Microsoft has tested using Edge Browser on the new generation of highly power-efficient Windows 10 ARM PCs with Snapdragon as third-party options in which the Google Chrome suffer from a slowdown in the new hardware. These performance issues are mainly due to the fact that Snapdragon 835 laptops essentially have to emulate the Chrome browser.
Porting Chrome to ARM, as opposed to emulating the desktop version (x86) of the browser is considered as a possible solution.
Miguel Nunes, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm, said on the sidelines of TechCon ARM, “We’re still working with the different vendors and designers. I think you’ll probably see it in the second half of next year. Each OEM will decide their own schedule, but we are actively working on it.”
Under these circumstances, Microsoft and Google have agreed to work together to develop a version of Chrome that is compatible with Windows 10 with ARM. This version of the operating system would be intended for computers that are equipped with an ARM chip…..
Commitments on this subject have been exchanged by Microsoft developers, although the publisher has not officially confirmed its working for this particular version of Chrome.
Most of these committees were accepted and “merged” with the master branch. All concern the compatibility of the Chrome code with the ARM64 environment for Windows.
A precise schedule, since ARM64 compilation has just been added to Visual Studio 2017 and Windows 10 Store now supports ARM64 applications, whereas it was previously limited to ARM32.
The adoption of the changes does not mean that Google Chrome on Windows with ARM will offer fast navigation. Also, it wouldn’t necessarily be via the Microsoft Store, because browsers are subject to the same processing as under iOS: you must use the engine provided by the system, like EdgeHTML.
The first generation of PC Always Connected has been criticized for its limited performance and lack of applications. Microsoft has promised to improve performance with the second generation, and the company is also working to bring more applications to the platform by working with a number of companies, including its long-time competitor Google.
There is currently no version of Google Chrome for the Microsoft Store, but Windows 10 users can download the Win32 version of the browser to replace the default browser of the Microsoft Edge operating system.
The slowness or absence of Chrome ultimately benefits no one. On the one hand, it’s bad publicity for the performance of Windows 10 ARM, while Microsoft and its partner Qualcomm hope that this type of machine will enable them to fight Chromebooks for mobility. For Google, even though the competition with its Chromebooks is real, the lack of a fast version of Chrome is both a bad advertisement – the user may think that if Chrome is slow and Edge is fast, then Google’s browser is zero – and above all a less user base for this configuration. Everyone has an interest in seeing a powerful Chrome under Win10 ARM.