Months ago, Microsoft and Qualcomm had come together to announce that they will soon be launching an ARM-powered PC. While we didn’t get to see this PC at the ongoing IFA 2017, Qualcomm did announce at the event that a Snapdragon 835-powered PC will soon be hitting the market. The PC is said to be scheduled for a fourth quarter launch.
Until now, Windows 10 has worked only on x86 chips, but this is changing as Microsoft wants to stop Intel’s dominance. The Windows 10 Device with ARM is going to be thin-and-light. It will have features similar to what we see on smartphones, and considering the Snapdragon 835 was designed for smartphones, it will have a long battery life. Apparently, the device will always be connected to a cellular network. We should also expect the PC to have stylus support.
It was last year in December, when Microsoft and Qualcomm revealed their plans about the ARM chips PC. Back then, Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group, Microsoft said, “Bringing Windows 10 to life with a range of thin, light, power-efficient and always-connected devices, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, is the next step in delivering the innovations our customers love.”
In May, at Computex 2017, Microsoft had also revealed that ASUS, Lenovo, and HP would be launching laptops which would be powered by Snapdragon 835.
While the PC Microsoft is working on with Qualcomm is not expected to be exactly cheap, but manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP, and ASUS are also believed to be working on a Snapdragon 835-powered computer, which are believed to be priced at a more affordable segment.
Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s Executive Vice President has also said, “With compatibility with the Windows 10 ecosystem, the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform is expected to support mobility to Cloud computing and redefine how people will use their compute devices.”