Google Chrome is Now Optimized for Windows on ARM Devices

Google’s popular Chrome browser can finally run natively on Windows on ARM devices. The ARM64 version of Chrome that first came to the Canary channel in January is now rolling out to the Stable Channel, and it comes right ahead of the release of new PCs powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite chip.

“The new version of Google Chrome will help cement Snapdragon X Elite’s role as the premier platform for Windows PCs starting in mid 2024,” said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Inc. “The PC industry is on the cusp of an inflection point, and as we enter the era of the AI PC, we can’t wait to see Chrome shine by taking advantage of the powerful Snapdragon X Elite system,” the exec added.

While it took years for Google to release a native version of Chrome for Windows on ARM devices, it looks like Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X Elite chip will finally deliver the right mix of performance and battery life that Apple previously nailed with its own M-Series chips for Macs. “In preliminary tests using Snapdragon X Elite reference devices, the new Chrome is showing a dramatic performance improvement in the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark,” Qualcomm also emphasized today.

It remains to be seen if Google now supporting “Windows on Snapdragon” will push more big developers to also optimize their Windows apps for the ARM64 architecture. In the meantime, the new Qualcomm chip should deliver better performance for emulated x64 apps. At the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Qualcomm also claimed that most PC games should “just work” via emulation on upcoming PCs with Snapdragon X Elite chips.