Microsoft’s Surface Pro 10 may be fitted with Qualcomm's latest chip - which should make Apple and Intel nervous

(Image credit: Microsoft)

We’ve all been waiting for new Surface hardware to debut, and as we gear up for Microsoft’s upcoming event in May it seems like Surface fans are in for a serious treat. We know that the Surface Pro 10 will come fitted with a Snapdragon X Plus chip, and now we finally have solid Geekbench specs for the upcoming device.

According to Windows Report, the Surface Pro 10 will be fitted with the Snapdragon X Plus, a powerful but lower-cost variant of the Snapdragon X Elite. Think Apple's M1 versus the M1 Pro. So, rather than 12 cores like the Elite, the Snapdragon X Plus has 10 cores, and will come with 16GB of RAM.

Under the Surface

So, why is it exciting news that this new Qualcomm chip is appearing on the Surface Pro 10? As we said earlier, the Snapdragon X Plus may be the laptop chip of Intel and Apple’s nightmares, and the Surface Pro 10 is highly anticipated to debut with better quality, brighter OLED screen, and boosted front-facing webcam (including AI capabilities). If the rumors are true the Surface refresh is expected to bring about huge performance jumps and overall quality-of-life improvements.

It seems quite clear that Microsoft is focused on delivering AI capabilities to users, and to do so would require not just a powerful processor but appropriate software as well - like Copilot, for example. Right now, most people can already use Microsoft Copilot on their Windows devices and take advantage of a lot of its features.

However, as Microsoft continues to put out powerful AI-focused computers like the Surface Pro 10, we could see a whole new list of power-user features that take advantage of the Snapdragon X Plus. Qualcomm could be the perfect ally for Microsoft as it forges ahead in the AI race - and we can't wait to see how the new Surface performs.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).