14 DAY TRIAL // Dell is one of Microsoft’s biggest partners, but surprisingly, it’s also one of the companies that decided to stay away from the most ambitious project launched by the software giant this year on the Windows 10 hardware front.
Windows 10 on ARM brings Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets on laptops, offering stunning battery life with little to no compromise in terms of performance. Microsoft is also offering emulation of Win32 software, so the company guarantees that Windows 10 on ARM devices are just as powerful as laptops running full Windows with Intel chipsets.
But as far as Dell is concerned, betting on Windows 10 ARM devices at this point is a risky thing to do, and the failed Windows Phone and Windows RT experiments are cited as living proof every OEM needs to think twice before doing this.
Carefully looking into early performance
In a statement for German site WindowsArea, Dell’s officials said what the company wants to do right now is wait and see how the first Windows 10 on ARM devices sell and only then decide whether it should invest in this new version of Windows or not.
Dell also questioned the promised performance of Always Connected PCs when Win32 emulation is needed, pointing out that its portfolio already offers devices that mix good performance figures and battery life.
Without a doubt, Windows RT and Windows Phone are indeed two of the failed projects that Microsoft seemed very committed to, but which the company eventually abandoned completely, leaving both customers and partners no other option than to switch to alternative platforms.
The first devices running Windows 10 on ARM will see daylight in the spring, while upgraded models powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor should go live later this year. Their performance, however, is yet to be determined since no model is on sale, so the early impact these devices will make will certainly be critical for the way other partners embrace the platform.