Source
r/Surface•
bitekr

Surface Pro X vs Pro 7 , Which one should have better support for Android apps in Windows 11 ?

[X]

Surface Pro X has Qualcomm processor like in most of Android phones and Pro 7 has Intel processor. So does this mean that Pro X should have native support for Android vs Pro 7 which will just emulate Android environment within Windows 11 ? Years ago Blackberry did similar thing with Android and BB10 phones and that never worked well.

I might be in the market to buy new Surface because my current one is 7 years old. It works very well for my needs (surfing the internet and Microsoft office work ) but I do not know how much longer this grandpa can last.

Posted Jun 30, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

34
SilverseeLives•

They both should have equally good support for Android apps.

Many Android apps are already built to run interchangeably on x86 or Arm based SOCs (although this hybrid packaging model may not be as well-supported on Amazon's app store since the only devices it runs on to date are Fire tablets).

For those Android apps which do not have native x86 support, Microsoft is licensing an Intel emulator that will perform the binary code translation at runtime.

Either way, the Android runtime will sit on top of the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which now has virtual GPU support. I expect performance will be substantially better than any known Windows Android emulators.

3
BcuzRacecar:book:Surface Book•

Too early to tell, android apps arent in the insider builds yet.

Yes the X is arm, but apks for windows is advertised as intel tech, and the sq cpus are slow and unloved by ms.

2
Mysterious-Ad7019•

I'll put my money on Intel sp7/7+ given how many Android emulators are running fine today on Intel platforms.

https://alternativeto.net/software/bluestacks/

And

https://www.android-x86.org/

Hilarious actually how slow Microsoft is to add what the community has had for years and years. But lest one forgets, X out in 2019 and STILL HAS NO official x64-bit app support...

2
swyost_TX•

The simple answer is SPX remains a niche product whereas Android support will be mainstream Windows 11. The fact is anything SPX will still be derivative, not primary. As for it using an ARM processor, that really doesn't bring much to the table since Microsoft is not developing a hybrid OS. SP7 or SPX - both will be running Android apps through Windows, not natively.

-1