Microsoft thinks Arm Windows laptops will eclipse M3 MacBook Air performance this year

While Apple just launched the new M3 MacBook Air, Microsoft is apparently convinced that its upcoming family of Arm laptops will offer even better performance.

“Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks,” according to a new report from The Verge.

The report explains that Microsoft’s upcoming laptops will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors. Even after “years of failed promises from Qualcomm,” Microsoft has faith that this will be the year Qualcomm surpasses Apple Silicon.

The new computers are set to be unveiled during an event on May 20, and The Verge reports that Microsoft’s launch will include a number of demos showcasing performance compared to the M3 MacBook Air.

Microsoft is so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than an M3 MacBook Air for CPU tasks, AI acceleration, and even app emulation. Microsoft claims, in internal documents seen by The Verge, that these new Windows AI PCs will have “faster app emulation than Rosetta 2” — the application compatibility layer that Apple uses on its Apple Silicon Macs to translate apps compiled for 64-bit Intel processors to Apple’s own processors.

9to5Mac’s Take

I’ll believe it when I see it. I also wonder what, if any, compromises Microsoft and Qualcomm will have to make to achieve its goal of surpassing Apple Silicon. Will battery life and efficiency suffer? What about GPU performance? Lots of questions to be answered.

Would you consider switching to a Windows machine if it offered performance equal to Apple Silicon?

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