HP, Lenovo, ASUS to Release First Snapdragon 835 Windows 10 PCs

Megalith

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Cellular PCs are expected to arrive the fourth calendar quarter of 2017 courtesy of HP, Lenovo, and ASUS. These devices, which will include the Snapdragon 835 and be powered by Windows 10 on ARM, should allow for a number of key features that give it a leg up on x86: four to five times longer standby abilities, up to 50 percent better battery life, and up to Gigabit LTE. Some are already calling this the beginning of a revolution, but let’s wait and see how it really performs first.

The merger of cellular mobile devices with the power of Windows 10, inking, Universal Windows Platform (UWP) for apps, Windows Hello, and Cortana for AI could easily rival any smartphone in 2017. The big push, of course, is the ability to run full desktop-class applications including Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office. New devices from HP, Lenovo, and ASUS could range from very thin and light laptops to devices that blur phones and PCs. Considering that the new Qualcomm boards are around 50 percent smaller than current Intel ones, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will have more freedom for category creation and differentiation.
 
Yeah, the performance will determine how successful ARM processors penetrate the laptop/desktop market now Windows can run on them. x86 already has low wattage CPUs so they will have to beat those in performance and battery life.
 
It'll perform like a cell phone.
Which is to say it'll probably be fine if it's low cost and all you do is light games and browsing (like 90% of what non-gamers do).
Intel and amd should be worried about their budget setups.
 
Lets hope the monopoly never expand to ARM and mobile. But I can already see the fanbois salivating with this one.
 
I hope this inspires Qualcomm to make bigger and faster processors for the desktop. Gigabyte LTE on this thing is a game changer. Cellular access on a laptop sounds too good to be true. No more begging for the hotel WiFi to connect or get faster. Streaming from a conference like Computex should be a piece of cake if it has the ability to connect other devices that a professional would use. Plus it still has WiFi for when you have a great connection. Also I bet this thing can run almost 1/2 the games on Steam as many of them are mobile ports. Toss in some Vulkan support for more demanding games and this thing might really takeoff. Of course it won't run the most demanding games; but some of the Unreal 4 stuff may work as it is advertised to work with Adreno which ATI sold to Qualcomm in 2009.

 
Stillborn and DOA until windows UAW store actually has apps.

When Microsoft asked for developer input years ago with WP7, I told them this. "You guys are dead unless you find a way to get all those android and iphone apps working on your phone"

Guess what....

Microsoft developed a toolkit programming environment which allows you to cross platform more easily (UAW) But it still sucks because everyone has cemented themselves into their favorite language like Java for android, and objective c for iPhone
 
This sounds like an episode of the twilight zone : "The merger of cellular mobile devices with the power of Windows 10"
 
heatlesssun said:
Which is the point of Win32 emulation here. That feature will be critical as to how successful this is.
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Yes and no. Win32 emulation will be hugely important for bringing desktop apps to this, but that's all a non starter unless you actually have companies wanting to port their apps. This thing will be absolutely DOA unless both Firefox and Chrome are in the store. I just looked and neither are. You will NOT succeed these days without those browsers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinm...the-desktop-competition-in-2016/#4654887f1c99
 
bman212121 said:
Yes and no. Win32 emulation will be hugely important for bringing desktop apps to this, but that's all a non starter unless you actually have companies wanting to port their apps. This thing will be absolutely DOA unless both Firefox and Chrome are in the store. I just looked and neither are. You will NOT succeed these days without those browsers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinm...the-desktop-competition-in-2016/#4654887f1c99
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If you can install x86 Chrome on these devices then I don't see your point.
 
heatlesssun said:
If you can install x86 Chrome on these devices then I don't see your point.
Click to expand...

Yes, with a big bold on the word "IF". If Microsoft lets you install your own apps outside of the store, then yes you might not be totally screwed. I'm not so confident that will be the case but we won't know until more information is provided. Sideloading an app isn't going to be the same as installing an x86 app either, so that would also mean program and features would have to still exist and be able to handle .msi or .exe installers properly. Even portable apps might fail if they just happen to strip out .net functionality or some library that was required by the software to run.
 
GotNoRice said:
For nearly a decade now it's been trivial to click one button on your phone to turn it into a hotspot, then your laptop has internet even while your phone is back in your pocket.
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This is far more convenient and for years Verizon fought mobile hotspot users. I remember my nephew having to go through hell to get his to work with his Verizon plan some years ago.
 
bman212121 said:
Yes, with a big bold on the word "IF". If Microsoft lets you install your own apps outside of the store, then yes you might not be totally screwed. I'm not so confident that will be the case but we won't know until more information is provided. Sideloading an app isn't going to be the same as installing an x86 app either, so that would also mean program and features would have to still exist and be able to handle .msi or .exe installers properly. Even portable apps might fail if they just happen to strip out .net functionality or some library that was required by the software to run.
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They demoed the x86 emulation at Build. There's no if about it, that's part of the platform. The question is how well that emulation works which has yet to be seen.
 
Bloated x86 Windows running through a performance and battery killing emulation layer on the most expensive flagship-class ARM chip and won't support 64-bit programs = THE YEAR OF THE CELLULAR PC! SMH. Don't tell MS we've had cellular-chipped Windows laptops for 10+ years and they haven't exactly set the world on fire.

There is no obvious user problem that this is attempting to provide a solution to, just Microsoft doubling down on everything that hasn't worked and is going to continue not to work because it doesn't bring anything new or innovative to the table.

Nothing short of a non-windows branded, from-scratch, ARM-native "Surface OS" for mobile devices - one that is also better than Android in every way - is ever going to matter or make any difference for MS. Anything short of that, they're just setting fire to more capital.
 
