It’s the Web Browser, Stupid (Premium)

In evaluating Windows 10 on ARM again thanks to the Snapdragon 850-based Lenovo Yoga C630, its Achilles Heel is clear. It’s not the performance. Yes, this laptop is a bit pokey compared to mainstream Intel Core U-series machines. But it has a bigger problem than that.

I’m referring generally to compatibility, which remains a huge problem for anyone wishing to take advantage of this platform’s thin, light, and silent battery life longevity. But I’m referring more specifically to the web browser. This is where the Windows 10 on ARM equation really falls apart.

Yes, we all have that one app or even device driver that we need or really want to use. For me, that app is Adobe Photoshop Elements. It’s a Store app, so you might think it’d run fine on Windows 10 on ARM, even in the debilitating S mode. But it doesn’t run on ARM, can’t run on ARM. Photoshop Elements, as it turns out, is a 64-bit Win32 app that’s been “containerized” (for lack of a better term) for Store deployment. And 64-bit Win32 apps will never run on ARM.

I’d like to use Photoshop Elements. But there are alternatives. Paint .NET, for example, is a Win32 app that’s also been containerized for the Store, and it is available in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions there; the former works under emulation in Windows 10 on ARM. There are also other image editors in the Store and on the web that might satisfy my needs. Whatever: I can work around this limitation.

But the one thing I can’t work around, the one major issue I have with Windows 10 on ARM now that the performance has improved a bit with the Snapdragon 850, is something that will eat away at most potential users. I’m referring, of course, to the one application all Windows users more than any other.

Yes. The web browser. And the situation sucks on Windows 10 on ARM.

OK, maybe I should issue a bit of a caveat within a caveat. If you’re fine with Microsoft Edge today for some reason, that browser does perform admirably in Windows 10 on ARM, at least on this Yoga C630. It launches immediately and the performance is excellent.

But two things to that.

Microsoft Edge as we know it is going away, and while many assume that the coming Chromium-based Edge will look and work exactly—or at least mostly—like today’s Edge, that is not at all clear. We simply don’t know how this work will progress, and what the outcome will be yet.

Worse than that uncertainty, however, is that only 4.3 percent of users on the desktop have chosen Microsoft Edge. That means that some 95+ percent of users want to use a different web browser. And looking at the usage statistics, the overwhelming majority—about 64 percent—of those people use Google Chrome. A further 10 percent have chosen Mozilla Firefox.

Both Chrome and Firefox are available in 32-bit Win32 versions, so they can run in Windows 10 on ARM in emulation. And as you might expect, that emulation imparts a performance penalty. (And possibly a memory penalty from emulation overhead, though I’ve not measured that.)

This penalty is particularly noticeable with Chrome. Using a laughably unscientific method involving a stop watch, I timed Chrome launch times to the Momentum new tab replacement I prefer on the Yoga C630. This takes 5 seconds, which sounds like a small number but is, in fact, a glacial time frame when you’re used to nearly-instantaneous performance.

Firefox is a bit better: It launches to the same Momentum new tab view in between 3 and 4 seconds. This is still slow, but it’s a big enough difference from Chrome that I can at least recommend that anyone taking a chance on Windows 10 on ARM should at least consider this switch. It makes a big difference day-to-day, over time.

Microsoft Edge, as noted, launches nearly simultaneously, and to a much busier MSN-based advertising portal that masquerades as a news page. I’ll call it one second in the name of (non) science.

Those not using Microsoft Edge—that is, most people—probably aren’t super-interested in switching just so they can take advantage of better performance on this niche version of Windows 10. That said, there is probably a lot of crossover in the audiences of people who would choose this niche version of Windows 10 and do want to use Edge. But for the rest of us … Hm.

There is some good news.

First, Microsoft is switching Edge over to Chromium, and once that browser engine is as deeply integrated into Windows, it will no doubt be able to take advantage of the artificial performance, battery life, and system integration features that Edge enjoys today. After all, it’s not like Microsoft magically made a better browser than the rest of the world. It’s just that Edge can use system services that are already running in Windows 10. The advantages are all artificial.

Second, Qualcomm has a vested interest in the success of Windows on ARM—which it, humorously, prefers to call Windows 10 on Snapdragon—as it so ably demonstrated at its Snapdragon Summit earlier this month in Hawaii. Qualcomm for the first time laid bare why the much smaller PC maker was of interest to a company that sells billions of units to smartphone makers each year.

It’s the enterprise.

While the upcoming Snapdragon 8cx in no way offers any special features for the enterprise, it was this target market that got all the attention in the PC-related parts of the event. Microsoft is bringing Windows 10 Enterprise to Snapdragon; Windows 10 Home and Pro are available today. And third-party enterprise vendors are on board too.

Qualcomm said that the PC market, which has sunk to about 200 million units sold per year—or, “let’s call it 160 million,” as a Qualcomm vice president noted on stage—was important enough to warrant its attention. And that Qualcomm was, in the same executive’s words, “all-in.”

Of course, the enterprise has similar compatibility concerns as do individuals. In that market, that “one app that we need or really want to use” is often a line of business (LOB) app, which these days are often built as web apps or websites. So it is perhaps not surprising that Microsoft is moving Edge to the more compatible Chromium just as it is bringing Windows 10 Enterprise to ARM: Both are happening in late 2019.

And Qualcomm has heard the compatibility complaints from the few users who have adopted Windows 10 on ARM as well as from those who cannot because of those compatibility issues. And the single biggest issue they face, again, is the web browser. So the firm confirmed that it was working to bring Chromium to ARM64 as a native application. And it announced that it is working with Mozilla to do the same for Firefox.

The timing for these releases is unclear, but I don’t feel that either will happen quickly enough to benefit anyone considering a Yoga C630 or other Snapdragon 850-based PC today. In fact, my general advice for most people is to wait until the browser you want appears on the platform. Only then should you even consider such a switch.

If the native ARM64 versions of Chromium and Firefox work normally—that is, perform as well as their Win32 counterparts do on typical Intel-based PCs, it will be a game changer. And it could open the floodgates to Windows 10 on ARM adoption, even before the Snapdragon 8cx ships.

I’m still examining the performance of the Yoga C630 and am comparing it, in particular, to Intel Y-series PCs like HP Spectre Folio. What I’m seeing so far is that the Spectre Folio handily out-performs the Yoga C630 in routine, productivity-oriented tasks. But that the Yoga C630, unlike Snapdragon 835-based PCs, meets a minimum threshold for performance. That is, I could use this PC. You know, if they’d just figure out the web browser.

It’s happening. It’s just a matter of time.