Microsoft Surface Pro 13″ (12th Edition) Review: Is ARM Windows Finally Good?

The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro of the 12th Edition is the first Surface Pro with
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X2. We got the version with the X2 Plus, 16 GB of RAM
and a 512 GB SSD, and we worked on it, played games on it, messed around in
Photoshop and installed a few things that really should not run on an ARM device.

Here is one thing I will tell you right off the bat: software compatibility has come a
long way. On one point, though, we were pretty disappointed.

Software and Compatibility: What Runs and What
Doesn’t

Let’s start with software compatibility, because that is the first question that comes
up with every Snapdragon-powered Surface. It runs Windows 11 Home in the ARM
version. ARM is a different processor architecture than the x86 that Intel and AMD
use. So programs either have to be compiled specifically for ARM, or Windows
translates them on the fly.

And that is exactly where a lot has changed. I installed and used Adobe Photoshop
and Premiere Pro without any trouble. I still remember the very first Surface Pro
with an ARM chip, where Photoshop was a disaster. These days it runs really well,
and that is because it does not go through the emulation layer at all anymore. There
has been a proper ARM version for a while now, and even Premiere has an ARM
version at this point. Same goes for After Effects, Audition and Media Encoder, which
finally run natively.

It is not completely without catches, though. Premiere Pro is missing a few features,
for example. RAW video formats are gone entirely and there are a couple of other
limitations. And sure, I did edit a video, so it does work, but it is not quite as smooth
as on a current MacBook Pro with an M chip. It can stutter everx now and then, and
an export takes roughly twice as long as on an M5 Pro. But at least it works now.
Older games and small tools get interesting too. Hotline Miami from 2012 did not
run at all for us at first because the .NET Framework 3.5 was missing. We had to
download that ourselves, and after that the game ran perfectly. That is typical for
Windows on ARM: it usually works, but every once in a while you have to lend a
hand yourself.

Hardware and Performance

Which brings us straight to the ARM chip. The Surface Pro comes in two versions.
Ours has the Snapdragon X2 Plus with 10 cores and the Adreno X2-45 GPU, and it
comes with the LCD display. Above that sits the variant with the X2 Elite, 12 cores
and the stronger Adreno X2-85, and that one you can get with an OLED panel. Our
configuration has 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD, and on the Elite you can go all the
way up to 64 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

The Surface Pro felt really quick to us most of the time. Our editor Sandor started
testing it, then I took over and worked in Photoshop and Premiere Pro. That worked
great for the most part, but like I said, in Premiere Pro I noticed it is not on the level
of a MacBook Pro with an M5 chip yet. I would not buy it for video editing, a
Windows tablet just does not make sense for that right now. For office work, though,
I think it is fantastic.

Let’s look at the benchmarks. The new Surface Pro is a bit more powerful in
Geekbench 6 than its predecessor. Back then we had the top-of-the-line model,
though, and this time it is the entry-level one. And it is a good chunk faster than the
12-inch Surface Pro that Microsoft still sells alongside it. What I find interesting is
the comparison with the MacBook Neo, which is much cheaper and it’s a laptop, not
a tablet. In single-core the MacBook is faster, in multi-core the is. And the GPU is
stronger too, though you can only compare that to a point.

In the 3DMark benchmark we can see how games are going to perform, and by the
way, there are ARM-native versions of it. In Solar Bay the new Surface Pro beats
every other device in our comparison, but in Wild Life Extreme even its predecessor
is a hair faster. Like I said, that was the more expensive chip back then.

Something I think is really great: the SSD sits on the back and you can just swap it
out. That has been the case for a while now and it is fantastic with memory prices as
high as they are. 256 GB is a little tight on the standard version, so we recommend at
least 512 GB.

One more thing: the Surface Pro can get quite warm, and then you hear the fans.
When you export a video, for example. So yes, it has active fans. Most of the time we
found it pretty quiet, though.

Gaming Test

And now the gaming part, where I have to disappoint you despite those solid
benchmark results. Let’s start with the positive stuff, though.

Hotline Miami runs great and hits the 60 Hz cap. It stutters briefly every now and
then, which is probably down to the fact that a game from 2012 does not run
natively on ARM but gets emulated.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim runs way better than expected. At native resolution with
maxed out graphics settings you get a good 24 FPS, and if you drop down to Full HD
and low settings, you get a stable 60 FPS. That is the ceiling, because the game itself
caps at 60 and has no 120 FPS mode.

Counter-Strike 2 is unfortunately pretty disappointing. At native resolution it was
barely playable, and even at Full HD with the lowest graphics settings we topped out
at 50 FPS. On paper that would still be playable, but it constantly stutters and lags.
In a game that competitive, that is simply not acceptable. The Surface Pro 11 had
exactly the same problem, so nothing has changed here.

