I was in correspondence with Microsoft tech support to ask about how the Surface Pro 8 handles color. After seeing the Pro 8 in person, I did not immediately feel great about the screen. Could have been my nerves and the fact it was initially set to the "vivid" color profile. I changed it to sRGB after noticing.
Back to the support discussion. I was told that the Surface Pro 8 does indeed use FRC and would notice it more with darker colors. I asked if switching to the sRGB profile would eliminate the use of FRC and was told no.
This makes sense after seeing notebookcheck's data stating the Pro 8 can display 100% of sRGB and even dips further into the P3 colorspace than an 8-bit panel can natively. Not all 8-bit panels are manufactured to handle 100% sRGB. Maybe after calibration?
I attempted to talk with intel about the Xe graphics used to determine how much of a role it plays in the use of temporal dithering and if it can be disabled. I don't have high confidence that I was speaking with a subject matter expert, but they stated temporal dithering is used and is not configurable at the GPU level, but the documentation to which they pointed me was regarding temporal de-noising for the camera.
This is a bit disappointing for me as I thought the surface pro 8 would be an excellent iPad replacement. It still may be my only choice. I REALLY hope 10 bit (non OLED…PWM) panels help in the future. I eagerly await what is beyond OLED/Mirco LED.