It’s also a question one viewer put to the hosts during the Q&A portion of this week’s The Full Nerd show, and it got me thinking: am I willing to change my tune on Windows 11 after watching it evolve for half a decade? I think I might be.
I made peace with using Windows 11 as my daily driver years ago, but the ever-present ads for Microsoft products, disappointing optimization and AI nonsense turned my stomach. However, some recent projects we’ve been working on here at PCWorld made me realize it might be time for a second opinion.
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For example, I’ve been testing out the new Dell XPS 13 so we can shoot a video about it and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how snappy and normal it feels to use despite only sporting 8GB of RAM. I recall that Windows 11 was quite a resource hog back when I reviewed it years ago on PCs with 16-32GB of RAM, so I expected the anemic XPS 13 would chug like a frat boy when I started multitasking.
Instead, I’ve found it feels as snappy to navigate as my 32GB-equipped desktop PC, even when I have Chrome open with 20+ tabs while I’m streaming music and writing up something in Word. Sure, the laptop can’t hold a candle to my desktop when it comes to demanding tasks like gaming, video editing and the like, but for basic browsing and productivity work? I’d never have known this little XPS 13 was packing a paltry 8GB under the hood.
Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo
At least, not until I opened the Task Manager and saw the memory usage at 6GB minimum even if nothing is open. Because while Windows 11 feels smooth and responsive on this 8GB laptop it still eats up a ton of resources, even while idling. Once I started launching apps and opening tabs that number climbed steadily, but in my limited testing I’ve yet to redline it or cause the system to stutter using just productivity apps.
That got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, all the wailing and complaining writers like myself have done over the years has actually led the likes of Google and Microsoft to put in serious work optimizing their software for PC.