Windows On ARM Always Connected PCs Are Finally Here

December 6, 2017
29
Views

Announced in late 2016, the Windows on ARM platform is finally ready! Ready to power a new generation of devices that Microsoft calls Always Connected PCs.

And as the name gives away, these machines offer insane levels of battery life.

Launched in partnership with Qualcomm, Always Connected PCs are powered by Snapdragon chips and the Windows 10 S operating system — the new variant of the OS that is limited only to Windows Store apps.

Microsoft hypes up this new line of PCs as being instantly on, always connected, and with incredible battery life. And for once, all these superlatives make sense, as some of these devices run a whole week on a single charge.

Of course, this mostly refers to the standby time, but this first wave of Always Connected PCs has no trouble going around 22 hours of active use. Which is impressive nevertheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7R9G1An3s

Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group, showcased these at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit, saying:

“For the last few months, I have been using an Always Connected PC, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform. In the last week, I watched the movie Moana with my daughter, worked in PowerPoint, browsed the web every day, reviewed budgets in Excel, checked email while waiting to pick up my son from soccer, marked up a few PDFs with Ink, played some games on the plane – all of this without plugging in my power cord all week.”

So, which companies are making their moves here?

Well, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS are the three hardware vendors that have launched Always Connected PCs, and all of their new creations house the Snapdragon 835 processor. Worth a mention that though these devices don’t support 64-bit applications, they do offer their own unique set of features.

Including instant on and standby when turning on or off the lid, and seamless connectivity via LTE.

Redmond calls this a big shift in the Windows 10 experience, partly due to the streamlined feature set and the huge battery life that these Always Connected PCs offer. All that remains to be seen is what reception these impressive little devices get from the end users.

Article Categories:
Hardware · Microsoft

Fahad Ali is a professional freelancer, specializing in technology, web design and development and enterprise applications. He is the primary contributor to this website. When he is not typing away on his keyboard, he is relaxing to some soft jazz.

All Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *