Honestly, when Microsoft told me that it was sending me a Surface Pro X with an SQ2, I was secretly hoping I'd get a Black one with a Poppy Red Surface Keyboard.

I was not excited about this nearly as much as I was about the SQ2 chipset. The Surface Pro X now comes in Platinum, which is a more traditional Surface color. And you read that right don't call it a Type Cover. That's why the pen doesn't magnetically attach to the side, and the ports for the Surface Keyboard are different. Microsoft actually made a lot of different design choices for this product, because the ARM64 processor allowed for a thinner build. That's because the Surface Pro X is made out of aluminum, a heavier material than magnesium. To be clear though, while it's much thinner than an Intel-powered Surface Pro, it's not lighter. I'm not usually a fan of the tablet form factor, but I make an exception for this lovely device. The Surface Pro X is thin, lightweight, compact, and I love it. It's an improved model, and frankly, a sexier one. Microsoft isn't even branding it as such.

If you bought the first one, this isn't about whether or not you should buy the new one. I wanted to be up front with that in this review. The new Surface Pro X is similar it's simply a new configuration of the existing Surface Pro X. You might recall that the Surface Pro 6 was basically a spec bump (to Intel eighth-gen) and a new color variant (Black), but it was still considered a product refresh. Microsoft isn't shy about how minor of a refresh this is. The other big change in the Pro X is that it comes in a new, beautiful Platinum color. Just like the Microsoft SQ1 was based on the Snapdragon 8cx, the SQ2 is based on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, and the 8cx Gen 2 is already a minor update on the 8cx.

The big internal change is that it comes with an SQ2 chipset instead of an SQ1. To be clear, this is a very minor refresh. It was my favorite PC of 2019, and thanks to a minor refresh, it's my favorite PC of 2020 too. Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed the original Surface Pro X saying that it's the perfect portable PC (for me).

Qualcomm sq2