Microsoft's new Surface Pro pairs Snapdragon X2 processors with a 2-in-1 design that set the standard for the form factor. The new Surface Pro launched this summer, and it comes with some serious graphical improvements.

You'll see some people refer to the device as the Surface Pro 12, though it's officially known as the Surface Pro 13-inch. Pricing starts at $1,499.99 and scales up depending on the processor you want and how much RAM and storage you need.

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The new Surface Pro is available in black, platinum, or dune, giving you a chance to add a bit of flair to the convertible PC.

Surface Pro

The latest Surface Pro looks a lot like its predecessor, and that's a good thing. This form factor matured through over a decade of refinements and innovation, so there's not much Microsoft could do to revamp the design.

Our Editor-in-Chief called the Surface Pro 11 a "stunning achievement" and "one of the best Windows PCs of 2024." The same design that earned a five-star review from Rubino is here in the new Surface Pro, but with a noticeable spec bump.

The Snapdragon X2 Plus and Snapdragon X2 Elite that are available in the Surface Pro promise significant graphics improvements (up to a 53% increase depending on the model you choose).

When you hear about a graphics bump in a PC, you may think about games. But in the Surface Pro it's more about productivity. Better graphics means smoother scrubbing through timelines, better video editing, and smoother performance when handling demanding tasks.

The new Surface Pro has more affordable options with LCD screens or premium-priced offerings with OLED panels. Creators should lean toward the OLED display for its pitch blacks, better HDR, and higher contrast. If you're on a budget, the LCD options are the better choice.

As is always the case, I recommend grabbing a keyboard to go with your Surface Pro. The Surface Pro Flex Keyboard provides the best experience, since it can be used wirelessly or when physically connected. It's currently on sale, which reduces sticker shock ever so slightly.

The new Surface Pro only started shipping recently, so reviews are scarce and few customers have had a chance to share their thoughts. Early buzz around the web says the Surface Pro powered by Snapdragon X2 is faster and gets better battery life than its predecessor.

If you already have a Surface Pro 11 that's holding its own and aging well, I'd suggest holding onto it. But if you want a new flagship 2-in-1 that can tackle productivity workloads all day when plugged in or unplugged, the new Surface Pro with a Snapdragon X2 chip is the way to go.

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There's a story doing the rounds about how Steam Deck sales have cratered in recent times, courtesy of the team at Boiling Steam looking at data and crunching numbers.

There's plenty of reaction out there, but honestly, what did anyone expect? I love my Steam Deck and I will defend it to the hilt, but at this point in time, nobody should be buying one anyway. And no, this isn't some thin attempt at selling the virtues of a Windows 11 handheld gaming PC instead.

Just look at where we are. The Steam Deck is nearly four and a half years old, it hasn't had any performance upgrades despite a newer version of its APU and an OLED display, and the AI-induced RAMpocalypse means it's more expensive than it ever was.

Speaking with a sensible head, the same applies to the Steam Deck as it does to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, each of which is also more expensive towards the end of their product cycles than when they begin. Don't buy one, definitely not at full price.

As such, it's no surprise to see Steam Deck sales are slowing. The cheapest model available is now $789/£649, a significant increase on the launch prices. Admittedly, there is now only the upgraded OLED model, and the base storage is 512GB, but it's still substantially more expensive than it once was.

I was lucky to get my 256GB Steam Deck LCD in the first few batches back in 2022 and paid £459. For a device that doesn't perform any better in games, which is ultimately what matters most, the new prices just don't make any sense.

It makes even less sense when you consider that Valve has opened up SteamOS to be installed on other handhelds. The base Xbox Ally is currently $599, with a better APU, a higher refresh rate display, and the same storage/RAM combination, while costing almost $200 less. If you were eying up a 1TB Steam Deck, you'd be better off getting the Xbox Ally X, which is far more powerful and only $50 more expensive.

I appreciate what Valve has done with the Steam Deck; after all, it really kicked off the handheld gaming PC category as we know it today. It's a phenomenal device, and I've had zero regrets. I think SteamOS is still a superior handheld experience, too, with only anticheat holding it back.

