Which is a good thing because 72 percent of the world uses that.
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Microsoft Says Windows Laptops With Snapdragon X Elite Will Be Faster Than M3 MacBook Air
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Good for Microsoft, I guess? It's still just a bunch of third party hardware makers with Windows slapped on it. We all know how a majority, if not most PC manufacturers, produce mass-market junk akin to Android in the mobile space. I suspect these PCs will be a very small selection of "high end" machines, but we need to look at price and also battery life.
Also, it's Windows. Who cares? I was an avid user of Windows since Windows XP and up until Windows 7 in the late 2000s, then I made the switch to Mac and it is very hard to compare/compete with the total Apple user experience.
I see Windows PCs as office or library machines, just the dime-a-dozen box to get boring stuff done for the day-to-day grind, and I don't think many people get excited about Windows anymore like they used to. Realistically, if this new chip from Qualcomm is fantastic, would it really matter?
I'm aware that over 70% of the world market uses Windows PCs, but Toyota Corolla is the #1 selling automobile on earth and nobody really cares about that either.
Also, it's Windows. Who cares? I was an avid user of Windows since Windows XP and up until Windows 7 in the late 2000s, then I made the switch to Mac and it is very hard to compare/compete with the total Apple user experience.
I see Windows PCs as office or library machines, just the dime-a-dozen box to get boring stuff done for the day-to-day grind, and I don't think many people get excited about Windows anymore like they used to. Realistically, if this new chip from Qualcomm is fantastic, would it really matter?
I'm aware that over 70% of the world market uses Windows PCs, but Toyota Corolla is the #1 selling automobile on earth and nobody really cares about that either.
If they want to compete with Macbook Air, power efficiency has to be the goal.
No point in being marginally faster with half the battery life.
No point in being marginally faster with half the battery life.
The good news here is that windows ARM will continue to be a thing, so we can virtualize it on our Mac's.
Otherwise, meh. Apple hardware still has better raw performance, and of course, excessive RAM and SSD upgrade prices ;-)
Otherwise, meh. Apple hardware still has better raw performance, and of course, excessive RAM and SSD upgrade prices ;-)
Exactly and that's why laptops should be compared running on their batteries, not just plugged in and sometimes the power-brick adds many pounds to the total carry weight.
Microsoft's most significant issue with software is legacy. To cater to the professional and server markets, Microsoft has always provided much longer support time for all its software than Apple. Apple does support its hardware for a decent amount of time, but it drops support for older versions of the software much faster than Microsoft. This allows developers to be lazy and never adopt new APIs, coding languages, etc. When installing the monitor drivers for my Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED (G95SC), a monitor released in 2023, it required me to have .NET Framework 3.X enabled and installed on my Windows 11 23H2 desktop because the installer was coded using .NET Framework 3.X. Something that was introduced in 2006 and was considered End-of-Life in 2011.
A lot of companies and developers won't care at all. It doesn't matter if your new APIs, coding languages, or whatever are much better than what they are replacing in every perceivable way. When you allow something to work still, dragging all this legacy software along just to appease the professional market in an attempt to stay relevant, you are allowing the lazy ones never to adopt whatever new stuff you are desperately trying to push.
Apple was very upfront and aggressive with the transition to Apple Silicone and told developers to get their applications ARM-native or bust as they pull the rug under their feet if they don't. You never see Microsoft do anything like this, as Apple and Microsoft have very different approaches to dealing with and supporting their software.
Are you suggesting that Apple could have made more gains... but they decided not to on purpose?
We'll have to see how Qualcomm handles future generations of their chips.
It could be that X -> X2 -> X3 performance gains will be lackluster as well.
Exactly. The 72 percent who use Windows may also have no interest in turning to MacOS irrespective of how good the M4 or M14 will be.
They are used to a certain OS and may have built an eco-system around it. Just because a laptop gives 5 extra hours of battery life will not be enough for a lot of them to switch their OS.
When is Microsoft NOT confident that Windows-anything will be superior?
This effort will fail just as every attempt to offer a slimmed down version of Windows to compete with Chromebooks failed.
All of these branches off the main desktop Windows tree are little more than Powerpoint-ware.... conference room presentation that sell a vision to executives and Microsoft-supportive tech bloggers.
