Surface Pro X

[thejadedmonkey]

Ugh. And the Surface line is a great example - stunning, innovative hardware with the exact same janky OS as on some cheap Atom-powered Chinese laptop. There is almost no advantage or real optimisation I can see from W10 on a Surface; the perceived advantage of both hardware and software from a single manufacturer is non-existent. Again, half-assed.

That's because optimization is done at the driver level, not the UI layer. I have a Surface Go 2, and was using it as an ebook reader last night. It gets over 20 hours on a single charge if I can keep the CPU in the lowest power state.

On the flip side, if I were to pick up a cheap Atom-powered Chinese laptop, it would have the same UI that I know, just with a less optimized driver model, resulting in more heat and less battery life. There's no need to have a different UI to differentiate between high and low end hardware.

 

[The_Interloper]

Lesser of two evils is the old but working UI elements than core fundamentals like device reset on MacOS M1 that bricks the OS, broken palm rejection, etc. How often are you in disk management or look at the initial OS setup screen anyway? Probably fewer than you can count on one hand. Plus, software can improve while hardware is set in stone so you're stuck with mediocre 720p webcam, no touch input, no pen input, no WWAN, no lighter weight, no user upgradable storage, etc. on the M1.

Look, I agree. Windows is a miracle in many ways. It works with so many combinations of hardware it's insane. And I do love the versatility of a device with pen, touch and convertibility/detachability. But the examples above are just that. It's all the little paper cuts that add up; like I mentioned, bright white windows when I'm in dark mode, mismatched menus etc. It's just ugly and jarring.

But 10X is a completely fresh start although it looks like it's only going to be for low-end Chromebook competitors. Maybe the Pro X would have benefitted from running it instead of the WoA build. Even the hardware and software names ('X') would have matched, but that demonstrates the disconnect between teams in Microsoft.

 

[The_Interloper]

I have a Surface Go 2, and was using it as an ebook reader last night. It gets over 20 hours on a single charge if I can keep the CPU in the lowest power state.

How do you get the estimated time remaining to show in your screenshot? Mine only shows percentage on my Book 2 (I'm on 10 Pro v2004 if that makes a difference).

 

[thejadedmonkey]

How do you get the estimated time remaining to show in your screenshot? Mine only shows percentage on my Book 2 (I'm on 10 Pro v2004 if that makes a difference).

View attachment 1725121

It usually just shows up when I click on the icon, but sometimes it takes a second or two to appear. Try letting that popup sit open for a minute?

I'm on 20H2 in "S mode".