I still can’t quite believe that I’m using an Arm-powered Windows laptop every day. After more than a decade of trying to make Windows on Arm a reality, Microsoft and Qualcomm finally nailed it this year with Copilot Plus PCs. These new laptops have excellent battery life and great performance — and the app compatibility issues that have plagued Windows on Arm are mostly a thing of the past (as long as you’re not a gamer). Microsoft wanted 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” but I think it was very much the year of Windows on Arm. If 2024 was anything to go by, 2025 is going to be even bigger for Windows on Arm.
Microsoft set the stage for the 2024 year of Windows on Arm announcements in January at CES with promises of AI PCs and the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years. Laptop manufacturers started putting a Copilot key on keyboards early this year, providing quick access to Microsoft’s AI assistant. While the Copilot experience on Windows has gone through several confusing revisions, it’s still a key I accidentally press and then get frustrated when a Copilot window appears.
After the Copilot key was met with a lukewarm reception, Microsoft reignited the Mac vs. PC war a few months later. Inside Microsoft, confidence had gradually been growing throughout the early months of 2024 that it could finally beat Apple’s MacBook Air after falling behind for years. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the company’s new Copilot Plus PC devices at a special event in May, setting the stage for a summer of Windows on Arm laptops from every major OEM.
The key to Windows on Arm’s revival this year was Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors, which were announced in April. They’ve provided the type of performance and power efficiency only previously available with Apple’s MacBooks and challenged Intel and AMD to do better in the x86 space. After much debate over Microsoft’s MacBook Air-beating benchmarks, the reviews rolled in and showed that Windows on Arm was indeed capable of matching and beating Apple’s MacBook Air. Qualcomm even hired the “I’m a Mac” guy to promote Windows on Arm PCs, showing how confident it was in challenging Apple’s laptop dominance.
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Microsoft and Qualcomm also worked closely with developers to make key apps compatible, and it’s now very rare to run into an app compatibility issue that can’t be solved by a native Arm64 version or Microsoft’s improved emulator. Even Google, which previously shunned Windows Phone, has created Arm64 versions of Chrome and Google Drive to support Microsoft’s efforts. With developers continually providing native versions of their apps, it makes it a lot easier to switch to a Windows on Arm laptop. The only big exception is gaming, where x86 still reigns supreme for compatibility and performance.
Intel didn’t sit still while all this Windows on Arm hype was occurring, nor AMD. Intel struck back with Lunar Lake at IFA in September, delivering impressive performance and battery life improvements. AMD’s latest Ryzen AI chips are also competing directly with Qualcomm, and both AMD and Intel have the key advantage of game compatibility that Windows on Arm is definitely not ready for.
While we’re still waiting for an M4-powered MacBook Air, Apple did refresh its cheapest MacBooks in October with a surprise upgrade to 16GB of RAM. Apple would probably argue it’s related to Apple Intelligence, but the unusual change came months after Copilot Plus PCs launched, with a minimum of 16GB of RAM at price points that challenge the MacBook Air. Apple did manage to squeeze its new M4 chip into the MacBook Pro recently, though, showing that Qualcomm has some ground to make up in 2025.
Apple and Microsoft have both been focusing on AI-powered features for laptops this year, and the end results have been underwhelming on both sides. While a lot of the initial Copilot Plus PC buzz was around Windows on Arm, Microsoft also rolled out some Windows AI features on these devices in June.
The flagship feature was supposed to be Recall, a feature that snapshots mostly everything you do on a laptop and then lets you recall moments or scroll through a timeline of how you’ve used your PC. But because Recall was met with privacy and security concerns, undermining Microsoft’s entire Copilot Plus PC marketing effort, Microsoft was forced to delay Recall several times to improve its security. In fact, it has only recently appeared in test versions of Windows.
However, I don’t think Microsoft’s stumbles with Recall will mean the company slows down with its Windows AI efforts. Windows chief Pavan Davuluri recently told me that the very future of Windows is about cloud and AI, so expect a lot more of this in 2025.
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Next year will also be a fascinating battle between x86 and Windows on Arm. AMD and Intel are teaming up to fend off Arm-based chips from Qualcomm, and Intel is facing a period of turbulence after ejecting its CEO, facing desktop chip issues, and a wave of layoffs earlier this year.