But we can't look at the situation right now and lament falling sales, because it should be happening. It's four years into its cycle, it's been usurped handily by others in the performance stakes, and it's just too expensive.

We should appreciate it for what it is and what it's done. But if you want a somewhat affordable handheld gaming PC right now, the Xbox Ally is the smart choice. Then throw SteamOS on it if you want; I know I'd be tempted to.

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NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang seems to be everywhere these days, and there's often an interesting tidbit of history that gets revealed during his appearances.

The latest comes from last week's GiGO Akihabara arcade gaming event, where Huang made an appearance to help celebrate the institution's historic relationship with Sega.

At the event, which was also attended by Sega's current CEO, COO, and former president, Huang expressed his gratitude toward Sega (via Automaton Media) for helping make NVIDIA the tech giant that it is today.

I certainly never knew this, but Huang pins NVIDIA's success today largely on an early investment from the Japanese gaming giant.

One of NVIDIA's earliest mistakes nearly killed the company

NVIDIA began its run in 1993 with Huang at the helm, with a focus on creating GPUs to power 3D games. Unfortunately, at the time, the only 3D games to be found were in arcades.

Daytona USA, one of Sega's smash hits, arrived in North American arcades in 1994, and Huang explains that the NVIDIA team was addicted to the "beautiful 3D graphics and incredible sound."

With a clear goal in mind, Huang's NVIDIA received a stroke of good luck when it was asked by then Sega President Shoichiro Irimajiri to help create the Dreamcast console's GPU.

This isn't what saved NVIDIA. If anything, it nearly killed the company. After about nine months of collaboration, both sides of the partnership realized NVIDIA's tech wasn't going to be a good match for the Dreamcast.

As Huang explains, NVIDIA had been working on "forward texture mapping and curved surfaces," but the Dreamcast needed "inverse texture mapping and polygons.

Huang says he explained the predicament to Irimajiri plainly, and the two companies agreed to part ways. At least on the Dreamcast project.

Here's where history could have gone two ways. Realizing his company was in dire need of funding, Huang asked Irimajiri and Sega for an investment package. It was approved, and Huang says without it, "the company likely wouldn't exist today."

Where would video games be without NVIDIA ... and Sega?

Following Huang's history lesson, he revealed the real reason for his visit to Japan. It appears that the Japanese government and NVIDIA are prepping an announcement for a major partnership involving AI and robotics.

Go figure. NVIDIA is currently the world's most valuable company, and that value is built largely on the back of GPUs designed specifically for AI workloads.

As NVIDIA continues to print money with its AI sector, its gaming division has come under fire recently for its AI-soaked DLSS 5 upscaling technique.

I've been saying for years that AI in games isn't going anywhere, but that doesn't really make it a pill that's any easier to swallow. No matter what you think about NVIDIA, the video game landscape probably wouldn't look anything like it does today without the company that created CUDA and drove the ray tracing revolution with its RTX hardware.

And for that, we can thank an investment from Sega more than 30 years ago.

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Best Buy's Back to School is still ongoing and providing healthy discounts on our favorite laptops we've personally tested and confirmed will help you smash your exams and homework with no effort.

One such device that will be invaluable to your schoolwork is the HP Omnibook X Flip 16-inch laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD that's now on sale for $749.99 at Best Buy (cut down by 38% from its listing price of $1,199.99).

Why buy the HP OmniBook X Flip 16-inch laptop?

We've reviewed the 14-inch configuration of the HP OmniBook X Flip laptop, and aside from having a larger screen, a slightly larger battery life of 23 hours (as opposed to 22 hours), and a larger NPU with 47 TOPS (as opposed to 40 TOPS), the 16-inch version of the HP OmniBook X Flip is conceptually the same machine with the same generation processor selections.

This means that the 16-inch version we're spotlighting features all the great draws that made the 14-inch version earn 4/5 Stars from us.

These features include strong performance rates when tackling productivity tasks thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 7 (Lunar Lake) 256V 2024 CPU and 16GB of RAM, vast amounts of space to store valuable homework within a 1TB SSD, and the aforementioned NPU with 47 TOPS to run through AI programs with great speed and stability.

