As much as I dislike Apple, I have to admit that Apple Silicon changed the world, for the better. Even M1 was truly impressive for its insane efficiency, and now we’re already at M5. Microsoft and Qualcomm have bet big on their own ARM-based personal computers. Let’s discuss if that is awesome, or awful.
What ARM Is (and Isn’t) – and How It Stacks Up Against x86
ARM isn’t a chip company. It’s an architecture company. They design the instruction set (ISA) and license it out. Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, Amazon, Nvidia — everyone who makes “ARM chips” is actually building their own CPU core designs on top of ARM Holdings’ license. It’s like buying the rulebook and then writing your own playbook.
x86, in contrast, is dominated by exactly two players: Intel and AMD. They own the ISA and design and manufacture (or contract-manufacture) the chips themselves.
ARM uses a simple, fixed-length instruction set with fewer, streamlined instructions that execute in one clock cycle each, prioritizing energy efficiency and high performance-per-watt, while x86 uses a complex, variable-length instruction set with powerful multi-purpose instructions that can take multiple cycles, historically favoring raw single-threaded performance and backward compatibility at the cost of higher power consumption.
Result: an ARM core doing the same work typically uses 1/3–1/2 the power of an x86 core at the same performance level. The trade-off used to be single-threaded performance, but Apple closed that gap years ago and others like Qualcomm are catching up fast. Emulation layers that allow you to run x86 applications on an ARM chip (or vice versa) do add overhead and reduce performance, but typically only impact efficiency by a few percent.
A Very Brief (and Mostly Painful) History of Windows on ARM
- 2012 – Windows RT: Closed ecosystem, desktop apps banned, DOA.
- 2017 – Windows 10 on ARM: Snapdragon 835, x86 emulation via WOW64, poor performance, but with promising power efficiency.
- 2022 – Lenovo ThinkPad X13s: First “serious” business Windows on ARM laptop, powered by Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. All day battery life with the tradeoff of software issues.
- 2024 – Snapdragon X personal computers: Mainstream availability, lots of marketing, consumer laptops with a few desktops mixed in. Oryon cores deliver competitive performance, paired with Adreno X1 GPU, NPU, and real OEM commitment (Dell, Lenovo, HP, Samsung, Microsoft).
As you can see, it took over a decade before anyone really cared about Windows on ARM, but now there are lots of options on the market, form brands you’ve heard of (like Dell, Samsung, Microsoft) to brands you haven’t (System76, Minisforum).
Software Matters as Much as Hardware, and Apple Wins Here
So, here we are at the end of 2025, and comparing the latest gen of ARM PCs with Apple Silicon Macs makes it very clear that Apple doesn’t just have better hardware, but far more mature software.
Apple has a huge advantage here because they control the entire ecosystem. They make only a few models of computers and have full control over the components and the drivers for those components. On the other hand, Windows needs to run on thousands of different computers with countless combinations of parts with drivers supplied by a bunch of random companies.
That said, it’s not an excuse. Microsoft and Qualcomm need to support developers journeys to make stuff work on Windows on ARM computers, and work with OEMs like Dell and Samsung to ensure they care about delivering a good customer experience. And so far, they haven’t done that.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Dev Kit is a prime example of this challenge. Qualcomm’s $899 Snapdragon X Dev Kit, announced in May 2024 as a powerful mini PC for Windows on ARM developers, quickly turned into a disaster due to endless shipping delays and hardware flaws like a missing HDMI port and a constantly screaming fan.
Only a few hundred units ever shipped, arriving months late with half-baked software support and no official ARM64 Windows recovery tools. In October 2024, Qualcomm abruptly canceled the entire program, refunded everyone, and admitted it “did not meet our usual standards of excellence.” The fiasco embarrassed both Qualcomm and Microsoft, exposed how immature the Windows on ARM ecosystem still is, and became one of the biggest hardware flops of the year.
If we want regular people and big businesses to buy Windows for ARM computers, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and OEMs need to work really hard on investing in software development, rapid driver interaction based on feedback from customers, and communicating with those customers.
My Personal Windows on ARM Journey
With Windows 8 came the Microsoft Surface RT. Various clients, friends, and family members bought these things, and these “iPad killer” devices soon found themselves in the junk drawer or at the e-waste recycler.
Fast forward to two years ago, when I had a Lenovo ThinkPad X13s for a few months. Powered by the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, this was one of the first production ARM laptops marketed to businesses. Keep in mind that businesses need stability and reliability – when you have an IT team supporting a bunch of users, compatibility issues and instability cost you time, money, and productivity. I’m guessing it didn’t work out well for whatever business got that thing new, because I bought it barely used for dirt cheap.
I both loved and hated that X13s. Sure, the battery life was amazing, and it had the typical top-notch build quality of a ThinkPad, but performance was inconsistent at best. It was great for basic browsing, but trying to use it in my web development workflow was just… frustrating, even after oodles of Windows updates and firmware updates. So, I sold it again, and moved back to an Intel laptop.
But, enter Black Friday 2025, and I was browsing Best Buy’s site for a good deal on a secondary laptop. My main laptop is an M4 MacBook Air (an awesome laptop, BTW), but once in a while you just need Windows. And I saw a “$799” Dell Inspiron going for $399. So, I ordered the last one in stock at my nearest Best Buy, and took it home.
The computer in question is a Dell Inspiron 14 i1554 – equipped with the Snapdragon X1-26-100, the cheapest chip in the Snapdragon X lineup. The X1-26-100’s eight CPU cores are combined with 16GB of LPDDR5X memory and an Adreno X1-45 GPU.
