Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch get a Snapdragon X2 Plus upgrade

Published Sep 23, 2026, 4:33 PM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Summary The Snapdragon X2 Plus offers 18% better battery life, 60% faster graphics, and 95% faster on-device AI compared to the Surface Pro 12-inch (1st Edition) The Surface Pro 12 and the Surface Laptop 13 feature a 25% brighter 500 nit screen, a thin and light fanless design, and a new Black color. Ink Canvas adds pen-first AI for sketching, image gen and summaries; new Surface Mouse adds haptic clicks ($80). Just a few months after revealing the Snapdragon X2 Elite-powered Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8 (13.8-inch/15-inch models), Microsoft and Qualcomm have officially revealed the 6-core Snapdragon X2 Plus equipped Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch, an upgrade from 2024's Snapdragon X Plus models According to Microsoft and Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X2 Plus chip features 18% more efficient battery performance compared to the Surface Pro 12-inch, a 60% graphics boost, and 95% faster on-device AI compared to the Surface Pro 12-inch (1st Edition) that features Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus chip, all in a lightweight design that's still the same as last year. Microsoft also boasts that office workloads are 17% faster with the new X2 Plus. The company claims that it's trying to do what it did with "touch, pen and ink" with the Surface line for AI on the PC, allowing Surface users to use AI on-device, in the cloud, or both, all with lower-latency and less dependency on tokens. Credit: Microsoft Microsoft says the Surface Pro 12-inch features a 25% brighter 500-nit PixelSense touchscreen, and that the Snapdragon X2 Plus chip makes editing photos and annotating designs feel more snappy, along with adding an extra hour of web browsing. On the AI front, the two-in-one features Microsoft's Ink Canvas, a "pen-first experience" for sketching, annotating, and generating images with the Slim Pen. Ink Canvas can also summarize text, too. It seems like an interesting AI feature that aims to let users turn their rough thoughts into something more polished more quickly, though it's unclear how well it will actually work. Ink Canvas is pre-installed on the Surface Pro 12, and will also be available to download from the Microsoft Store on other supported Surface and Windows devices on October 13th. Lastly, there's a new Black color. The Surface Pro 12-inch starts at $1,150 and releases on October 13th. The 13-inch Surface Laptop is also getting the Snapdragon X2 Plus The refreshed laptop features a 25% brighter screen Credit: Microsoft The refreshed Snapdragon X2 Plus-powered Surface Laptop 13-inch features similar upgrades, alongside the same thin-light and fanless design. Microsoft says that the aluminum body laptop's 3:2 PixelSense touchscreen is 25% brighter at 500 nits. Microsoft says that the Snapdragon X2 Plus should offer a smoother overall experience, too. Like the Surface Pro 12-inch, the Surface Laptop 13-inch is also available in a new Black color. The Surface Laptop 13-inch starts at $1,200 and releases on October 13th. Microsoft is also revealing a new Surface Mouse with haptic feedback, offering up what it describes as a "small, physical response" to interactions like a click or a window snapping into place. The Surface Mouse is available in Black and Platinum. It starts at $80 and releases on October 13th.