14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 on ARM is a real thing now and the first device will see daylight in just a few months.
Even though Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon 845 chip, the first Windows 10 on ARM devices, also referred to as Always Connected PCs, will be powered by the Snapdragon 835, a chip that debuted earlier this year on the Samsung Galaxy S8.
On the other hand, the first Windows 10 on ARM systems running on the Snapdragon 845 processor will get to see daylight in the second half of 2018, according to Qualcomm executive vice president Cristiano Amon.
And the reason perfectly makes sense. It takes time for a chipset to make its way on complex devices like PCs, and since Windows 10 on ARM is a new effort, Microsoft and Qualcomm do not afford to get anything wrong.
Samsung Galaxy S9, first to use the Snapdragon 845
The Snapdragon 845 will see daylight early next year on smartphones, and most likely, the Samsung Galaxy S9 will once again be the pioneer. The Galaxy S9 is likely to be unveiled in March ahead of the beginning of sales in April.
But given the differences between the mobile and the PC version of the chipset, it obviously takes more time to get the Snapdragon 845 ready for the market, and the estimated date is the second half of the next year.
The timing seems the perfect occasion to launch new products not only for OEMs, but also for Microsoft itself, as the company typically unveils new devices that are part of the Surface lineup in the spring and in the fall. Whether Microsoft will launch a premium Windows 10 on ARM device powered by the Snapdragon 845 still remains to be seen though.
In the meantime, the first Always Connected PCs to go live are the ASUS NovaGo and the HP Envy X2, both of which will launch for customers in early 2018.