It also includes a practical 2-in-1 design with a sturdy build to help it withstand bumps and occasional falls off desks (it's happened to the best of us), and stylus compatibility so you can draw digital art on its touchscreen, rather than use a mouse if you prefer.

So, if you're fretting over schoolwork and need a reliable and fast-performing laptop to help you get work done, and if you don't mind if it has a plain design with no RGB lighting, then the 16-inch HP OmniBook X Flip that's now $749.99 at Best Buy will save your day.

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There's not many active Meta Quest users out there these days, but the Facebook firm isn't going quietly into the night it seems.

The so-called "Metaverse" might've amounted to a gigantic dud, but Zuckerberg's VR outlet isn't giving up, and it's leveraging Xbox to help it out.

Microsoft and Meta partnered on the Xbox edition Meta Quest last year, offering a special Xbox-branded style headset that came with Xbox Cloud Gaming in the box, and a special pre-connected controller. Meta and Microsoft are taking the partnership a bit further today, announced via Xbox Wire.

"For years, XBOX and Meta have teamed up to make it easier to play the games you love across more devices.

Today, we’re building on that with a new benefit connected to the Meta Horizon+ subscription, giving you another way to discover and play with Game Pass, alongside the existing access to XBOX and Game Pass on Meta Quest devices."

Meta and Microsoft will now offer Xbox Game Pass Starter subscriptions for users with Horizon+, which costs $59.99 USD per year, or $7.99 USD per month. Horizon+ offers over 150 VR games to play immediately, with new games entering the service on a monthly rotating basis, similarly to Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass' starter edition offers 50 additional games on top of that, playable for up to 10 hours a month via Xbox Cloud Gaming. The package includes games like Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Grounded, DayZ, Snowrunner, and many more. The games on Xbox Game Pass are not native, of course, and require high-speed internet and an Xbox Bluetooth controller to experience via a virtual cloud screen. At least, for now.

Meta and Microsoft say that they're working on bringing native Xbox controller support to the Quest VR touch controllers. This will map the functions of an Xbox controller natively to the Quest handsets, making it far easier to jump into a game without having to reach and pair an additional Xbox controller. Frankly, I'm wondering why this wasn't already a thing, but better late than never, ey?

You can already pair an Xbox controller via Bluetooth with Meta Quest headsets and use Xbox Cloud Gaming via a web app. It works rather well, and the Meta Quest can detect the Xbox controller functionality flawlessly. I reviewed the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition last year, and thought it was an impressive experience. Having a massive VR screen to play Xbox Cloud Gaming on is fantastic, and I completed W40K Space Marine start to finish that way. Of course, whether or not you actually want to wear a foggy computer on your head really depends on the user. My Meta Quest headset has sadly been gathering dust for many months.

As a glasses wearer, the last thing I really want to do is wear additional glasses when TVs and laptops exist, which are just far more comfortable to game on in my view. But some people love it, and all the more power to them. I think VR and AR have some kind of role to play in the future of tech, but makers will have to figure out a way to make them far more comfortable than they already are. And it seems we're probably still far away from that in my view. I could be wrong, though.

Given the fact Xbox Helix is meant to be a Windows PC of sorts, it makes me wonder if Microsoft won't eventually offer VR games directly via the Xbox PC Store, similarly to Steam. It's also true that Meta is the only big player left in the VR space, though, and it makes me wonder how much longer they'll try to tough it out.

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Microsoft Surface will appear prominently in front of football fans, and I don't mean "American football." Manchester United and Qualcomm have expanded their partnership, which will continue to promote Surface hardware.

Surface PCs are now available with Snapdragon X2 processors and are among the flagship devices that showcase the new generation of chips. The partnership between Qualcomm and Manchester United raises awareness of Snapdragon by attaching it to the well-known Surface family of devices.

“Seeing Microsoft Surface join the shirt is a natural next step in the collaboration we’ve built together—bringing Snapdragon-powered innovation to one of the world’s most iconic sports platforms and creating new ways for fans to engage with the club," said Qualcomm EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Don McGuire.

