Microsoft launches ARM-powered Windows 10 laptops

[Polesh007]

WINDOWS RT RETURNS (REINCARNATED)

 

Micrsoft and Qualcomm are launching ARM powered Windows 10 laptops form HP, Lenovo and Asus (so the usual suspects). They ahve Snapdragon 835 processors, which pretty much makes them high end tablets, but they run full Windows 10 unlike the old Windows RT.

 

Link to the Verge article https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16737288/microsoft-windows-10-qualcomm-arm-laptops-launch

 

Microsoft had to develop a x86 emulator to run normal programs on it. However devices from HP and Asus run Windows 10 S (with the free upgrade for now). This kinda makes it even more confusing as it is basically Windows RT if you don't upgrade. Also 64 bit apps arent supported either. The idea is meant to be for better battery life but I guess it would work quite well for education. Prices are also in the article but it doesn't make things any less confusing as you might as well buy a proper laptop.

 

The laptops look like normal/high end laptops but can wake and resume almost instantly like a tablet.

 

Having said that some of the new laptops come with LTE which is quite cool and I can see how this would be an interesting and potentially useful device, definitely a lot better than Windows RT, I just don't think it will disrupt the market yet, but could work well if marketed as a chromebook competitor.

Edit: Everyone is freaking out about the clickbaity title and although I stand by it (it is very simlar to Windows RT) I'll compromise with reincarnated. Linus would probably have done the same.

 

After watching CNETs review of both the Asus Nova Go and the HP Envy X2 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHTzjWPu__0 ) I've changed my mind slightly, the ability to instantly resume and the insane battery life, would be really useful and the Snapdragon 835 is probably good enough for a lot of casual users, the Geekbench score on the iPhone 8 (yes I know they aren't the same) has shown that phone processors are almost just as powerful as low-end processors. Cheaper options would make it great for secondary devices and although professionals and serious users would definitely choose a faster processor and graphics card for their main device, they are definitely very interesting devices that have a lot more potential than Windows RT ever did, and could very easily outsell some chromebooks if priced right.

 

[NTDaws]

YES MORE MODDING 

[Matu20]

Oh no, RT was a disaster the first time.

[Drak3]

[Kherm]

You can not call this Windows RT. These Snapdragon PCs run Full Windows 10 with the ability to run full win32 apps like Chrome, Photoshop, and Steam.

 

Even with Windows 10 S, you can still run full win32 apps that are available in the store such as Kodi, Photoshop, and Office.

[Coaxialgamer]

I'm more interested by the performance of the adreno gpu in games . Cpu emulation will hurt performance , but i'm curious how far the gpu gets you.

[NTDaws]

14 minutes ago, Matu20 said:

Oh no, RT was a disaster the first time.

Rt was a mistake because they tried to make programs into apps, which developers didn't want to do. This theoretically should be popular.

[Guest]

Seems like a cool idea, but really why not just use Atom or those smaller celerons and have done with it.

[NowThatsDamp]

Sounds like a whole lot of bloaty shit that will never work good to me.

[Kherm]

1 minute ago, RorzNZ said:

Seems like a cool idea, but really why not just use Atom or those smaller celerons and have done with it.

Have you ever used a netbook? Those things SUCKED, and battery life was garbage. With these Snapdragon PCs, standby time will be weeks, and the screen will be instantly on, just like a phone.

[Princess Luna]

A device running Windows 10 on a Computing Processing Unit that isn't Intel or AMD? What world do we live in!?

[Guest]

Can't wait to see more tests on W10A to see how well the emulation layer works. Would be interesting to see how well these compete with Y/U series processors as that seems to be the price range the released laptops are in.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Kherm said:

Have you ever used a netbook? Those things SUCKED, and battery life was garbage. With these Snapdragon PCs, standby time will be weeks, and the screen will be instantly on, just like a phone.

 

Atoms are a bit more powerful still than any ARM, and I'd take a 12 hour batter life instead of a week to run x86 anytime

 

P.S, Netbooks were great - and I got around 4-6 hours battery life on mine, but if you compare a future product to one that is  6 years old - its going to look good at any rate.

