Surface Pro 5 to Surface Pro X

[toddpart]

I've had almost every Surface Pro device (1, 3, 4, 5), the Surface RT and Surface 2 (RT). I've been using the Pro 5 as my daily driver since launch and skipped the Pro 6. This weekend I took the plunge and upgraded to the Pro X (16/256). Today was my first full day of work and I left the Pro 5 at home with hopes that all would go well.

I could NOT be HAPPIER!

The screen is gorgeous. I know it's not all that bigger than the Pro 5 but, it feels huge. Bright and beautiful. All of the apps I've used for years are available and work well with the exception of Tweeten, so for now I'm using the native Twitter PWA. My workload today was typical...desktop versions of Outlook, Teams and OneNote open all day, 2-5 PowerPoint windows, 1-3 Excel, and anywhere from 2-10 Edge tabs...all of that up and running at the same time. In the sys tray OneDrive Personal and OneDrive for Business running along with Skype. And, I push all of this though a Surface Docking station to an external monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. And, this thing was almost flawless! Performance was great, at least as good as my Pro 5 and it honestly felt faster.

The ONLY software flaw I encountered was some slowness using a PowerPoint plug-in called OfficeTimeline. As the name would imply, these add-in help build professional timeline visuals for presentations. I found that when suing the add-in sidebar to edit data or format the timeline it was considerably slower than on my SP5 to respond.

The only hardware issue I ran into was with connecting to a third wireless display. I have a large wall mounted display in addition to the desktop monitor connected to the docking station. The wall mounted display has a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter connected and that is what I've always used with the SP5. Tried a few times today to connect the SPX and got nothing. I'll keep trying this and report back here if I learn anything. I'm hoping that the 1909 update I did tonight may address any underlying driver issues. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, thought I'd post this for anyone considering moving from an Intel powered Pro to the Pro X...and has read some of the posts or articles from detractors. I think of myself as a pretty typical user...Outlook, Teams, Office, multiple browser tabs, and Spotify during any given day. Netflix while traveling. If that sounds like your kind of usage scenarios, I highly recommend the Pro X. Beautiful device with little to no performance or compatibility issues.

 

[justjun555]

I've had almost every Surface Pro device (1, 3, 4, 5), the Surface RT and Surface 2 (RT). I've been using the Pro 5 as my daily driver since launch and skipped the Pro 6. This weekend I took the plunge and upgraded to the Pro X (16/256). Today was my first full day of work and I left the Pro 5 at home with hopes that all would go well.

I could NOT be HAPPIER!

The screen is gorgeous. I know it's not all that bigger than the Pro 5 but, it feels huge. Bright and beautiful. All of the apps I've used for years are available and work well with the exception of Tweeten, so for now I'm using the native Twitter PWA. My workload today was typical...desktop versions of Outlook, Teams and OneNote open all day, 2-5 PowerPoint windows, 1-3 Excel, and anywhere from 2-10 Edge tabs...all of that up and running at the same time. In the sys tray OneDrive Personal and OneDrive for Business running along with Skype. And, I push all of this though a Surface Docking station to an external monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. And, this thing was almost flawless! Performance was great, at least as good as my Pro 5 and it honestly felt faster.

The ONLY software flaw I encountered was some slowness using a PowerPoint plug-in called OfficeTimeline. As the name would imply, these add-in help build professional timeline visuals for presentations. I found that when suing the add-in sidebar to edit data or format the timeline it was considerably slower than on my SP5 to respond.

The only hardware issue I ran into was with connecting to a third wireless display. I have a large wall mounted display in addition to the desktop monitor connected to the docking station. The wall mounted display has a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter connected and that is what I've always used with the SP5. Tried a few times today to connect the SPX and got nothing. I'll keep trying this and report back here if I learn anything. I'm hoping that the 1909 update I did tonight may address any underlying driver issues. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, thought I'd post this for anyone considering moving from an Intel powered Pro to the Pro X...and has read some of the posts or articles from detractors. I think of myself as a pretty typical user...Outlook, Teams, Office, multiple browser tabs, and Spotify during any given day. Netflix while traveling. If that sounds like your kind of usage scenarios, I highly recommend the Pro X. Beautiful device with little to no performance or compatibility issues.

How long time it takes too boot compared to surface pro 5 ?
Thoughts on instant on connected standby ?
Battery life?

 

[toddpart]

Just did 3 cold boots side by side and each time the SP5 beat the SPX to the desktop (Using Windows Hello facial recognition to authenticate) by 5-7 seconds.

From Sleep to Desktop the SPX is faster by 1-3 seconds.

Haven't had a chance or reason to really test the battery as I'm connected to docking station most of the day. That said, I've been on battery at home for the last 4 hours or so and battery is at 70%. So, I'd say it's tracking well towards the 12-13 hour claims.

 

[Ryujingt3]

I am glad you are enjoying it! How are you finding app performance?

 

[toddpart]

I am glad you are enjoying it! How are you finding app performance?

Yeah, as I said above, I've had zero app performance issues...rock solid. Office on the desktop, Teams, Zoom video conferencing, multiple browser tabs, etc. It's all a great experience.

Only place I've seen a drop in performance is with a PowerPoint add-in called OfficeTimeline. It still functions fine but there are material delays between action when compared to using it on my SP5.

 

[HeyCori]

Thank you for the impressions!

 

[blazewon22]

OMG I had never heard of OfficeTimeline! That plug-in is going to save me SO MUCH TIME!!! Please share any more awesome plug-ins for PPT.

I have a very similar workflow and setup and was considering the X. I am using my iPad more and more and would really prefer the full featured versions of OneNote and Office.

How is the X for downtime? Any offline capabilities for Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix?

 

[toddpart]

I've recommended that to so many people...I'm going to start asking them for a commission check

Netflix and Hulu both have native ARM apps but only Netflix supports offline downloads. No love from Amazon for any version of Windows 10. On my SP5 I used to run an Android emulator called Bluestacks that I used the Android version of the Amazon Prime app and could download offline videos there. Haven't tried that on the SPX yet...not sure about running Android apps in the Bluestacks emulator which itself would be running in the Win32 emulator. Could get interesting

 

[eKeith]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Are you using a third-party antivirus product? If so, which?

 

[toddpart]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Are you using a third-party antivirus product? If so, which?

No, I've just used built in Windows Security for several years and have remained virus free

 

[Ryujingt3]

No, I've just used built in Windows Security for several years and have remained virus free

I am glad you are enjoying your X. It looks like a really nice piece of kit.