So you know that low-cost Pipo tablet with Windows 10 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor we wrote about the other day? It looks like it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cheap Windows on ARM devices coming from Chinese PC makers.
The folks at Notebook Italia spotted five more inexpensive Windows PCs with Snapdragon 850 processors at the HKTDC electronics fair in Hong Kong this week.
Update: Make that six — Inventech is also showing off a 12.5 inch laptop with a Snapdragon 850 processor.
The models on display included:
- 10.8 inch tablet with 2560 x 1600 pixel display and keyboard cover
- 11.6 inch 2-in-1 tablet w/1080p display
- 12.3 inch 2-in-1 tablet with 3K2K display
- 13.3 inch 1080p convertible notebook
- 13.3 inch 1080p clamshell notebook
All of these are products from Weibu, an equipment manufacturer that sells its products to other companies which put their own names on them. So it’s unclear which, if any, of these computers will be available for purchase soon or what they’ll be called if and when they hit the streets.
But each features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 processor, which means every model supports 4G LTE as well as long battery life and longer standby time.
While that processor isn’t exactly a speed demon when running Win32 applications that require emulation to run on an ARM processor, Weibu representatives tell Notebook Italia that they’re also working on devices that will ship next year with more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processors (which are similar to the Microsoft SQ1 chip that will power the upcoming Surface Pro X tablet).
This is exactly what will popularize ARM Windows initially, cheap devices. As both Windows & ARM improve, within 5 years there will be no more x86 tablets or 2-in-1’s, within 10 years there will be no more x86 laptops, within 20 years there will be no more x86 servers.
The last x86 standing will be highend desktops, but it too will eventually fall.
And then there will only be RISC-V powering devices.
This is ridiculous…I’m guessing you’re in your teens to early 20’s with zero business experience.
This right here. Some big names already putting out arm versions like Photoshop. And every app that I use personally and professionally has an arm version. Web browsers, vs code, node and npm. What more do I need. As a power user there is no longer a need for x86 in my life. Anything that comes up – and slow x86 emulation will be just fine
That’s ridiculous, much like Linux taking over the desktop, people have been claiming ARM will replace x86 but there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon. I remember just a year ago, people were adamant that Microsoft would double down on ARM and make the next gen Xbox ARM powered. Instead, because performance is more important in a console, Microsoft doubled down on x86 with the latest x86 CPU’s from AMD. Even all their Surface Laptops still use x86 including a new one with AMD. Even the dual screen Surface Neo uses an x86 CPU. ARM will likely hold the smartphone market and make some more gains in low power web servers, but it’s not going to go much further than that for the foreseeable future.
Nice to see smaller ARM Windows devices. Still too big for my uses. I hope to see even smaller ones in the future.
It’d be great to see a non-gaming centric handheld PC with built-in LTE.
I’ve eyed the Pyra in the past since it doesn’t matter to me if it’s Linux or Windows as long as it’s a desktop OS but the gaming controls and ancient SoC have made it a no-go for me at this point.
I hope these ARM Windows devices take off and enable smaller form factor PCs.
Hope Brad can get his hands on some of these new devices.
And I’d be especially curious to see if any of them would run Linux. (Fedora, Debian, Arch and a handful of smaller distros do ship ARM versions).
Doubt things will work much with Linux given the current status of the 1st gen ARM Windows notebooks: https://github.com/aarch64-laptops/build#device-status
When it comes to ARM and being able run what you want, it’s worse than Intel/AMD x86 devices. ARM has too much of a fragmented and closed ecosystem.
Anyway, while I’d prefer a Linux distro, I hope to see some smaller ARM Windows 10 devices. That’s why I visit this site after all.
Long battery life and LTE is totally new in cheap Chinese laptops… This might be a big deal
Im curious to see if we get linux running on these. An ARM powered tablet running Arch Linux with an i3 window manager sounds like it would be a cool device.
10.8″ screen. They’re getting smaller. Maybe I can replace my Surface Go LTE in the future with an even smaller Windows on ARM device with LTE.