdrew]

How does the OLED hold up? I'm looking to get that version, but the folks over on the surfave subreddit are saying the OLED is falling short when it comes to text. Also the touch digital layer on the screen is noticeable when you get up close since the LED and the touch stuff are not lined up. Thoughts?

[@damian99669]

The cost of the keyboard and pen made this device a hard no. I was excited for Windows on arm to finally get some real options, the driver issues and app compatibility were not deal breakers as those would get better with time. The lack luster GPU performance of the top end snapdragon processor was also a bit of a disappointment.

[@NopWorks]

This is the new Flex keyboard, which is incredibly expensive. But it's just a new option. The "old" non-bluetooth keyboard is still fully available & compatible, and it costs way less than this.

[@dgillies5420]

Drivers are predicted to hit AMD 780m 3D performance eventually which crushes Intel Xe by a wide margin...

[@Phrish]

Very inexpensive third-party keyboards and pens are available. Some of the third-party keyboards even support Bluetooth. Some have pen storage as well, unfortunately not charging, just storage.

[@xcron0sx]

Very inexpensive comparing to ipad magic keyboard 💀

[@justincphilip]

Apple and Samsung charges even more for their keyboard + pen 😂 plus they also offer other keyboard options without the pen and wireless that's lower priced.

[@thesyukr]

For Adobe apps, don't you try to download the offline version of it? (not via CC apps) I once requested directly through customer service

[@lebombe8342]

Already buying one unit ❤

[@DragunnitumGaming]

400$ for a Cover & a KEYBOARD?!!

[@Phrish]

Luckily, all Affinity apps are native ARM, as is Capcut and DiVinci Resolve. I will NEVER buy Adobe again.

[@SintaxBSD]

What is a good alternative to Adobe Fresco?

[@Phrish]

Drawing is not my area of expertise, but I've managed pretty well in affinity designer with some add-ins and brush downloads. Also as an open source program, I would think it's only a matter of time before krita has an arm 64 version available.

[@shirokuro73]

Great review as always! More importantly - WHERE did you get that awesome sci-fi spaceships T-shirt? I must have it!

[@orlfane1622]

So, in other words for all the people that just want to draw on their tablet this isn't the way to go. I hate Apple but unfortunately that is the way to go if you are buying a tablet for drawing. My 7-year-old ipad pro from 2017 is better from drawing than this thing. Incredible that MS has not been able to create a tablet on par with the apple drawing experience.

[@scruffy3121]

I was actually considering this but with the keyboard at 450$ Microsoft can discontinue the product for all I care.

[@HenryAlvarez]

Do you know if it can run AutoCAD? Really need a tablet for sketching and architectural work, and a mobile CAD editor/viewer if I'm away from my PC. Thanks! Great review!

[@crazyhippo3306]

FINALLY!!!BEEN WAITING LIKE ALMOST A WEEK NOW

[@baabaa574]

Hi Brad, is the x plus sufficient for graphic design, photo and video editing rather than the x elite?

[@ssaaffuu]

i have switched to fresco and never looked back

[@doodleEeto]

our guy Microsoft took a decade to finally push Surface brand into "finally usable" arc

[@gormauslander]

I've been using a surface for years. It's usable.

[@NotAGreatGamer1981]

It's been fine for MOST users for years. Had almost every iteration of it for work and school, and they were great.

[@israelramirez0202]

I've been using my Surface Book 2 since 2018 and it's more usable than any mac or other windows oem machine I can think of

[@gormauslander]

@@israelramirez0202 Literally any modern gaming laptop with decent specs is more usable than any surface. I have both, and I only give the surface 8 work it can handle like drawing. Everything that demands anything is done on the desktop tower

[@ciromontella6506]

you have to try the new huawei matepad 11.5, they say it's a great tablet for drawing

[@ZioBlu]

Damn, what a bummer about the pen. Great review as usual though, I was really waiting for it!

[@BehroozBanisalam]

Macs have double battery life? Are you sure? Haha

[@orangeofmars2835]

Nice video. I have the Surface Pro 8 and am comparing to my iPad Pro 2018 to find out which I want to upgrade. Right now the Surface Pro is leading. I use the Adeway Matte Screen Protector. Like it a lot though wish there was an Astropad Rock Paper Pencil available that I use on my iPad Pro (the the metal tip and the ability to remove the screen since the Adeway sticks on). I would sure expect this fall we will get the Lunar Lake version of Surface Pro 11 and I expect it will be a little faster CPU and GPU. Maybe I will go with Surface Laptop Studio though not sure what Matte Screen Protectors are available. I hate drawing on glass.

[@johnidiaquez1303]

I had the 9 and could not stand the battery life. Very happy trading it in and getting the 1400 version. Screen is a huge upgrade

[@aussiegruber86]

Apple still doesn’t have a touchscreen laptop

[@bluesteve124]

We wanna see PUPPET BRAD!!! 😆

[@keyboard_g]

@11:55 for drawing review.

[@EricDeePee]

A fun test would be to check out what your experience would be today with Windows 11 24H2 on your Surface Pro X. It will certainly not out perform the Snapdragon X processors, but the experience might be better than when you made your original review.

