Anyone plan to buy Surface Pro 9?

[vsherry]

It makes little sense, but I'm tempted to sell my Surface Pro 8 and buy the Surface Pro 9. It sounds crazy considering I'd basically be doing all that for some additional battery life.

 

[GreyFox7]

for this scenario, wait for the reviews, battery life is fickle. There can be reasons to upgrade but they should be clearly defined.

 

[jnjroach]

I have the pro 9 5G on preorder, weird part, they offered me $200 for Pro X trade-in and only $180 for my Pro 8. So, I'm trading my Pro X and selling my Pro 8 personally.

 

[tuchas]

Sold my Pro 8 to get the Pro 9. I'm one of those suckers that has to have the latest and greatest, and the Sapphire color was calling out to me. It's prepping for shipment now and should get here by Tuesday.

 

[Plantje]

I'm thinking of replacing my Surface Pro 2017 Advanced LTE with the 5G version. But first I want to see what people's experience is with the non x86

Perhaps I should buy a (second hand) Surface Pro X first.

 

[Turbo4AWD]

My Surface Pro 6 is getting pretty old. I may go with a Surface Pro 8 and give this to my wife since she mostly uses her phone for all her stuff, but I still feel its important to have some kind of PC alongside a smartphone in 2022. So why not a Tablet with a detachable keyboard that can be connected to a docking station and be used as a desktop as well?

Regardless, I wouldn't decline a Surface Pro 9 if able to buy one either.

 

[jnjroach]

I've been using it sense Wednesday, runs as well as my Pro 8 even though it's the ARM SoC. Battery life is much better and the 5G connection was faster than my office WiFi.

I'm running the Beta Ring for Office and Dev Channel for Windows 11.

 

[spainspain]

I will stick with my Surface Pro X SQ2. It works for me.

However, l will keep an eye on the Surface Pro 9 ARM version to see how others feel about it.

 

[Plantje]

I've been using it sense Wednesday, runs as well as my Pro 8 even though it's the ARM SoC. Battery life is much better and the 5G connection was faster than my office WiFi.

I'm running the Beta Ring for Office and Dev Channel for Windows 11.

This is what I understood from the CNET review as well: a new ARM based SP9 is comparable to a SP8. I assume they compared it to a SP8 i5, 8GB, 256GB, which seems to be somewhat mid range.

I will stick with my Surface Pro X SQ2. It works for me.

However, l will keep an eye on the Surface Pro 9 ARM version to see how others feel about it.

Does Microsoft Power BI desktop run on this device? Or on the SP9 for that matter?

The last years, I've seen less and less that I really have a need to run x86 applications. However, I have no idea what issues I would run into running an ARM based machine. Perhaps I should start a separate thread on it. I have used an Asus Vivotab RT, which was running Windows RT. I still think that was a great system, but it had its drawbacks.

 

[jnjroach]

Does Microsoft Power BI desktop run on this device? Or on the SP9 for that matter?

Currently the Power BI Desktop is still x64 Architecture, so it would run in emulation, I installed it on my Pro 9 5G and like most virtualized x64 Apps, it takes a bit to open but once open it runs fine, I was able to connect to our Power BI Data and pull down our data source, build reports, etc.

This is what I understood from the CNET review as well: a new ARM based SP9 is comparable to a SP8. I assume they compared it to a SP8 i5, 8GB, 256GB, which seems to be somewhat mid range.

My Pro 8 is an i7/16/256, but I spend 90% of my time in M365 Apps for Enterprise, Teams and in Edge - so for those functions the performance is not noticeably different - even with some of our 2-4GB PPT decks.

 

[Plantje]

Thanks for replying! And thanks for testing Power BI

I noticed you have a second gen Surface Pro X as well. How does that stack up to the rest? I really like the SP X/8 and onwards design compared to the SP3-SP7 design. But I don't think I already have need for a SP9 (ARM)

I mostly use my SP 2017 for M365 apps and when using it for work, I can only use the web version of M365 apps. They are pretty good nowadays, but I would rather use the thick client. However company policy blocks using the normal apps.
And of course I also have this issue: Backlight bleed and bright spots on all devices? which made me lose faith to some extend.
I was hoping that the SPX was not having this issue as it feels it has less "flex" when pressing the screen.

By the way.... 2-4GB PPT decks? Why?! How?!

 

[jnjroach]

Thanks for replying! And thanks for testing Power BI

I noticed you have a second gen Surface Pro X as well. How does that stack up to the rest? I really like the SP X/8 and onwards design compared to the SP3-SP7 design. But I don't think I already have need for a SP9 (ARM)

I mostly use my SP 2017 for M365 apps and when using it for work, I can only use the web version of M365 apps. They are pretty good nowadays, but I would rather use the thick client. However company policy blocks using the normal apps.
And of course I also have this issue: Backlight bleed and bright spots on all devices? which made me lose faith to some extend.
I was hoping that the SPX was not having this issue as it feels it has less "flex" when pressing the screen.

By the way.... 2-4GB PPT decks? Why?! How?!

I found the Pro X to overheat a bit easier than the Pro 9 doing more intensive tasks, but it did well for single screen productivity work.

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