Embracing Efficiency with an ARM-Based Copilot+ Personal Computer – Why Now?

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• Superior Webcam Quality
• Solid Everyday Performance Coupled With Quiet Fans
• Excellent Battery Life
• Early Access to Copilot+ AI Features
• ARM-Powered Copilot+ Laptops Still Suffer From Compatibility Issues
• They’re Also Overpriced Compared to Intel and AMD Counterparts

Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus laptops are launching an offensive on the Windows laptop market, and I’ve got to say that they do pack some features I’m interested in. Here are four reasons why I want to get one and two reasons why I’ll probably wait before pulling the trigger.

Superior Webcam Quality

If there’s one area in which Snapdragon laptops easily beat regular Windows laptops, it’s the webcam quality , thanks to the Qualcomm Spectra image signal processor (ISP) found in Snapdragon X SoCs.

Qualcomm

My partner uses the webcam on her laptop on a daily basis, and I’d love to see the look on her face when she first sees the difference in webcam quality compared to her current laptop. I reckon that, once she sees the superior webcam, she will definitely try to trade laptops with me.

On the other hand, while I don’t use a webcam regularly, I want to get an ARM-powered Windows laptop to test the camera in detail and see for myself just how much better it is than on regular, x86 Windows laptops. Of course, awesome webcam quality isn’t the only reason I’m eyeing ARM-powered Windows laptops.

Solid Everyday Performance Coupled With Quiet Fans

Another thing I very much like about ARM-powered Windows laptops is that they’re capable of offering plenty of performance while keeping their fans below the noise floor.

Considering my everyday workflow, which includes writing in Google Docs while having a browser window with 50 tabs opened next to the Google Docs window, the laptop’s fans would probably forget how to spin during most of my workdays.

I’d also like to test the Snapdragon X Elite’s gaming prowess, check whether Qualcomm’s claims about gaming performance are true or not—looks like the company was too optimistic with its game compatibility claims—and see just how many games from my Steam and other game launcher libraries would run without issues on the thing.

That would be a very informative—and fun, at least for me—experiment since I own something like 600+ games across almost a dozen PC game launchers .

Excellent Battery Life

While real-life battery life tests show that Qualcomm went a bit overboard with its claims about the impressive battery life Snapdragon X laptops would deliver, the battery life of said laptops is excellent nevertheless; in some cases, even better than what you get with certain Apple Silicon MacBooks .

Now, impressive battery life doesn’t interest me with regard to my gaming handhelds since I use them almost exclusively while sitting a couple of feet from the nearest power outlet. But when it comes to laptops, I don’t like carrying a power brick with me and expect the portable machine to last through the whole workday without needing a charge.

Luckily, my workflow doesn’t include CPU or GPU-intensive tasks, making these fresh-from-the-oven Snapdragon X laptops a perfect match for someone like me: a PC geek who can work from any spot with Wi-Fi access, isn’t fond of macOS, and demands a 10+ hour battery life when visiting coffee places around his town, testing coffee, and trying not to miss deadlines yet again.

Early Access to Copilot+ AI Features

Microsoft

Despite me still rocking Windows 10 on my main PC and generally not being interested in using Copilot+ AI features on a daily basis, I’m still a huge PC nerd. I’d love to play with said features and check out new ones as soon as they land. Except for Windows Recall , I’d likely pass on that one even on my secondary PC.

The fact that Microsoft decided to let Snapdragon X Elite laptops get new Copilot+ features first, means the only way to get early access to newly released AI features is by getting my hands on a Snapdragon X Windows laptop.

At the moment, the quantity and quality of Copilot+ tools are not there yet, but if Microsoft keeps a steady cadence of fresh arrivals, I might actually get myself a budget Copilot+ device just for the chance to play around with each new addition to the Copilot+ experience. I do hope we’ll get budget ARM Windows laptop options soon!

ARM-Powered Copilot+ Laptops Still Suffer From Compatibility Issues

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

While ARM-powered Copilot+ laptops offer some tempting reasons to get one, they also have serious drawbacks, the biggest of which are compatibility issues with apps and games. Luckily, I can do most of the work on my PC in a browser and my two daily drivers, Firefox (personal use) and Chrome (work), both have native ARM versions.

Game compatibility is a different story, though. Despite Qualcomm’s claims that most Windows games should “just work” on laptops powered by the company’s Snapdragon X Elite SoCs, the situation on the field is less rosy .

Now, I don’t mind slow performance because I’d use the laptop to test games, especially performance improvements from using Microsoft’s Auto SR upscaler , not as my main gaming rig. Still, the fact that many games refuse to work outright is a problem that prevents me from just going to the store and getting a Snapdragon X PC.

If I cannot launch most of the games I own to begin with, I probably won’t get one until Qualcomm sorts this out. Until the compatibility woes, especially game-related ones, are fixed, I don’t think my desire to play on an ARM-powered Windows laptop will get the better of me.

They’re Also Overpriced Compared to Intel and AMD Counterparts

I might have succumbed to the temptation of buying an ARM Windows laptop already if the first wave of ARM Windows laptops were more affordable. The fact of the matter is that Qualcomm Snapdragon X machines are overpriced for what they offer.

I might understand the price premium if games and apps worked fine, even with the subpar performance. However, given the teething issues that will likely take more than a few months to be remedied, I don’t understand why these machines are so expensive compared to their x86-powered AMD and Intel counterparts.

Hop over to Best Buy , and you’ll see that the most affordable Snapdragon X devices cost $999 while offering a level of performance in line with, for example, the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED powered by a Core Ultra 7 155H, which will set you back only $800. That’s a too steep “new and shiny” tax, especially when you account for the aforementioned compatibility issues and tepid gaming performance.

While I really want to get one, I think I’ll exercise patience and skip an ARM Windows laptop for now. At least until I see more affordable devices that can run every, or almost every, Windows game released in the last decade or so. Here’s hoping Qualcomm has a more affordable ARM SoC in the pipeline the company will unveil once the initial Copilot+ hype dies down, giving me and other PC hardware geeks a more affordable ticket into the ARM-powered Copilot+ theme park.