Qualcomm claims desktop apps will not impact Windows on ARM's "unbelievable battery life"

We reported a few weeks ago Microsoft and Qualcomm’s  claim that Windows 10 on ARM will have unbelievable battery life.

At the time the information was presented in anecdotal form with Don McGuire, the VP of Global Product Marketing at Qualcomm saying “To be frank, it’s actually beyond our expectations. We set a high bar for [our developers], and we’re now beyond that…” and Windows group program manager Pete Bernard saying “… it just has a great battery life. So people are getting used to this concept of having a device that you don’t have to charge…”

Cristiano Amon, EVP at Qualcomm Technologies, later claimed a typical setup could achieve 29 hours of straight Netflix viewing on WIFI, and on an LTE/WIFI equipped model 20+ hours would be reasonable. By comparison a typical Surface Pro promises only 9-10 hours video playback without WIFI, putting the ARM model in a different class.

Windows on ARM users would only need to charge their device “every couple of days or so.”

Windows on ARM PCs, however, run Windows 10 S by default and it is easy to believe that some of the battery life advantages come from running less demanding UWP apps.

According to Qualcomm, however, this is not the case, and ARM PCs will be able to run Win32 apps as efficiently as UWP apps and still offer amazing battery life.

Neowin reports that a Qualcomm representative at CES, Pj Jacobowitz, confirmed the lack of impact, and also said that 64-bit apps would work as well as 32-bit apps and “if it runs on an Intel chip, it should run on a Qualcomm chip as well.” (this is contrary to what we believed earlier).

He however also confirmed that we should not expect Snapdragon 835 devices before Spring 2018, and Neowin also notes that a next-generation powered by Snapdragon 845 is also on its way this year.

So far we have seen devices by Asus, Lenovo and HP announced, expected in the March/April time frame. Given the battery life advantages, which Microsoft says will change the way we use our laptops, will any of our readers be jumping in? Let us know below.