Windows machines running on Arm are here! Actually, they’ve been here for years. But don’t call it a comeback, because those laptops based on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors—which Microsoft pushed so, so hard last year—aren’t selling so great. But according to Microsoft, those worries about app compatibility are pretty much over.
That’s the gist of a new Windows Developer Blog post, which says that “native Arm versions available for apps representing 90% of total user minutes.” Which seems great! But that’s a highly selective statement, which led me to follow into a disclosure page linked on the post. You can probably work out on your own that testing “user minutes” isn’t the same as saying that almost all individual apps are running Arm-native versions, instead of using emulation for x86 and x64-based apps.
That alone seems okay… but there’s another bit of flim-flammery that Microsoft isn’t fessing up to. The disclosure page spells it out, saying that the data is based on a snapshot of data from February 2025:
Based on snapshot of aggregated, non-gaming app usage data as of February 2025 for iGPU-based laptops and 2-in-1 devices running Windows 10 and Windows 11 in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia, Germany, and Japan, with MSRP $800+.
Whoa whoa whoa, buddy! Not only is there a rather arbitrary selection of countries there, the floor for MSRP on devices seems very strange. But it’s the “non-gaming app usage” that really sticks in my craw. Gaming is, rather infamously, the Achilles heel of these Arm-based Windows devices. Which isn’t really a problem from my perspective since I game on other devices, and I still bought an Arm-based laptop (at well below $800) for its light weight and battery life. And I like it a lot!
But simply brushing aside gaming for this claim is mighty disingenuous. PCWorld still tests for gaming benchmarks on Qualcomm-based laptops because it’s information that people want. I still run Hearthstone on my laptop when I use it because it doesn’t need a ton of power, and I’m sure plenty of people do the same with similar games. Microsoft ignoring that time because it’s inconvenient really rubs me the wrong way.
The rest of Microsoft’s promo post (spotted by Windows Central) raises some good points in favor of Windows Arm machines, including lots of industrial and commercial tools and increasingly necessary VPN support. But gaming is almost entirely disregarded, despite Microsoft itself pushing hard to integrate its Xbox and Windows platforms right now.
It would be pithy of me to end this post with the old quote about “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Well anyway, bye.