[@thebradcolbow]

I had never thought of that. Would that version of Windows have the same translation layer that we see here?

[@EricDeePee]

@@thebradcolbow It does. I do have a Surface Pro X myself. By default 24H2 is not an available update yet, but it is when you switch to the "Preview Channel". I managed to update my Surface Pro X to version 24h2 this way.

[@franciscodetonne4797]

I keep imagine this chip on a Samsung tablet or laptop. Anyone else have the same imagination?

[@thebradcolbow]

Samsun is rolling out a Galaxy book with this processor!

[@ennuiwolf]

@@thebradcolbow Would love to hear you review that too! It doesn't have a pen, but it would be useful to get main device reviews from you in addition to tablets and displays that can be used with them!

[@elalemanpaisa]

Uff brad your battery life claims are just wrong. First of all new gen intel/amd do almost the same when if comes to battery life and even better if you throw on heavy task the only were they shine is video streaming because they are socs which is coming to intel this year as well

[@thebradcolbow]

When I test the new stuff and it holds up I'll be happy to report that. But for years I've tested laptops that claim to get 10, 12.. 18 hours of battery and they get 3 or 4 doing actual work. This is the first Windows device I've used that actually delivers and I was impressed.

[@elalemanpaisa]

@@thebradcolbow there most certainly are laptops which hold up for 12+ hours no problem (however they claim 18 or even more) it depends on the TDP the display obviously and the battery. Under load ARM needs more energy than x86_64

[@liam560]

Are there any pen alternatives that can be used with the Surface Pro?

[@johnlg91]

I thin N-trig or something is the tech they use? All of those shouuuuuld work.

[@coveps1325]

The arm battle begins

[@ireoi]

If only this chip were released in 2019 had the Surface Neo been saved ;--;

[@kizanko]

I want a Muppet review ASAP!!

[@officialnotonlyjames]

Brad, PLEASE! I BEG YOU, test ROBLOX, specifically a game called "Greenville" on MAXIMUM graphics. I have been a fan of you for as long as you've been here and I beg you to test it out, NO ONE has ever tested it out and I'm planning to purchase this exact laptop, please test it out! Notify me when you and if you do.

[@BoomixDe]

Almost nobody knows that Microsoft launched an ARM Windows Tablet over 10 Years ago. The Microsoft Surface RT, running Windows RT. I't was the worst piece of tech that ever got made. Windows 8 had this bad design with Tiles because they tired to made Windows compatible for Tablets and for ARM they released Windows RT. There where no third party app support, it had it own Windows App store with no apps at all (who is developing for a single device ?). Because it's a Microsoft Tablet locked into the Microsoft Store there wasn't even alternative Apps to preinstalled apps. You where forced to use MS Edge browser, half of the websites back then didn't render properly

[@sultanabran1]

nothing quite like a pen on paper is there?

[@Lemon--Boy]

Let's get a milion for the Bradman Damn it's been ages, I rememer watching surface pro 4 review of yours as my first video here. I feel ancient.

[@KingCudii17]

Wait I can't use Adobe Animate on this?!? I was seconds from buying it 😅

[@christianr.5868]

They took it off the store. Hopefully they’re planning on making an arm port like their other software

[@ramonruegg8653]

I have the new surface and I love it!

[@P4TCH5S]

I just bought their 32 gig version because blender 4.3 alpha has windows ARM64 support and brushes asset library! LFG!!!!!!!!!

[@schwiegerschlitzauge]

thank you for the review. Do you use painter at all? and if so have you tried it on the surface pro 11? I'm tempted to make the jump but was concerned about emulation.

[@kirby0933]

Hello @thebradcolbow would you like to make the review of one of the newest bosto pen displays? One is 16 and the second is about 18.5 inches, they're both 4K

[@IrocZIV]

Would be neat to have a fancy robotic arm that you could motion capture yourself drawing, and have it repeat the movement for every tested tablet.

[@roaazahmed]

Will you review the Huawei matepad 11.5"s and the new Gopaint drawing app pls ? I really need an artist review before buying it ! Also which operating system is better for artists who are taking drawing as a hobby and don't wanna spend a lot of money , android or windows ?

[@0xKazuto]

Man if Microsoft wanted to grab the creative market, they should bundle the Surface Pro with 1 year Clip Studio Paint Pro/EX

[@Sothros]

Did you use the 16gb ram or the 32gb ram version? I prefer affinity photo over photoshop ( because similar UI and no abo ) and i wanna edit some videos as well

[@dtallornothing]

I'd be curious to see how it performs with programming, it'll probably handle cross platform stuff but how will it handle windows specific C# libs and such

[@samie-claudebergeron2040]

Hi! Does medibang working on this surface pro ? I think he used this app in the review but just to be sure thanks:)

[@stengon2603]

Not too excited any more tbh, I was looking towards for this in order to have a light portable drawing tablet, that at home could be hooked up to a bigger drawing tablet and art studio. But it seems is kinda bad both at drawing in the go, and cant connect to drawing tablets either.

