When It Just Works ⭐

In early 2024, I had my first hands-on experience with the Snapdragon X Elite, the Arm-based processor that changed everything. At that time, I was evaluating the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 ahead of experiencing the first Snapdragon X Elite-based PCs, which would go on to be announced as Copilot+ PCs about a month and a half later.

What’s happened since then is nothing short of astonishing. I immediately ordered a Snapdragon X Elite-based Surface Laptop 7, which remains my favorite overall laptop today. I’ve reviewed several Snapdragon X-based laptops over the past year, and I’m currently using a “low-end” HP OmniBook 5 16-inch laptop that’s powered by the slowest/lowest-end Snapdragon X there is, and it is a delight. My experiences with these PCs have been as consistent as they’ve been positive. It is clear to me that Arm is the future of the PC, and x86 cannot die off quickly enough. Everything else is just noise.

But there is part of the story of my first Snapdragon X Elite experience that didn’t make my write-up about that day. Mostly because it was off-topic to what I learned about the new PC chips. But it is very much on-topic in the context of why Snapdragon X is amazing and it has to do with a phrase popularized by Microsoft and Apple decades ago: It just works.

It cannot be overstated how important it is when something just works. And I write that with over three decades of experience with most things not working. That’s the dark underbelly of personal computing. There is so much promise, but there is also so much disappointment. It happens again and again and again.

That day in April 2024, I headed into New York City to attend a Qualcomm briefing about the Snapdragon X Elite and experience prototype laptops built using this platform. During the briefing portion, I did what I’ve done so much over the years: I pulled out my laptop, signed in, opened an app to take notes, and started documenting what I was learning.

But this was a little different. It was a Mac, not a Windows PC, and so I had to make a few minor concessions or changes with things like keyboard shortcuts. No big deal. But I was also using an iPhone at the time, and at one point, Qualcomm displayed a slide that was dense with information, and so I decided to take a photo of it instead of trying to write down everything on the slide. As I did so I was thinking about later downloading it to a computer and inserting it into the right place in my briefing notes.

It occurred to me then that I was using two Apple devices and that there must be a way to get the photo from the iPhone to Mac more seamlessly. As I considered this, I had a vague idea that perhaps I could just use Copy and Pate across the devices: I could copy the photo to the Clipboard on the iPhone and then paste it into the notes on the Mac. Maybe.

So I tried it. And it worked. Even though my Mac was on the Wi-Fi network and my iPhone was on cellular, this just worked. The photo on the phone just appeared in my notes on the Mac. Amazing.

Granted, to an Apple fan, this is not news. People who buy into that ecosystem are used to this kind of interaction, are used to things just working. But I use Windows. And my experience, to put it mildly, is usually a bit different. There are things in Windows that often work, like nearby share. But things that just work, things that work really well? Those are infrequent.

One of the many things I love about Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs is that they are starting to erase those problems. These laptops are incredibly efficient, and the performance and battery life are incredible. But the best thing about them, perhaps, is the way that previously unreliable actions, like opening a laptop lid and having the thing come on instantly and then sign me instantly with Windows Hello, are suddenly reliable. They’re so reliable that it’s confusing when they don’t work. Which is what happens with every x86 PC there is. This kind of thing is small, in ways. But it matters. It’s a game changer.

When I flew to Mexico a week ago Friday, I brought two Snapdragon X-based laptops, my MacBook Air, my iPad and several phones, more than usual because I’m reviewing the new Pixel 10 series phones. Those devices all have one thing is common: They’re based on Arm chipsets. And that means they have many things in common. One being that these are devices that tend to just work.

I often fly to and from Mexico with multiple laptops because I review them. But this was the first time I flew solely with Arm-based laptops. And it was so freeing. In sharp contrast with my experience flying to Berlin and then being there the week before we went to Mexico, a time when one of the two x86-based laptops I brought failed me repeatedly and the other blue/green-screened at least twice, everything just worked. The battery life and performance were terrific, and I had no issues getting things done.

We were in Mexico for just two days before we had to fly to Hawaii for the Snapdragon Summit. During this time, I powered up the four (x86) laptops I have there and set out to get them up-to-date with two months worth of Windows Updates and app updates. And in each case, all four of those x86 laptops failed to sign me in with Windows Hello facial recognition. All of them failed. Typical.

When we flew to Hawaii on Monday, I brought one laptop, the low-end Arm-based HP OmniBook 5 I bought with my own money that I love so much. And I used it during the entire length of both flights, Mexico City to San Francisco, and then SFO to Maui, about 10 hours in total, without needing to charge this laptop. It just worked.

And when Qualcomm had its first session yesterday, the CEO Vision keynote with Cristiano Amon, everything came full circle in a way I found interesting. I took the elevator downstairs to the floor where this talk would be held, and I had two items on me, the Pixel 10 phone I’m reviewing and my Arm-based HP laptop. I sat down in the audience, opened up the laptop, and started a new page in Notion so I could take notes. Here we go again.

But as the talk started, I decided to record it using the Recorder app on the Pixel, mostly because I wasn’t sure if Qualcomm would post a video later. (They did.) I took notes. I took pictures with the phone, even though it was also recording audio. And once again, I had that same thought: It would be nice if I could get photos from the phone onto the PC. Not to get them into my notes, but so I could post them on social media.

Thanks to Phone Link in Windows 11, which now works well after a rough start, this was seamless. Each time I took a photo on the phone, a notification appeared so I could open it on the PC in Snipping Tool, save it, and then post it to various social networks. The recording never stopped as I took photos—and I took 85 photos during this event—and it’s flawless. When this was over, I had about 90 percent battery life on the phone, about 95 percent battery life on the laptop, and all the notes I needed, and I had posted several photos online.

I want to be clear about this point: The PC I was using has the lowest-end Snapdragon X chip that Qualcomm makes and it retails for under $700. The phone I was using is the entry-level Pixel 10, the low-end $800 model. These devices are not expensive, high-end, premium devices. But they just work.

When the Qualcomm briefing ended, I closed the laptop, put the phone in my pocket, and walked out of the room with a strange and unfamiliar experience in which everything had just worked. Not just worked, but worked well. Worked seamlessly. Worked correctly. This is how personal computing is supposed to work. This is not how it usually works. But with these Arm-based devices, this is how things can work. And do work.

This is the future. For most of you: This is my present. So I guess I’m living in the future. Whatever you want to call it, it’s really nice.