Yesterday, in Hawaii of all places, Windows EVP Terry Myerson took the stage at Qualcomm’s Tech Summit to introduce “Always Connected PCs.” These devices, running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 ARM chips, boast incredible battery life, LTE 4G connectivity, and some special Windows enhancements all in a thin lightweight device. They may not be the fastest or most powerful laptops, but supposedly an always on connection without the need for Wi-Fi will more than make up for that.
While Qualcomm showed off devices from two early adopters, Asus and HP, there was a lot left unsaid about the details of these new Always Connected devices. Myerson revealed they would run Windows 10 S, which will in effect limit what applications can run on them, but not much was said about what manner of emulation layers these devices will run. And what about peripherals, for example? The devices will apparently even be upgradeable to Windows 10 Pro, just like the current versions of Windows 10 S running on Intel hardware, but will everything really just work?
But regardless of the unanswered questions, these devices have potential to be game changing. So, are you excited? Will an always connected device with days of battery life change the game for you? Take our poll and let us know what you think:
If you’re a student or a road warrior, having a full PC with “don’t worry about it” battery life and connectivity could be the difference between grabbing your Always Connected PC or leaving your laptop at home and making do with your phone. For Information Workers a bit more tied to their desks, it’s doubtful these devices will be of much use, but they could indeed get more people thinking about bringing the full power of a PC along with them. What do you think, are you excited for the possibilities?
