New Microsoft Surface PCs launching without Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme

Windows Central has elaborated on the state of Microsoft's upcoming Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 releases. For context, Zac Bowden said last month that 'new Surface PCs' were 'coming this spring'. However, it seems that may not be true in all cases.

Additionally, Roland Quandt shared details about new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro generations with Intel and ARM chipsets to replace existing models (curr. $999 - refurbished on Amazon). At the time, Quandt indicated that Microsoft's next ARM-powered 2-in-1s and laptops would be available with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Plus and Snapdragon X2 Elite chipsets.

Now, Windows Central adds that this will be the full extent of the company's plans for its new ARM-powered Surface PCs. In other words, Microsoft is leaving Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme variants on the table, which we recently put to the test against other modern ARM-based and x86-based chipsets.

According to our tests with the Asus Zenbook A16, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-94-100 surpasses the Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100 by over 25% in some CPU benchmarks. The former ships with a faster version of the Adreno X2-90 GPU than the latter, too. In other words, the next Surface Laptopmay be significantly slower than the Zenbook A16 when it goes on sale. Please see our Zenbook A16 review for more details about Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 platform.