Check out Windows 10X on the Surface Pro 6 as a tablet

By Sean Endicott
published

Windows 10X doesn't have a dedicated tablet mode, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work well on tablets.

What you need to know

  • Our latest video shows off Windows 10X on the Surface Pro 6 as a dedicated tablet.
  • Windows 10X doesn't have a dedicated tablet mode.
  • The operating system does support gestures and other features to make it work well on tablets.

We've already gone hands-on with Windows 10X on single-screen devices, but in that video, we looked at the new version of Windows on a laptop. In our latest video, our senior editor Zac Bowden takes a look at Windows 10X running on a tablet. Bowden managed to get Windows 10X running on a Surface Pro 6 to show off the OS.

Windows 10X doesn't have a dedicated tablet mode, but it does have several features that make it work well on tablets. For example, you can swipe up from the bottom bezel of a tablet to bring up the Start Menu rather than tapping the relatively small Start Menu icon. You can also swipe up from the corner to bring up the Quick Actions panel and swipe from the left or right to open Task View.

Windows 10X also has an improved keyboard experience that lends itself well to touchscreens. In fact, the touchscreen keyboard on Windows 10X will arrive on regular Windows 10 later this year.

Windows 10X will not officially ship to any device that's currently available. Instead, it will only be on specific devices in the future. It's expected to launch on commercial-focused PCs sometime this spring.

Just because Windows 10X won't ship to any existing devices, doesn't mean that developers haven't managed to get it running on unsupported hardware. In addition to our video showing Windows 10X on a Surface Pro 6, we've also seen the operating system running on a Lumia 950 XL, Surface Pro 7, and even a MacBook.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

7 Comments
  • I'm excited about the features that will be exported to the full version of Windows 10.
  • THis is very cool. I hope Microsoft would bring same features to Windows 10?
  • Haptic tactil tablets.
    Cool for working on graphics.
  • Maybe I'm blind, but apart from the much more fluid Task View animation I don't see anything that is more fluid and less static here than in Windows 10...
  • It is quite beautiful. I hope it survives.
  • Oh my god that quick settings button makes me so mad. Why do they insist in stacking information on top of each other? The hour on top of the date in Windows 10 already looks ridiculous. Now it's on top of wifi, battery, etc. Microsoft, please... 😫
  • As a tablet interface this is better than what we have on W10, which is almost unusable. But it's not perfect. I see no multiple desktops (maybe there'll be an option?), minimal at-a-glance information (though that can develop in the quick settings/notifications panel, or maybe even widgets/live tiles on the desktop), no last-app gesture (could have used the right edge), and no indication yet how tiling will work in portrait. Not a bad start though.