Surface RT’s (still rumored) integration of Snapdragon 800 is welcome, but no cure-all - johnsonalitels
It looks like we aren't the solitary ones affected by the potentiality in Qualcomm's brawny new Snapdragon 800 chip.
On the very same night that the company let us run a bevy of bench mark tests on it precise processor, Bloomberg says that the rapid system-along-a-chip will power "some new versions" of Microsoft's Surface RT tablet.
While the report seems innocuous enough at the start glance, the one-line rumor in reality intrigues along sixfold levels—non the to the lowest degree of which is the allure of the forward potential cellular-enabled Surface slate. Even so, beefed-up processors alone won't cure what ails Windows RT.
"Some new versions"?
Earlier we get into that, though, the "several new versions" line—if accurate—suggests that Microsoft May release several diverse models of the Surface RT in the sexual climax months.
The idea ISN't exactly surprising. Surely, there's single the single Tegra 3-high-powered Aerofoil RT ticket gettable right forthwith, but small-screen Windows tablets recently began their march to the market, and the Windows 8.1 update (which will be available in Developer Preview form next calendar week) is slated to add even more tweaks designed to work well on diminutive displays. As the vanguard for Microsoft's mobile ambitions, IT only makes sentience that the ship's company would release a small-screen reading of the Surface RT—though the company has yet to formally announce plans for a petite tablet.
In fact, Microsoft hasn't announced plans for whatsoever new Surface tablets, though a refreshen of its big-screen model also looks to equal on the celestial horizon. The twelvemonth-plus-echt Nvidia silicon in the current version is getting a bit long in the tooth, and even when it was red-hot, the Tegra 3 chip didn't run Windows RT quite as seamlessly as IT runs the leaner, meaner Android OS (though it was mostly smooth in our testing of Microsoft's tablet).
Lending more credence to the idea of an overhaul, Microsoft seems to be glade its Show u RT inventory. The company recently announced plans to sell the slate for a bare $200 to educational institutions. That move came just weeks after Microsoft undraped a promotional material to give away Type or Disturb covers with all Surface units throughout the month of June, and the company was basically giving Surface tablets away at TechEd.
Of Tegra and tetherable tablets
Image: Robert Cardin A transition to Qualcomm's chip could bestow a good deal of special business value to corporate users of Microsoft's pad, or anyone who likes to take their tablet demo along the moving.
The Scepter also reports that Microsoft is testing Surface RT tablets running on the Snapdragon 800, but it makes the life-or-death distinction that the Qualcomm break away includes desegrated LTE support. That's a huge deal for people pining for a road-ready version of Microsoft's slate, and it could be a immense deal for Nvidia, which makes the Tegra 3 processor found in the electric current Surface RT.
While a transfer to the Snapdragon 800 for the Surface RT wouldn't live a major electrical shock—the only major Windows RT announcement at Computex 2022 was that "New devices settled on Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors and Windows RT 8.1 are hoped-for to be available later this year"—information technology would be a major blow for Nvidia. With AMD already supplying the silicon in every next-generation gaming console, losing the Surface would severely twinge Team up Green.
That said, the "several new versions" trace also holds hope for Nvidia. Microsoft could identical well pass a WI-Fi-only variant of a invigorated Surface RT functional along Nvidia's updated Tegra 4 silicon chip, along with a cellular-enabled slate powered by the Snapdragon 800.
Confident, IT sounds complicated, simply rocking a SoC with integrated LTE makes sense from a manufacturing Angle—as does rocking a SoC without integrated LTE in a WI-Fi model.
Plus, customers aren't the solely group shying away from Windows RT; manufacturers have also largely turned their backs connected the Windows OS intentional for ARM chips. If it's possible, Microsoft would personify automatic to embrace Nvidia and Qualcomm alike with its close-gen Surface tablet, if only to keep those relationships healthy.
More than just hardware
And Microsoft inevitably to keep those relationships alive, because the remedy for Windows RT's sales woes is no short-term fix. It will take more than fair-minded a screaming-fast Snapdragon 800 processor to blarney the masses into purchasing a Surface tab.
We were absolutely smitten with the Surface RT's hardware in our go over of the original tablet. Far more worrying was its software program. ARM processors give the axe't run classic desktop apps, so the Surface RT's focus is exclusively on Windows RT's modern UI—an interface hobbled by hidden commands and an unnerving dearth of apps.
Bluntly commit: It's Windows that's holding back the Surface RT, not its hardware.
Changes are afoot. While it still doesn't completely fix the more overarching concerns of people baffled away the whole Windows 8 concept, the impending Windows 8.1 update appears self-possessed to really streamline the imprecise modern UI experience from a usability standpoint. Still so, until Microsoft manages to glut the Windows Store with quality apps and better explains the Windows RT concept to the masses, information technology's toilsome to envision the Shallow RT really glistening—silky-smooth Snapdragon 800 chip or no.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/452489/surface-rt-s-stil-rumored-integration-of-snapdragon-800-is-welcome-but-no-cure-all.html
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