In 2019 launched the Surface Pro X with the SQ1 processor, meant to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processor specially adapted by Microsoft to run Windows 10 on ARM better.
As our readers know, this did not really close the performance gap with Intel processors, and in 2020 Microsoft launched a Surface Pro X update with the new SQ2 processor, meant to address the concerns.
German site DrWindows reports that their benchmarking however revealed no discernable difference between the “two” processors:
They noted that it is more likely that improvements in Windows 10 on ARM between 2019 and 2020 were responsible for any perceived improvements, and that these would be felt equally on both the old and new Surface Pro X.
It is fair to say Microsoft has not delivered on the promise of having its own processor, and it increasingly appears to have been more a marketing rather than technical move.
