ARM or Intel? The Windows 8 Tablet Question

When Windows 8 comes out it’s bound to cause a great deal of excitement in the tablet market.  For the first time there will be an excellent and truly viable Windows tablet operating system and it’s bound to shake up the market.  It’s also very likely to cause a great deal of confusion though and this is because Windows 8 on Intel chips and Windows 8 on ARM chips will be very different beasts.  They’ll operate in different ways, run different software and be updated differently.

So what will be the main differences and how can you decide which one will be best for you?  I thought I’d detail what the expected differences will be here and give you a quick guide.

The main differences between the two platforms are as follows…

Like a traditional PC, able to run all your existing applicationsProbably a worse battery life than ARM tabletsWill be updated regularly through Windows UpdateCould still be prone to viruses and malware as it’s still ‘traditional’ WindowsProblems in the OS can still mean you’ll have to reinstall Windows occasionallyCannot run any existing PC apps, will only run apps written or compiled for ARM and available in the Windows MarketplaceWill probably receive less regular updatesWill be very resilient to viruses and malware being ‘not traditional Windows’ and with tighter app control from MicrosoftWindows on a Chip means it will never need reinstalling

The first question to ask yourself is if you are a content creator or a consumer.  Traditionally PC users are content creators because we all use them at work.  Applications commonly used for this include Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite and so on.  If you are primarily a content creator and this forms the bulk of what you will do with a tablet, then an Intel chip would seem the best option.  If however you would just want a tablet for down hours and a little light web browsing a gaming, then ARM would be the best option.

If you are a tech savvy person, used to installing and troubleshooting problems with Windows then you probably won’t mind using Windows 8 on an Intel tablet.  You’ll probably already have a USB DVD drive or the Windows installer on a pen drive.  For these people then Intel would be something that you wouldn’t notice any difference with.  Most people these days have got used to an operating system on a chip in devices such as smartphones and the iPad.  These people don’t want to have to waste time fixing the OS when things go wrong.  They want a consumer electronbics device, and why shouldn’t they get it?  For these people then Windows on ARM would be the only option.

If you will want to use external hardware with your tablet though then you can probably forget the ARM devices as the chances these will support that hardware is slim to none.  You can expect USB Pen Drives, external hard disks and DVD drives to work, but printers will probably be off the menu.  I have a Windows 7 tablet that has a TV tuner plugged into a dock in my bedroom so that I can use it as a small TV.  You can probably rule this particular usage out for ARM devices.

There can be no doubt then that tablets running Windows 8 on Intel chipsets will be far more flexible and adaptable than Windows 8 running of ARM.  It will also take a while for ARM apps to appear on the platform too.  There are downsides to this though which include a far higher vulnerability to viruses and malware, and an non-embedded operating system that can easily crash and need repair.

In all I see the choices between Windows 8 on Intel and Windows 8 on ARM to be as complex for consumers as the different versions of Android are for them now.  Both platforms will have their benefits and both will have their problems.  Before buying a Windows 8 tablet then you’ll need to think very carefully about exactly what you will want to use it for, when and where you will use it before making your choice.  Don’t let the sales person sway you, think carefully because if you don’t and you get it wrong, you could be making a very expensive mistake.

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