Why do all of these efforts fail? Because it is a herculean effort to produce such beasts. You can't just recompile the source for a different architecture and call it "done".
I don't say this with any glee. I was one of the few that was a fan of the Surface RT. I bought one on day-1. It offered so much promise, but Microsoft didn't have the conviction of commitment to see things through to the end. (but at least Panos Panay got his time in the spotlight so good for him, I guess)
The same lack of commitment caused the Zune's demise. (I was a fan of that too back in the day... still am... still rocking my brown 30GB)
This effort will fail just as every attempt to offer a slimmed down version of Windows to compete with Chromebooks failed.
All of these branches off the main desktop Windows tree are little more than Powerpoint-ware.... conference room presentation that sell a vision to executives and Microsoft-supportive tech bloggers.
Why do all of these efforts fail? Because it is a herculean effort to produce such beasts. You can't just recompile the source for a different architecture and call it "done".
I don't say this with any glee. I was one of the few that was a fan of the Surface RT. I bought one on day-1. It offered so much promise, but Microsoft didn't have the conviction of commitment to see things through to the end. (but at least Panos Panay got his time in the spotlight so good for him, I guess)
The same lack of commitment caused the Zune's demise. (I was a fan of that too back in the day... still am... still rocking my brown 30GB)
Erm? Good for them?... Multicore performance is better but runs like an oven and more importantly, runs Windows? no thx... :/
Uh, a laptop is a computer, just in a different form. Desktop tower, AIO, laptop, tablet, smartphone—they’re all computers distinguished by their forms to suit different uses albeit with a fair bit of overlap.
Re: Snapdragon—your bacon will be ready to eat under ten minutes.
Of course they don’t want to talk about battery life or performance per watt. It’s a typical PC mentality, like increased power comes with no negatives (like heat, battery life, noise (due to needing added cooling), size (again due to needing added cooling) and of course electricity costs money - unless you’re running on your own solar power.
Sure...of course I understand that. But I was responding to a comment that was trying to blur the lines. But power conservation in a laptop is extremely important. So just focusing on performance and comparing two laptops is disingenuous.
This is great. Windows on ARM will get native apps and run fast. I have Linux, macOS and Windows 11. I make sure my code runs on all three.
It'll be nice to be able to replace the clunky 32GB RAM 15" Intel Dell I have with something fast and lightweight.
It'll be nice to be able to replace the clunky 32GB RAM 15" Intel Dell I have with something fast and lightweight.
Same song and dance I hear from HP, Dell, Lenovo and Microsoft.
Never swapping my MacBook Air M3 for those.
Never swapping my MacBook Air M3 for those.
It is pretty funny (and predictable) to see all these people come to Apple's defense. Meanwhile, they'll easily choose a Qualcomm modem over an Intel modem. Same goes with Qualcomm's 5G modem vs an Apple 5G modem... if Apple can even figure out how to get it to work. 🤣
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Qualcomm revealed X Elite's benchmark scores
https://wccftech.com/qualcomm-snapdragon-x-elite-cpu-pc-benchmarks-oryon-faster-intel-13th-gen-apple-m2-max-gpu-faster-amd-rdna-3/ Maybe Apple Silicon is in a danger?
forums.macrumors.com
I am interested in one of these new PCs, for Linux though, not for Windows.
Lipstick on a pig.
Still Microsoft Windows, which plays the "my way or the highway" game.
Not that others don't but Microsoft is getting very crafty at forcing Edge browser.
They've been doing it since Internet Explorer versus Netscape.
I just read where some apps installed on a Windows 11 machine prevent updates.
What we need is an MBA that doesn't start off at $999.
Could get at least 2 Dell laptops, wipe Windows clean and run Linux.
I just need to improve those skills with Linux.
Still Microsoft Windows, which plays the "my way or the highway" game.
Not that others don't but Microsoft is getting very crafty at forcing Edge browser.
They've been doing it since Internet Explorer versus Netscape.
I just read where some apps installed on a Windows 11 machine prevent updates.
What we need is an MBA that doesn't start off at $999.
Could get at least 2 Dell laptops, wipe Windows clean and run Linux.
I just need to improve those skills with Linux.
I hope this'll push microsoft to develop windows on arm further, as I'd like to see a return of bootcamp
Because it's a forum and it's an Apple related news event. Why be elitist? A conversation/discussion is always best with all sides participating.