- Bombastic marketing
aside, there is no denying that Apple's launch of
their M1 powered MacBooks has been a wild success. The ARM architecture has finally arrived on a desktop operating system, which wait, hold on a second. Wait, Microsoft has had
multiple native ARM versions of Windows going back to like
2012 and the 2020 edition of their flagship ARM PC. The Surface Pro X actually
launched an entire month before the M1 Mac. So why does it sucks so bad
that I forgot it existed until I read these words
on the teleprompter. Let's explore that, after I read you some more
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your PC at the link below. (light music) (upbeat music) Both Apple and Microsoft deserve credit for adapting their x86
operating systems to run on ARM. But while their goals were similar, the strategies they used
were quite different. And to see why, we have to go back buddy. Not to the future, to the past. So it's just the regular
type of going back. Microsoft released their first
ARM native OS, Windows RT in 2012 on the original Surface Tablet which was powered by an
NVIDIA Tegra Three ARM SoC. People hated it. Mostly because it couldn't
run basically anything and it died off by 2015. But then in late 2016, Microsoft announced Windows 10 on ARM, a 64-bit OS that would
allow Windows laptops powered by Qualcomm processors to enjoy smartphone-like benefits like built-in LTE connectivity
and long battery life. Thin and light ARM notebooks based on Windows 10 on ARM
trickled into the market and in 2019, Microsoft released
the first Surface Pro X. It was powered by the Microsoft SQ1 which was essentially a modified version of the Snapdragon 8cx,
Qualcomm's laptop SoC. Then just a couple months ago, Microsoft updated the
Surface Pro X with the SQ2, which is again a modified
version of Snapdragon ACX but this time gen two. As they've always done,
Microsoft clearly focused more on the software side of things, relying on established ARM
chip makers like Qualcomm to build desktop class ARM processors. But Apple, well, you might
say they thought different. Every iPhone and iPad for
the last 10 years has run on both Apple designed ARM processors and an Apple designed operating system, iOS and then later iPadOS respectively. And while Microsoft has been
adapting their desktop OS to run on lower power mobile chips, Apple has been adapting their
mobile OS to custom chips to drive higher power near
desktop class experiences. And that's a strategy that
seems to have paid off here. As we said in our last
few iPad Pro videos, with iPadOS, a keyboard,
trackpad and the right apps, the iPad can replace your laptop. Don't at me unless it's to
tell me how great I look in my LTT Store tuque. Thank you by the way. But we're not here to talk about tuques or iPads for that matter. We're here to talk about laptops. So let's get back to our
arm wrestling contenders. The M1 MacBook Air and the Surface Pro
Access Q2 represent Apple and Microsoft best attempts yet at creating native ARM laptops. Okay well the Mac Mini and MacBook Pro are actually Apple's best attempts but, it wouldn't be fair to use
them in this comparison. You guys get the idea. So how do they compare? Both systems feel snappy
while just navigating the OS, doing basic web browsing and
even using Microsoft Office. They're quick to wake from
sleep, log you in biometrics and their batteries
have no problem lasting the entire workday. It's pretty safe to say
that the average Mac OS or Windows user probably
wouldn't even realize that these machines are built on a completely different
architecture than they're used to. And this is where we have to drop the both of them are pretty great angle. If you've already seen
any of our M1 Mac videos you'll know just how
surprisingly impressive their performance is. Not just while running native ARM apps, but also while emulating x86 both 32 and 64-bit apps
through Rosetta Two. And if you watched our review
of the first Surface Pro X, you'll also know that Windows on ARM hasn't officially supported
x86-64 emulation up until now which is exactly why we were
excited to do this comparison. Because on December 10th,
Microsoft added x64 emulation to the insider preview of Windows. Now was in the Dev Channel,
which is the earliest and least consumer ready of
the three insider channels, but we were really excited
to take it for a spin. And after installing it, well on every benchmark we
could actually get running on the Surface Pro X, the M1 MacBook Air just to
