Microsoft held the first of two planned Surface PC events last week that introduced the Inte Core Ultra-powered Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6, but its next set of hardware releases could be ARM-only.
According to Tom Warren from The Verge, in a piece where he covers the new reorg happening at the company, he also mentions that Microsoft may be planning to release the highly anticipated Snapdragon Elite X-powered range of Surface PCs as the only consumer variant available.
This could be a huge turning point for Windows and Microsoft’s relationship with Intel. While Microsoft has experimented with custom Qualcomm-powered chips for its Surface devices in the past, there has always been an Intel option for consumers to fall back on. Microsoft appears to have much more confidence in Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Elite X processors, because I understand it’s about to only offer these chips to consumers on an OLED version of the Surface Pro 10.
Tom Warren – The Verge
To Warren’s point, Microsoft has dabbled with AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel for its consumer-facing PC offerings in the past while sticking diligently to Intel-only for its commercial sales.
Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has cycled AMD out of its PC offerings and streamlined mostly behind Intel while offering a Qualcomm SoC variant only in its Surface Pro devices.
True to form, Microsoft released the commercial updates to the Surface line last week with Intel Core Ultra U-Series chips with i5 and i7 variants.
However, the more exciting news for consumers is the confidence Microsoft has in its collaboration with Qualcomm to bet relatively big on these new ARM-powered PCs for a fickler consumer audience.
It is expected that the Surface devices announced in May will come with some significant hardware upgrades, partly due to their support of ARM-chips that have typically allowed for thinner, fan-less designed PCs to exist.
The Surface Pro 10 with ARM is expected to come with new OLED displays, thinner bezels, and an additional port while the Laptop 6 is supposed to have a thinner design, more ports, thinner bezels, and a more rounded display profile.
While Apple was able to make a more clear-cut jump from its dependency on Intel to its own ARM designed M-Series chip, Microsoft won’t have the same luxury.
Microsoft’s audience for x86 dependency is too large to cut off at the knees during a transitional period. Instead, Microsoft delineating between Intel as its commercial channel and ARM for consumers may be the best route for the company going forward and seems like a win-win for everyone.