WEBVTT

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if you've been looking for a Windows laptop or tablet there are actually quite a few systems that are now

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featuring qualcomm processors that's right the same company that

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probably made the chip that's sitting inside your Android smartphone but

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why the heck are they putting ARM architecture qualcomm chips in Windows

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computers instead of the x86 architecture cpus from AMD and Intel

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that we're all used to is this kind of like what apple's doing with their ARM

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based m1 chips well yes and no so as consumer-grade ARM

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chips have become more and more capable in recent years i mean just think about

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how much more powerful smartphones are than they were a decade ago it's become

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clear that you don't necessarily need a high-powered x86 chip to handle common

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tasks like watching videos shopping online or working inside of an office

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suite so Windows on ARM was conceived as a way to give laptop and tablet users

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the full Windows experience they're already familiar with but with

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significantly better battery life as ARM chips tend to use less power than x86

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ones Windows on ARM first appeared in 2018 so

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we were well into the era of smartphones as do-it-all devices by the time it

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showed up but it wasn't especially well received users complained that the

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qualcomm based systems were rather sluggish and it certainly didn't help

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that the first systems used the snapdragon 835 an already year-old chip

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that was designed more with phones in mind than laptops so while it was cool

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that snapdragon gave these laptops 4g connectivity basically by default that

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wasn't exactly a feature that made up for generally poor performance meaning

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they didn't get off to the rock and start that apple did

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another contributor is the fact that Windows for ARM doesn't have the

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advantage of a vertically integrated company behind it making the hardware

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and software go hand in glove together

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another issue was that early Windows on our machines couldn't support many

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common Windows programs natively Windows itself and apps offered through the

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microsoft store were specifically written for ARM chips but other programs

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had to be emulated which is to say basically they had to be translated from

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x86 instructions to ARM instructions in real time which taxed the CPU and

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resulted in even worse performance making matters even worse increasingly

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common x64 applications so the 64-bit

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version of x86 wouldn't run at all as Windows for ARM

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didn't originally feature an x64 emulator

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but 2018 was years ago now and Windows on ARM is a lot better these days so

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what did microsoft change we'll tell you right after we thank

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secret lab today so microsoft's plan wasn't to just leave Windows on ARM

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running on weak hardware with poor software support qualcomm started to

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come out with chips like the snapdragon 8cx which was specifically designed for

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laptops and tablets and packed a much bigger punch than the reused phone chips

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microsoft then tweaked the hcx and created their own version of it called

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the sq1 which made its way into their surface pro tablet lineup in 2019

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qualcomm then expanded the chip product line to cover more price and performance

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tiers and while their new lineup still hasn't caught up to Intel or AMD in

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terms of performance the newest chip set to be released at the time we shot this

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video had a multi-core performance score in geekbench comparable to a ryzen 5

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2000 series so it's definitely nothing to

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excuse me sneeze at indeed reviews of more recent devices have noted snappier

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performance combined with multi-day battery life and we should see better

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compatibility with third-party apps going forward Windows 11 is finally

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introducing support for x64 programs though the feature has notably been

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removed from Windows 10 since Windows 11

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came out okay the way Windows on ARM handles emulation

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has also been streamlined with Windows 11 being able to emulate portions of

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programs that haven't been ported over to run natively on ARM so developers can

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actually run combinations of x86 and 64

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and ARM code at the same time if they have a program that isn't fully written

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for ARM yet which is super cool microsoft has also made more developer

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tools available to programmers which should encourage more software studios

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to write for Windows on ARM in fact adobe has recently rolled out native

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Windows on ARM versions of photoshop and lightroom with more of the creative

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suite apps to follow of course Windows for ARM isn't a magic bullet for solving

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the performance versus battery life problem especially if qualcomm is the

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only one building chips and they have been microsoft has had an exclusivity

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deal with qualcomm for Windows unarmed pcs bow that is reportedly ending soon

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meaning we could see more competition coming down the road in fact it appears

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the industry may be moving more toward getting chip fabricators like tsmc to

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directly customize off-the-rack ARM designs instead of buying whatever

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qualcomm is offering that way other chip makers that want to get their hardware

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inside Windows for ARM systems can bring their own innovations maybe resulting in

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higher levels of performance and allowing Windows on ARM to become a true

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rival to apple's m series ecosystem just be prepared to shell out some money

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if you want the best performance you can get on a Windows on ARM device as these

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laptops sell for amounts that rival higher end x86 64 systems

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um but with obviously less performance

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but better battery right i mean who needs a charger

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thanks for watching guys like or dislike depending on how you feel check out our

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