The Surface Pro is not for gamers. Get yourself an iPad, a gaming laptop or a
handheld instead.

Display and Speakers

Our model has the 13-inch PixelSense LCD with 2,880 x 1,920 pixels, so 267 ppi, in a
3:2 aspect ratio. The refresh rate is dynamic and goes up to 120 Hz and down to 24
Hz, which saves power. Brightness sits at 600 nits.

It looks sharp, the colors are nice, but it does not get super bright. An iPad Pro gets
brighter. For a Windows tablet it is genuinely bright, though, and I worked with it
outside at a café, which worked great. It does like to pretend to be a mirror, as is
very common with LCDs, but it’s still fine.

Last year we tested the OLED version, and that one is better, of course, especially
with black levels, and in HDR it hits 900 nits peak brightness. But we think Microsoft
put a really good LCD in here. You do not necessarily need the OLED version.

Let’s talk about the speakers. We say it in pretty much every Surface Pro review: the
quality is surprisingly good. You get stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, and
watching a movie or YouTube and listening to music on this thing is genuinely fun.
Sure, a Windows tablet is meant for work first. But if you are on a business trip and
want to watch a movie in the evening, the Surface is great for that.

Design, Build and Ports

The build quality is excellent, really premium. The body is aluminum, and the design
is basically the same as the last few generations.

You get three colors: Platinum, Black and Sand. Sand is the new gold variant and I
think it looks really sharp. Our cameraman said the keyboard cover in Sand looks
more like cardboard to him. I did not really see it, but once you have that
comparison in your head, he kind of has a point. The build quality is great there too,
though.

The tablet weighs 895 grams and measures 9.3 millimeters thick. As always you get
the Surface-typical kickstand, which also feels premium and folds out really far.

For ports you get two USB-C ports with USB4 and DisplayPort, with support for up
to three 4K monitors. The Surface Connect port is still there too. What is missing is a
lot, though: no USB-A, no 3.5 mm headphone jack, no microSD slot. Real shame. On
the plus side, you can swap the SSD on the back.

For unlocking there is an IR scanner for face recognition and it works excellently.
The front camera shoots in 1440p and is good as well. I do think the colors look a
little washed out sometimes. But fine, I still prefer that over heavy oversharpening.

Keyboard and Pen

There are three keyboards for the 13-inch Surface Pro. There is the 13-inch
keyboard with pen storage, the same keyboard without the charging bay for the pen,
and the Flex Keyboard, which you can also use detached from the tablet.

The regular Surface keyboard is genuinely great, and compared to the iPad Pro it is
not even overpriced. The keys have less travel than on most laptops, but the typing
feel is surprisingly good. Everyone here on the team thinks the keyboard is really
good. The touchpad is great too. And since the Surface Pro 9 all the keyboards have
been compatible, so you can also buy a used one. Same goes for the pen, by the way.

For the pen you get the Slim Pen 2. The bundle with the keyboard cover makes the
most sense, because that charges the pen as well. Otherwise you get a charging bay.
We are not big fans of the Slim Pen 2’s flat design, it is not as comfortable as other
styluses. Technically it works great though, both in apps like Photoshop and in
OneNote. For OneNote the pen is fantastic and feels like it was made for it.

You can also use the Microsoft Surface Pen instead, by the way. We prefer that one,
but the Slim Pen 2 is fine too. The nice part is that Microsoft’s pens stay compatible
from device to device for so long. If you bought a Surface many years ago, you do not
have to buy a new pen, you can just keep using the old one.

Battery Life

This year we tested the LCD version and it managed a runtime of 7.15 hours. For our
test we always loop an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness so the results
stay comparable across every device.

The Surface charges with at least 60 watts, either over Surface Connect or over USB-
C. We always charged it over USB-C, and that works great.

Microsoft Surface Pro 13-Inch Review: Our Verdict

So should you buy the 13-inch Surface Pro 12th Edition?

We think it is excellent if you are looking for a premium Windows tablet for office
work. The build quality, the display, the keyboard and the pen are all really good.

And these days you can actually get proper work done on Windows on ARM. Even
Photoshop runs very well and Premiere is usable. It is not ideal for that, though, it is
really more for people who want a premium office device.

The big downside is the price, starting at $1,199.99 without accessories, so it is only
interesting if the price does not bother you. It is also a shame that every now and
then an app might not run, or that Premiere is missing a format you need. And it is
nothing for gamers. Those folks are better off with an iPad or a Windows handheld.

And if you’re looking for a high-quality tablet, it’s also worth checking out the iPad Pro M5. With this Apple tablet, you can even replace a laptop and a desktop PC. It doesn’t work perfectly yet, but it works surprisingly well.