[thorhammerz]

36 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

I'm more interested by the performance of the adreno gpu in games . Cpu emulation will hurt performance , but i'm curious how far the gpu gets you.

Probably somewhere around the ballpark of Intel's integrated graphics (so.... adequate if you just want 30 fps at low-ish resolution/quality, depending on the game).

[Shadestones]

I'm very excited for this. I can't wait for the reviews. If it can get through basic office work and web browsing for a decent price w/ great battery life, it blows any slow laptop with an HDD out of the water.

 

Fingers crossed for availability of Windows 10 Home/Pro models...

[79wjd]

10 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Netbooks were great 

Said no one ever. 

[goodtofufriday]

You can't call that windows RT since it runs full windows. @GoodBytes IMO title really needs to be changed since its extremely misleading/wrong.

 

This thing can/does run a full version of windows minus x64 apps. That is nothing like windows RT at all. so RT is not back what so ever. 

 

That all being said, I'm rather interested in seeing if secureboot require is active on these since they come from 3rd parties now. If not then I expect to see dual booting android soon. 

[Guest]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Said no one ever. 

I just said it. They are great devices.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

I just said it. They are great devices.

Alex, I'll take phrases that were never said for $1000.

[Polesh007]

Just now, goodtofufriday said:

You can't call that windows RT since it runs full windows. @GoodBytes IMO title really needs to be changed since its extremely misleading/wrong.

 

This thing can/does run a full version of windows minus x64 apps. That is nothing like windows RT at all. so RT is not back what so ever. 

 

That all being said, I'm rather interested in seeing if secureboot require is active on these since they come from 3rd parties now. If not then I expect to see dual booting android soon. 

Windows 10 S running on Arm processors is pretty near identical to Windows RT, I can see how there's some clickabit in the title but if you read the article it is clear they are very similar

[Shadestones]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Alex, I'll take phrases that were never said for $1000.

I think netbooks are pretty great, or they at least have the potential to be. It's a shame almost no manufacturers want to give them a shot anymore.

[Guest]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Alex, I'll take phrases that were never said for $1000.

Lol I wish I'm so poor pls help

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

I think netbooks are pretty great, or they at least have the potential to be. It's a shame almost no manufacturers want to give them a shot anymore.

Netbooks are great if you absolutely have to spend no money, but if you want even a half decent experience, then they're pretty awful. The keyboards and trackpads were garbage, the screen looked terrible, and they were a laggy stuttery mess due to a combination of slow HDDs, weak CPUs, and little RAM. Chromebooks are the new netbooks and are far better other than being more limited in what they can run -- not that netbooks could actually run much more, they could just technically run more. 

[LAwLz]

3 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

You can't call that windows RT since it runs full windows. @GoodBytes IMO title really needs to be changed since its extremely misleading/wrong.

 

This thing can/does run a full version of windows minus x64 apps. That is nothing like windows RT at all. so RT is not back what so ever. 

 

That all being said, I'm rather interested in seeing if secureboot require is active on these since they come from 3rd parties now. If not then I expect to see dual booting android soon. 

It's Windows, running on ARM, and since it's Windows 10S you can not run any non-UWP program on it.

I'd say that's very comparable to Windows RT. The difference now is that you can upgrade it to a half-decent OS (non-S version of Windows).

 

It's basically a Windows RT device that can be unlocked to a regular Windows device, with some limitations and most likely really poor performance.

[goodtofufriday]

11 minutes ago, Polesh007 said:

Windows 10 S running on Arm processors is pretty near identical to Windows RT, I can see how there's some clickabit in the title but if you read the article it is clear they are very similar

RT could not be upgraded to any full version of windows and thus is a paper weight. The apps for RT vs win S are also very different, now being built off their x86 counterparts.

 

So no. Maybe the absolute baseline has a similar premise, but thats it and its reaching.

 

and @LAwLz