4 ms·

Intel are still ahead in low power mobile (laptop) CPU race, and the clear leader in the laptop market. Who knows for how long, though?

lawlessone 8y ago
>Intel are still ahead in low power mobile CPU race, I never met a person with a smart phone that uses an intel chip. They probably exist but i know none. Apple aren't using them. Samsung aren't.. HTC nope.. Google pixel nope... Intel basically sold off/scuttled their mobile division right before the iphone took off.
- bocklund 8y ago
  I think “mobile” was supposed to refer to laptops, not phones or tablets.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  I meant "mobile" as in laptop CPUs, I've edited my post to clarify.
  - lawlessone 8y ago
    My apologies, you're right about laptops.
- Nightshaxx 8y ago
  I think it's referring to laptops. That said I had the ASUS Zenfone 2 and the performance seemed alright, but certain apps didn't work because of the architecture difference, most notably Pokemon Go for the whole time it was popular (although it's probably for the better that I missed that whole craze).
  - lawlessone 8y ago
    oh yeah i forgot laptops.
  - binomialxenon 8y ago
    I had a Zenfone 2 for a while too, performance and battery life were both pretty good. Thing was super unreliable though, not sure for what reason.
- vel0city 8y ago
  FWIW, I owned an ASUS Zen Phone 2 which contained an Atom x86 processor. It worked pretty well. I sold it to a friend of a friend who I think still uses it today. That said, that processor line was discontinued.
snaky 8y ago
New Snapdragon 845-based Chromebook is on the way. > It comes as Microsoft continues its work with Qualcomm to optimize Windows for devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, including the forthcoming Snapdragon 850, which Samsung used for its first Arm-based Windows 10 laptop. So it appears there is some momentum behind the concept. https://www.zdnet.com/article/arm-on-windows-10-chromebooks-can-its-new-chips-challenge-intel-on-desktop/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/arm-on-windows-10-chromebooks-...
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  I think ARM could be a viable contender in the low-power laptop segment, kinda maybe possibly. However, I used to own a Tegra K1-based Chromebook, and that thing was sl-o-o-o-o-o-o-w, and it only got worse with successive updates. I'm not really optimistic when it comes to performance, absent highly-optimized apps. The state of Firefox and Chrome doesn't really fill me with confidence.
  - snaky 8y ago
    The state of Firefox and Chrome shows more than anything else that the many cores is good thing and especially that RAM size is the king actually. Modern smartphones with 6 and 8 GB of RAM make a difference.
tomaskafka 8y ago
I think Apple laptop CPUs will be like USB-C. First 'what's the point, nothing is compatible', year later 'everyone is doing it and it's actually pretty cool to attach everything including power with a single cheap dongle'.
- tolmasky 8y ago
  I wasn't aware we were there with USB-C. I still need a dongle every time I use anything. But more importantly, I was in the camp of "I barely connect anything to my computer other than power, and MagSafe worked so well I forgot it was ever an issue, but then "USB-C charging" regressed things to the point where I thought I was charging but nope, turns out the connector was slightly out and my battery is at 5%".
- binomialxenon 8y ago
  I think it would take far longer than a year for a critical mass of OS X software to become ARM-compatible, but it could be viable in the long run. I'd like for ARM laptops to become more popular though, as a Debian user nearly all the software I use is already there.
  - Zelizz 8y ago
    Apple already got a huge number of developers to transition their apps to 64-bit ARM with the iPhone, I feel like if they made it simple enough they could get a critical mass on the desktop just as quickly.
crunchlibrarian 8y ago
Not at all, they bungled low power bigly with the atom trainwreck and are so far behind ARM now that they have given up competing.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  I don't see very many competitive AMD- or ARM-based laptops around, though.

lawlessone 8y ago

>Intel are still ahead in low power mobile CPU race, I never met a person with a smart phone that uses an intel chip. They probably exist but i know none. Apple aren't using them. Samsung aren't.. HTC nope.. Google pixel nope... Intel basically sold off/scuttled their mobile division right before the iphone took off.

bocklund 8y ago
I think “mobile” was supposed to refer to laptops, not phones or tablets.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
I meant "mobile" as in laptop CPUs, I've edited my post to clarify.
- lawlessone 8y ago
  My apologies, you're right about laptops.
Nightshaxx 8y ago
I think it's referring to laptops. That said I had the ASUS Zenfone 2 and the performance seemed alright, but certain apps didn't work because of the architecture difference, most notably Pokemon Go for the whole time it was popular (although it's probably for the better that I missed that whole craze).
- lawlessone 8y ago
  oh yeah i forgot laptops.
- binomialxenon 8y ago
  I had a Zenfone 2 for a while too, performance and battery life were both pretty good. Thing was super unreliable though, not sure for what reason.
vel0city 8y ago
FWIW, I owned an ASUS Zen Phone 2 which contained an Atom x86 processor. It worked pretty well. I sold it to a friend of a friend who I think still uses it today. That said, that processor line was discontinued.

snaky 8y ago

New Snapdragon 845-based Chromebook is on the way. > It comes as Microsoft continues its work with Qualcomm to optimize Windows for devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, including the forthcoming Snapdragon 850, which Samsung used for its first Arm-based Windows 10 laptop. So it appears there is some momentum behind the concept. https://www.zdnet.com/article/arm-on-windows-10-chromebooks-can-its-new-chips-challenge-intel-on-desktop/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/arm-on-windows-10-chromebooks-...

KozmoNau7 8y ago
I think ARM could be a viable contender in the low-power laptop segment, kinda maybe possibly. However, I used to own a Tegra K1-based Chromebook, and that thing was sl-o-o-o-o-o-o-w, and it only got worse with successive updates. I'm not really optimistic when it comes to performance, absent highly-optimized apps. The state of Firefox and Chrome doesn't really fill me with confidence.
- snaky 8y ago
  The state of Firefox and Chrome shows more than anything else that the many cores is good thing and especially that RAM size is the king actually. Modern smartphones with 6 and 8 GB of RAM make a difference.

tomaskafka 8y ago

I think Apple laptop CPUs will be like USB-C. First 'what's the point, nothing is compatible', year later 'everyone is doing it and it's actually pretty cool to attach everything including power with a single cheap dongle'.

tolmasky 8y ago
I wasn't aware we were there with USB-C. I still need a dongle every time I use anything. But more importantly, I was in the camp of "I barely connect anything to my computer other than power, and MagSafe worked so well I forgot it was ever an issue, but then "USB-C charging" regressed things to the point where I thought I was charging but nope, turns out the connector was slightly out and my battery is at 5%".
binomialxenon 8y ago
I think it would take far longer than a year for a critical mass of OS X software to become ARM-compatible, but it could be viable in the long run. I'd like for ARM laptops to become more popular though, as a Debian user nearly all the software I use is already there.
- Zelizz 8y ago
  Apple already got a huge number of developers to transition their apps to 64-bit ARM with the iPhone, I feel like if they made it simple enough they could get a critical mass on the desktop just as quickly.

crunchlibrarian 8y ago

Not at all, they bungled low power bigly with the atom trainwreck and are so far behind ARM now that they have given up competing.

KozmoNau7 8y ago
I don't see very many competitive AMD- or ARM-based laptops around, though.