Throughout the 2026/27 season, Microsoft Surface will appear on the back of Manchester United kit. Specifically, the logo will appear on the shirts of the men's first team during the preseason and domestic cup games. Surface will also be featured in all Manchester United women's matches outside of European competition.

While Surface fans may be excited to see the brand appear on Manchester United kit, I imagine they're more interested in the limited-edition Surface PCs that are part of the partnership. Microsoft and Manchester United worked together to create special Surface PCs that feature Manchester United branding.

A fan program will be launched to make sure the devices end up in the hands of supporters rather than scalpers.

Unfortunately, photos of the limited-edition Surface PCs were not shared by Qualcomm or Manchester United. I think it's safe to assume the Surface PCs will feature Manchester United's shade of red alongside white and black accents.

If the special Surface PCs need to be repaired for any reason, I hope Microsoft does not lose them. When a 50th Anniversary Surface Laptop was sent in for repairs, Microsoft lost the device and initially could not return the PC to its owner.

Eventually, Microsoft higher-ups intervened and sorted things out. The 50th Anniversary Surface Laptop was repaired and returned.

That saga happened because there was a gap in Microsoft's handling of Surface devices. The special edition laptop was created for the US market, so it was not flagged in the service workflow outside the US.

Assuming Microsoft has learned from the past, its service department will have flagged the Manchester United Surface PCs in other markets in case a user outside the UK gets one.

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I was away from my desk dealing with disastrous flooding for the past two weeks, and during that time, a lot happened in the world of AMD processors.

The Ryzen 7 7700X3D desktop gaming CPU that the company announced at Computex 2026 finally went live on July 16 with an introductory $329 price. Just a couple of days later, the price dropped to $279.99 with a promo code at exclusive retailer Newegg.

Reviews for the Ryzen 7 7700X3D are positive enough that it makes the new chip a reasonable alternative to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which I'm seeing for as low as $361.99 at Newegg.

That's essentially $100 less for a clocked-down 7800X3D with the same 96MB of 3D V-Cache, the same eight Zen 4 cores, and the same 120W TDP. Not bad at all if you're only looking at the CPU.

Unfortunately, the numbers that matter most aren't on the CPU's page, and it goes to show that no matter how good a deal a new CPU is, memory prices continue to crush PC builds.

What did DDR5 RAM prices look like when the 7800X3D launched?

AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D launched in April 2023 with an MSRP of $449. As a gaming CPU, it was best paired with at least 16GB of RAM, better yet if you could get hold of 32GB or 64GB.

In 2023, DDR5 RAM was experiencing a supply glut, forcing prices down as manufacturers attempted to offload stock. Believe it or not, you could find DDR5-6000 kits with two 16GB sticks for anywhere between $80 and $130. I know; it's hard to believe, and it feels like the ongoing RAM crisis has been underway for a lot longer than that.

Using the top $130 end of that memory range and adding $200 for a motherboard, the cost just a couple years ago for the trio came out to about $780.

Take the $279.99 Ryzen 7 7700X3D CPU, add a conservative $400 for 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, and toss in a $200 motherboard, and you're looking at about $900. With memory prices so volatile these days, that number could easily climb to $1,000 or more, especially once Newegg's promotion expires.

What everyone is getting wrong about the Ryzen 7 7700X3D

The Ryzen 7 7700X3D, as a drop-in upgrade to an existing AM5 system with something like a Ryzen 5 7600, remains a great deal. That's assuming you already have a compatible motherboard with compatible DDR5 RAM.

But the part I think a lot of people are missing is that the Ryzen 7 7700X3D as the foundation of an entirely new build is still a terrible value. The number that should influence your next build has to do with memory, no matter what sort of discount is being offered on a CPU.

I appreciate AMD's expanding X3D selection considering they're the chips that almost every PC gamer wants in their build, but AMD could launch five other alternatives and still arrive at the same result: a situation where CPU sales suffer because supporting components are way too expensive.

This is simply a reminder that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than just sticker prices, no matter how attractive they appear. You might be swayed to grab the newest CPU because it's admittedly a great price, but don't forget to pay attention to the variables that really matter when building PCs in 2026.

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