[@victorbalta1402]

I just got the surface and I wanted to let my daughters use it for drawing. What drawing apps and tutorials would you recommend ?

[@69memnon69]

I've had two surface laptops and one surface pro, finish always chips. I would always get the silver

[@Metapharsical]

I'd suggest testing for pen jitter by tracing along a straight edge for consistency . i.e. plastic ruler or the edge of a box.

[@-The-Golden-God-]

I've been waiting for this review since launch. As an Adobe pirate, I rely on using Windows, so this tablet seems like a fantastic choice - aside from the average pen. I wonder whether firmware updates could offer pen improvements? As there's no Android version of Fresco, this is pretty much the only option for me and I'm glad that you found it to be a positive experience. My only remaining question would be, is the more expensive X Elite worth it? I'm not fussed about OLED, but I wonder whether there's a tangible drawing performance difference between the Plus and Elite models?

[@ganeshphad291]

We want a review of both devices of asus proart series p16 and the other model that comes with stylus and foldable tablet mode

[@CruiseTom-rz8qu]

The biggest losers if Windows on ARM succeeds are going to be Intel and Android for tablet.

[@hvftv]

i love your take and review i wished you would have kept chiming in more about why the new surface line does not have premier pro on it. and why is the surface pro like the show stopper

[@habbibiz]

I wanted to buy this, however price for the device (oled only comes with the x version) as well as price for keyboard is just absurd.

[@zeez_art]

Great video! recently my beloved ipad pro got stolen and I used procreate a lot. also I don't have a good windows device (only my old laggy surface pro 4 lol). I can't decide between buying a surface laptop and a new ipad (maybe air this time) or just a new surface pro. I feel like after drawing on ipad I can't stand the surface pen. would appreciate any advice though

[@bridge1444]

Ok, so the price of the Surface is officially $1450, not $999

[@jerookaskeroo28]

Hi Brad what's your Daily Driver? I'm thinking of the getting the Huion 19.

[@Dunamos]

He prefers to use an iPad for drawing, you can check his website for a comparison of the different pen displays he's used.

[@thebradcolbow]

I'm an iPad guy, but the Huion 19 is really nice.

[@lockpickingmen]

In the experimental versions of Blender there is already an ARM64 version for testing.

[@Toto77777]

does anybody know if the surface laptop studio 2 is affected by the recent faulty inte chip fiasco?

[@bharat5194]

Say what you say but MS makes top tier hardware. What a beautiful device 😍

[@SellyS.]

I so very much appreciate your THOROUGH reviews of windows/android products! Thanks for all you do!

[@thebradcolbow]

Thanks.. Don't tell anyone but it's a lot of fun too 😄

[@AngadAnand1]

Adobe can suck it tbh.

[@SeniorScratchEngineer]

Shouldn't you be able to download Adobe if you run a virtual machine?

[@juandavidmunoz2781]

Im still wating for thr go version of this

[@NopWorks]

Can't wait for it. A tiny Surface Go & Surface Laptop Go with Arm processor that can last very long sounds like a very portable dream. A full PC that can take anywhere & holds a charge.

[@RegiiPad]

Pens alternatives? How compares with iPad M4?

[@ffmde8268]

Too small, a 15 or 16" inch would be perfect

[@tutacat]

With Arm, the power draw is so low, you can happily get the "plugged in" performance, while unplugged, for more hours of battery life. Did you test compatability??? You only need "Basic" HID (human input device) drivers to use a tablet.

[@christianr.5868]

Basic usb devices work fine

[@SherKhanShani]

This is the first time I watch blender on snapdragon x 😲

[@notebookextra]

finally, an arm based tablet's replacing laptop.

[@dagnabit1301]

Hi Brad love ya vids bro!! If possible I would love to see your comparison and thoughts between Wacoms Movink and the Ipad pro

[@bradarnold7834]

Oh FFS. I cannot believe they still haven’t made the pen better. I am a storyboard artist and I have wanted to like the Surface since it was first introduced but the thing that has repeatedly kept me away (I’ve bought and returned 3 over the years) is the mediocre-at-best drawing experience. I just don’t understand why the Surface is the focus of Microsoft’s hardware efforts if they care so little about the drawing / writing experience - its primary differentiator. I am sick of needing multiple devices for drawing and computing and would buy one in a heartbeat if they only offered a drawing experience that lived up to an Apple Pencil or Cintiq. Also, from one illustrator Brad to another - I love your channel. No other reviewer gives me the info I need as well as you do. Thanks.

[@ZioBlu]

You are so right! The thing that really pisses me off about the pen, is that the Surface Pro 1 had a fantastic Wacom pen (although very very slim and not very ergonomic). But every other Surface version after that never reached the same accuracy

[@massashimuka]

Will be waiting for that "puppet deal" 😎😎😎👍👍👍

[@Myfrienddavidis]

Doesn’t adobe work on the M processor MacBook devices? Those are ARM processors as well aren’t they? I don’t understand why they don’t work for the Snapdragon Elite chips

[@christianr.5868]

They’re not ported and optimized yet