When Microsoft debuted Always Connected PC, it was billed as a major step in the Windows 10 on ARM solution. However, the latter is off to a terrible start and now the company is trying to distance Always Connected PC.
Windows 10 on ARM hardware has been poorly reviewed. These are the laptops running Qualcomm Snapdragon chips that deliver vastly superior battery life. When announced last November, Microsoft debuted Always Connected PC alongside these Windows 10 on ARM solutions.
While Windows 10 on ARM is more about Qualcomm integration in laptops, Always Connected PC is something else. At least, that’s what Microsoft is saying now. The company says the feature is not completely tied to the success of Qualcomm ARM processors for Windows 10.
“Today, we have the three devices [the HP Envy x2, Lenovo Miix 630 and Asus NovaGo] we’ve launched on the Qualcomm processor,” said Microsoft Windows general manager Erin Chapple. “We also have our Surface Pro LTE, which we consider our first Always Connected PC.”
“We don’t equate ‘Always Connected PC’ with Qualcomm,” Chapple says. “We’re about choice in the ecosystem and working across our partners.”
Despite putting some distance between the two, Chapple insists Microsoft has faith in the success of Windows 10 on ARM.
“There will be future [ACPC] devices based on future versions of the Qualcomm silicon,” Chapple noted. She also promised improvements with Redstone 4.
“You will see [ACPC] performance improvements between the Fall Creators Update and the RS4 updates that we’ve been delivering [through the Windows Insider program].”
Always Connected PC
Always Connected PC allows PCs to connect to mobile devices at any time. It links directly with full Windows 10, or as the company says the “Windows 10 everyone knows”. The company says this is a new computing definition, a change in modern PC use.
