Does anyone actually take "next gen is XX% faster" numbers at face value? Apple, Intel, all say things like this, and real world performance is always worse than the marketing since the tests run in ideal conditions (say, on AC power) but the real world conditions are always worse (say, throttling down the CPU to save battery).
In my mind, there are two big questions: (1) is it fast enough for users, and (2) will users be able to run business-critical x86 / Windows software on it?
(1) was pretty bad with the first ARM-based Chromebooks, which could handle at best 3-4 tabs, but has started getting better (see the Samsung Chromebook Plus).
(2) boils down to whether the relevant parties can get x86-on-ARM emulation working. I feel like Microsoft had a pretty good tech demo of this at a past Build conference, but I wouldn't be surprised if non-technical reasons prevent it from shipping.
Yep, it's already shipping on the Qualcomm HP Envy x2. Performance of x86-on-ARM seems to be mixed/disappointing so far, but the bigger catch seems to be that it doesn't support x64 yet:
Any idea if it's going to come to phones by any chance? I initially thought they meant phones, but after a while they seemed to say they meant laptops.
Also, regarding x64, I believe it was due to patent issues, not because they somehow thought x86 is enough for anybody.
Limbo emulator has existed for a while and you can use it to run x86 (x64?) Windows, for example, on a normal android phone. (It is slow, of course.)
https://limboemulator.weebly.com/
In my mind, there are two big questions: (1) is it fast enough for users, and (2) will users be able to run business-critical x86 / Windows software on it?
(1) was pretty bad with the first ARM-based Chromebooks, which could handle at best 3-4 tabs, but has started getting better (see the Samsung Chromebook Plus).
(2) boils down to whether the relevant parties can get x86-on-ARM emulation working. I feel like Microsoft had a pretty good tech demo of this at a past Build conference, but I wouldn't be surprised if non-technical reasons prevent it from shipping.