Dell paired this package with a 512GB NVMe SSD in a stylish, thin chassis that feels more expensive than its $399 price tag would suggest. For ports, we have two USB-C ports, as well as USB-A, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a MicroSD card slot. Also, Windows Hello (similar to Apple’s Face ID) is a nice touch. Although, had I paid the original MSRP of $799, I’d be VERY disappointed by the lack of a backlit keyboard.
Initially, getting this thing set up was pretty frustrating. The first press of the power button directly out of the box resulted in some sort of error about invalid BIOS configuration and the computer wouldn’t boot. I had to go into the UEFI BIOS, reset it to factory settings, and then I was able to start the hour long process of Windows 11 installation, updates, updates, and more updates.
Oh, and when I finally was able to actually boot into Windows, the time and date were like six months behind, resulting in SSL errors. So, I fixed that, and then… yay, more updates, including another UEFI BIOS update. If I was a random person who didn’t understand any of this stuff, I probably would have returned this thing. And don’t get me started on Windows 11 Home requiring a Microsoft account to set up.
But, despite the initial hiccups, three days later, I’m pretty happy with the computer overall. I’ve had no issues installing everything I need to work, including Docker and VSCode with AI extensions. I did try to install Sophos Home Anti-Virus, and that didn’t work. But, that’s not exactly a super common piece of software, so I’m not too upset. Worth noting that Malwarebytes does have a Windows on ARM version now – it didn’t, back when I had my ThinkPad X13s.
Overall, for my use case of browsing the web, streaming video, and doing web development work, the Snapdragon X laptop works great, and the battery life is very good. YouTube streaming for about 7 hours isn’t too bad for a $400 computer!
Unfortunately, gaming is simply not happening. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here – for the $799 MSRP of this Dell you can get actually get an entry-level x86 gaming laptop that’ll have better software compatibility and performance for content creation, AI/ML, and gaming. Sure, you’ll give up thin and light design with great battery life, but you’ll get way more bang for your buck. Even a laptop with Intel Arc graphics would be a safer bet for graphics-heavy work than the Adreno GPU.
Benchmarked: Snapdragon X1-26-100 vs Apple M4 10-Core
I ran a bunch of cross-platform benchmarks on my MacBook Air M4 and the Dell Snapdragon X laptop, and the results were pretty bad. On the surface, you might be saying, why are you comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended), as the MacBook Air M4 15″ base model I’m using has an MSRP of $1,199, vs the Dell’s MSRP of $799, but here’s the thing… you can get the same 10-Core M4 chip in the base model Mac Mini M4 was on sale for $479 at the same time this Dell was on sale for $399. And the MSRP of that Mac is $599. Sure, the Dell has double the storage space, but for most people, that doesn’t matter too much.
Dell doesn’t sell a Mini PC with a Snapdragon chip, but Lenovo does, the Lenovo Neo 50q Tiny. That has the same X1-26-100 Snapdragon chip, and is currently going for $499, with a $719 MSRP. Again, you get 512GB of storage, compared to the base Mac Mini’s 256GB, but there’s really no point in that computer – as much as I hate to say this, if you’re comparing those two machines, the Apple option is a no-brainer.
Anyway, on to the actual benchmarks. The different is stunning… Snapdragon X is pretty far behind Apple Silicon, despite M-series using less power. It’ll be interesting how the upcoming Snapdragon X2 series does in efficiency – I’m not expecting M4 or M5 levels of awesome, but maybe they can at least catch up to M3?
| GeekBench 6 CPU Score (Single Core) | GeekBench 6 CPU Score (Multi Core) | GeekBench 6 GPU Score (OpenCL) | |
| Dell Laptop with Snapdragon X1-26-100 | ~2,000 | ~10,400 | ~9,500 |
| MacBook Air M4 10-Core | ~3,800 | ~15,300 | ~36,200 |
So, Should You Buy One?
Compared to a traditional x86 Windows laptop
Yes, if:
- Battery life is your #1 priority.
- You primarily use web apps or lightweight, popular software.
- The price is right. If we’re talking affordable computers on sale, it can be worth it.
No, if:
- Your workload is resource-intensive like content creation, gaming, or AI.
- Your software doesn’t work well on ARM CPUs or the Adreno GPU.
- You’re buying a more powerful or premium computer. I would not suggesting spend over $600 on a Snapdragon computer at this time.
Compared to a Mac
This one’s much easier, and I don’t even need to make a list. Basically, unless you NEED Windows, no – a base model MacBook Air or Mac Mini is a better choice than a PC powered by a Snapdragon chip.
ARM in the Datacenter, and Why it Matters
While personal computers were the focus of this article, ARM isn’t just for laptops and low-power desktops. A large use case for these processors is datacenters and cloud.
While Intel and AMD processors do offer better raw performance, the ARM-based chips are just so much more efficient overall. And given that power and cooling are some of the biggest constraints in modern datacenters, it’s obvious why some of the biggest names in cloud computing are investing massively in ARM.
You might not personally care about those heavy workloads if you’re just browsing email or coding a small web app on your laptop, but when millions of everyday users and developers start running ARM-based Windows (and soon ARM-based Linux) machines as their daily drivers, the entire ecosystem wins: software gets native ports, firmware matures fast, and drivers become rock-solid. That flywheel of real-world usage is invaluable.
In Conclusion
We’ve finally reached the point where Windows on ARM is genuinely usable for normal people, Linux on ARM64 is going mainstream (with great options from System76, Minisforum, and others), and – of course – Apple keeps raising the bar. From the M1 to the M5, Apple has more than doubled single-core performance, more than doubled multi-core performance, and AI? M5 delivers 6x the AI/ML throughput compared to M1.
In short: ARM is coming, and it’s coming fast. But while you shouldn’t be scared of Windows on ARM, you also need to do your research before you buy, and understand it’s not for everyone.