Arm-powered Surface Pro 10 with 10 core Snapdragon X Plus SoC leaks — will 16GB RAM be the new baseline?

Zac Bowden
·2 min read
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 rear.
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 rear.

What you need to know

  • Leaked benchmarks have revealed a Snapdragon X Plus variant of the upcoming Surface Pro 10 for consumers.

  • The Snapdragon X Plus features 10-cores, with 6 high-performance and 4 efficiency cores.

  • The Surface Pro 10 with Arm is expected to be announced on May 20, and feature an OLED display option, 16GB RAM, and a powerful NPU.

Microsoft is planning to unveil new Surface hardware in the form of an Arm-powered Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 at an event in Seattle on May 20, and now we have our first details about the upcoming Surface Pro that Microsoft's is expected to unveil. Thanks to a new Geekbench listing, we know at least one upcoming Arm Surface Pro 10 SKU will feature the Snapdragon X Plus, paired with 16GB RAM.

The Snapdragon X Plus is an unannounced SoC from Qualcomm that's expected so slot in under the Snapdragon X Elite as a "mid-tier" offering. It features a 10-core SoC, with 6 high-performance and 4 efficiency cores.

This Geekbench result is from a Geekbench ML test, which measures DirectML performance. It scored an impressive 2410 on a balanced power plan. The result also lists 16GB as the amount of RAM this configuration has. It's notable as we've not yet seen a single Snapdragon X-based device benchmark with less than 16GB RAM, suggesting this may be the new baseline.

Geekbench details
Geekbench details

Earlier this year, a report claimed that AI PCs would ship with a baseline of 16GB RAM, but Intel Core Ultra PCs, which also fall under the AI PC umbrella, can be configured with 8GB RAM. Perhaps the original report meant Arm PCs, as so far it seems the base amount of RAM available on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform is 16GB. Additionally, the recommended specs for the upcoming Windows 11 AI Explorer lists 16GB RAM, too.

While not confirmed by the Geekbench listing, my sources tell me that Microsoft is planning to offer the Arm Surface Pro 10 with a new OLED display option, which will offer higher contrast and inky deep blacks compared to the LCD displays that have been found on all other Surface Pro devices so far.

The upcoming Arm Surface Pro 10 is expected to look similar to the Intel Surface Pro 10 that began shipping earlier this month. That device has rounded display corners and is powered by an Intel Core Ultra chip. Microsoft has also updated the Surface Pro Keyboard with a dedicated Copilot key, which when pressed will open the Copilot sidebar.

via WindowsLatest.