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.
he Main Differences
The main differences between the two platforms are as follows…
Intel
– Like a traditional PC, able to run all your existing applications
– Probably a worse battery life than ARM tablets
– Will be updated regularly through Windows Update
– Could still be prone to viruses and malware as it’s still ‘traditional’ Windows
– Problems in the OS can still mean you’ll have to reinstall Windows occasionally
ARM
– Cannot run any existing PC apps, will only run apps written or compiled for ARM and available in the Windows Marketplace
– Excellent battery life
– Will probably receive less regular updates
– Will be very resilient to viruses and malware being ‘not traditional Windows’ and with tighter app control from Microsoft
– Windows on a Chip means it will never need reinstalling