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Why tell Microsoft? Tell Qualcomm that they are setting themselves up for a major fail. :D
 
bman212121 said:
Yes, with a big bold on the word "IF". If Microsoft lets you install your own apps outside of the store, then yes you might not be totally screwed. I'm not so confident that will be the case but we won't know until more information is provided. Sideloading an app isn't going to be the same as installing an x86 app either, so that would also mean program and features would have to still exist and be able to handle .msi or .exe installers properly. Even portable apps might fail if they just happen to strip out .net functionality or some library that was required by the software to run.
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It is already clear this is not the -S version of Windows 10 and therefore, it is not a Store only installs of Windows 10. There is no if in this, it is clear that you can. The real thing is, I wonder how many devs will make ARM compatible programs so that they are native to the chip?
 
ManofGod said:
It is already clear this is not the -S version of Windows 10 and therefore, it is not a Store only installs of Windows 10. There is no if in this, it is clear that you can. The real thing is, I wonder how many devs will make ARM compatible programs so that they are native to the chip?
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With more than one person saying this, I decided to try to find an actual article that stated this. PCWorld and HowToGeek seem to back up those claims that you can flat out install whatever you want.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3199...ows-10-laptops-still-have-a-lot-to-prove.html

https://www.howtogeek.com/309119/what-is-windows-10-on-arm-and-how-is-it-different-from-windows-rt/

This is a lot more clear than the original article that just stated Windows 10 will be on ARM. This at least makes the devices worth something, because you will be able to actually use it for getting work done unlike the previous RT. It seems like an odd move because of how hard they are pushing the store they'd want to roll out a new platform that retains legacy apps, but maybe they actually have a 5 year plan this time. Get a stable platform, then worry about trying to push everything into the store. I definitely question the usefulness of one of these, but if anything I think the price point might be the seller more so than standby or battery life. As it is right now you can get a full day of work out of an ultrabook, and I don't know of many people who are worried about their devices being connected when they are not in use.
 
Chuklr said:
Why tell Microsoft? Tell Qualcomm that they are setting themselves up for a major fail. :D
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Well they will have tons of unsold 835 chips after this crashes and burns so we can hope for some cheaper Chinese phones with them inside :D
 
I think this will pave the way for a proper Surface phone in the future. Probably with the Snapdragon 845. being able to run emulated x86 apps on a phone will truly be a personal computer in your pocket. Honestly I think this is what Windows 10 mobile should of been from the start (Thinking HP elite x3 for work).
 
Michaelius said:
Well they will have tons of unsold 835 chips after this crashes and burns so we can hope for some cheaper Chinese phones with them inside :D
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:D There's always an upside to a wave! :D Even if the 835 fails because it doesn't have the ooomph Qualcomm will use what they learn for the next step and the same for Microsoft. If it doesn't pan over and the effort is abandoned something will probably come back in future that builds on this idea. Failure is one way progress is achieved. How is Dr. McCoy supposed to get his cool hand held diagnostic tool if folks don't keep trying? :D
 
Michaelius said:
Well they will have tons of unsold 835 chips after this crashes and burns so we can hope for some cheaper Chinese phones with them inside :D
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There aren't going to be "tons of unsold 835's” because Android OEMs will continue to absorb the supply with the backorders piled up.

Microsoft's longtime PC OEMs agreeing to explore an idea and being included in their press release also doesn't mean they're committing to large orders for 835's and a flood of devices. HP of all people should be weary after getting burned on the HP Elite x3 that no one's buying.
 
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bryant12489 said:
I think this will pave the way for a proper Surface phone in the future. Probably with the Snapdragon 845. being able to run emulated x86 apps on a phone will truly be a personal computer in your pocket. Honestly I think this is what Windows 10 mobile should of been from the start (Thinking HP elite x3 for work).
Click to expand...

Thing is, there have been handheld devices with full-fat Windows since 10 years - and they never took off, not because of poor battery or a weak CPU. The showstopper was poor usability.

That was in the XP/Vista/7 era, and unfortunately Microsoft hasn't solved the usability problem by adding a mono-tiled program launcher and calling it a day. Legacy Win32 programs (the only Windows software anyone cares about) still require mouse and keyboard.

Most of us thar came up on Windows have had the "PC in your pocket" fantasy for decades, but then the mobile revolution happened and we got our PC in the pocket - just not how we were expecting because it wasn't Windows as we'd always imagined.

The days of docking stations as form factor multipliers are over.
 
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DPI said:
Bloated x86 Windows running through a performance and battery killing emulation layer on the most expensive flagship-class ARM chip and won't support 64-bit programs = THE YEAR OF THE CELLULAR PC! SMH. Don't tell MS we've had cellular-chipped Windows laptops for 10+ years and they haven't exactly set the world on fire.

There is no obvious user problem that this is attempting to provide a solution to, just Microsoft doubling down on everything that hasn't worked and is going to continue not to work because it doesn't bring anything new or innovative to the table.

Nothing short of a non-windows branded, from-scratch, ARM-native "Surface OS" for mobile devices - one that is also better than Android in every way - is ever going to matter or make any difference for MS. Anything short of that, they're just setting fire to more capital.
Click to expand...
You are describing something that will never happen an optimized MS operating system. I have yet to see a good operating system from Microsoft let alone something that they can trim down to mobile user space.

Chuklr said:
Why tell Microsoft? Tell Qualcomm that they are setting themselves up for a major fail. :D
Click to expand...
Look at Windows RT MS paid for back then when the flow of cash stopped so did Windows RT. Nothing new just another attempt at doing the same thing failing again and pushing money another direction, Microsoft futility at its best.
 
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