Microsoft improves the Surface Pro X with new Edge Chromium ARM beta

Microsoft is allowing Surface Pro X owners to get access to early native ARM copies of its Edge Chromium browser today. The software giant is making the ARM version of Edge available in the daily Canary channel, and it will mean that devices like the Surface Pro X will gain access to a more capable and more performant browser.

Microsoft released the Surface Pro X earlier this month with the older Edge browser preinstalled, but owners have so far had to use an x86 copy of Chrome or Edge Chromium in emulation mode. This hits battery life and performance on ARM-powered devices significantly. The Verge has been testing early Canary versions of the ARM64 Edge Chromium release, and it's far better for performance and battery life than using Chrome in emulation.

We've seen big improvements in switching tabs, rendering web content, and scrolling speeds. While the speed improvements are obvious, this is an early copy of Edge Chromium for ARM and tabs do occasionally crash. Still, it's worth trying out if you own a Surface Pro X.

While the ARM64 version enters into the Canary channel today, Microsoft revealed last week at Ignite that a final version of Edge Chromium won't launch on ARM in time for the January 15th release. Microsoft will make Edge Chromium available on Windows and macOS in January, with an ARM64 release to follow. You can download the ARM64 Edge Canary version over at Microsoft's Edge Insider site.