Ask Paul: April 15 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s another great set of reader questions to kick off the weekend a bit early. I think we all share the same concerns.
12th-Gen Intel Core processors
thejoefin asks:

Have you had any 'hands on' with Intel 12th gen devices?

Yes. But only one of them is relevant so far: I’m currently testing a Lenovo Yoga 9i that’s based on a 12th-Gen Intel Core mobile P-series (28-watt) chipset, the Core i7-1260P. Previous to the official 12th-Gen reveal, HP let me briefly look at a 12th-Gen-based Elite Dragonfly G3 (here and here), but that was more about assessing the updated design than the innards, which were locked down and not served by proper drivers.

Do they seem like a major improvement, or more of the yearly incremental evolution of performances and battery life?

I’ve not noticed any major improvements in performance or battery life so far, but then I also haven’t measured either formally yet either. I was hoping to bring this laptop to Mexico City on Monday, but we had to cancel that trip---a necessary piece of governmental documentation hasn’t arrived in time, and we can’t finalize our apartment purchase there until it does---and I was hoping to use that trip to get a better handle on real-world battery life.

But don’t take that as a negative. The instant-on performance is terrific and the fact that a hybrid chipset like this is working normally is good news, especially given the weird issues we saw with PCs based on Intel’s more limited hybrid chipset releases in the past. The fact that they’re transitioned their entire mainstream chipset family to this architecture, and also expanded it with new product families with different thermal designs, is impressive. I really like that they made this step forward, and I think it’s the right direction.

With regards to the Yoga, I was planning to publish the review before the end of next week in Mexico, but I will do so from here instead.
App stores
helix2301 asks:

I wanted to ask your thoughts on the Microsoft Store I recently got accepted into the Store Preview program and my question is where do you think Microsoft stands with their store vs Mac App Store. I remember a few years ago you and Andrew talking about how Apple Mac Store was no where as big as iOS App Store which is understandable 100 million macs vs 1 billion iPhones.

It is interesting to me that the Mac App Store never really “took off” in the same way that Apple’s mobile app store did. And there were, of course, major differences between the Mac App Store and the Windows/Microsoft Store (on PC) at the inception of each: where the Mac App Store didn’t require a new app platform, the Microsoft version did. (Only Metro-style/Modern/Universal/Store apps were originally available in the store in the Microsoft side.)

Today, of course, that is different, and there are multiple app types available from the Microsoft Store, including traditional desktop apps. That makes...