Design-wise, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 may look identical to its predecessor, but it still delivers a number of firsts for the Surface family. One of them is being the first 5G-enabled Surface model in the market although this only applies to the variant that carries the Microsoft SQ3 processor which is essentially a custom variant of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC.
Interestingly enough, Microsoft is releasing the Surface Pro 9 5G in Malaysia but there are some caveats though. For starters, the tablet is not available for general consumers as the company decided to make the device available only through the Surface For Business track.
In other words, you can’t simply purchase it from local retailers. Instead, you have to reach out and sit down with a Surface For Business or Microsoft commercial resellers which is a different ballgame altogether as these outfits cater towards enterprise deployment rather than individual consumers.
That being said, Microsoft Malaysia somehow listed only one such reseller: Maxis, who is the only major telco in the country that has yet to obtain access to the national 5G infrastructure. This is because the company has yet to sort out the access agreement with Digital Nasional Berhad and is expected to only be able to offer 5G to customers after January 2023.
It is quite jarring to see the only commercial reseller for it is a telco that is not yet able to provide 5G access to its customers. But then again, there is also a question of whether the tablet itself can support DNB’s 5G network to which Microsoft Malaysia does not have a straightforward answer.
Here is the statement that the company sent to Lowyat.NET when we popped up the question:
“The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 with 5G connectivity is a global product, which goes through an extensive conformance test to ensure compatibility.
In Malaysia, we welcome local partners who may want to explore ways to conduct further compatibility tests as needed.”
Meanwhile, if you are curious enough to know how much the tablet costs in Malaysia, here is the price list:
Surface Pro 9 5G – 8GB RAM / 128GB SSD: RM7,206
Surface Pro 9 5G – 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD: RM7,721
Surface Pro 9 5G – 16GB RAM / 256GB SSD: RM8,750
Surface Pro 9 5G – 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD: RM10,294
All in all, we think that the Surface Pro 9 5G deserved better treatment from Microsoft for its release in Malaysia. Even though 5G in Malaysia is still in its infancy together with the hefty price tag that comes with the tablet but from the way we see it, Microsoft may have wasted the opportunity to make it the first-ever Windows 11 5G tablet for consumers in Malaysia.
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