put it simply dominated. The M1 performed over
twice as well as the SQ2 in our browser benchmarks and Geekbench even after updating the
Surface Pro X firmware. And in case you're wondering
why Chrome did so poorly, here's the thing. Chrome still doesn't have a
native ARM version on Windows despite having one for
Chrome OS and for Mac OS. I mean, this is rough. We had hoped that Windows
on ARMs new x86 emulation would allow for some direct comparisons with more 64-bit benchmarks. But the only one that worked
on the Pro X was Cinebench where the M1 (clears throat)
took an even more drastic lead. We were able to install and
open LuxMark for a few seconds but we gave up on actually
completing the benchmark after hours of crashing. And as for HandBrake, well
we got it open 30 seconds after clicking the icon,
then it promptly crashed. And our aspirations of
comparing performance between Adobe apps with PugetBench died when it became apparent that Adobe will not let you install anything but the recently released
native ARM versions of Lightroom and the Photoshop
Beta on Windows on ARM. Maybe that's for the best though considering that the M1 had
absolutely no problem opening and running these x64 apps
as if they were native. As we mentioned in our M1 videos that is partially because Apple built in specialized hardware
that helps to translate x86 instructions to ARM. But here's the thing, knowing the why doesn't really
soften the blow, does it? So maybe the Surface Pro
X has suffered enough. JK. It hasn't yet. As luck would have it, we were able to get
Windows 10 on ARM running on the MacBook Air in a virtual machine thanks to some super helpful
guides posted online. It wasn't the latest insider
build with X60 formulation, but it seemed to run pretty
smooth and more importantly we actually got a higher Geekbench score in a virtualized Windows installation, running on a MacBook than we got on Microsoft's flagship
Windows 10 on Arm device running natively. So am I just here to kick
Microsoft while they're down for putting out a product that costs with a keyboard attachment
a hundred dollars more than a MacBook that
absolutely leaves it bleeding and unconscious in the dirt? (laughs) Really that was
one heck of an arm wrestle, wasn't it? No sir, no, I am not. I know that the Windows on
ARM team is working hard to get PC laptops ready for
this ARM powered revolution. So what I am here to say is this, if Microsoft is serious
about keeping up with Apple, they're just going to
have to work harder at it. But in more ways than one, Apple might've actually helped Microsoft a bit in this regard. Windows on ARM has been out since 2017, but the list of x86 apps that have received native ARM
versions is not very long. But then as soon as Apple
unveiled the M1 Mac, app makers scrambled to
release native ARM versions of their apps, Firefox, Chrome,
Lightroom and Photoshop, I mean even Microsoft
themselves updated Office 365 to play nice with M1. So as a Qualcomm rep said, it appears that Apple
has validated the concept of powerful ARM-based PCs,
meaning that with the release of these new Macs, well the Surface Pro X
might lose one-on-one against the new MacBook. Apple has made waves that
could carry Microsoft to, well probably not exactly
where Apple's at right now, but they could carry them somewhere. Also the day we filmed this video, Bloomberg reported that
Microsoft is working on designing its own
in-house ARM processors. So maybe that will help close the gap. Nice one Microsoft, and
also my condolences Intel. Now in case you're angrily thinking, "Hey Linus, I love my Surface Pro X or similar Windows on ARM device." Honestly? No, but I'm happy for you. And if you stick to only using
apps with native ARM versions and you don't do anything
too hardware intensive, Windows on ARM devices
can be a nice experience. And who knows, maybe the
consumer ready version of Windows with X60 formulation will
turn your glorified Chromebook into a full PC. That is a future we all wanna see. I'm just not too hopeful
until the silicon gets a little more (clears throat) caught up. Just like I've gotta catch
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from potential bad times. We're gonna have it linked below. If you guys enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy our full review of the M1 Based MacBook Air. I thought I realized I called
it MacBook the whole time. Whatever. M1 MacBook Air. (upbeat music) We'll link it somewhere. (upbeat music)
