Today HP and Qualcomm pulled back the covers on the new ARM-based PCs and one of the first devices is the Envy X2. I got to spend a little bit of time with the device and you can get a closer look at the hardware in the video below.
While we can’t do any serious testing with these machines, initially, they felt good for a first run device. What I mean is that they were responsive enough and should hold up well for most of your everyday tasks but don’t expect to be playing high-end games on these types of devices.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
With battery life being stated at 20 hrs and standby time of 30 days, these are some serious claims by Qualcomm and HP. That being said, I’m highly optimistic about future ARM devices and hope that these machines live up to all their promises.
skane2600
<p>I'm a bit skeptical about 20 hours of battery life. We'll have to see under what conditions those number apply. It comes with Windows 10 S, but you will be able to upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro? That seems unlikely.</p><p><br></p>
Hifihedgehog
<blockquote><a href="#224501"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p><em>”It comes with Windows 10 S, but you will be able to upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro?”</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yes! This has already been confirmed. To quote Liliputing who received more specifics on timeline and offer details:</p><p><br></p><p><em>“Out of the box, the HP Envy x2 ships with Windows 10 S. But users can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free if they do it by September, 2018.”</em></p><p><br></p><p>Source:</p><p>Liliputing dot com</p><p><br></p><p>Windows on ARM allows full Windows, including Windows 10 Pro, to run on ARM. In addition, the OS kernel and much of the DLLs are ported to ARM to increase application emulation performance.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224509"><em>In reply to Hifihedgehog:</em></a></blockquote><p>But can you legitimately call it Windows Pro if it can't run 64 bit Windows applications? I think they need to call it Windows 10 S Pro or something like that to be truthful.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224580"><em>In reply to MutualCore:</em></a></blockquote><p>Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the obscure set of programs called Microsoft Office?</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224611"><em>In reply to utterrott:</em></a></blockquote><p>That's a bit like complaining to the shoe salesman that they don't have a Nike Air Vapormax shoe in your size and having him tell you that it doesn't matter because they have it in other sizes.</p><p><br></p><p>64-bit software exists because some users need them. Whether the same software is available in 32, 16, 8, or 4 bit versions is irrelevant. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224579"><em>In reply to MutualCore:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes, that was the original story. Perhaps they extended the deadline or changed the rules for the ARM versions.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224681"><em>In reply to mariusmuntensky:</em></a></blockquote><p>I think it's useful if you need an expensive laptop for running web apps and you need very long battery life (if the life is as advertised). While it would be more familiar to current Windows users than a Chromebook, I think it's usefulness as a "Windows" PC is too limited.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#224811"><em>In reply to Michael_Babiuk:</em></a></blockquote><p>With regard to item 1: I doubt that the native ARM based Office will support all the automation features of the Win32 version, but I imagine if one upgraded to the "Windows 10 Pro" version from Windows 10 S and installed the Win32 version of Office, the support would be there, but it would probably run slower (assuming of course that the emulation is perfect). </p><p><br></p><p>I'm just speculating, time will tell.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#225012"><em>In reply to JG1170:</em></a></blockquote><p>Apparently there are no "regular" people who are willing to spend less than about $800 on a laptop. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#225026"><em>In reply to JG1170:</em></a></blockquote><p>Millennials, like any other generation are a diverse group. It's risky to generalize about the opinions of any group even when one is part of it. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#225015"><em>In reply to JG1170:</em></a></blockquote><p>If Samsung isn't paying you for all your DeX promotion on this site, they should be. It's not like many other people are talking about it. </p><p><br></p><p>I wouldn't make any investment decisions based on the belief that DeX is going to be the next big thing.</p>